Anyone else think Oblivion was scarier than Skyrim?

[KhajitDave]

When I first played Oblivion all those years ago, it was my first time playing an Elder Scrolls game and I was first struck by its.....goofiness. Like the game generally resembles a serious, Tolkien-esque fantasy but then suddenly you're speaking to a female Shrek in a dress, and in terms of dialogue and storylines I wouldn't say it's very mature. But then, despite all that, there are certain moments and enemies which seemed quite shocking and scary- the things I remember are the wraiths, Lucien Lachance's mutilated corpse, and a dremora in Oblivion who shouts "YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE, MORTAL" at you.

 

Skyrim on the other hand, doesn't seem to have any scary moments (IMO at least) and I can't put my finger on why. It's one of the first things I noticed.

 

I'm wondering if it's the artwork, sound levels, lack of real darkness in caves etc, gameplay elements, or maybe a mixture of everything. I remember enemies in Oblivion were harder to escape from, whereas in Skyrim I think it's easier and therefore the enemies don't have the same sense of danger and menace. Something like a Dragon Priest should be a scary enemy, but they just slowly float around, keeping their distance, firing spells at you.

 

What do you think?! I'd love to hear other opinions and thoughts.

[gnarly1]

When I first played Oblivion all those years ago, it was my first time playing an Elder Scrolls game and I was first struck by its.....goofiness. Like the game generally resembles a serious, Tolkien-esque fantasy but then suddenly you're speaking to a female Shrek in a dress, and in terms of dialogue and storylines I wouldn't say it's very mature. But then, despite all that, there are certain moments and enemies which seemed quite shocking and scary- the things I remember are the wraiths, Lucien Lachance's mutilated corpse, and a dremora in Oblivion who shouts "YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE, MORTAL" at you.

 

Skyrim on the other hand, doesn't seem to have any scary moments (IMO at least) and I can't put my finger on why. It's one of the first things I noticed.

 

I'm wondering if it's the artwork, sound levels, lack of real darkness in caves etc, gameplay elements, or maybe a mixture of everything. I remember enemies in Oblivion were harder to escape from, whereas in Skyrim I think it's easier and therefore the enemies don't have the same sense of danger and menace. Something like a Dragon Priest should be a scary enemy, but they just slowly float around, keeping their distance, firing spells at you.

 

What do you think?! I'd love to hear other opinions and thoughts.

Some of the NPC faces in Oblivion were fairly scary - especially the facial expressions they would make when you chose the different interaction options for the appallingly conceived persuasion mini-game.

 

But the wraiths in the Ayleid ruins were a tad creepy, I agree.

 

I actually found the Dunmer strongholds (particularly the architecture and sound effects) and the Sixth House members and paraphernalia in Morrowind to be the scariest aspect of TES thus far.

[Moksha8088]

The characters in Morrowind definitely looked the scariest. Sort of like a bad parody on humanoids.

 

The original Skyrim seemed scarier than Oblivion because it was murky and drained of color. However, the characters looked better. Now with mods both Skyrim and Oblivion look great. As an older person, I will leave the desire for spookiness to my grade school self.

 

You can add some degree of spookiness with Mihail's creatures and monsters. His mods can be found here on the Nexus:

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/37834630?tab=user+files

[HadToRegister]

To me, Morrowind was the scariest of the TES games, its atmosphere and the fact that nobody really liked you, and looked down on you, plus the Ash Storms and as Gnarly said, once you start seeing those abominations from the 6th house morphing into Sleepers

Oblivion was goofy, everybody had heads like Charlie Brown Characters or Potatoes, I mean, literally impossibly large and round heads that looked like balloons, and the NPC conversations were just hilarious

Orc: Hi how are you?
Elf: Good
Orc: I saw a mudcrab yesterday awful creatures
Elf: I saw a mudcrab yesterday, awful creatures

Orc: Don't talk to me!

[gnarly1]

...and the NPC conversations were just hilarious

 

Orc: Hi how are you?

Elf: Good

Orc: I saw a mudcrab yesterday awful creatures

Elf: I saw a mudcrab yesterday, awful creatures

Orc: Don't talk to me!

As much as it's more immersive to hear dialogue, I'd rather read interesting dialogue than have to listen to NPCs say the exact same phrases every time you're near them.

 

Also, for Oblivion, I think there was only two voice actors for the generic NPCs of each race (one for male and one for female) and some VAs had to cover more than one race so you could speak to people in the Imperial City and often hear the same VA every time you spoke to a new NPC.

 

And let's not mention Todd Howard's voice acting.....

Edited July 30, 2021 by gnarly1

[HadToRegister]

 

...and the NPC conversations were just hilarious

 

Orc: Hi how are you?

Elf: Good

Orc: I saw a mudcrab yesterday awful creatures

Elf: I saw a mudcrab yesterday, awful creatures

Orc: Don't talk to me!

As much as it's more immersive to hear dialogue, I'd rather read interesting dialogue than have to listen to NPCs say the exact same phrases every time you're near them.

 

Also, for Oblivion, I think there was only two voice actors for the generic NPCs of each race (one for male and one for female) and some VAs had to cover more than one race so you could speak to people in the Imperial City and often hear the same VA every time you spoke to a new NPC.

 

And let's not mention Todd Howard's voice acting.....

 

 

Yea, that got irritating in Oblivion.

Oh look an Orc, it's going to have the SAME EXACT VOICE of all the other ORCS

Just like the DFemale High Elves have that same 'sandy' Woman's voice