Oblivion > Skyrim

[lllJACKlll]

Did my obnoxious topic title get your attention? Good, good....

 

Now this is a serious post, and if its already been beaten over the head to death I apologize and this post can be deleted, but I've been gone a while. I am posting this not to say Skyrim is a bad game in any way, it obviously has its merits and is an RPG of massive scale. I am only saying this in regards to the hype and comparison to Oblivion, I think it fell way, way, short and I was back to play oblivion even a few months after Skyrim came out.

 

My roommates and I (back when I was in college) waited in anticipation of 11.11.11 for over a year, and after two days we kind of looked at each like "wtf" was this?! I don't wanna drag this on for too long, so I'll bullet point my reasons for why I (and others) came to this conclusion and maybe I can hear some other sides to this.

 

* Skyrim's landscape was very depressing and similar, especially when compared to Oblivion's grassy, green expanse and variety of environments.

* The whole "radiant AI" felt like a dud to me. And not being able to talk to 50% of the NPC's (other than a "hello" was a real bummer, and felt half-assed. Cities actually felt LESS alive in skyrim than oblivion, at least let me talk about rumours or something!

* The guild/faction quest lines were very short and didn't seem to be fully fleshed out as they could have been, or as epic as most of oblivions main factions (stormcloaks and imperial excluded, they was pretty cool)

* Dragon fights.... a huge reason I was hyped for this, were extreme letdowns. Either buggy (stuck on trees, or just boring. If you play a melee character you better be stocked with arrowsor magic and hope to bring them down. And if you play a nord frost dragons are of 0 consequence to you... it just kind of sucked imo)

* Removing the spell-making altars? Yes there are mods for everything, but I don't know why that couldn't stay in, it was one of the coolest things in oblivion

*** This is not a legitimate, or at least tangible reason but I feel obligated to put it on. From the very get-go, Skyrim just didn't have the 'magic' of an elder scrolls game.... and I think part of the reason may be my age. I was 15 when I first played oblivion and it felt huge, massive, and like a new journey. Maybe with age and experience skyrim felt repeated and boring, and that's no fault of its own. But my friends felt the same way, and for one of them this was their first elder scrolls game so I don't know, maybe it is legitimate.

 

There are a few more reasons but I'm curious what everyone's input was on this. I hope this doesn't piss anyone off too much, like I said its not a bad game but it just doesn't hold a candle to oblivion for me.

[BigBizkit]

The point about the landscape is questionable seeing how Skyrim is just different to Cyrodill. Morrowind's landscape is depressing (blight and ash) compared to Skyrim but I would not say that one is "better" than the other.

 

I for one skipped Oblivion entirely. I still cannot believe how NPCs look in that game. The first time I saw footage of Oblivion I thought it was some kind of joke mod that made the NPCs look like that.

 

It is just a matter of taste and maybe even nostalgia. I like some things in Morrowind better than in Skyrim and vice versa.

[Boombro]

I played both last year so...

 

1-similar? Where?

Whiterun has a a treeless tundra.

The reach is very rocky. with white trees and big rocky hills.

The rift has a fall theme with falling leaves.

Eastmarsh is steamy/snowy area.

Solitude is forest with a lot of trees like the south, but the south has the biggest lake.

The pale has snow covered woods and shares a frozen, black sandy beach with winterhold, a place filled with lofty icy glaciers.

Morthal has snowy swamps with many deathbells.

 

Oblivion is 60% grass fields, a swamp, a snowy place and a golden cost.

 

 

2- the rumors where boring and you can ask shop keepers now. You can't ask skyrim npc much, but all of them have their chats with other npcs. Try those elven sister that run the fancy clothing store, they are funny. All skyrim npc have something to tell, oblivion random npc where just npc that talk about other mud craps.

 

3-gotta agree on that one, but the skyrim DB could have even topped the older DB if it was more spaced out and more well written. The TG advanced really well till that nightingale thing ( I aint mad though.) that popped out of no where.

 

4-Also agree.

 

5-Todd: “Yeah, spellcrafting is a real wildcard. Something that we’ve done a lot. And there are pluses and minuses to it. We’d like to find… we have some ideas that we really like on how to solve that, and I don’t know where that’s going to go. But the thing that we DON’T like about the previous systems that we’ve done, is it becomes very “spread-sheety.” It takes the magic out of magic. You got to see the game, but your listeners haven’t. There’s a bigger emphasis on how the magic physically acts. Just a spell like fire; there are different spells for how the fire moves. Like putting down a rune that explodes when you walk over it. Or fire you can spray that lingers on the ground, like you’re spraying a wall, and you can spray the ceiling. Or fire that travels like a flamethrower out of your hands. Or a fireball that you charge up and throw and it explodes at a distance. So our main goal is to make magic feel like this arcane powerful thing. And once it goes into a spreadsheet in the game where you can just say I want something at this distance and this power, it removes the illusion of like how this stuff actually works. So we have some ideas of ways around that, but we don’t know where those are going to go yet. We do have the benefit of, we’re really, really happy with how the magic plays in the game, both visually and mechanically. And then being able to do it with both hands. There are opportunities there for combinations and things you can do without getting into the spreadsheet aspect of it. Which I do know some people like, but it does take away from the impact of the spells that you’re finding and mechanically how they work.”

 

As we can see, it seems some sort of spell making will come back, but more complex and less "sheety."

 

What I think about the two:

Skyrim: Better everything, the only thing that really bothers me is major questlines and their npcs. I think everything old in the older games is better now and the lore is more focused, rich and in your face. In oblivion, if you are dense you can't really tell what the other races what they are, in skyrim is noticeable.

 

Oblivion: has it very own feel and claims your heart, but it can be bland. Fighting is messy. Lore is poor.

 

-The only good npcs are the quest ones and some lesser ones that can be counted by hand. Still amazing quests, a better more free MQ and weapon types matter.

 

In short: I think merging the best between these two can give birth to an amazing TES game.

[Rabbit1251]

Oblivion is still my favorite Elder Scroll game. Even without mods (I played it for six months before discovering mods) it was still a truly fun game. With mods it met my every expectation of an alternate life. I've been playing a lot of Skyrim since it came out simply because I've played Oblivion to death and there is still much that I haven't discovered yet in Skyrim. But I do get a little misty-eyed when I think back on those marvelous days of Oblivion.

 

 

Rabbit

[Lachdonin]

For me, Oblivion was by far the worst Elder Scrolls. Even more so than Arena, which was about as bog standard fantasy as you can get. Oblivions art design was bland and uninspired, it's plotlines overly 'good guy' with no moral grey (save the Brotherhood, which was horrible in its own right), it's landscape was tediously boring, and it's characters unlikable.

 

1: Oblivion was an unrealistically lush forest and grassland, with a few mountains. That's about all you had for variety in Oblivion. To this you got the Deadlands for some variety, but it was even more boring and generic than the province at large. This may come from the fact that I was familiar with the PGE beforehand, but Oblivion was cripplingly boring compared to what we had been described before, and what's worse? Most of its dungeons didn't make a lick of sense. Not a single Ayleid ruin seemed habitable, not a single fort was reasonably designed. It was a mess from the get-go...

 

2: Radiant AI in Oblivion was a shambles. I didn't tollerate the game for long, but the number of times I found an NPC just walking into a wall because it wouldn't path around made me grit my teeth. It was terrible, unrealistic and brutally unimmersive. The idea had merit, but the system just couldn't handle it. I dint know where your getting the 'can't talk to everyone' thing though... I can't recall anyone in Skyrim that doenst have something to say... Though I may also be comparing things to Witcher and Drsgonage, where you literally can't speak to 90% of NPCs...

 

3: Admitedly, the faction quests suffered from brevity and por pacing, but as far as I'm concerned they were entirely superior story arcs to the mess that was Oblivion. They were full of grey areas, their threats and objectives were largely internalized, and they actually had characters that made some sense (don't even get me started on Lechance. That guys cult following makes as much sense to me as professional sports).

 

4: Dragon Fights get a bad rap because people seem to have been under the impression they would be epic boss battles. That's a problem with assumptions. Even in the trailers, the Dovahkiin seems to dispatch them with relative ease. As for the glitches... I'm going to assume you don't remember the swimmijg Goblins...

 

5: I for one am glad they got rid of Spell Crafting. It had zero place. It didn't represent magical inquiry in-universe, marginalised extant spells and was a mess of ballance, ad well as being the single ugliest interface in the series. It also opened up the door for more interesting spell physics. I would one to see the ability to combine effects return, but nothing like what Spell Crafting was previously.

 

Combine these with boring enemies, the absurd scaling, hideous putty faces and the horrible characters...

 

Well, at least Shivering Isles was a decent game.

[Bloodinfested]

I always liked Oblivion over Skyrim. My problem with it is the massive amount of removed elements the ends don't justify the means. Obviously there are some improvements like the combat is better new crafting. Should not have to rely on the modders to fix the removal of many features I feel like I am buying half of my game now. Stuff like better animation graphical fidelity is an natural process of improvement I don’t really expect that from game to game.

 

The journal in Oblivion is vastly improved over Skyrim, Skyrim had massive lack of detail to complete quests because they seem to think everyone will just use the quest markers now and not read anything.

 

The faction quests in oblivion vastly better you had a sense of progression, Its obvious Beth didn’t put an lot of effort into the faction quests.

 

Less skills/spells maybe if your one that never used them you wouldn’t care one bit but this doesn’t improve your game experience only takes away from what you could have had.

 

No spellmaking, less armor slots and restrictions on enchantments again doesn’t improve your game experience only takes away from what you could have had.

 

The npcs you could pull off more conversations although this was more profound in Morrowind. You should be able to walk up to any npc and ask them any topic, restriction of your character dialog options how is that an improvement by any stretch of the means its an catastrophic back step.

 

The UI in Oblivion is more functional for example you could actually look up what faction your apart of or your active buffs on screen for a few examples. I personally prefer the art style of the UI more over the simple plain Jane bland look of Skyrims.

 

I liked the main storyline in oblivion more not that Skyrim had a poor storyline. Being some random hero that played a huge part in someone else who ends up saving the day is pretty refreshing because most rpgs you tend to play as the main character the one who ends up saving the day.

 

The landscape in Skyrim is an obvious improvement just look at the mountains. I personally prefer the mixed culture and overall landscape in Cyrodiil.

 

The leveling up process I have mixed thoughts on the perk tree system is a good addition but the removal of the 8 attributes and class wrecked it for me. Class in Oblivion and even Morrowind is more less an hybrid of the class system when not picking x skill the game in no way was telling you couldn’t use it or level it up. Class was just bonus to x skills like how the racial works. Todd Howard said the main 8 attributes just increase the derived attributes that wasn’t exactly true they also played apart in combat. It wouldn’t shock me at all if the next game they remove all racial bonus and have one stat health they seem to be Gung ho on the abusive streamlining its kind of Ironic coming from a group of ppl that were heavily influenced off of D&D.

 

Skyrim definitely had far more hype then Oblivion and I admit I was also one of those ppl on the hype train until I realize what they did to the game. I got just over 900 hours on Skyrim witch sounds like a lot and it is but I have over 3000 hours on Oblivion and 2000+ on Morrowind other games in the series I find far more enjoyable.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Bloodinfested

[thomriis]

Well everything has already been said here.

 

In my opinion Skyrims only advantages over Oblivion is its crafting system and way more interesting npcs compared to Oblivions lolly-gagging weirdos.

[Lachdonin]

Well everything has already been said here.

 

In my opinion Skyrims only advantages over Oblivion is its crafting system and way more interesting npcs compared to Oblivions lolly-gagging weirdos.

Don't forget the changes to leveled loot (anyone else remember Bandits decked out in full Glass and Daedric?) The more unique enemies (there wasn't a single non bog standard for in Oblivion. They even made Daedra into boring demons by another name) the removal of backpedaling combat, Perks, the removal of hideous potato head characters and a more varied artistic palette.

 

At worst, Skyrim was a side-grade, adressing many of the horrible problems in Oblivion (the total lack f culture anyone?) While having some of its own. In my mind, it was a manor step forward, and falls just short of Morrowind. Had they solved some of the story pacing issues, it may even have surpassed it...

[BlackRoseOfThorns]

1. I loved Skyrim landscape theme from the very first moment I saw it (for a long while I played it on xbox360). The cold and harsh land of Nords. Never melting snow on top of the mountains. Silent golden forest of the Riften. Foggy swamps in the Solitude shadow. Hot gayzers of Eastmarsh. Icy ocean and wild coast beach you could follow for miles.

 

2. NPCs interacting with each other and enviroment were much more immersive than typical "tell me everything in chat" NPCs in old games. Felt more alive in comparison to typical "trip/local guide guy".

 

3. I have never been interested in Stormcloack/Imperial faction, but I enjoyed interactions in Thieves Guild Quest. Winterhold College featured unique event where you explored ancient ruins together with other students and teachers. Some Mage College content was cut out from the final version (due to lack of time limit or resources needed to finish it). You can find it restored in Cutting Room Floor.

 

4. Dragons were a nice addon, not a selling point for me. If I'm not mistaken the weird bugs were related only to specific update version. I didn't had any problems on console (didn't download the "backward dragons" update) or pc (got it later with latest update).

 

5. In comparison with other open world rpg games back then, Skyrim magic system felt very fluid and unique. In Oblivion you had more controll over customizing your "skills", but it does't mean it was more immersive. Till this day I maniacally laugh each time I manage to snipe an enemy with an Ice Bolt. The way the ice shard impacts the target and just stays there till it melts makes it more believable, it's no longer just a representation of action (like a spell card in a card game), it behaves like real object.

 

 

 

If Bethesda had more money and time and released Skyrim as pc exlusive game with better engine and more voice acted quests, it would be the best open world rpg no doubt. Even as it is now with all it's shortcomming, it's amazing that you can just skip the whole "I am the Dragonborn and the dragons are out there burning villages" questline and still enjoy the game for hundreds of hours. The player is not restricted in any way and the interactions with world are very satisfying. You can try and play bowling with empty wine bottles in the middle of an alley and a cabbagge as a bowling ball *Sheogorath approves*.

 

Things to do in: Skyrim - Bowling

 

Things to do in: Skyrim - Trick Shot

[thomriis]

 

1. I loved Skyrim landscape theme from the very first moment I saw it (for a long while I played it on xbox360). The cold and harsh land of Nords. Never melting snow on top of the mountains. Silent golden forest of the Riften. Foggy swamps in the Solitude shadow. Hot gayzers of Eastmarsh. Icy ocean and wild coast beach you could follow for miles.

 

2. NPCs interacting with each other and enviroment were much more immersive than typical "tell me everything in chat" NPCs in old games. Felt more alive in comparison to typical "trip/local guide guy".

 

3. I have never been interested in Stormcloack/Imperial faction, but I enjoyed interactions in Thieves Guild Quest. Winterhold College featured unique event where you explored ancient ruins together with other students and teachers. Some Mage College content was cut out from the final version (due to lack of time limit or resources needed to finish it). You can find it restored in Cutting Room Floor.

 

4. Dragons were a nice addon, not a selling point for me. If I'm not mistaken the weird bugs were related only to specific update version. I didn't had any problems on console (didn't download the "backward dragons" update) or pc (got it later with latest update).

 

5. In comparison with other open world rpg games back then, Skyrim magic system felt very fluid and unique. In Oblivion you had more controll over customizing your "skills", but it does't mean it was more immersive. Till this day I maniacally laugh each time I manage to snipe an enemy with an Ice Bolt. The way the ice shard impacts the target and just stays there till it melts makes it more believable, it's no longer just a representation of action (like a spell card in a card game), it behaves like real object.

 

 

 

If Bethesda had more money and time and released Skyrim as pc exlusive game with better engine and more voice acted quests, it would be the best open world rpg no doubt. Even as it is now with all it's shortcomming, it's amazing that you can just skip the whole "I am the Dragonborn and the dragons are out there burning villages" questline and still enjoy the game for hundreds of hours. The player is not restricted in any way and the interactions with world are very satisfying. You can try and play bowling with empty wine bottles in the middle of an alley and a cabbagge as a bowling ball *Sheogorath approves*.

 

Things to do in: Skyrim - Bowling

 

Things to do in: Skyrim - Trick Shot

 

Ha ha Thats what happens when you get bored.