The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I finally got the chance to play Oblivion for the first time a few days ago and I just came up with the idea to get other people's opinions on this game...I played Oblivion for several hours, noting things that I liked and didn't like about it in my head.

I loved the new magic, combat, and stealth systems that Bethesda redesigned so well. The first thing that I found to be annoying was the bounty system, no warning is given to the player that he has a bounty until the guards have already caught you but that is a relatively small problem when compared with all that is good in this game.

Radiant AI was great...at first glance. Gameplay really seemed alive with the living, moving world that was created around me and I was amazed with it.

After a while though I noticed things that weren't so intelligent. Some of RAI's major flaws were with recognition of loved ones, friends, and reactions to events. Bethsoft boasted that the character's conversations would be lifelike and realistic when in reality they often are not. Sometimes when you stand near an NPC he will continuously repeat the same line over and over, which gets old fast.

Husbands and wives speak to eachother as if they were talking to a complete stranger and occasionally whenever an NPC tells another NPC about a bad even occurring, they seem unstirred or even happy about it...

Example of bad RAI conversations in the works:

Husband-"Kvatch has been attacked by the Deadra!"

Wife-"That is good to hear..."

Husband-"Indeed...it has been nice speaking with you...farewell."

Wife-"Farewell."

Another thing that I found to subtract from gameplay was the frequency of ruins, caves, and other points of interest that fill the land. As I was traveling through those beautiful woods I talked about earlier I ran into countless ruins and caves, filled with useless junk that made going into the places virtually useless.

The frequency of the caves and ruins is so great that whenever a player runs into one of the ruins they don't really feel a sense of accomplishment because they know what junk is inside and that nearly all of the ruins have similar layouts.

Things aren't sitting around on tables or scattered through the ruin to pick up freely as they were in Morrowind(I really liked that feature of morrowind), they are all locked up tight, making it pointless for anyone without a lockpick or spell to enter the ruins.

Oblivion seemed to be alot less diverse than Morrowind as well, all of the castles, ruins, and caves looked somewhat alike and there were alot less factions to join.

The glitches seemed to be rather frequent as well, not allowing me to drop some of the quest items after I got them and finished the quests involving them and sometimes the item doesn't register as being in your inventory when you're speaking with an NPC about the quest. Another glitch that I encountered was when allies were attacking something, they sometimes hit eachother and turned on one another without explanation...this actually happened several times while I played leading me to believe that it isn't a rare occurrence.

There were several good things about Oblivion but there were also lots of problems that kept me from really getting into it like I did Morrowind. In the end I think that Bethsoft removed too many of the fantasy elements and mainstreamed the game a bit too much.


So without any further discussion I'll give you my thoughts on Oblivion.

Good:
1.Great new combat, steal, and magic systems really add to immersion and keep the player interested.
2.Graphics are simply amazing, though they tend to get a bit simple at far off distances, they're still good.
3.The voice acting was well done with the important and quest characters but the other NPC characters had some fairly amateur sounding actors.
4.Fast travel speeds up gameplay so that you're not spending hours getting to your destination.
5.The quest compass keeps you from getting lost in the massive environment around you.

Bad:
1.Various and somewhat frequent glitches.
2.Repetetive and sometimes bad voice acting with some characters
3.Stiff character movements with animals and NPCs alike.
4.Horrible third person perspective.(In my opinion at least.)
5.Unfortunately the compass is always there, telling you where to go and keeping you from really exploring and doing your own thing without thought to the storyline.

Ugly:
1.RAI not too radiant after all...somewhat dull NPC behavior outside of quests.
2.No NPC recognition of relationships.
3.Poorly done conversations between NPCs.
4.Random and unexpected NPC behavior like attacking others for no apparent reason.

There is my view on this game, for me the problems distracted alot from the gameplay but overall I would say that it was pretty good despite the glitches and problems it had.

So was I disappointed? Yeah I guess I was...it just didn't have anything that was new or different by way of creatures and stuff to discover. It really seemed like too many of the unique things in the elderscrolls universe had been removed for me to get dragged into it like I did Morrowind but hey, that's just me...

I'd like to know what you think as well.

I voted "No", hats off to Bethesda (even though I don't have a hat).

I think that since I had no preconceptions about Radiant AI or some of the things Todd and Pete were personally promising in pre-release info, I had no reason to be disappointed. Chances are that if I had an Xbox, and therefore had Morrowind, I would have been upset about a few things. But I'm an open-minded person > I'm usually able to see good things where others see negatives.

So assuming I would have had Morrowind first, I probably would have been upset about a few things, but also ecstatic about others (like the way combat is handled).

I really enjoyed Oblivion. It had a unique feel to it

I hadn't played Morrowind, I wasn't all over the forums speculating wildly about what the game will and will not do, so I didn't have any expectations build up to be shattered. So I loved it.

Now speaking to people that participated in the forums and was involved in that speculation... I can see why some people weren't impressed.

I voted the Are You Insane option, as Oblivion was the only game I played for 3 years straight. I am also one of those people who were not exposed to any pre-game hype, so I had no expectations to be crushed.

OTOH, I learned many, many years ago with Doom 2 to never believe hype or create expectations about a game before it is released. I never get psyched up about any game, and will never pre-order any game. I wait until they are actually released and people have played it before I start thinking about getting it. That is why I waited about 5 months before getting Skyrim, and completely ignored the Skyrim forum over at Bethesda before the game came out. What is the point of talking about a game that no one can play?

I never played Morrowind until after playing Oblivion first. It I had played Morrowind first, I probably would have never bought another ES game. The story was alright, but I found the gameplay (not the graphics) to be pretty meh over all.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Feb 17 2013, 03:16 AM

I'll get excited and preorder, but I'll never go into the forums and speculate. That is just a recipe for disaster.

Voted: "Are you insane? It has consumed my life!" I mean, I've had the game 7 years next month and I'm stil playing it, writing about it, hanging around on forums discussing it. Had to buy my own XBox 360 and game since my son wanted his back. Then I bought a PC and had it stoked up to play Oblivion's hungry graphics and bought the PC game. (Then bought a laptop so I could take it with me on trips).

I also went out and bought Morrowind & Skyrim for both the 360 and PC, plus all the DLC's - based on my love of Oblivion. (Then downloaded Arena and Daggerfall, but couldn't play them).

(Not to mention buying Fallout 3 and New Vegas just because Bethesda made or was connected with the making of them). So yeah, pretty much consumed my life. My husband sure complains it does, lol.

Another vote for "Are you insane"

Like others I had no expectations, did not hang around any kind of forum and did not read any magazine and therefore did not create or participated in any hype. Oblivion and its concept came as a total surprise to me and blew me away like Megaton when activating the switch. Oh, sorry. That´s another game

Have played it constantly since Feb 2007 even though game time per session was immensely longer in the beginning. So I´d say I´ve been pretty hooked

Edit: Only now did I realise that mALX is a lass!

This post has been edited by mirocu: Feb 16 2013, 10:13 PM

Acadian thought I was an annoying hyper teen boy for a long time, ROFL !!! I think it is because my Foamy avatar is male, but no telling, lol.

Wait, you aren’t an annoying hyper teen boy??!!

I doffed my cap to Bethesda, even though I came into the series with Morrowind. I get the angst that some Daggerfall and Morrowind players have toward Oblivion. It is the same as the angst that some Oblivion players have toward Skyrim. I take each game as it comes. Even though I believe that there are some things that Morrowind just does better (and vice-versa), I am not so blinded by my own preconceptions that I can’t acknowledge Oblivion’s greatness too.

I voted "it was alright, but it didn't draw me in" because, well, it was alright, but it didn't really draw me in.

I'll go pack my bags and flee town before the lynch mob assembles.

Captain Logical to the rescue!

But no need to flee, we´re all friends up here in the tree

It wasn't really forum speculation that caused the damage, it was Todd pulling a Peter Molyneux that did it. We got spoon fed a lot of bs over a long period of time and lots of people were let down because of it.

Oblivion is STILL my least favorite ES game because it was by far the most generic of the three I've played.

Captain Obvious to the rescue with the shield of common sense!

I voted for consumed...

Not a great shocker that... ...

I absolutely adore that game...

If it wasn't for the two Assassin's Creed ones above it (which I adore a ridiculous amount) Oblivion would be, by a long-chalk, my all-time favourite game...

For me, it's almost perfect...

The only way it could have been perfect?...

No vampires... ...

This post has been edited by McBadgere: Feb 17 2013, 05:59 AM

I almost voted this way, too. Oblivion did consume my life for awhile, but nowadays I only play once or twice a week.



It's fun to get psyched up! I dunno....*shrugs* I liked getting excited about Skyrim before it came out, and had no probs pre-ordering it, and standing in line on 11/11/11 with other gamers. It felt a like a mini-adventure, all of us were standing in this cramped GameStop looking forward to the game, and I got to meet some new people. Granted, most of them were young enough to be my teen, perhaps, but that's another story.

On the other hand, visiting (dealing with) Beth's forums before the game came out was nerve-racking. I wanted to participate in discussion, but back in those days ANYTHING that anybody said on forums could be taken as flamebait, and I don't have a very good flame-retardant suit. But (again) I'd rather participate and discuss.

This post has been edited by Lady Saga: Feb 17 2013, 06:25 AM

Agreed. They didn´t feel like they belonged in Oblivion´s setting, even though I can live with killing them


Same here. But I do play frequently and c´mon, it´s six years later and I still play and talk about it! I had to vote Insane

I would agree, friend.

This thread is both illuminating and depressing. Started reading it this morning and I can see where some people were coming from back in the day, but it also starts to bug me if I read too much criticism on one of my favorite games. It's like somebody is criticizing my child or something.

This post has been edited by Lady Saga: Feb 17 2013, 02:03 PM

I voted It’s a Great Game. I got it years after it had been released, so I had no expectations. Now since I’ve played Morrowind a little I get what people were saying in those old posts. I’m still not disappointed, but it’s easy for me to understand why so many other people were.

Quoted for Truth.

I thank thee for spelling that out fully. Every time I read QFT I think "quit hamster cave talking!"

This post has been edited by Lady Saga: Feb 17 2013, 04:20 PM