Review Oblivion Review

[Nedrah]

No, I'm definitely getting Oblivion now. Um'Har has convinced me that it's the game for me. Thanks Um'Har!

oh.
hi.
My name's Mr. Doesntgetajoke.
damn.

 

[MINIGUNWIELDER]

To Vault Dweller:
Can you levitate in Gothic? in Baldur Gate?
Not all games are bad because you cannot fly, right?
Oblivion is becoming more and more popular (look at it s booming fan sites and modding communities) while you are here whining. It is very rude of you, the reviewer, to call others who do not share your points of view are stupid. It is a sign of being petty and small-minded. I will never come back to this tiny forum because of jerks like you.

Sorry for the double post but asshats,along with the moderators of the TES boards,like him is why i no longer go there.Despite the best PR in the universe within several days of the games release their boards were fucking flooded with complaints about how the game sucked balls and in which ways it did.Many constructive posts on the whats and whys of how the game failed expectations...

They tried to play it off as whinners and that the real fans were too busy playing the game to be annoyed by how fucking shitty it was.Yeah Fuck you Summer " everyone else is enjoying the game and only the bitch whinners are posting"...Who do you think bought the game right off the bat,and paid the extra for a CE..Your fucking 14 year old 360 aduience?!? Nope real fans bought the game and when they played the POS and voiced their opinions you waited for the fucking GTA crowd to join in and say how awesome the game was.Fuck i first played TES on the XBox and still find this halfdone piece of shit Bethesda tried to pawn off on me as an insult both to my intelligence as a gamer,and more importantly as an individual with an IQ above Mongoloid.

Bethesda has no care beyond selling their game to the kiddie crowds.Heres a forewarning..they will grow up and expect more from a game besides your dumbest common denomimator philosphy.As they mature they will want games with more challenge and depth then you give them credit for..By the time you make FO3,with all the OMFG! i got a leveled power armor and gauss gun did you see me faceshot that dude!They will have moved beyond you.

Better start planning to pander back to your core audience..the ones whom you said fuck you to,because without them you'll be dead in ten years.

Agreed.

 

[Direwolf]

I love the forums that allow me to say fuck and shit whenever and wherever I want. If those fuck and shit are related to Oblivion - even better.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Intelligent defence of Oblivion

lol !!!

I just cant find the right words to say that "oblivion sux dont u think?" idiots, Just understand that this game is the revolution for the whole rpg games, If this game wouldn't be the way it is then non of these s.ckers couldn find better games..Just know that bethesda is one of (even top) the best companies.So what? How'd u want the levelling system? If u'd be the real role player than u 'd understand this system is the best, and the closest one to the real life(just think) n pleaseeeee dont start an argue with me bout' "I played..... and ..... and I'm the real player" thing.U totally suk cresho totally suk ..

I'm surpised that there are so many people who are either very disappointed or hate Oblivion though.

 

[Um'Har The bewildered]

I love the forums that allow me to say fuck and shit whenever and wherever I want. If those fuck and shit are related to Oblivion - even better.

When i first bought the game i used a more adult approach at the ESF(as it is popularlly called here).

The Mods all made the comment that they loved the game as is and they were waiting for the real fans to show up to any and all complaints.Nice PR.The other suggestions being that if you don't like the game wait for mods..except for the 360 crowd,in that case you are just stuck with a below par game.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I will never come back to this tiny forum because of jerks like you.

Why do people think this actually matters at all to anyone here?

 

[Um'Har The bewildered]

No, I'm definitely getting Oblivion now. Um'Har has convinced me that it's the game for me. Thanks Um'Har!

Its's your $60 bucks. :wink:

If you love the game and all that was accomplished with it then i wouldn't mind hearing why it was good.

I'll never say this game just bites and this is the truth..considering that what i post is only my own opinion of the game.One which i will gladly share but not try to pretend it is cold hard fact.

 

[Stargazey]

I'm just going to add my .02, worthless cents.

I had incredibly high expectations for Oblivion, and I was dissapointed. The lore sucked, the quests sucked (mostly), and the game was just a large dissapointment.

When I posted on here before, I came off as a bit of a fan boy, I guess.

Ah well, consider this a mea culpa.

 

[Token Nug]

If Oblivion took 4 years to create, Morroiwnd must have taken 10.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Well, it was quite the transformation from:

See, what I find funny about this, is that you think you know that these changes are making Oblivion worse, not better.
...
In an effort to counter out all the Oblivion loathing, I thought I'd start a topic about things people are actually looking foward to in the game ...

For me, it's going to a new province, and the new lore.

Well, the lore was definitely new, completely disregarding most of the stuff that's been established by previous games.

Btw, found this awesome MSFD quote:
http://www.rpgcodex.com/phpBB/viewtopic ... ht=#177824

Yeah, I'm biased, and I don't expect anyone to take my word for it -- but I think Oblivion is one of the most amazing games I've ever played. I think that even the doubters are going to be surprised, though they may not admit it out of stubbornness.

Yes, Steve. Out of stubborness.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

I'm just going to add my .02, worthless cents.

I had incredibly high expectations for Oblivion, and I was dissapointed. The lore sucked, the quests sucked (mostly), and the game was just a large dissapointment.

When I posted on here before, I came off as a bit of a fan boy, I guess.

Ah well, consider this a mea culpa.

Convert.

 

[Stargazey]

I'm just going to add my .02, worthless cents.

I had incredibly high expectations for Oblivion, and I was dissapointed. The lore sucked, the quests sucked (mostly), and the game was just a large dissapointment.

When I posted on here before, I came off as a bit of a fan boy, I guess.

Ah well, consider this a mea culpa.

Convert.

I have seen the light.

I guess, because I loved Morrowind so much, I didn't want to think that Oblivion was going to suck so bad.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

It's taken me a week to get bored with Oblivion. I at least played Morrowind for a month. With Oblivion, I'm now struggling just trying to get through the main plot quickly enough so I can considered it finished. And that's WITH fast travel. Hell, I gave up the other day and played Silent Storm instead and finished that after about two years. Oblivion was fun when I was sneaking around people's homes playing the thief. It became boring when I realised that my ventures after-dark would net me a whopping 23 gold and at best, a bunch of stolen potions I can only sell to one guy in Braavil. The minute you realise the caves you encounter offer the same meagre reward is the minute Oblivion loses all its charm. I mean, where's my reward?

 

[Elwro]

Some quests were fairly interesting, but Frater, a budget Diablo clone which sadly seems not to be as great as I hoped, easily manages to keep me away from Oblivion, even though I'm halfway through the main plot and should be really hooked.
The biggest problem for me, if we forget about really stupid dialogue and scaling, is the horrible tediousness of combat. I never go treasure hunting if it's not connected with a quest, because combat's too much for me. Recently, I've stopped doing quests which obviously require much killing. Which means I've stopped doing most of the quests. So, I stopped playing and went back to Space Hack and Frater.

But frankly, I've set my expectations so low that I was actually positively surprised. There are moments in which I'm really enjoying the game. I guess I'll be going back to it from time to time.

 

[Horag]

It's weird to wake up a very old giant thread but well. I haven't played yet Oblivion but I played Morrowind and enjoyed it even if it's not my favorite RPG of all time.

I tried read fully the review and some post and there's something I don't understand. Why Morrowind is better than Oblivion? Many changes quoted by the reviewer are improvement. I haven't seen any that are the reverse. Ok eventually I skip the right info from the mass of information.

I also read some quotes that are just wrong according from my previous experience of Morrowind. Is this really different with Oblivion? I quote :
- Crossbow/bow sucks. Ok no crossbow in morrowind so why complain if it sucks in Oblivion, it's not cool but that doesn't make Morrowind better.
- Long range fighting sucks. Ok but what's different with Morrowind? In Morrowind specialized in bow soon get you fight with no danger that are boring. But there's ton of stuff to do with long range sometimes that was quite fun. Do a few hunting, in some complex architecture combine flight and long range for some smart tactic cool to find (and you don't need high fly skill and ton of mana), Have the thrill to kill with long range and aim well before the beast is on you. Long range fighting agains various long range oponents. Ok in Morrowind at a point long range starts to be boring once you exhausted all the fun experiments but is Oblivion worse?
- Predefined classes suck if you want to optimize your char: Ok that was true too with Morrowind so wha't the problem? Do you own class and stop whining about that.
- Many skills are worthless ok it depends the way you play it, and then for some play some skills was useless in Morrowind too.
- I quote : "You can do the quest in any order but the game is linear". Lol do you know what linear means?
- Choices in dialogs aren't real choice. Sure as in most RPG but very few and in a very limited range. Morrowind was quite limited on this how Oblivion is worse?
- Sneaking to steal people doesn't bring tons of bounty. Ha well what's the problem? Stop the greeding and enjoy the pleasure of sneaking (until you get so powerfull that it becomes boring, at least in Morrowind). Plus don't limit sneaking to stealing there's many other usage you can do of it.
- Urge main plot pressure which is false, common many RPG failed in this, like BG2 and even often Morrowind. We are used to this and know it's not true time pressure.
- Bandits attack when they see you. Ok but in Morrowind too. For few you could calm them down with a spell and get some talk but nothing very far where to go but sometimes. Is this not possible anymore? The reviewer seems not know play the game.
- And many more.

Ok the main plot seems better in Morrowind, well it wasn't that marvelous in Morrowind but ok quality I admit. But only a very very small part of the game.

Apart the main plot, the point is why Morrowind better than Oblivion????

 

[JrK]

Ban the troll!

 

[Horag]

Ban the troll!

And why you don't answer me instead? Lack of argument? Or is just "ban him" comes you in mind? If so, no surprise you couldn't get any fun from Morrowind/Oblivion. :twisted:

EDIT : I don't care you answer/read any of the detailed points I quoted. The core is :
Apart the main plot, the point is why Morrowind better than Oblivion????

No answer about this?

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

I'll bite.

- Crossbow/bow sucks. Ok no crossbow in morrowind so why complain if it sucks in Oblivion, it's not cool but that doesn't make Morrowind better.

Hello? They took crossbows out. In fact, bows are the only ranged weapon in Oblivion. There weren't a ton of options already, and Bethesda just cut them down.

-Ok in Morrowind at a point long range starts to be boring once you exhausted all the fun experiments but is Oblivion worse?

Because fighting with a bow in Oblivion (the only ranged weapon) amounts to running backwards and shooting. That's it.

- Predefined classes suck if you want to optimize your char: Ok that was true too with Morrowind so wha't the problem? Do you own class and stop whining about that.

I think you misunderstood the whole point the review was trying to make. The character system is terrible and every character will eventually end up the same.

- Many skills are worthless ok it depends the way you play it, and then for some play some skills was useless in Morrowind too.

Well, for one, some skills are just useless in function for any playthrough. Take speech and mercantile for instance. All speech does is let you raise people's dispositions and all mercantile does it let you haggle. But a quick (5 minute) super spam of light spells will crank your illusion skill to five and let you cast a 100 point charm spell that will outmode both skills entirely. Not to mention some skills are based on minigames, with the actual skill level counting for next to nothing, making those skills useless to develop seeing as the player can fill in.

- I quote : "You can do the quest in any order but the game is linear". Lol do you know what linear means?

Obviously you don't get what he means by linear. Sure, you can jump off the main quest and do the mages guild ones, but all quest lines must be done in the same orser and all quest must be done in the same way. The machine looks smooth, but the parts are linear.

- Choices in dialogs aren't real choice. Sure as in most RPG but very few and in a very limited range. Morrowind was quite limited on this how Oblivion is worse?

In Morrowind, you were railroaded a lot. In Oblivion, you are in every quest. Seee how it's worse.

- Sneaking to steal people doesn't bring tons of bounty. Ha well what's the problem? Stop the greeding and enjoy the pleasure of sneaking,

Stealing let's a character who isn't really combat oriented get some loot. Without good loot for those characters, they are pretty much forced into jumping into dungeons and fighting foozles.

Plus don't limit sneaking to stealing there's many other usage you can do of it.

Yes...walking past hostiles. Amazing amount of depth unseen in any RPG before!

- Urge main plot pressure which is false, common many RPG failed in this, like BG2 and even often Morrowind. We are used to this and know it's not true time pressure.

Ok...here's the difference. In Morrowind, Dagoth Ur was contained, but the Ghostfence was getting drained slowly, so there was a sense that your character should probably do something, but he wasn't an instant threat. In Shadows of Amn, Irenicus was using Imoen to bait good characters or to just piss off others ones and to get them to try and take vengeance on them. In Oblivion, gates to to....uhh.....Oblivion are opening up and minions of the Prince of Destruction have been unleashed upon the world. These things should be flooding out of the gates going on a rampage. But they just sit there for the sake of the freeroaming aspect. Heck, even Grand Theft Auto had rival gangs attack your territories while you were freeroaming.

- Bandits attack when they see you. Ok but in Morrowind too. For few you could calm them down with a spell and get some talk but nothing very far where to go but sometimes. Is this not possible anymore? The reviewer seems not know play the game.

It's the fact that a bandit dressed in full glass armor is holding up a guy in Daedric for a measly 100 coins. Screwy, huh?

Apart the main plot, the point is why Morrowind better than Oblivion????

In a nutshell, level scaling kills Oblivion's whole freeroaming and exploration aspect, it's linear as hell, has no meaningful choices, and is pretty much not an RPG but more an awful freeroaming FPS with swords and bows.

 

[Elwro]

Is the main plot not important or what? The part of the game I remember the most is when I got to some outpost on an island where I read lots of books which shed light on some of the plot's facets. This made me wonder about the whole thing and even a single moment like this is enough to make a game better than Oblivion, which is totally devoid of any plot-inspired thought opportunities.

Anyway, some of the other reasons could be that the world is at least a bit original and has a unique 'alien' feel. (Well, let's just say it's less bland than Oblivion's world.) Also, some of the factions seem to care about you being in other factions (=you can't become a member of two Houses etc.)

 

[Dark Matter]

Why morrowind is better:
-No level scaling
-You can't fast travel anywhere you like whenever you want.
-Much better setting/gameworld
-Just a lot more content in general i.e many more factions(and unlike Oblivion, some of the faction quest lines even conflict with each other, allowing for the rare chance of making a meaningful choice) more quests, more skills etc.

 

[Horag]

I'll bite.

Go on bite me, the point is you took the time to answer.

Hello? They took crossbows out. In fact, bows are the only ranged weapon in Oblivion. There weren't a ton of options already, and Bethesda just cut them down.

Hello, did you ever played Morrowind????? There was no crossbows in Morrowind! Man do you really know what you are talking about??? :twisted:

Because fighting with a bow in Oblivion (the only ranged weapon) amounts to running backwards and shooting. That's it.

Ho man wake up you get hit by amnesia or you never played Morrowind??? That's exactly the same in Morrowind.

I think you misunderstood the whole point the review was trying to make. The character system is terrible and every character will eventually end up the same.

Lol, like in Morrowind, ie you character ends as a master of close combat, master of thievery (even if useless when replaced with magic another focus of the review when it was exactly the same in Morrowind), master of magic, master of long range combat.

Ok enough I won't answer any other of your answers on the detailed points I put because you obviously never played Morrowind or forgot all. I checked few other points and fall felt in that category, you didn't played Morrowind or forgot it.

So I jump to the core point.

Apart the main plot, the point is why Morrowind better than Oblivion????

In a nutshell, level scaling kills Oblivion's whole freeroaming and exploration aspect, it's linear as hell, has no meaningful choices, and is pretty much not an RPG but more an awful freeroaming FPS with swords and bows.

Ok first point about linear: Three points A B C, A then B then C isn't the same path than A then C then B. You have 2 pathes it's not linear, that's that simple....

But ok I get your point about it it's doing A1 then not be able to do A2.

Well In Morrowind that you seem to have forget a lot, you could become master of ALL guilds and do all their quests but one guild, and even all guilds by navigating smartly through bugs. You find that less linear you? Ok a bit but a very small bit. There was multiple endings appart finishing the main quest or not? No.

Ok then it's perhaps me that don't remember that well Morrowind, but I don't remember at all a fair non linearity (by giving to linear your own meaning). I can guaranty you that delay the main quest change almost nothing because I got stuck into a dialog bug closing the main quest without to make obvious that you are stuck so I level a lot without to progress the main quest and apart few people complaining that I did nothing, that was almost void.

The level scaling thing is unclear for me, that's perhaps the core weakness of Oblivion to be in fact too much non linear! Ok joking I'll read other explanation of this to understand that point. Yes I've been rude with you, sorry but you choose to bite me, anyway thanks for answering.

 

[Elwro]

Level scaling has nothing to do with non-linearity, only with bad design.

 

[Horag]

Is the main plot not important or what? The part of the game I remember the most is when I got to some outpost on an island where I read lots of books which shed light on some of the plot's facets. This made me wonder about the whole thing and even a single moment like this is enough to make a game better than Oblivion, which is totally devoid of any plot-inspired thought opportunities.

Anyway, some of the other reasons could be that the world is at least a bit original and has a unique 'alien' feel. (Well, let's just say it's less bland than Oblivion's world.)

Ok quite clear, for you that point are major and you make it clear. For me it's quite relative in comparison with a ton of other aspects of CRPG. In short, all CRPG bet very very few has a story quality that can be compared to a really greet novel, that's why I it's not that important with me. Anyway, just a different feeling no debate about that.

Also, some of the factions seem to care about you being in other factions (=you can't become a member of two Houses etc.)

Ha well ok there was this point but admit that firstly this didn't impact other quests nor the main game. It's a very small part of the whole game. Finally it was possible to do many quests of each faction and then navigating though some bugs and do them all (except one, not sure). But ok you get a point, but that's a small one of the whole game.

 

[Horag]

Why morrowind is better:
-No level scaling
-You can't fast travel anywhere you like whenever you want.
-Much better setting/gameworld

Well I think I understand the level scaling thing. It's oponents difficulty that adapt to you char level. In fact there was many stuff like that in Morrowind. Easy to test is choose skills that won't rise your level and build up skills for few fighting and surviving then walk the world level one, tons of places where to go but yep also many block. TThe truth is that Morrowind ends quite fast like that by allowing you climb up any mountain quite soon. But I get your point and can understand how it can sucks.

-Just a lot more content in general i.e many more factions(and unlike Oblivion, some of the faction quest lines even conflict with each other, allowing for the rare chance of making a meaningful choice) more quests, more skills etc.

For the factions thing ok you get a point but that's a very small part of the whole game not to mention you could do many quests of the 3 factions plus all of all the other guilds, that let only few quests you cannot do. Frankly for me this last point is minor because it doesn't get a strong influence. You had ton of money and that was so easy to change people by bartering that this make the point very minor.

Anyway I got my answer, I see why Oblivion could suck in comparison with Morrowind. Ha well I'll buy it and try it anyway after to have finish Gothic 3. Frankly it wouldn't worth 10 page of reviews.

 

[Horag]

Level scaling has nothing to do with non-linearity, only with bad design.

Agree (in case you mean that I said the reverse).

EDIT : Thanks all for your answers that's now much more clear than the 100 page review! Ok go back to Gothic 3 (which is probably totally linear for you but ok for me like that), I felt upon the review and this thread by searching some Gothic 3 stuff, lol.