Good things about Oblivion (?)

[Kthan75]

I finished the main quest in Oblivion yesterday and this morning I was having a coversation with some guys at work that made me wonder what are the things that Oblivion is worth remembering for (if any). Leaving gfx and sounds aside, what gameplay aspects or quests or situations do you think are worth remembering? Here's a short list for me, though I had a some other good moments with the game (some SPOILERS below):


- the quest where you enter that painting
- the quest where you enter that guy's dreams
- creating my own spells and my own weapon enchantments (Mage Guild)
- a couple of fights in the Arena (too bad for that stupid scaling)
- the quest with the paranoid dude in Skingrad

I'm not going to discuss stuff that pissed me off or bored me, it would take me too much...

The thing is that I only finished the main quest and the Mage Guild quests and I created a new thief/assasin character. I am wondering if there are enough cool things in the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood to justify starting the game again with this character.

 

[Mefi]

The Dark Brotherhood line of quests is quite well done.

Definitely worth trying before uninstalling the game.

 

[Lumpy]

That's about what I'm going to do, except that I won't join both the TG and the DB with the same character, due to different ideologies - the Thieves Guild expells you for killing someone during a job, while the DB is all about killing.

I find Oblivion quite enjoyable. A nice quest, despite being a Lovecraft ripoff, was A Shadow over Hackdirt, since there were many things you could do in that town, besides saving that girl. The Order of Virtuous Blood was also nice, since you could complete it in two different ways, and there were consequences depending on which way you chose. Otherwise, I find the lack of choices in most quests excusable somewhat, since there are 150-200 quests in the whole game. Although the amount of freedom during those quests is the same compared to Morrowind, they are more interesting, having better storylines. Comparing the quests from MW's Mages Guild storyline to those of Oblivion's, you can clearly see the difference. The guilds now have storylines, as opposed to being some random quests thrown together.

 

[Twinfalls]

- but lack any flavour of being realistically the type of work a guild would have you do (like Daggerfall), in favour of being teh epic shit, am i rite? And do not allow you to decline or even fail quests at all, unlike Morrowind which let you fail some quests, am i rite? And have no interaction with other guilds whatsoever, unlike Morrowind, am i rite? And do not have any skill requirements whatsoever for progression in all guilds, so Conan can become ArchMage, am i rite?

 

[Imbecile]

@Lumpy

Agreed. Although the Fighters guild quests are bloody awful.

 

[Lumpy]

- but lack any flavour of being realistically the type of work a guild would have you do (like Daggerfall), in favour of being teh epic shit, am i rite? And do not allow you to decline or even fail quests at all, unlike Morrowind which let you fail some quests, am i rite? And have no interaction with other guilds whatsoever, unlike Morrowind, am i rite? And do not have any skill requirements whatsoever for progression in all guilds, so Conan can become ArchMage, am i rite?

No. Except for the last one.

 

[Imbecile]

- but lack any flavour of being realistically the type of work a guild would have you do (like Daggerfall), in favour of being teh epic shit, am i rite? And do not allow you to decline or even fail quests at all, unlike Morrowind which let you fail some quests, am i rite? And have no interaction with other guilds whatsoever, unlike Morrowind, am i rite? And do not have any skill requirements whatsoever for progression in all guilds, so Conan can become ArchMage, am i rite?

but lack any flavour of being realistically the type of work a guild would have you do (like Daggerfall),

Nah, the type type of work you do is generally appropriate (with the exception of the mages guild)

in favour of being teh epic shit, am i rite?

Nope. Unless working out whats killing a ladies pets rats is Epic?

And do not allow you to decline or even fail quests at all, unlike Morrowind which let you fail some quests, am i rite?

You can decline some quests (although the option is left open) and you can fail lots of quests, or complete them less successfully.

And have no interaction with other guilds whatsoever, unlike Morrowind, am i rite?

Yeah, generally this is true, although the thieves guild require you to steal something from the mages guild. If you are a low level mage you run the risk of getting thrown out. If you are the arch mage it’s a piece of piss as you are stealing from yourself

And do not have any skill requirements whatsoever for progression in all guilds, so Conan can become ArchMage, am i rite?

Now this IS true. And it’s a big flaw.

 

[Zomg]

I haven't played Oblivion, but I wish a really cogent TES fan would show up around here, because there's some stuff I want to know about how they experience those games. Like, I don't understand how you can evoke or even imagine a player-character personality in a Morrowind-type game, which is an almost totally inert world tied together with a similarly inert plot, where the quests are unskippable, unfailable and very rarely offer any diversity of means, affect or morality and where there is only a vanishing amount of interactive dialogue. I think that it's true and good that a game can encourage your imagination to fill in the gaps of a gameworld and cover up the rough or overtly mechanical spots, but Morrowind is almost all gap. So how do the fans manage it?

 

[Mefi]

I've had interesting conversations with Arwen. She did a Morrowind diary. Her website is in purple and pink but it might give you some insight as to how it is done:

http://arwen.awardspace.com/mw/MW%20Index.htm

She's writing a similar thing for Oblivion but confesses that she's struggling to use her imagination to cover up all the flaws. I think she said she's got 20 odd mods to try and help her out too....

 

[Zomg]

After getting about seven sentences into that link I started menstruating.

Edit - I stole this joke from obediah, by the way.

 

[Micmu]

Good things about Oblivion:
- It doesn't waste your time as you have no desire to play it again (ever) once you're done with it. You can easily finish it in few days.
- you can laugh to death seeing bethesda's AWESOME writing and designing skills in action,
- a good game to occupy your pre-teen kids (don't worry about the DB questline, they'll just ignore those few dialogue sentences and keep following the green marker whacking shit, which is the core of this game),
- uninstall works and is relatively fast,
- if you were suckered in acually buying it, you can sell it easily, for now.

 

[Mefi]

After getting about seven sentences into that link I started menstruating.

it's very girly indeed. Still, check out the Oblivion part for a very interesting view on what the game is like for an obvious Morrowind fangirl.

It's interesting as it shows that Bethesda are risking alienating even those fans who would not hear a bad word said against Morrowind.

 

[Freethis]

What the hell is wrong with writing in sentences and paragraphs. Jesus fucking Christ, there is no excuse for a native speaker of the english language to write like Imbecile or that Arwen chick. Fuck!

am i rite?? *head asplodes*

 

[Imbecile]

What the hell is wrong with writing in sentences and paragraphs. Jesus fucking Christ, there is no excuse for a native speaker of the english language to write like Imbecile or that Arwen chick. Fuck!

am i rite?? *head asplodes*

In my defence I was quoting Twinfalls, and my layout was really lousy as I've never really got the knack of this quoting business. I tried to quote every bit of dialogue before replying to it.

I was assuming that Twinfalls was being deliberately sarcastic. I didn’t just assume that he (she?) was unable to spell right. It’d be nice if you could return the compliment (even though my presentation was lousy)

 

[Andyman Messiah]

- the quest where you enter that painting

"Painted" atmosphere, standard fetch item quest. Be done in fifteen minutes.

- the quest where you enter that guy's dreams

Seconded. I liked that one.

- creating my own spells and my own weapon enchantments (Mage Guild)

Never really gave a crap about that, so I can't comment.

- a couple of fights in the Arena (too bad for that stupid scaling)

No comment. The Arena sucked.

- the quest with the paranoid dude in Skingrad

Great quest if it had actually led somewhere. Is there a solution to this that doesn't end up killing the little fuck? I doubt it. On top of that, you don't have to do anything he tells you to do (stalk people) to progress in the quest. Just wait, talk, wait, talk and then either report him to the guard (who runs off to kill him) or wait and talk to him again (and thus, he attacks you). A fantastic quest!

 

[obediah]

I liked the dark brotherhood stuff okay.

The first dozen or so dungeons were pretty damn cool.

shooting someone in the back of the head and watching them fall over a railing was cool

getting my hands covered in blood punching mud crabs was neat.

killing the unicorn was nice, and some of the other daedra quests were okay. I was really hoping for the one where you have to get the pacifist to attack you, it could be done by digging up his wife's corpse and fucking it in front of him.

just wandering around was fun, for awhile.

This post is in no way an overall endorsement of the game, just staying on topic unlike some others - dum dum dum!!!!

 

[Lumpy]

About the Paranoia quest: Well, you can lie to him that any of those people had been watching him, in which case he has you kill them and gives you 1000 for each.

 

[Lumpy]

- but lack any flavour of being realistically the type of work a guild would have you do (like Daggerfall), in favour of being teh epic shit, am i rite?

You must be talking about the Mages Guild, since fighters fight, thieves steal, assassins assassinate, and gladiators kill, and that's about what you have to do in those guilds. As for the Mages Guild - while the quests should involve more magic casting, they seem preety appropriate - taking care of a mage murderer, getting an ancient tome, creating your staff, exploring some ruins (which actually required casting some magic), learning how to create black soul gems, etc. seem preety mage-like.

And do not allow you to decline or even fail quests at all, unlike Morrowind which let you fail some quests, am i rite?

Well what the hell did you expect from a non-random generated game? I don't think Gothic allows you to deny or fail quests. Nor does Fallout, for that matter. You can deny side quests, though, in Oblivion. And how did Morrowind allow you to fail quests exactly?

And have no interaction with other guilds whatsoever, unlike Morrowind, am i rite?

You don't? Mages Guild - Necromancers Guild, Fighters Guild - Blackwood Company, Thieves Guild - Imperial Legion.

And do not have any skill requirements whatsoever for progression in all guilds, so Conan can become ArchMage, am i rite?

Correct, but only about the Mages Guild. All the other guilds require you to have the skills they need to do the quests, thus to advance. I don't know how someone unable to sneak would be able to finish the Thieves Guild, or someone unable to kill finish the Fighters Guild or the Dark Brotherhood. The Mages Guild, on the other hand, should require magic knowledge for advancement.

 

[BeholderX]

The face generator is fun for hours!

And do not have any skill requirements whatsoever for progression in all guilds, so Conan can become ArchMage, am i rite?

Correct, but only about the Mages Guild. All the other guilds require you to have the skills they need to do the quests, thus to advance. I don't know how someone unable to sneak would be able to finish the Thieves Guild, or someone unable to kill finish the Fighters Guild or the Dark Brotherhood. The Mages Guild, on the other hand, should require magic knowledge for advancement.

Hah! Invisibility/chameleon + custom damage spell = master of all guilds.

 

[golgotha]

To be honest, I had high hopes for Oblivion since the first sets of quests I tried to accomplish, other than some Oblivion gates which were pure trash, were the Dark Brotherhood quests. These, I thought were very well done as you could have multiple ways of going about the murder and your reward was determined as such. After completing the best part of the game without my knowledge of it actually being the best part of the game, I was excited to jump into the main quest, because hey, if the DB quests were this good imagine what they did with the main quest! I haven't touched my character since going half way through the MQ.

 

[ad hominem]

Dark Brotherhood: far and away the best quest line

Shadow over Hackdirt: pretty enjoyable, although it was a shame the reward was broken (I understand the patch fixes that, but c'mon, this is a pretty damn obvious flaw)

Ultimate Heist: I thought this one was pretty enjoyable (to get to the top of the TG), as it wasn't just a killfest, and you actually had to think...a bit.

a couple of the Daedric quests were okay, but nothing really grabbed me other than the Clavicus Vile quest (I thought the play between what you were asked to do and what the dog was telling you to do was pretty entertaining)

oblivion gates: OH GOD KILL ME NOW!!

 

[Data4]

The Oblivion gates ARE garbage. Everything is the same. Every trip up the tower is IDENTICAL. Waste of fucking time. The Sigil stones do provide some buffs to armor and weapons, but not worth the effort.

Aimless dungeon delving is pretty fun, until you tire of the Ayleid and Fort tilesets. However, unlike the towers in the Oblivion zones, they do vary them up a bit in lighting and layout.

Have to agree on the Dark Brotherhood questline being the best. If this game was "The Elder Scrolls 4: Dark Brotherhood" with more of Emil's work, it would have been MUCH, MUCH better.

Thieves Guild was pretty good, too. The Ultimate Heist made for the best dungeon romp in the game for me. Right about the time I finished the DB and TG, my interest fizzled. I completed the main quest early on in the game, mainly to get rid of those asstastic Oblivion gates. No comment on the Mages and Fighters guilds, since I never started either.

-D4

 

[Tal]

Dark Brotherhood: far and away the best quest line

Shadow over Hackdirt: pretty enjoyable, although it was a shame the reward was broken (I understand the patch fixes that, but c'mon, this is a pretty damn obvious flaw)

Ultimate Heist: I thought this one was pretty enjoyable (to get to the top of the TG), as it wasn't just a killfest, and you actually had to think...a bit.

a couple of the Daedric quests were okay, but nothing really grabbed me other than the Clavicus Vile quest (I thought the play between what you were asked to do and what the dog was telling you to do was pretty entertaining)

oblivion gates: OH GOD KILL ME NOW!!

I agree, the Dark Brotherhood was pretty good, but not the greatest thing ever. Compared to everything else in Oblivion it showed some effort. The Ultimate Heist quest was tedious when you had to fight through that extra long dungeon filled with undead just to enter the palace. I felt like I was right back in Oblivion gates again, fighting through hordes of baddies every 10 steps. The quest did get better though when you entered the palace, there you didn't have to fight and could be stealthy.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Paranoia was my first sidequest and i liked it - I was sought out by the guard captain when I slept in an Inn, that was a first fun surprise. Later I denied to help the crazy little woodelf shit, and for the first time in a TES game that I can remember I was presented with some (moral) consequences for doing that - next morning the news was all over that he ran amok and killed his imaginary persecutors.

The painting quest was cool, just for the stunning effect of entering the painting.

In general, if they were just a little less linear, I would quite like the quests in Oblivion. They contain a lot of fun ideas and are interesting little stories. But the no-choice dialogue, linear narrative, and the bloody pop-ups manage to largely ruin the experience (the latter can be switched off with a mod, thank god).

I am looking forward to doing the thieves and brotherhood quests, and then I'll probably start modding.

Although graphics were ruled out by the OP, I have to mention the sense of place the game sometimes gives me. There is something elating about a misty morning in the forests of Cyrodiil or a trip through an Ayelid dungeon that a low-tech game just can't give you, although it may be 100 times the better RPG. I just wish we could convince a developer to do both.

 

[Lumpy]

You HAD to fight? Couldn't you sneak through?