Why do people hate Oblivion so much?

[Cologno]

Most of the complains about the Oblivion also apply to moronwind and noggerfall.

Lol, sure, and yet the hour count I've got in Morrowind and D-Fall far exceed that I've got in Oblivion. Basically of you squintbhard enough you can find the equivalences, but eh who gives a shit, Oblivion is still the worst offender.

 

[Konjad]

I always found the branches and leaves of the trees in Oblivion to be particulary pleasant.

I felt the same way when exploring the world, sometimes it's really calming to stop, observe the foliage, and listen to Jeremy Soule's fantastic compositions. It's a shame that the excessive bloom and poorly done textures (gonna give Oblivion some leeway in this department) ruins the sometimes charming visuals.

With just a few mods it looks good:

The problem is when NPCs start talking.

 

[Lemming42]

It's a beautiful game. I don't care if I get made fun of, the game looks phenomenal (NPCs aside). It's so nice to look at, I think that was a huge part of its success at the time - look, my PC and/or Xbox 360 can run this!!! But not just the outdoor areas, the interiors are gorgeous too, especially the upper class areas with all the ornate shit dangling everywhere.

Every time I see a screenshot of Oblivion I want to reinstall and play it but I resist because I know there's no point because the core gameplay loop just sucks shit. It's like that "every time you mention Deus Ex someone reinstalls it" thing, except every time you mention Oblivion, someone briefly experiences euphoria followed by crushing despair as they remember the fucking Ayleid fucking ruins.

 

[anvi]

The problem is when NPCs start talking.

That and the gameplay.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I thought the scaling was stupid was the main complaint? A rat would scale, a bug would scale etc. I can see humanoids and classes scaling but a stupid mob like a regular skeleton or animal seems dumb. I'm only going by hearsay though since the reputation made me avoid it.

 

[Late Bloomer]

I thought the scaling was stupid was the main complaint? A rat would scale, a bug would scale etc. I can see humanoids and classes scaling but a stupid mob like a regular skeleton or animal seems dumb. I'm only going by hearsay though since the reputation made me avoid it.

Oblivion has a lot of complaints, here being no exception. The scaling is one of the more prominent complaints. I don't think it is a game to avoid trying though. You could always watch a let's play and skip around the videos to see if it's something that you would enjoy. I find the unintentional humour as the main draw for why I return to it on occasion.

 

[luj1]

With just a few mods it looks good:

not gonna lie, that looks like trash bro (other than vegetation maybe)

 

[luj1]

Why do people hate Oblivion so much?​

it cannot be clearer why

- its massively dumbed down from morrowind
- actual console port, made for xbox 360 first, PC second
- marks the beginning of RPG decline
- UI designed for a joypad not keyboard and mouse

 

[Desiderius]

I thought the scaling was stupid was the main complaint? A rat would scale, a bug would scale etc. I can see humanoids and classes scaling but a stupid mob like a regular skeleton or animal seems dumb. I'm only going by hearsay though since the reputation made me avoid it.

Oblivion has a lot of complaints, here being no exception. The scaling is one of the more prominent complaints. I don't think it is a game to avoid trying though. You could always watch a let's play and skip around the videos to see if it's something that you would enjoy. I find the unintentional humour as the main draw for why I return to it on occasion.

I don't think I've ever had more fun in the first ~50 hours of a game (I'm thorough so that might be 25 for the average player).

There's a sense of almost betrayal once you see behind the curtain though and realize there's nowhere meaningful really to go. Larian gives you enough bells and whistles that their games are worth playing halfway regardless but they do the same damn thing.

 

[grimer]

A rat would scale, a bug would scale etc. I can see humanoids and classes scaling but a stupid mob like a regular skeleton or animal seems dumb

iirc only humanoid enemies scale including goblins. a rat just turns into a bear instead.

 

[scytheavatar]

Most of the complains about the Oblivion also apply to moronwind and noggerfall.

My main complain about Oblivion is that the game is towns, dungeons and flat lands in between which are not worth exploring. This complain can apply to Daggerfall but certainly not Morrowind.

 

[markec]

I thought the scaling was stupid was the main complaint? A rat would scale, a bug would scale etc. I can see humanoids and classes scaling but a stupid mob like a regular skeleton or animal seems dumb. I'm only going by hearsay though since the reputation made me avoid it.

Pretty much all Bethesda games have some form of level scaling, problem with Oblivion is that its done in such a appallingly bad way. Enemies scale with you both in stats and equipment. It leads to in late game to bandits having full sets of deadric armor and weapons which makes exploring dungeons pointless since the best loot is everywhere. All enemies get inflated stats, making enemies like goblins harder to kill at lvl 50 then lvl 5, even with having best gear possible. Basically it destroys any sense of progression, with players mocking that if you dont level up its easier to finish the game as lvl 1 then lvl 100.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Mods fixed the level scaling issues over a decade ago, if you're intent on playing don't let that point dissuade you.

 

[Arbiter]

With just a few mods it looks good:

Playing as a female character?

 

[Socrates]

Oblivion for it's time was a transitional game in a lot of ways moving to new tech and platforms of the console generation. As a result it's aged poorly (graphically). And now for the things that can't be excused.

Bugs
Buggy fucking mess (even by Bethesda standards). According to the (probably insane) UOP patch creators they have discovered and fixed over 2,500 bugs (and 70,000 object placement errors.) If you are gonna play oblivion this mod is almost essential to granting a stable load order. I've heard there are still bugs present in the latest vanilla version that can corrupt saves and brick them permanently. Oblivion is probably the hardest modern TES game to mod because of how unstable it is.

Atrocious Leveling System
Enforces an annoying play style where you have to play in extremely specific ways in order to max your character correctly to keep up with the enemies that will level scale with you. It's an incredibly dissonant system when the game is obviously encouraging you to go out and explore and try new things.

Even More Atrocious Level Scaling
Enemies scale with you to the point of absurdity. (infamous example being common bandits wearing full sets of daedric armor). Higher difficulties turn common enemies into damage sponges making the level scaling even worse.

Stripped Features
Liked spears from Morrowind? Too fucking bad. Enchanting skill? Gone. No medium armor. All weapon skills merged into 3. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting but yeah it feels bad.

Infamous DLC
Horse armor.

 

[Socrates]

I also forgot to mention the death by a million copy and paste daedric prefab realms but oh well you get the idea.

 

[Butter]

Worst leveling system in any RPG?

 

[anvi]

I love this thread. Do Skyrim next.

 

[Losus4]

Stripped Features
Liked spears from Morrowind? Too fucking bad. Enchanting skill? Gone. No medium armor. All weapon skills merged into 3. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting but yeah it feels bad.

"Enchanting skill gone"

You say this despite the fact that you can still enchant items. Do you imply that you would leave Oblivions enchanting system exactly as it is, only with a chance to fail? Imagine closing an Oblivion gate, climb the tower, grab the sigil, get an awesome enchantment, then fail at applying it to an item because your skill is too low. You also don't need medium armor. Most armors in any real or fictional setting are either going to be heavy or light. Spears I agree, but if Bethesda added spears, you'd be whining about no throwing darts. If we're going to attack TES4 for not having spears, are we going to attack TES3 for not having flails?

 

[Silverfish]

Worst leveling system in any RPG?

No. Either 1) Do whatever you want, and just don't sleep or 2) make a custom class and tag skills you don't intend to use as major skills.

 

[Butter]

Worst leveling system in any RPG?

No. Either 1) Do whatever you want, and just don't sleep or 2) make a custom class and tag skills you don't intend to use as major skills.

The video addresses these ideas. I consider it a monumental failure of the system that players seriously recommend gaming it in this manner.

 

[Socrates]

"Enchanting skill gone"

You say this despite the fact that you can still enchant items. Do you imply that you would leave Oblivions enchanting system exactly as it is, only with a chance to fail? Imagine closing an Oblivion gate, climb the tower, grab the sigil, get an awesome enchantment, then fail at applying it to an item because your skill is too low. You also don't need medium armor. Most armors in any real or fictional setting are either going to be heavy or light. Spears I agree, but if Bethesda added spears, you'd be whining about no throwing darts. If we're going to attack TES4 for not having spears, are we going to attack TES3 for not having flails?

Don't be intellectually dishonest. Are you not aware of what thread you are in?

This is the why people hate oblivion thread not whataboutism of TES3. TES3 has it's own issues but comparatively the problems between TES 2 and TES 3 are less significant than the problems between TES 3 and TES 4 (or 5 for that matter). My criticisms of 4 does not imply I don't have issues with 3 or that somehow 3 is a perfect game.

So fuck off with your strawmanning bullshit.

 

[Daemongar]

Don't be intellectually dishonest.

 

[Lemming42]

Reduction in number of skills really isn't a problem in and of itself. Spear and Axe being their own skills is pretty pointless, in the same way Thaumaturgy existing as an independent magic skill in Daggerfall was mostly pointless when it could be so easily folded into the others. Similarly there was no need for Backstabbing to be its own skill when it can be so intuitively blended into Sneak.

I think Oblivion's worst crime on that front is merging Long Blade and Short Blade into "Blade", which definitely is bullshit, especially since it means thief classes who are meant to be using daggers can theoretically use 2h greatswords with equal proficiency. But there were too many melee-focused skills in DF and MW. Fucking axe, absolutely pointless. Long Blade, Short Blade, Blunt and H2H would do the trick.

 

[Bad Sector]

- actual console port, made for xbox 360 first, PC second
- UI designed for a joypad not keyboard and mouse

The UI is bad for both though. Morrowind's UI was done much better, both for the PC version but also for the Xbox version - which is basically the PC UI with each "floating window" being maximized and you cycling between them and using the dpad to focus UI elements/dialog topics.