Like I hate it, it was a disappointment when I got it (maybe even more than Skyrim). I wanted Morrowind 2, I got “oh, the LOTR series is popular because of the film, why not flatten our setting into generic medieval fantasy?” instead of my jungle city with dragons flying around the canals.
The main plot is stupid, most of the faction plot lines are stupid (Mannimarco is probably one of the most embarrassing bosses in a video game of all time). Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine showed that there were still some capable writers at Bethesda, but Horse Armor probably got a lot more profit for much less effort. (And now, they’ve figured that they don’t even have to do that and can just resell what modders do.)
Despite how much I hate the game, I’ve sank thousands of hours into it - not just playing it, but modding it. Installing the mods of others, making and releasing my own. I have a dream of someday making a total conversion mod which would fix all of the things I hate about the main story and the landmass and the dialogue and the lack of roleplaying opportunities… to the point where I’ve also spent hundreds of hours making small stabs at the project.
I listen to other people play the game and talk about the game and complain about the game all of the time. I watch more hours of people playing Oblivion than Morrowind - which is the game I actually like and think is good!
Edit: Plot of Morrowind - complicated political intrigue, analysis of colonialism, and subversion of the “Chosen One” narrative, where you could make a very strong argument that the main character is a government agent sent to “fulfill” an indigenous prophecy to destabilize the region politically and further centralize the Empire’s control over Tamriel.
Plot of Oblivion - Mehrunes Dagon is now basically the Christian Devil (flanderizing the very interesting morality of the Daedra in lore). Your job is to fight all the evil cultists who want to bring him back for basically no reason, like even in their “paradise” they’re getting tortured for funsies. No one has motivations other than being bad guys or good guys. (See also how the Mages Guild portrays necromancy as “the bad magic” which was a religious thing in Morrowind but canonically seen as morally neutral elsewhere before they became the generic baddies you slaughter in dungeons and caves.)
When I did my first play thru on Xbox 360, and I realized there was no levitation or jumping spells – I can still recall the disappointment. That simple thing was enough for me to not like it as much.
However, going into portals sickened and scared me. I never got over it before I moved on to Skyrim.
The way the game is designed relies on a lack of levitation and jumping spells. They needed to make everything run on console (and designed the UI entirely around that, it’s torment to use vanilla UI on PC). Cities have to be in separate worldspaces, and levitating could get you into the placeholder spots on the map. It would also make closing those Oblivion gates trivial if you just float up to the top of the tower. (Real men just use paintbrushes).
It just doesn’t make any lore sense though. Necromancy is illegal too, but it’s certainly still happening!
Fucking Mannimarco was SO disappointing. You’re chasing down this rouge faction of necromancers, corpses nailed to the walls, spooky as shit, rumors of The King of Worms fly, you finnally make it to him, and he’s an Altmer in a cave in a brown robe all ‘‘I’m an immortal who used to be in the Psyjic Order, was there when magic was first passed from Mer to Men, I single handedly invented enchanting, soul binding, and raising the dead, You have to fucking PRAY to me to make black soul gems!’’
And you lob an arrow at him from across the room and he says the same things ever Altmer in the game does and falls over dead. Like… really? I was expecting ANYTHING to happen in the fight at all.
They could have just made him a litch with some thralls and a health pool and damage output high enough to make it seem like a boss fight. I’ve had more trouble assassinatiing pirates.
The build up is ridiculous! Traven kills himself to give you that soul gem.
Mannimarco is supposed to be a god! How is he just a high elf in a shitty reskinned robe that needs a staff to reanimate a single corpse? Mannimarco in lore would use Mannimarco in game as fodder for experiments - getting merked by someone who might not even know how to cast a fireball. (Getting rid of faction requirements also annoys me, but if you’re so opposed to making people replay your game for all content and think it’s immersive that you can be the Grey Fox, Arch Mage, Listener, etc…, then at least acknowledge it somehow. Like, if you become Arch Mage before you do Thieves Guild, at one point you steal from yourself. I guess you also do become Sheogorath, maybe that insanity is why.)
They could have at least made a unique character mesh for him based on his Daggerfall design.
Despite all these shortcomings Oblivion is still my favorite TES game. The only thing that stops me from replaying it is the god-awful leveling system that requires loads of planning and min-maxing to make a character I am satisfied with. It’s just so gosh darned beautiful and relaxing…as long as one completely ignores Kvatch.
Try Oscuro’s Overhaul (FCOM was also a lot of fun back in the day, but less lore friendly and more wild and wacky). I’ve also had good times with Oblivion XP’s leveling system.
It’s funny how it’s easier to beat the game as a level one dork that doesn’t use any of their major skills than to play the game normally. (Morrowind’s difficulty curve is a log function, Oblivion’s is an exponential).
The most fun way to play vanilla is on max difficulty with a conjurer character that cheeses permanent quest companions and hides behind summons.
Elder Scrolls Oblivion.
Like I hate it, it was a disappointment when I got it (maybe even more than Skyrim). I wanted Morrowind 2, I got “oh, the LOTR series is popular because of the film, why not flatten our setting into generic medieval fantasy?” instead of my jungle city with dragons flying around the canals.
The main plot is stupid, most of the faction plot lines are stupid (Mannimarco is probably one of the most embarrassing bosses in a video game of all time). Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine showed that there were still some capable writers at Bethesda, but Horse Armor probably got a lot more profit for much less effort. (And now, they’ve figured that they don’t even have to do that and can just resell what modders do.)
Despite how much I hate the game, I’ve sank thousands of hours into it - not just playing it, but modding it. Installing the mods of others, making and releasing my own. I have a dream of someday making a total conversion mod which would fix all of the things I hate about the main story and the landmass and the dialogue and the lack of roleplaying opportunities… to the point where I’ve also spent hundreds of hours making small stabs at the project.
I listen to other people play the game and talk about the game and complain about the game all of the time. I watch more hours of people playing Oblivion than Morrowind - which is the game I actually like and think is good!
Edit: Plot of Morrowind - complicated political intrigue, analysis of colonialism, and subversion of the “Chosen One” narrative, where you could make a very strong argument that the main character is a government agent sent to “fulfill” an indigenous prophecy to destabilize the region politically and further centralize the Empire’s control over Tamriel.
Plot of Oblivion - Mehrunes Dagon is now basically the Christian Devil (flanderizing the very interesting morality of the Daedra in lore). Your job is to fight all the evil cultists who want to bring him back for basically no reason, like even in their “paradise” they’re getting tortured for funsies. No one has motivations other than being bad guys or good guys. (See also how the Mages Guild portrays necromancy as “the bad magic” which was a religious thing in Morrowind but canonically seen as morally neutral elsewhere before they became the generic baddies you slaughter in dungeons and caves.)
When I did my first play thru on Xbox 360, and I realized there was no levitation or jumping spells – I can still recall the disappointment. That simple thing was enough for me to not like it as much.
However, going into portals sickened and scared me. I never got over it before I moved on to Skyrim.
The way the game is designed relies on a lack of levitation and jumping spells. They needed to make everything run on console (and designed the UI entirely around that, it’s torment to use vanilla UI on PC). Cities have to be in separate worldspaces, and levitating could get you into the placeholder spots on the map. It would also make closing those Oblivion gates trivial if you just float up to the top of the tower. (Real men just use paintbrushes).
It just doesn’t make any lore sense though. Necromancy is illegal too, but it’s certainly still happening!
Fucking Mannimarco was SO disappointing. You’re chasing down this rouge faction of necromancers, corpses nailed to the walls, spooky as shit, rumors of The King of Worms fly, you finnally make it to him, and he’s an Altmer in a cave in a brown robe all ‘‘I’m an immortal who used to be in the Psyjic Order, was there when magic was first passed from Mer to Men, I single handedly invented enchanting, soul binding, and raising the dead, You have to fucking PRAY to me to make black soul gems!’’
And you lob an arrow at him from across the room and he says the same things ever Altmer in the game does and falls over dead. Like… really? I was expecting ANYTHING to happen in the fight at all.
They could have just made him a litch with some thralls and a health pool and damage output high enough to make it seem like a boss fight. I’ve had more trouble assassinatiing pirates.
The build up is ridiculous! Traven kills himself to give you that soul gem.
Mannimarco is supposed to be a god! How is he just a high elf in a shitty reskinned robe that needs a staff to reanimate a single corpse? Mannimarco in lore would use Mannimarco in game as fodder for experiments - getting merked by someone who might not even know how to cast a fireball. (Getting rid of faction requirements also annoys me, but if you’re so opposed to making people replay your game for all content and think it’s immersive that you can be the Grey Fox, Arch Mage, Listener, etc…, then at least acknowledge it somehow. Like, if you become Arch Mage before you do Thieves Guild, at one point you steal from yourself. I guess you also do become Sheogorath, maybe that insanity is why.)
They could have at least made a unique character mesh for him based on his Daggerfall design.
Despite all these shortcomings Oblivion is still my favorite TES game. The only thing that stops me from replaying it is the god-awful leveling system that requires loads of planning and min-maxing to make a character I am satisfied with. It’s just so gosh darned beautiful and relaxing…as long as one completely ignores Kvatch.
Try Oscuro’s Overhaul (FCOM was also a lot of fun back in the day, but less lore friendly and more wild and wacky). I’ve also had good times with Oblivion XP’s leveling system.
It’s funny how it’s easier to beat the game as a level one dork that doesn’t use any of their major skills than to play the game normally. (Morrowind’s difficulty curve is a log function, Oblivion’s is an exponential).
The most fun way to play vanilla is on max difficulty with a conjurer character that cheeses permanent quest companions and hides behind summons.