Differences between this, Morrowind, and Skyrim?

[Mustachious]

I've only played Morrowind and Skyrim and am thinking of revisiting one of those...

Love the locale of Morrowind but the gameplay is bit aged and overwhelming for me, while the Skyrim locale is kinda boring but the gameplay is more simplified and streamlined which is good to me.

But Oblivion might be a choice, too, since I've never played it.

Where does Oblivion fall compared to these other two in atmosphere and gameplay?

[CHASE6]

I’d say it’s a middle ground of mechanics. It’s more basic than Morrowind but way more in depth than Skyrim. A lot of people complain about the level scaling. It’s definitely not great, but if you have never played before, it’s cool to experience vanilla once. As far as atmosphere that’s totally subjective. I like Oblivion’s art style and atmosphere presentation best. It depends on what you like.

[Mustachious]

Yeah, I kinda meant like how does the atmosphere feel, if it's possible to describe it. Like Morrowind is very colorful and fantastical, while Skyrim is more gritty and realistic.

What's wrong with the level scaling? Just that it exists or is it unfair?

[psychotron666]

Of the three, oblivion is the weakest imo. It's kind of the middle ground between Skyrim and morrowind, watered down to almost meaningless RPG mechanics compared to morrowind but more action oriented combat like Skyrim. Skyrim however has a more refined combat of that style, so oblivion kind of sits in the middle between while not excelling at anything in particular.

It's got some things better than morrowind (like graphics, view distance, rideable horses, physics, etc) and some things better than Skyrim (guilds, some more skills, spell making), but the things it's better at than morrowind, Skyrim does better, and the things it's better at than Skyrim, morrowind does better.

As for map and atmosphere, oblivion is definitely the weakest. There's little to no culture compared to Skyrim or morrowind, and the map is just a big flat area with a few hills here and there, but you can walk in a straight line from any location to any other location without terrain getting in your way.
It's also the most generic looking compared to Skyrim and morrowind.

Still, despite it being an extremely mediocre elder scrolls game due to many glaring weaknesses, it's still a solid game that's worth a play through or two to experience all the stuff at least once and get the little bit of lore the game does have.

The shivering isles dlc is however the best DLC Bethesda has made imo.

[CHASE6]

Originally posted by Mustachious:

Yeah, I kinda meant like how does the atmosphere feel, if it's possible to describe it. Like Morrowind is very colorful and fantastical, while Skyrim is more gritty and realistic.

What's wrong with the level scaling? Just that it exists or is it unfair?

Most complaints stem from the world leveling around the player. So all enemies and gear you encounter is contingent on current level. If you have never played the game before and have no forehand knowledge of this, you wouldn’t notice though, as you have no idea what to expect. Playing vanilla is perfectly fine though, it won’t ruin the experience. I’d suggest keeping the difficulty slider centred, and drop it if you have encounters that are way too much of a slog.

[Mustachious]

Cool, I think I will pick this up to experience the lore even if it's not the best. Maybe I'll end up loving it anyway. Thanks for the replies.

[Leeux]

Base game's lore might not be the best... but Shivering isles lore, quests, NPCs, etc is top quality IMO, up there with the best.

[The Great Cornholio]

gameworld is bland compared to Morrowind and Skyrim
best questlines in the series
best voice acting
good magic system
combat is tedious

[Chaosium]

Scaling is extremely agressive, much more than in Skyrim. Oblivion is infamous for its Leveling Problem ™ where you don't gain enough power with each level up and the world is becoming stronger than you do if you don't level up "efficiently", which takes a bit of the fun it must be said.
Apart from that, it's an artisanal game; rough of the edges, you can spot the seams here and there, but you feel the love put in it from start to finish

Also, spell crafting is broken and I can't believe they took it away in Skyrim

[HellSlayer]

Originally posted by psychotron666:

Of the three, oblivion is the weakest imo. It's kind of the middle ground between Skyrim and morrowind, watered down to almost meaningless RPG mechanics compared to morrowind but more action oriented combat like Skyrim. Skyrim however has a more refined combat of that style, so oblivion kind of sits in the middle between while not excelling at anything in particular.

It's got some things better than morrowind (like graphics, view distance, rideable horses, physics, etc) and some things better than Skyrim (guilds, some more skills, spell making), but the things it's better at than morrowind, Skyrim does better, and the things it's better at than Skyrim, morrowind does better.

As for map and atmosphere, oblivion is definitely the weakest. There's little to no culture compared to Skyrim or morrowind, and the map is just a big flat area with a few hills here and there, but you can walk in a straight line from any location to any other location without terrain getting in your way.
It's also the most generic looking compared to Skyrim and morrowind.

Still, despite it being an extremely mediocre elder scrolls game due to many glaring weaknesses, it's still a solid game that's worth a play through or two to experience all the stuff at least once and get the little bit of lore the game does have.

The shivering isles dlc is however the best DLC Bethesda has made imo.

What are you talking about.. skyrim has the most boring enemies.. just zombies and undead and humans aka bandits. Absolutely majority of enemies are there. Compare that to oblivion that has cool mythical creatures.

Besides that oblivion has oblivion planes, fighting arena, and skyrim has what? caves and bandit dungeons. The quests in oblivion are far superior to skyrim. In skyrim you do 5 quests and you are done, in oblivion its way different.

[psychotron666]

Originally posted by HellSlayer:

Originally posted by psychotron666:

Of the three, oblivion is the weakest imo. It's kind of the middle ground between Skyrim and morrowind, watered down to almost meaningless RPG mechanics compared to morrowind but more action oriented combat like Skyrim. Skyrim however has a more refined combat of that style, so oblivion kind of sits in the middle between while not excelling at anything in particular.

It's got some things better than morrowind (like graphics, view distance, rideable horses, physics, etc) and some things better than Skyrim (guilds, some more skills, spell making), but the things it's better at than morrowind, Skyrim does better, and the things it's better at than Skyrim, morrowind does better.

As for map and atmosphere, oblivion is definitely the weakest. There's little to no culture compared to Skyrim or morrowind, and the map is just a big flat area with a few hills here and there, but you can walk in a straight line from any location to any other location without terrain getting in your way.
It's also the most generic looking compared to Skyrim and morrowind.

Still, despite it being an extremely mediocre elder scrolls game due to many glaring weaknesses, it's still a solid game that's worth a play through or two to experience all the stuff at least once and get the little bit of lore the game does have.

The shivering isles dlc is however the best DLC Bethesda has made imo.

What are you talking about.. skyrim has the most boring enemies.. just zombies and undead and humans aka bandits. Absolutely majority of enemies are there. Compare that to oblivion that has cool mythical creatures.

Besides that oblivion has oblivion planes, fighting arena, and skyrim has what? caves and bandit dungeons. The quests in oblivion are far superior to skyrim. In skyrim you do 5 quests and you are done, in oblivion its way different.

The only monsters Skyrim was lacking compared to oblivion is other daedra. Otherwise the dragons, falmer, dwemer constructs, Hagravens, werewolves, and giant spiders were much cooler monsters than oblivions imo.

And yes, oblivion guilds are better than Skyrim I already said that, but that's basically the only thing going for it. There's an extreme lack of side quests outside of guilds in oblivion, the content of your play throughs is the guild quests. In Skyrim instead the main content is side quests outside of the guilds.

The oblivion planes are the same 8 or so maps recycled over and over again 50 times. Closing oblivion gates just becomes a boring chore rather than fun exploration.

[joeball123]

Originally posted by HellSlayer:

oblivion has oblivion planes, fighting arena

Oblivion Gates and the Arena are in my opinion easily some of the worst parts of Oblivion - they're tedious, repetitive, minimally-rewarding,* and not even particularly visually interesting.

* Yes, I know that the Arena pays out unleveled amounts of gold for all matches until you become Grand Champion, which can at least theoretically make it "good" money at low levels. Unfortunately, outside of spells and consumables, 99% of the stuff that you can buy is 'level-appropriate' junk that you could've gotten for free by dungeon-diving and questing, and most of the rest is so expensive that the 5,650 gold you get by completing all 22 matches probably only pays for one, maybe two items.

Originally posted by psychotron666:

The oblivion planes are the same 8 or so maps recycled over and over again 50 times. Closing oblivion gates just becomes a boring chore rather than fun exploration.

On the bright side, there's only three or four Oblivion gates that you actually need to close during the main quest, and each of them gets a unique dungeon that isn't one of the seven endlessly-recycled ones used for random gates.

[8thSeaOfRhye]

Originally posted by Mustachious:

Yeah, I kinda meant like how does the atmosphere feel, if it's possible to describe it. Like Morrowind is very colorful and fantastical, while Skyrim is more gritty and realistic.

What's wrong with the level scaling? Just that it exists or is it unfair?

In what world is morrowind colorful?

[theo]

Compared to Skyrim it is.
But yes Oblivion is much more colorful.
Depends on what did OP mean by colorful though

[konstantynopolitaneczka]

skyrim outperforms both games, in every aspect

oblivion sucks

morrowind is only enjoyable for 30+ years people with severe "old gaming" nostalgia (/s)

And to answer to your question:

Where does Oblivion fall compared to these other two in atmosphere and gameplay?

1. oblivion lacks atmosphere unlike morrowind or skyrim.
2. depends on what kind of gameplay you're looking for. Combat is the worst in the series, talking to npcs and listening to their 2 paragraphs of lore might be fun for someone, exploring the map (while trying to ignore fast travel unlocked before visiting location) is kinda pleasant experience and collecting 100 potions you'll never drink or watching skeletons disintegrate is a bethesda's classic, in my opinion they nailed it.

[Dixon Sider]

Originally posted by Mustachious:

Like Morrowind is very colorful and fantastical

Are you sure you are talking about the correct game? lol.