Oblivion Better than Skyrim? Thoughts?

[Patriot03]

Well, I recently went on a forum to discuss if Oblivion is better than skyrim. I made the following response. But what I want from the rest of you is your opinions and maybe If I missed a good point to have made, you could point it out.




"Oblivion is better than skyrim. The feel and emersion is better.
Skyrim just lacks something, its not very interesting and neither are its cities. Talking with NPCs in oblivion is much better and there is more dialogue. The quest in Skyrim are dull and usually dungeon related where as Oblivion has a ridiculously amazing variety and every quest/ side quest feels fresh. ( And skyrim introduced some NPCs that you can't even talk to, they just say something and walk away, I don't like that design path. )

Another big factor is the magic system, In oblivion using magic feels good, it is capable and you can use a staff for a long period of time. It is powerful and matches the play style of the game very well. In Skyrim its bland, just using the few spells you have and your staff drains its uses in 1 battle. Using spells in skyrim is lame, the fact that you have to hold the spell in your hand ( like morrowind ) means you can't have a freaking weapon, this means most players in skyrim probably don't use spells very often where as in Oblivion even a warrior in Heavy armor could use a few health spells here and there, this kept the player in a mystical feel throughout the whole game, And then we get to staffs, In oblivion a mage would typically use a staff, it was a powerful primary weapon with plenty of uses to get you through days of adventuring. In skyrim even the most powerful staffs drain in just one combat instance, and they usually suck ( staffs of mangus anyone? ) Basically skyrim mages primarily have to use their boring spells ( of which they don't have much variety, In Oblivion you could even create your own spell and staff, + enchanting in oblivion was better ) Basically all around anything magical is better in Oblivion over Skyrim, Especially the mages guild V the lame mages college..


Sesh- ( in response to reading my post ) "I really like to make mage\warrior hybrids and Skyrim's magic system is just horrible for that. If I want to use anything other than a single one-handed weapon I have to open and navigate through the quick menu or the inventory\magic menus when the quick menu gets confused and puts the spell I was trying to switch to into my weapon hand. In Oblivion I could cast a spell immediately after a swing of my two-handed weapon and there was no confusion when I wanted to change spells as there was only one place, for the spell I was switching to, to be. A big flaw of Morrowind was that you had to switch between magic and weapons if you wanted to use one or the other, I can't believe they reintroduced it in Skyrim."



Fraybone ( in response to reading my post ) - "The leveling system in Oblivion is way better imo. It may be complex but once you understand it you can make a character that is truly a jack of all trades. I hate that you have to pick either health, magika, or stamina in Skyrim. I agree with almost everything posted. The combat in Skyrim would be nice to have in Oblivion but when skywind is finally released then skyblivion will make leaps and bounds and hopefully not take as long. The one thing I would change in Oblivion is the dungeons. They are a little cookie cutter and not unique. There are a few interesting ones but generally it is all the same. I like how in Morrowind most of the dungeons had their own little stories if you bothered to look for it."
I agree here, the leveling system in Oblivion was much better and made leveling up pretty personal it let you put your points into what you want, and to level up more in say blades, all you have to do is use blades, instead of Skyrim where you directly put points anywhere you want, so I guess you could use a one handed sword in skyrim and put all your points into 2 handed weapons LOL, Basically in oblivion to increase a specific weapon type you had to use that weapon type, and when you did level up you could put points into major attributes, instead of skyrims boring "health,magic,stamina"

And in Skyrim you rank up way too fast, in the time it takes to get to level 5 in Oblivion, you can get to level 15 on Skyrim, it was so easy to rank up in skyrim in fact the player left the starting quest already level 2 or 3. This means that you can have more enjoying in Oblivion and even new level is really meaningful, and you doesn't get to level 100 so fracking fast.. ( It really took a long time to rank in Oblivion )

Then we get faction based quest, Everyone agrees on the fact that Oblivion had much better faction guilds to play and experience over skyrim. ( Oblivion Left, Skyrim Right )
Fighter guild > companions
Mages guild > Mages college ( man the mages college thing sucked, was short and felt bad )
Oblivions thieves guild > Skyrims riften thief's

(The Oblivion Arena > Well, skyrim did not have anything to match sadly..[Out of anywhere to have an arena you'd sure think the barbaric lands of skyrim would have them])

And the all time favorite of most ( not mine )
Oblivions dark brotherhood > Skyrims dark brotherhood.

City environment Oblivion > Skyrim.
Things like stores, in oblivion different stores were really different. You had the best defense,discount spells,Smash N Slash,and Stone wall shields etc.
In skyrim it just seems like you go from 1 blacksmith to another, maybe a trader store here and there. That's it!


Open World Oblivion > Skyrim.
In oblivion walking about there is so much to explore and do, bandit camps to fight or strange happenings in a small village to help with etc.
Basically all skyrim has is
1.Caves
2.dungeons
3.bandits in the south
4. Those strange people in the west.
That's pretty much it. Sure there are some small villages here and there just like in oblivion ( less than in oblivion though ) but they don't seem to give much quest and are overall pretty useless to go to.

And don't forget horses, In skyrim buying a horse doesn't feel special, it doesn't seem like a good investment or something you've been saving up for. It takes no thought. See in skyrim there is only 1 bred of horse you can buy, they all cost 1000 and only differ in appearance ( color ) In other words all the horses you buy in skyrim have the same boring slow stats. Where as in oblivion every major city had its own special type of horse, that is a bay horse will be cheap, its not going to be as fast or as tough as a white horse. As such it will cost less too, If you have more money travel to another city and buy the black horse, its the fastest in the game and only the white horse is tougher. And there are other lower class horses such as paint horses etc. All with different prices and different unique stats. This created an immersive feel in Oblivion and made players really think about what they wanted to buy. Where as I said In Skyrim it doesn't make any difference and as such creates a boring environment. ( Oblivions world is larger )

{PS: Skyrim just seems like it lost its soul a little bit, like it didn't have the developers full heart put into it. Matter of opinion I guess}

Creatures. Oblivion > Skyrim.

Oblivion has not only a vastly larger variety of creatures, they are typically more mystical and awesome looking.
Where skyrim took a more boring realistic approach, as seems with their whole design for the game. I like realism don't get me wrong, but Oblivion has something special about its mystical world, It creates a fun environment that you can really get into. Where Skyrim kinda seems like a typical medieval setting and the mystical lore is majorly ignored. You are probably saying ( Dragons! You think dragons are real !?! ) Okay okay, yea skyrim has "mystical" dragons but that's pretty much where it ends, You don't see many flying goblins or ghosts throwing fire at you in Skyrim. Usually its something boring like a bandit or wolves..

Basically Oblivion just feels more mystical if you will.
Skyrim feels more "realistic" despite having dragons I know.

Dragons!, Dragons were so cool the first few hours of the game, then the player realized that everytime he/she travels they will be attacked by one of these boss mobs, and usually more than just once depending on how far you travel. The whole combat style for dragons has a pretty big flaw, that is its WAY harder to kill a dragon with a melee focused player, where ranged people have it easy ( and isn't the dragonborn supposed to be an axe wielding Nord?? Apparently just a bow wielding elf ) Plus there's the fact that you can't walk away from a dragon, where as in Oblivion you can walk away from any Oblivion portal and come back when you are ready for an awesome adventure, To kill an oblivion gate it was = for any character, bow,staff, or axe you were going to have a blast ( in a world randomly selected out of a few different ones ) while there are different colored dragons, you kill them all the same. I much prefer the oblivion gate play style over 1 hideously annoying boss mob from wow.

I've mentioned stores, but how about what they carry, In Oblivion merchants periodically carry special items. They were usually very expensive and powerfully enchanted. If you could save up enough, you could by a seriously awesome weapon which would have a custom name etc.
Whereas in Skyrim for the most part you are buying standard blades from any merchant anytime anywhere. And if you do find a enchanted weapon for sale, its going to have a lame name like "iron sword of flame" and do like 5 pts of fire dmg. That's not even close to the awesome weapons sold in Oblivion.

I can write a whole hell of a lot of stuff to support this, but to save us all times just trust me when I say with

Oblivion implements its lore on a larger scale, you can read important books that are well written and an honestly good read, you can find a note on the floor that would eventually led you on a hunt for some old missing artifact no quest required. You can read about an old building in the woods where something happened. Walk there in game and actually find the house.
Skyrim just missed that mark. It doesn't seem to have much of that type of thing.

( You are saying " But In skyrim I founds a book telling me there was golds in a chest near water" Yea, good for you they put a treasure note and map right in front of the fracking chest, you pick up the note, and stand up you can see the chest -_- In oblivion I found a missing ring worth quite a lot of money { Why doesn't skyrim have a lot of valuable rings/cloths etc? } it wasn't a quest and it took me 2 hours to find. Talk about a feeling of accomplishment. Unlike Skyrims force feed "enjoyment" )

Creatures. Oblivion > Skyrim.

Graphics, Stock Oblivion < skyrim
However people don't realize skyrims failure in the graphics department. for one Skyrim has a dark grey tent to everything in the game, making it look dark and gloomy. Which is sad.. ( Mods can adjust the overlay issue I know, and I use them )
Skyrim's distant LOD looks very bad, and you can't see vary far before it looks just plain hidious, and there is akways some kind of far distance fog that blurs anything at a long distance. This ruins out side feel to the game, it just isn't ralistc. Like I said people rarly mention these issues as failues because they are over looked. But fact is Oblivions Looks much better when you are looking at distant land scapes than skyrim.

So, distance Oblivion > Skyrim.

Stock textures Oblivion < Skyrim.
However there are nomouroes mods for oblivion that enchance textures for weapons,character faces,and clothing etc. The end result is with Mods Oblivion will look on par with skyrim. ( In the texture department )
Faces was a big issues for Oblivion. However there is a mod that completely remakes the oblivion textres and they look better than skyrim faces, its a really awesome face lift for the game.

over all, quality of quest, Oblivion > Skyrim

I think I mentioned some of the most important points I have to make.

There are things skyrims does better, for instance combat (that's not to say Oblivions combat sucks) Skyrim adds crafting which is welcome, and many other nice additives.

And guys, I know there is a lot of love for both games so lets not make this a flame war of fanboys. Both games are great and Skyrim is still an awesome top of the line game. But over all Oblivion does make for a better game. But hey! Were all TES fans! And they are both honorable TES titles.



(PPS: How did I forget to mention mods? Anyway.

Oblivion has more mods and a lot more higher quality mods
There are definitely some good skyrim mods but oblivion has thousands.

[-2017- Edit, back in 2013 Skyrim had much less mods than it does now, and much less than Oblivion had at the time. However today both modding communities have had plenty of time to flourish so that's no longer an argument in favor of Oblivion]

Basically thanks to the vastness of Oblivions modding community you will have a much better modding experience. ( I role with 120 mods in both Oblivion and Skyrim, I know the sorts. )

{ I never played Morrowind, I know its a shame but I plan on getting it and modding the hell out of it. As such I can't yet reference Morrowind. }"

[Manager of Fat Girls Utd]

I agree with the majority of what you just said, however the Magic system in Oblivion is awful. Skyrim's is miles better.

[Patriot03]

Originally posted by JoshDoge:

I agree with the majority of what you just said, however the Magic system in Oblivion is awful. Skyrim's is miles better.

Really? I simply disagree.

In oblivion you can make spells, make better enchantments. Cast spells with any weapon equipped, there is a larger variety of spells.
I guess Oblivion is just the ideal spell system I feel is right. It just seems right that you can cast a spell while holding a sword. I doesn't seem right that in skyrim you walk around with fire constantly in your hand. But thats a matter of taste I guess

And lets include staffs. In Oblivion you can actually use staffs for quite a period of time. But In skyrim even the best staffs not only suck but they are used up on just one enemy.

If you really think Skyrims magic is better that's your right to an opinion. But man I'm really surprised.

Thanks for your input!

[celestialzebra]

Originally posted by Stalin:

Originally posted by JoshDoge:

I agree with the majority of what you just said, however the Magic system in Oblivion is awful. Skyrim's is miles better.

Really? I simply disagree.

In oblivion you can make spells, make better enchantments. Cast spells with any weapon equipped, there is a larger variety of spells.
I guess Oblivion is just the ideal spell system I feel is right. It just seems right that you can cast a spell while holding a sword. I doesn't seem right that in skyrim you walk around with fire constantly in your hand. But thats a matter of taste I guess

And lets include staffs. In Oblivion you can actually use staffs for quite a period of time. But In skyrim even the best staffs not only suck but they are used up on just one enemy.

If you really think Skyrims magic is better that's your right to an opinion. But man I'm really surprised.

Thanks for your input!

Exactly. I agree with you. Oblivion is the best elder scrolls in my opinion for this thread.

[celestialzebra]

Also the saying should be changed to Oblivion without mods is better than skyrim with infinity.

[Patriot03]

Originally posted by ponycorns331:

Also the saying should be changed to Oblivion without mods is better than skyrim with infinity.

You may be right about that. I played oblivion for a long time without mods ( a while ago ), and it was perfectly playable. However the first time I played Skyrim I shut it off until good mods came out( That could simply be because of my addiction to mods ). Now I love mods for Oblivion and Skyrim. However I think I agree that Skyrim without mods is pretty terrible ( And mods on skyrim are cool, they just aren't the quality of mods we have for Oblivion. ). That being said I've got 120 mods on Oblivion so I definitely think they improve the game.

[Patriot03]

^ Thanks!!

[pieisgood2]

morrowind > oblivion > skyrim

gameplay not graphics
not including mods either

[__-__-__]

I think you missed one, Oblivion's Arena was replaced by the Bard's College, they are both there for all types of characters but the College is so boring and short, most people forget it even exists.

I really like to make mage\warrior hybrids and Skyrim's magic system is just horrible for that. If I want to use anything other than a single one-handed weapon I have to open and navigate through the quick menu or the inventory\magic menus when the quick menu gets confused and puts the spell I was trying to switch to into my weapon hand. In Oblivion I could cast a spell immediately after a swing of my two-handed weapon and there was no confusion when I wanted to change spells as there was only one place, for the spell I was switching to, to be. A big flaw of Morrowind was that you had to switch between magic and weapons if you wanted to use one or the other, I can't believe they reintroduced it in Skyrim.

[__-__-__]

The creatures in Morrowind may not be as mystical looking as the ones in Oblivion, but there is about the same variety and they are really bizarre.

[scooks]

Personally, I prefer Oblivion - has far more variety

[Fraybone]

The leveling system in Oblivion is way better imo. It may be complex but once you understand it you can make a character that is truely a jack of all trades. I hate that you have to pick either health, magika, or stamina in Skyrim. I agree with almost everything posted. The combat in Skyrim would be nice to have in Oblivion but when skywind is finally released then skyblivion will make leaps and bounds and hopefully not take as long. The one thing I would change in Oblivion is the dungeons. They are a little cookie cutter and not unique. There are a few interesting ones but generally it is all the same. I like how in Morrowind most of the dungeons had their own little stories if you bothered to look for it.

[Patriot03]

Originally posted by Fraybone:

The leveling system in Oblivion is way better imo. It may be complex but once you understand it you can make a character that is truely a jack of all trades. I hate that you have to pick either health, magika, or stamina in Skyrim. I agree with almost everything posted. The combat in Skyrim would be nice to have in Oblivion but when skywind is finally released then skyblivion will make leaps and bounds and hopefully not take as long. The one thing I would change in Oblivion is the dungeons. They are a little cookie cutter and not unique. There are a few interesting ones but generally it is all the same. I like how in Morrowind most of the dungeons had their own little stories if you bothered to look for it.

I agree, and thanks for the feed back, I will be sure to add on to the whole leveling system debate.

[Dr. Strangelove]

when you have played oblivion a lot and go to skyrim you feel freshed and happy to enjoy TES once again, when you go from skyrim to oblivion you feel the game itself :) i love both can't say wich is better ....

[Jordwin]

Oblivion is better by a landslide.

[aGraveMistake]

Oblivion has a better storyline, but skyrim has a better interface and graphics