Okay, where to start. I figured that there was no need for me to review this game as it is so successful, but, as always, All the Steam reviews on the front of the store page are one to two sentenced jokes instead of something actually helpful. Please thumbs-up this, if you like this review, for visibility.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is the sequel to the critically acclaimed The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Knowledge of prior storylines are not needed to enjoy Oblivion, though a working understanding of TES world lore will always enhance your experience in any of The Elder Scrolls games. A good idea is to just read some of the in-game books, from time to time, as you play the game. Some of the fictional books are amazing little detours from the game world. Oblivion and Morrowind are less fantasy experience and more-so a virtual world that you live in. With mods, this experience feels more real to me than some of the Dungeons and Dragons campaigns I've played. It's incredibly easy to get immersed into this work.

Oblivion's main story leaves some to be desired. You are a prisoner who meets the Emperor (voiced by Patrick Stewart) and his guards as he flees a rumored assassination attempt through hidden tunnels in the Imperial City prison. Suffice it to say, that its' not really a spoiler that you witness the Emperor's assassination. Before the Emperor's death, he tells you that you are fated by the gods to save the Empire and "close shut the jaws of Oblivion". Long story short, you flee the tunnels and are sent to track down the Emperor's last remaining illegitimate heir (voiced by Sean Bean) as well as pretty much single-handedly repel the invasion of Daedra from Mehrunes Dagon’s hellish plane of Oblivion.

However, in classic Elder Scrolls fashion, the main quest isn’t even the largest part of the game. The entire Imperial province of Cyrodiil is open to you for exploration. There are many guilds to join, whether or not you want to be a mercenary, a mage, a thief, an assassin, or a holy crusader. There is an abundance of miscellaneous side and freeform quests for you to do. I recommend the purchase of a strategy guide, not so that you’ll have a walkthrough, but because you’ll need some way to keep track of where everything is! There are many quests and areas that you will miss if you don’t scour the world for them. You can easily spend around 350 hours if you finish all of the main, side, and faction quests as well as the DLC. Many people just wander across the world, not even touching the main story.

The mechanics have long been applauded as an improvement over Morrowind, level scaling aside. Morrowind offers a better story and atmosphere, while Oblivion offers a more modern experience. The graphics are a bit dated by today’s standards, but I still sometimes catch myself stunned by the beauty of Cyrodiil. Skills are a lot more streamlined than Morrowind, which I consider a negative trait, although it does make the game friendlier to newcomers. Combat is not as bad as so many people claim. To me, it really feels like I’m actually swinging the sword. The magic system is a lot simpler than Morrowind’s but a lot easier to use. It is not as good as Skyrim’s magic system, but still useful.

The DLC The Knights of the Nine and The Shivering Isles far trump Oblivion’s main quest. Knights of the Nine puts on a holy crusade to fight against Umariil the Unfeathered, an ancient Ayleid elf who has come to try to enslave men once more. The Shivering Isles sends you to the frankly breathtaking realm of Sheogorath, the Daedric “Mad God”. Most of the dialogue in The Shivering Isles will have you chuckling to yourself and smiling. And the atmosphere of the realm brings nostalgia from Morrowind to mind.

Now, I am going to discuss mods. Oblivion’s modding scene is unparalleled by Morrowind or Skyrim. There are enormous overhaul mods, plenty of lore friendly stories, and enthralling and immersive stories and factions. You can even reach an added five or six hundred more hours if you play through some quality mods. Morroblivion, brings the entire landmass of the previous game, Morrowind, as well as all of it’s quests, items, NPCs, creatures, etc. You can then travel between the two provinces with your same character. Other mods add some of the other provinces from Tamriel. And a few mods have been so well rated that they’ve become known as unofficial expansion packs.

Oblivion is an astounding RPG that will draw you in and stick with you for a long, long time. The replayability of Oblivion is excellent. The game was released eight years ago and I am still playing it to this day. You will not regret buying this game. Get the Deluxe pack for $25 that comes with all the DLC, themed player lairs, and, yes, even horse armor. It is well worth the price and you will get your money’s worth over and over again.

It's almost embarrassing, at 60 years of age, to still be so enamoured in a game. It is my game. My "go to" in personal timeouts, and I'm sure Oblivion is the key element in my surviving cancer & surgeries, with tumours in head and lung - 15 YEARS ago!
They said I had 4 to 6 months to live. I went to Oblivion - and SURVIVED !
I can't say what this wonderful game has meant to me, and therefore, my family

My first playthrough of Oblivion was a terrible experience. I focused on the main story only to realise that it's impossible for my character to fend for himself. After this, I started to rely on NPC's to kill for me. I progressed to a key point in the game and proceeded to start a new game because I got sick and tired of that save file. I load up a new game and choose a Dunmer class. I began the game and got released from the tutorial. I then realised that i'm playing one of the best RPG's known in human history. I found myself telling the main quest to go ♥♥♥♥ itself because im having such a fun time doing guild duties and fighting stuff. Im level 23 at the time of writing this review and i've completed 3 hours out of my current 40+ hour save file. I thought Morrowind was an exprience, rich for gameplay, atmosphere and adventure, But Obivion takes the same aspect and forces cocaine up its nose. I havent even mentioned the story yet. The story is pretty kick ass aswell. I won't spoil it, please buy Oblivion and experience one of the best RPG's known in human history.

Edit: buy the base game only. The deluxe version is dumb and addons can be downloaded easily through a simple google search. Also, I became level 37 and i completed the main story, the shivering isles and knights of the nine. I'm working on finishing the other addons, so ill update after.

Edit 2: Thanks for the reminder @Clancy McFancy. All the other addons really only provide small and not very entertaining addons. The best one to reccomend out of all the addons is Shivering Isles. Very facinating world and feels like a totally new experience. Shivering Isles lasts for about as long as the main game, and is considerably harder than the world of Cyrodil. I'd rate it a 8/10.

It's buggy, it crashes a lot, the NPCs are voiced by about 6 people and Sean Bean... And it's the best RPG experience I had growing up. It's well worth playing.

First of all, if your question is "Should I buy this game, period?", my answer is simply: Yes.
If your question is "Should I buy this game, or skyrim?" the answer's a bit more complex. I would not say either one is better, but they're two different tastes, like vanilla and chocolate.

In this case, I would say Oblivion is the vanilla. If you're looking for a straight-up, classic medieval fantasy, Oblivion might be more your thing than Skyrim, which is "themed" around the viking-style Nords. Likewise, Oblivion has the default fantasy setting of castles and forests and rolling green plains, where Skyrim is, again, Nordic themed, and focused mostly on mountains and snow.
Because of that, and some differences in art styles, Skyrim and Oblivion look very different, to the point where I would almost say that might be the deciding factor in which game is right for you. Skyrim is very much a modern game, with fairly realistic art, and that includes the recent trend of realistic games to be primarily brown and gray. Oblivion, on the other hand, is vibrant and colorful, and perhaps a bit stylized. If you are longing for a colorful first person fantasy game, Oblivion is for you (if you're looking for a sidescroller, I'd recommend Trine). If you've been wading through the Real-Is-Brown trend, the sheer vibrance of Oblivion can be a real breath of fresh air.

As for gameplay, the two games are relatively similar. I personally prefer the spellcasting setup in Oblivion over that in Skyrim - in Oblivion, you equip spells in their own slot, rather than in a hand (which could instead be holding a weapon), whereas Skyrim just treats spells like a sword that has to be put in one of your hands. Speaking of which, you cannot dual wield in this game. If you want to play a classic sword-and-shield knight, this particular difference in mechanics is more or less irrelevant, except that it's easier in Oblivion to cast the occasional healing spell.
Furthermore, Oblivion offers a much greater degree of freedom in spellcasting than Skyrim. You can create your own spells by adding effects and designating whether the spell is a projectile, area of effect, etc. Enchanting and Alchemy are slightly more complex than in Skyrim, as well. If you like playing spellcasters, I'd say Oblivion is probably a better choice than Skyrim, which has you simply pick from pre-determined spells, and has a far more limited alchemy and enchanting system.

The biggest mechanical difference is the level up system. Without a doubt, Skyrim's level up system is more user friendly and intuitive. It might be a little more friendly to those who want to play these games casually, where Oblivion requires a little more care, planning, and effort. In Skyrim, you level up your skills as you use them, and after you've increased any combination of skills by a certain amount, you can go up a character level (on the spot, even). When you do, you increase one of your three stats (yes, only three: health, mana, stamina), and pick a talent tree to put a talent point in, which gives you bonuses - with different talent slots unlocking as you raise the respective skill. In Oblivion it is completely different. For one thing, you have several stats, each tied to three skills. The number of times you level any combination of skills attached to a given stat affects how much you could POTENTIALLY increase that stat by when you level up (and if you dont' get those +5s, you will find that the game swiftly outlevels you). By the way, you only level up when you raise ten points in any combination of your class's seven major skills, and only when you sleep. Skyrim has no classes, and therefore no major skills. This makes Skyrim's character-building system a little bit more freeform, as you can, if you want, change directions as you go, if you decide you don't like a particular aspect. Oblivion allows you to create a custom class, but you're basically stuck with that choice after you finish the tutorial.
In short, Skyrim has a simpler, more intuitive, more fluid leveling dynamic, good for building your character as you go according to what feels natural, while Oblivion might be better for those who like to plan or min-max, and requires a bit more thinking ahead.

I should also mention that on certain computer systems, the music in this game may not work. It certainly doesn't work on my system, but otherwise the game runs just fine. From what I understand this is an issue with the CODECs and may be related to Windows 7.


One other thing I think is important to mention is that this game, despite being a fantasy, is surprisingly arachniphobe friendly. As someone with arachniphobia, I find it hard to deal with how ubiquitous giant spiders are in fantasy games. Skyrim's spiders are particularly horrifying. But Oblivion has no (true) spiders at all. It does have the Spider Daedra, which are essentially spider-centaurs, but I didn't find them particularly phobia-triggering. They're also very rare outside of the oblivion gates, so you won't often find yourself being jumped by one unexpectedly. If you are an arachniphobe looking for a fantasy game, I HIGHLY recommend Oblivion, especially if you're comparing it to Skyrim.



Also, this game has Martin Septim.
That's reason enough to buy it.

Played it a little bit, I like it so far

Dude I've got more hours in this game than high school tf more you want me to say?

At some point, every year, at no set time, I get nostalgic for this game. I had the pleasure of enjoying it when it first came out. If you didn't experience this around it's release it's hard to understand the random sensation you might get. You might be minding your own business, hanging with friends, out doing errands, and suddenly, it's Oblivion time. you can't explain it, but you know, it's time.

If you've just played Skyrim, then this is a much more 'Elder Scrolls-y' experience. It's not as pretty and some of the controls are odd, and yet it utterly trancends such things. If Skyrim's about exploring, Oblivion's about questing. The land is mostly just trees but the missions are much more varied and some are very well written. Especially for the Dark Brotherhood. This is one of the best deals on steam at any sale price. Thoroughly reccomended.

Oblivion is my favorite Elder Scrolls title, by far. Even after playing Skyrim and Morrowind (and soon Daggerfall), I still find myself preferring Oblivion over all of them. The best thing about Oblivion is it still feels like an RPG and has involved features like spell creation (something Skyrim is sorely missing), but still feels way more modernized and way less clunky than Morrowind.

Both of those games are still good in their own right, but I really think Oblivion hit the sweet spot and got the best of both worlds. It has better combat and stealth than Morrowind, better main quest and environments than Skyrim, and better guild questlines than either of those games. In particular, the Shivering Isles expansion is fantastic. The game even has minor immersive details Skyrim removed, from weapon durability to parchment maps to spellcrafting.

The game has definitely aged (facial animations are particularly stiff), but otherwise there is little to complain about. You can also mod this game just as easily as Skyrim, which fixes most of its issues.