Why do people hate Oblivion so much?

[janior]

none of the overhauls truly fix the issues though, some make it worse, might as well play vanilla and just do efficient leveling

 

[Rieser]

Might as well not play.

 

[Wunderbar]

janior which ones have you tried?

 

[janior]

janior which ones have you tried?

oscuro's overhaul, maskar's overhaul and this https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/49194 combined with few other mods from the same guy.

 

[rohand]

Ascension tries to keep it simple but I haven't tried, can't be bothered to reinstall potato head simulator again
https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/50237

 

[Sykar]

Might as well not play.

Wish someone told me that back at release day when little naive me still thought Bethshit was a good company. I hit uninstall exe shortly after Kvatch. Funny enough "Quatsch" means "nonsense" in German and that is exactly how the game felt to me so it was perfect time to leave this trashfire behind me and never look back. What a waste of money this was.

 

[retinoid]

Fuck all of you, I'm not falling into the trap of installing Oblivion again only to spend 5 days modding it then getting bored after 2 hours of gameplay. This same old song and dance has happened every year for nearly 15 years.

Spoiler

Lord have mercy it's downloading.

 

[Beggar]

Because they are weak and beating a dead horse is the only thing they can do

 

[BruceVC]

Fuck all of you, I'm not falling into the trap of installing Oblivion again only to spend 5 days modding it then getting bored after 2 hours of gameplay. This same old song and dance has happened every year for nearly 15 years.

Spoiler

Lord have mercy it's downloading.

I love Elder Scroll games but I always Mod them and that is part of the fun of playing a game like Oblivion yet you can make certain changes that just make it more difficult and add additional monsters or just create specific weather patterns. The Mod community is amazing and really most mods are just to share with other gamers to enhance your game, its magnanimous and I respect their efforts
I use Nexus Mod Manager and i use the maximum Mods, 254 , and its well the worth the time spent

And I will use add relevant adult mods

 

[BruceVC]

I'm playing Oblivion for the first time now and I can emphatically say that I despise whatever the hell they did with this level scaling shit. I knew something was wrong when a bear with chameleon magic completely buttfucked my spider daedra. I've beaten Arena, Daggerfall, and Morrowind and this game is just non-stop busting my balls with obnoxious damage sponge enemies.

But you must use Mods to address this type of issue, to me its not a valid issue if their is a quick mod to resolve it ?

Thats one of the main benefits of many Mods, their is no reason to suffer with bad design....no one needs to be a Sado-masochist

 

[cpmartins]

Because they are weak and beating a dead horse is the only thing they can do

They are weak because they dislike an objectively shit game?
Are you retarded my friend? Butthurt perhaps?

 

[MWaser]

Because they are weak and beating a dead horse is the only thing they can do

They are weak because they dislike an objectively shit game?
Are you retarded my friend? Butthurt perhaps?

I understood that as "they are weak because they keep coming back to something they claim they hate and can't let it go" as opposed to just manning up and admitting it's irredeemable trash and let sleeping dogs lie.

 

[Jackpot]

Oblivion is a bad game, but here's a controversial opinion:
I don't think Vanilla Oblivion is that much worse than Vanilla Morrowind.
Both games by default have glaring design flaws.

 

[jackofshadows]

At least Morrowind has its world-building and muh lore in general to pull the experience up. Otherwise both games suck, sure.

 

[Impressive Organ]

But you must use Mods to address this type of issue, to me its not a valid issue if their is a quick mod to resolve it ?

Thats one of the main benefits of many Mods, their is no reason to suffer with bad design....no one needs to be a Sado-masochist

I do plan to replay it some time with one of the mods that fix level scaling because I don't entirely hate the game. I just didn't anticipate how bullshit overpowered every enemy in the game gets when you play it vanilla.

 

[Cael]

But you must use Mods to address this type of issue, to me its not a valid issue if their is a quick mod to resolve it ?

Thats one of the main benefits of many Mods, their is no reason to suffer with bad design....no one needs to be a Sado-masochist

I do plan to replay it some time with one of the mods that fix level scaling because I don't entirely hate the game. I just didn't anticipate how bullshit overpowered every enemy in the game gets when you play it vanilla.

Wait till you play the Titan Quest expansions. Bullet sponges doesn't even begin to describe that shit.

 

[BruceVC]

But you must use Mods to address this type of issue, to me its not a valid issue if their is a quick mod to resolve it ?

Thats one of the main benefits of many Mods, their is no reason to suffer with bad design....no one needs to be a Sado-masochist

I do plan to replay it some time with one of the mods that fix level scaling because I don't entirely hate the game. I just didn't anticipate how bullshit overpowered every enemy in the game gets when you play it vanilla.

Good plan, one thing I do admit about Elder Scroll games is I cant replay them unless their is at least 5-7 years break

People say thats because they not deep and lack real enjoyment and maybe that is true but because I have modded the games on a huge level I honestly dont mind but I am glad I had a break. I played Morrowind 9 months ago and I remember finishing all the guild quests and becoming the Nerevarine but then I started getting bored and just focused on killing Dagoth Ur....and that was the right thing to do

 

[Ravielsk]

Its been ages since I played Oblivion. What was so bad about the Dark Brotherhood questline? The only part I remember about it is that it involved some psycho and killing off the whole guild.

 

[Funposter]

Its been ages since I played Oblivion. What was so bad about the Dark Brotherhood questline? The only part I remember about it is that it involved some psycho and killing off the whole guild.

The problem is that it railroads the player into being a moron in the service of its plot twist. The early quests feature bonus objectives/methods of completion in order to receive special rewards, but those always represent an optimal way to complete the quest and they're never difficult to complete. It's braindead game design that makes stupid people feel clever.

 

[Zlaja]

I could never be arsed to mod Oblivion, because I find the vanilla game an absolute trainwreck. I only bother with mods for games which I at least find decent in their original form. Then I'm improving on something that has a decent foundation, but in the case of Oblivion, you have to install many 'overhaul this', and 'overhaul that' to make the game somewhat decent. Why go through all that trouble, just to elevate a steaming pile of shit into something that's just somewhat playable? Talk about a waste of time.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

Oblivion is a bad game, but here's a controversial opinion:
I don't think Vanilla Oblivion is that much worse than Vanilla Morrowind.
Both games by default have glaring design flaws.

Nah. I think Oblivion is worse game in terms of design, just from the roots. Autolevel for equipment and enemies encounters, shitty itemization due to that, streamlined quest design, streamlined exploration, dungeon and caves copy&paste a lot between them, the Oblivion gates are very dissapointing, bland combat, barely options while talking to NPCs, and more. With its flaws, Morrowind is a more solid game. Shit, I would say Skyrim is also better than Oblivion, is better designed from the start as a simplistic action rpg. With Oblivion you can tell the decline that both the game and the dev team went through when creating it. It was supposed to be a more complex game than Morrowind, then they started to do weird shit in order of getting the game running on consoles.

 

[Sunri]

 

[KateMicucci]

Oblivion wasnt that bad. Morrowind and Skyrim are better, and it has many flaws, but no other game was even attempting to do what oblivion was when it came out and there are still very few similar games today.

I think Oblivion generated a lot of butthurt because it came out in 2007 when there were very few RPGs in general (DAO didn't come out until 2009) and it wasn't the kind of RPG that some people wanted.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

It seems like part of the Codex culture to hate on Oblivion. I dont get it, why are people bashing this game so hard?

Main arguments I keep seeing are about the 'generic fantasy setting'. So what? Wasnt Lord of the Rings generic fantasy as well? Wasnt Baldur's gate generic fantasy too? As far as Im concerned the majority of old school cRPGs that stood out were generic fantasy. Arena and Daggerfall were 'generic fantasy'. Morrowind took a different twist and somehow everyone feels like the series was meant to be that way...

There is the complain about quest markers apparently ruining the game too. As far as Im concerned the absence of markers didnt add any value to Morrowind, navigating to your destination was just busywork. The game featured plenty of quests that didnt rely on those markers.

People complain about the bad level scaling and leveling mechanics because at level 20+ game balance goes downhill. To me it sounds like those negative Steam reviews saying ''Gaem is gud for teh first 60 hours and then it sux, dont recommend''. By the time you reach level 20 you should have seen A LOT of the game to the point where you should be ready for a re-roll.

Theres also the potato face/potato voice 'argument'. Considering that older cRPGs feel way clunkier on different aspects I dont know why people even bring that up.

In the end Oblivion is one of the better crafted TES games to me, since it features the best side quests of the series, and arguably the whole (A)RPG genre.

Honestly which other RPG delivered side quests with a design on par with Oblivion? What are the competitors?

For some reason I feel like people who hate it the most are the Morrowind fans. Those who grew up on Morrowind and were impressed by its novelty. By the time Oblivion got released they grew up too old to enjoy the type of game that it is (FPS-open world - interactive walking simulator) and are blaming it on the devs. I have never seen Arena/DF fans hate on Oblivion, for some reason...

You forgot to say why you think it's good. Just a bunch of saying "I know people have this big list of problems with it but I like it so...". Good for you.

Lord of the rings invented "generic fantasy". It's only generic now because everyone copies it. Oblivion had a less unique world than morrowind.

Quest markers themselves were just one of the many little "casualizations" of the game. I personally have no problem with them, but it moved the game into a more "hand holdy" feel. This went along with the consolization of everything, with a just terrible inventory screen (Not that morrowind's was great, but at least it showed more than 5 items at a time.)

I disagree the game goes downhill at level 20, but the notion that you're supposed to reroll at level 20 to overcome it is a dumb fucking argument. You're supposed to keep leveling up as you play the game until you win or get sick of playing.
The real problems with the leveling and stats went hand in hand with the level scaling. If you played "naturally", which is to say, with primary and secondary skills that you based your character around, you'd get shitty bonuses to your stat ups, meaning your level ups are weaker than they could be. On top of that, any skills would level you up, including non combat ones that didn't make you any stronger. That wouldn't matter, except the enemies level up with you. And higher level enemies are harder, they're not just better at speech, mercantile, and lockpicking. So you had to play "right" for your character to get stronger over time.

The potato face/voice thing is just a relic of its time, it landed pretty hard in the uncanny valley. It's just a funny thing to pick on, because they really do look like potatoes, and at the time they would so proud of the "realistic" faces. The voiced conversations between NPCs are also laughably bad sometimes, but again, I doubt this really mattered that much to people.

You'll have to give some examples of these superior side quests. What were the standouts to you?

Personally, I was disappointed in many ways by Oblivion. The fact that some skills were removed for seemingly no reason. For some reason the loss of spears really bothered me... The whole system of melee and blocking, while it gave you more to do in a fight than morrowind, was kind of clunky and annoying. Bouncing off shields and your opponent getting a free attack sucked. The copy and paste caves and dungeons (especially the oblivion gates, my god). The dremora were not interesting enough as a main enemy.

Oblivion also saw what was until then a PC centric experience, built for a mouse and keyboard, moved to a console style setup. So people associate it with a general decline in PC gaming quality.


Now, with all that said, I somewhat recently went back and played through Oblivion again with 2 characters, and had fun with both. It has the best spellcasting system, the dedicated spell casting key was a good idea, in morrowind spell casting was way too clunky, had to be equipped as a weapon, and skyrim did the same thing, magic was equipped as a weapon. Oblivion did better supporting spellcasting during combat. This, combined with the spellmaking that was removed in skyrim, made Oblivion the best elder scrolls game for magic. You could do a lot of fun stuff. It sucked that the spellmaking ability was locked behind a long series of shitty fetch quests though.

With a level up mod that took the min-maxing out of the level up stats it was very enjoyable to just play through using the skills I wanted to use and experiencing natural feeling power growth. And it's just so much fun playing as a mage, stacking weakness to destruction until a single drain health 100 spell would drop them. Just seeing enemies collapse and drop dead was extremely satisfying, I highly recommend trying it.

 

[MWaser]

Its been ages since I played Oblivion. What was so bad about the Dark Brotherhood questline? The only part I remember about it is that it involved some psycho and killing off the whole guild.

The entire post-twist development is one big shitfest of ungodly terrible writing and nonsensical scripted sequences which involve your character standing around and looking at someone perform terrible things/try to perform terrible things, without you having any ability to act and without any reason for why you shouldn't be able to intervene. It's the classic example of a person with competely no writing capacity trying to pull of a conspiracy twist, and it ends up being very embarrassing and pathetic on multiple levels.