I went back and played Oblivion today for the first time in a while, and one thing that really struck me about the game was how much better the combat and UI functioned compared to Skyrim. You had your 8 hotkeys (not quite enough, but it sufficed for most characters), and you could freely cast magic no matter what you had equipped.

Although I initially thought Skyrim's two handed equipment approach was an improvement, it became obvious after a few hours of play that the system just wasn't very well designed. You now had two hot keys, the favorites menu, and could equip individual weapons or spells to each hand. I remember the first character I created in Skyrim was going to be similar to my character in Oblivion: a claymore wielding battlemage, mostly specializing in destruction and restoration. Yet after actually getting hands on experience with the combat, I found that this playstyle was extremely tedious. In Oblivion, if I wanted to cast a certain spell in combat, all I had to do was select it with the dpad and cast it. Basically two button presses, no pauses in the action, and I could immediately go back to hacking away at my foes.


Now, in Skyrim, it felt like I had to go through a whole damn grocery list just to cast a spell: open up the favorites menu, scroll through and find the healing spell, equip the healing spell, wait for my character to put away his sword, wait for my character to equip the spell, hold down the spell button to charge it up, release the spell button, open up the favorites menu again (or use one of the hotkeys), reequip the sword, wait for my character to pull out his sword... and finally I had succeeded in doing something that took two button presses in the previous game. All the while the enemy had free reign to continue attacking me, usually rendering the healing spell moot. I eventually gave up on casting spells, and reverted to using only my sword and shouts... not quite as interesting.

I was also bothered by the inability to block while playing as a spell sword or dual wielder, it really turned me off from those playstyles. Of course I did enjoy the spell system while playing as a mage (even though it did still involve plenty of pauses and scrolling), I found that the system really limited the enjoyment of certain hybrid classes that I enjoyed playing in Oblivion. Really Skyrim felt like going back to the gameplay of Morrowind, where you could only cast spells in the magic stance.

Basically, I'm hoping that Bethesda seriously reconsiders a more traditional system for the next TES game, I'm all for experimentation in game design, and Skyrim's system is certainly fun for what it does accomplish, but in the grand scheme of things it really is a downgrade compared to Oblivion.

Hell no. Good riddance, Oblivion. That's like asking "Did anyone prefer Morrowind's combat system to Oblivion's?".

Two words: "You missed."

Edit: I never played OB on console. I had all my keyboard hotkeys so never struggled with a controller. So, I'm unable to extend my comment to controller schemes.

While having to unequip a two handed weapon, before switching to spells is a... procedure, I don't understand what you said about the hotkeys part. You CAN hotkey weapons, spells and potions from your favorites list...