I have a confession guys, prior to Skyrim I never played any of the Elder Scrolls games.

You can pelt me with rotten fruit now.

But yes, I decided to pick up the Game of the Year Edition and start playing.

So really, what should I expect from Oblivion? What is the big differences in your mind in terms of storytelling and world building?

I am really excited and feel like I missed something big skipping out on this when it first came out.

I won′t pelt you with fruit but I will strongly advise to refrain from asking this as it will effectively maul your experience with the game. Just play and have fun! Find out what works and what doesn′t and only when you seriously hit a wall, then you can ask

Btw welcome to Cyrodiil!

I preferred Oblivion myself, it's more 'complicated' in a good way. Skyrim was streamlined too much, and a lot of the RPG features, like attributes, were removed. Oblivion has better guild quests, and of course, Oblivion has knights of the nine and shivering isles, some of the best DLC ever created in my opinion, along with battlehorn castle ect if you're an xbox/pc player.

Just explore and have fun, there is much to see and do and plenty of opportunity get into (and out of) all sorts of trouble.

You don't need to do the main quest or anything else if you don't want to, the vanilla game is massive in it's own right to mean that it should pretty much be the last thing on your mind!!
Should you feel like it there are a ton of mods out there as well to enable you to extend/enhance your gameplay experience well into the future!!

Try not to use the wiki or the spoilers section of this forum unless you absolutely have to, either.

I think one of the biggest mistakes I made with Oblivion was looking everything up before I bought it. That said, I still find new things quite a lot. So, try not to look for spoilers and expect to be surprised!

My point exactly

Thanks.

I sadly know more than I should (Dagon is invading from Oblivion, Martin is the only one to be able to stop it, plus Sheggy and you become one).

Thankfully, aside from the last, all of that was shown from the first 20 minutes.

I can't wait to get into this game.

My situation is similar to yours, but only in reverse order. Oblivion was my first TES game, and I am now just over 200 hrs into Skyrim. I really enjoy Skyrim, but the experience has only enhanced my enjoyment and respect for Oblivion, and some of the things that I still feel it does better. I would be very interested in your perspective, having played Skyrim first.

It's taking a little getting used to.

I'm only done with a couple of quests (3rd level) and joined three of the four guilds + the Arena.

Complaints:

* Everyone looks bizarre and creepy in ways that set my teeth on edge.

* I don't much care for the speech system. A definite improvement for Skyrim/Fallout was to simplify that.

Likes:

* The bright cheerfulness of the Imperial city makes a nice contrast to the fact they have regular televised death matches and are going to be invaded by Oblivion soon.

* Stealing is a LOT more fun in this game than Skyrim or Fallout. I feel far less guilty for some reason.

* I really like the Thieves Guild much more than the Riften one. 99%!

* Customized classes are awesome. My class? "Prince of Thieves" (oddly lacking Sneak)

* I feel like I'm going up in skills faster than in Skyrim, which I appreciate since I need to grind my Sneak.

Neutral

* Lockpicking is different but I can't say whether it's an improvement or not.

Just be careful a guard doesn't charge in and shout "STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM!"


Just a thing to be aware of- in Oblivion the levelling system is a little messed up. At higher levels enemies will be harder to defeat, not easier like it is in Skyrim. So I'd advise you not to spam a particular skill, you'll find yourself levelling up too fast and becoming too weak.

Enjoy Oblivion!

Ahh,...I'm with the "find out on your own" crowd. It's so much better this way. I will also add don't fast travel. Try not to fast travel....try just walking, running, and riding a horse to get around. There's LOTS of stuff to find in this game, lots of little things and places to explore. I've been playing Oblivion for over 3 years and I still haven't found every place and thing there is!

This one below me is really important, as I also made this mistake several times.


Yep, this was me, too, looking stuff up and ruining surprises, at least with my first couple characters. But by the time when I did Knights of the Nine with Renee Gade II and Dyan, I was firmly against looking stuff up, and this made these roleplays a lot better. I was able to do KotN's few puzzles without looking stuff up.

Just be prepared for the worst leveling scaling ever conceived.

Well if no one minds me sharing what I've discovered.

1. So far, the Arena is the most fun part of the game for me, even if I've only competed in about five or six matches. I guess it's because I feel like a definite sense of progress is being made here. I just defeated the Elven Sisters.

2. I resolved the vampire murders in Bruma and am bitter I can't carry around the Arena armor, the Iron Armor I'm wearing, and most of the loot I left behind.

(I can't wear the Arena armor for battle because, good lord, you need some pants!)

One cool bit is I felt guilty for robbing the Old Lady and was going to return all the stuff (I'm crazy that way) only to end up solving her husband's murder. I suppose I will be forgiven stealing some carrots.

3. I feel bad for the Emperor because I've been entrusted with the vital quest of finding his heir but I'm mostly interested in fencing loot.

4. I also solved the mystery of the "Two Sides of the Same Coin." Yeah, both of the lovers were scumbags who ended up getting what was coming to them.

Though the loot was kinda cheap.

I agree, the Arena rocks. I hated what happened at the end personally, but otherwise it was awesome. Gets my adrenaline going every time.

Two sides to the same Coin, is pretty cool, too. It allows for some good roleplaying moments if you are able get into it.


@ Kahril has a point 2 posts above, I hate to say. Oblivion's system of leveling is the worst I've ever seen in any RPG...BUT there are way to get around this, even in the vanillla game.

Level-dependant loot for just about everything in Oblivion pal, get used to it.

Have you tried the Guild quest lines other than the Thieves Guild?

Lot's of people love the Dark Brotherhood questline.

Personnally I really like the Fighters and Mages Guild questlines.

Have you found any Aylied Statues yet?

I'd be very interested in your views on Oblivion, good and bad. Others might be interested too, in an Oblivion player coming from Skyrim with an open mind.

EDIT: Oh, and even Oblivion-philes like myself dislike the leveling system. If you are on a PC I recommend a leveling mod to correct, like nGCD.

Right, and if you're not on PC, there are things you can do with your next character that will help keep the leveling from spriraling out of control. Just google "Oblivion using minor skills for majors" if you're interested.

...then again, maybe you're fine with how Oblivion levels, OP. Not everybody hates it...some folks don't have a problem with it.

But it might help if you also Google "Oblivion efficient leveling" if you start to see issues you want to...correct. You won't need to start another character, but efficient leveling can be somewhat of a pain, from what I've read.

I'm leveling Destruction, Restoration, Blade, and Heavy Armor along with the other stuff JUST IN CASE.

Now, wait 'till you get a load of Morrowind!

Ah! I encountered the scaling issues!

Kvatch's Runt Triceratops things take about 14 to 15 hits from my Silver Sword to kill.

I take like six from them.

Something tells me this is not right.

The Dark Brotherhood is the standout faction in my opinion. You should try it it's awesome.

Yup. It's horrid, ain't it? And it only gets worse as time goes on and you level further. It makes no sense. From what I understand, Morrowind got "too easy" at higher levels, and to Bethesda attempted to correct this with TES: IV Oblivion.

Like I said, if you start over with a new character, give him or her (or it) Major skills that don't get used so often. This is what eventually brought me back to Oblivion, once I learned how to do this.

Not to mention extremely booooring

...now now. Some people really seem to enjoy efficient leveling. They get really into this side of the game. Numbers have always been a part of traditional RPG's, right? Some people get really into this side of the game, know what I mean?

If you play vanilla the scaling is an issue so to counter that you can efficient level. Efficient leveling is just like anything else, practise makes perfect. I've efficient leveled 4 characters and it was only on the fourth character that I managed to introduce it into my exploring, questing and fighting very naturally so it didn't interrupt my gaming fun and become a tedious task.

But I have played over 500h now (yay me!) and don't worry too much because I guarantee everyone on this forum messed up their first character.