» Fri May 27, 2011 10:40 am This thread should hopefully generate some discussion about the many things that Bethesda Softworks did a bang-up job on in the creation of The elder scrolls 4 Oblivion. Although there are probably other threads with similar contents, I figured I needed to get all this off my chest and into an official complaint to a bright group of people that want more out of the next Elder Scrolls game.
I am by no means going to put any order to the things that were missing out of the game, I hope that people will just add to this unorganized list (and hope for minimal repetition):
- Skills: Short blade and long blade - why did they merge these two into blade. one would argue that a two-handed claymore relies on strength while a poisoned dagger requires cunning and speed; don't you think?
Medium Armor - what happened here. I thought that having the option to specialize in one of three armor classes generated a more in-depth sense of individuality. Now all you get is Light or heavy.
Spear - what in Gods name happened here! they could have improvised here and really revamped the functionality of a weapon the got bad rep in Morrowind (Although the spear of bitter mercy was fun to obtain).
Axe - It is disappointing to see that axes are now considered blunt. The last time I checked, axes had sharp edges (again now blunt weapons don't feel so unique).
unarmored - If you want to wage war wearing something less cumbersome (say a loin cloth) to better compensate weight management to be able to carry a claymore or Two-handed hammer, why has this skill been removed. They could have created a unique dodge ability for this class as you leveled it up through apprentice, journeyman, expert, and master (similar to the bonuses of acrobatics but more combat related).
- Attributes: Just to get things on a better level of customization, I think that a single attribute would enhance a single set of skills. I think that skills should benefit from more than just the primary attribute (Blunt weapons do better with strength) and luck. For example, a blunt weapon is a stick with a massive weight on the other end of it (awkward to throw around) and I think that a balance of strength and agility would make one skilled with this weapon. Just like Security is now governed by agility rather than intelligence; when both are crucial factors. Acrobatics, if you are strong and quick you can jump high and far (strength for height and speed for distance). Attributes should have a great importance to select skills, and yet minor importance or none at all to others.
- Voice acting: Rather than waisting so much money on Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean (Uriel Septim and Martin Septim) and then having seven people do the rest of the voicing, they could have pulled people off the street and got them to read lines for much cheaper, and added more diversity. I find that it was a little annoying that almost everyone has an English accent (save for Khajiit, Argonians, and Nords). I understand that writing out so much epilogue and putting voice to it is a lot of work, I enjoyed the quest depth and reading of Morrowind far more than the generic feel that most NPCs had in Oblivion. Bottom line, all Dunmer sound alike, all High Elves sound alike; repeat for every other race.
- Fast Travel: This killed the game. I think that this was an excuse to a vastly large environment that nobody cared to explore because all loot is random calculated and not set (to be explained later in this post). Because quests unlock certain areas that "require a key to open" regardless of your security skill, and also have certain events and loot to be gotten; this made game play miserable in my opinion.
Fast travel contradicted a few things listed here:
- why buy a horse (that is useless in my opinion; to be explained later) when you can just fast travel?
- why be cautious of how much you can carry (when looting dungeons) when you can just fast travel back to a house to unload and fast travel back?
- Why create a lustrous, living, beautiful out door experience, when everyone is just going to fast travel right by?
I will give one thumb up for this ability: the ability to get yourself unstuck from glitchy terrain that you cant move/jump out of. this is all it is good for - although there are quick save functions and autosave options that should prevent this from being an annoyance.
Wild Life:
- It really svcks when you go outside to discover vast forests, rolling green hills, deep valleys, tall mountains, and then little or no wild life. Look up. See anything missing? I loved killing Cliff Racers. I loved killing nix-hounds. I loved killing Scribs that would wake me every time I would Rest (yes rest) in the wilderness. Oblivion added creatures that are not fictional. Bears, wolves, Lions, boars, Deer... all boring. Also, why don't lions yeild meat to use? same for any creature you kill. I hate the fact that they did such a beautiful job on the sky, but didn't have anything flying to kill (or just marvel at). if your a marksman, and you pride yourself on hunting birds for meat (that should be cooked or mixed for alchemical purposes), what did Oblivion do for us? Nothing. What happened to being attacked in your sleep at night sleeping in the wilderness.... oh, yeah, I forgot that you cannot sleep in the wilderness anymore.
Bottom line - there are half the beasts in Oblivion than there were in Morrowind, and no flyers.
Magic spells:
LEVITATE!!!! what happened here? This was one of the coolest spells that you could get! If you were a Telvani wizard, you needed to levitate (or be an able-bodied acrobat). This created a major sense of superiority of being a battle mage in comparison to the ground dwelling warrior. Again, I will not linger to long on stating that this is another aspect that took away from the Uniqueness of being a caster in comparison to stealth or combat oriented characters.
JUMP! remember taking those scrolls of icarian flight off the corpse of the wizard that fell out of the sky just out of Seyda Neen? I do, and I remember the intense fun I had saving my game... using the scroll, jumping a vast distance (and admiring the terrain below) and then inevitably falling to an instant death. this spell ROCKED! I can see the argument of this ability making the acrobatics skill less attractive (although skills have skill perks where spells don't), but still feasible to classes that want to use magic but not as severely as a mage would.
There are many things more that I want to say, but I am hoping that you (readers) will mention them so that I can agree and support or disagree as to why!
