I thought it was great.

I dislike it because it was boring, cliche, generic, padded, and completely linear.

At least Morrowind gave you a few spots where you could complete certain quests in whatever order you choose.

It was quite unbecoming of a TES game.

And made even worse by the fact that the Shivering Isles main quest was precisely none of those. We KNOW Bethesda can do better than that.

I'll tell you why they dislike it.

Because they're Communists!

Because it's boring, rushed and predictable.

I was not at all impressed with either Morrowind's or Oblivion's main quests. Bethesda does a lot of things better than other gaming companies but writing is not one of them. On the whole I probably enjoyed Oblivion's main quest a bit more than Morrowind's main quest. But both of them were so poorly done I have not been able to do either one of them a second time.

I thought the main quest was just fine.

I gotta say, standing around, as the sky begins to glow red, while what essentially amount to portals to hell open up right in front of you, all while getting an inspiring speech from Sean Bean, was pretty kick ass.

I dislike Oblivion's main quest for multiple reasons:

1. It's little more than a bunch of "Go to that place, get this item and bring it back" missions. Pretty generic and boring.

2. It's too linear and your skill set has little to no bearing on it.

3. The story just doesn't make any sense. Why, in the name of the Nine, would the Grandmaster of the freakin' Blades trust an escaped prisoner with missions vital to the survival of Tamriel itself? Why wouldn't he trust these missions to members of the Blades that he's known for years and have actually earned his trust? I mean, really. Jauffre is the leader of the Emperor's personal bodyguards, yet he makes these boneheaded decisions that do more to benefit the Mythic Dawn than the Empire. Think about the very first mission he sends you on:

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on (and on) about the flaws in the MQ, but won't do that here. I'll just say that the flaws in the story completely ruin immersion for me.

I didn't think that the main quest was too bad really.

It was a bit generic in some parts, and I did feel like more of a courier rather than a 'hero' during a couple of parts, but that's just how it is I guess. I love the game, so I can't complain too much.
Although, I would of liked something a bit more diverse like Morrowind's Main Quest. It kept me engaged, while Oblivion's had me doing a quest and then running off to do faction things instead.

I do agree with The Vyper.
Why would the Grandmaster of the Blades trust a prisoner in retrieving the only individual that can potentially save Tamriel. Personally, a few quests to prove your worth would of been awesome.
All in all. A bit rough around the edges, but it was still worthy of being replayed with a number of different characters.

I usually do perform the main quest as I go through the game because, well, it's a good way to get stronger and gain some interesting new stuff, but it is never really a priority for me. One of the things I do is impose hard level limits on the quest stages, but I'm not too sure how that will hold up with my latest mod-base, as my current gameplay overhaul has been quite surprising (and refreshing, but that's not the point here).

Let me go into more detail as to the reasons I listed that I dislike Oblivion's Main Quest:

1. Boring: This is mostly due to a conglomeration of the reasons below, but the main thing to touch on here is that the Main Quest completely fails to engage the player. Everything that happens has been pre-determined, the story follows a very predictable arc, the only major plot twist is at the very end, and there is no replay value to it.

2. Cliche: Standard Demons from Hell invasion #54,276. Need I say more?

3. Generic: There was absolutely nothing creative done with the Main Quest. No deep look into the religion of the Daedric Cults, no culture for the fabled Dremora who were delegated to little more than bowling pins... in their own realm.


4. Padded: Oblivion realms were heavily recycled between Gates, you spend roughly a quarter of the entire questline doing artifact shopping for Martin, the Allies for Bruma side-quest was... ugh, don't even get me started on that one. Sure it was optional, but I know why it was there. There was so much flim-flam in between important events it wasn't even funny.

5. Linear: As previously stated, there are no branching paths, no "do these quests in whatever order" moments, you're just going back and forth between dungeon after dungeon on fetch quest after fetch quest.

Besides, if you were in your character's shoes when you found out what needed to happen to rescue Martin, what would you have done?

One of the things I like to do when I roleplay is 'plug up' holes in storylines. One of my characters was Uriele Astire, daughter of the cashier at the Pell's Gate Museum. One day Uriele wheedles the truth out of Mom: she was named after her father, Uriel Septim. Shaken by this knowledge, Uriele sets out from Pell's Gate for the Imperial City to confront Dad about all this. Inexperienced in the ways of the city, she talks to the wrong person and gets tossed in jail. That night, to her amazement, Dad himself comes through the cell. He not only recognizes her (You...I've seen you...) but tells her he's been having dreams about her. He invites her to accompany him as he makes his exit. When he knows his time is up he entrusts the amulet to his daughter. Jauffre concludes that, as a Septim, Uriele is the most-qualified person to bring the amulet to Martin ( and also he has completely lost confidence in the Blades to accomplish even the most basic tasks and even secretly suspects there might be a turn-coat within the Blades helping to orchestrate the Royal assassinations). At the end of the main quest Martin and Uriele wrestle over the amulet, each one wanting to save the other. Martin sneakily trips Uriele when she isn't expecting it and grabs the amulet away from her in order to save his half-sister.

...Has everyone managed to forget that Jauffre doesn't know about Kvatch, and that the city is attacked only shortly before you arrive?

And you can do quests out of order: once Martin mentions needing a Daedric artifact, giving him enough time will result in him giving "Blood of the Divines" as well; finishing both unlocks "Miscarcand". Martin's quests and "Bruma Gate" must be finished before the main quest can progress to "Defense of Bruma".

Let me blow your minds: I like the main quest, because of the Oblivion Gates :hehe: Especially the World Breaker realm. They provide a nice hellscape, and with the BMS mod i have a suitably depressing background music for them too ^_^

The rest of the main quest was really nothing special, not much different from the random exploration and dungeon diving :shrug:

I too like the main quest, far more so my second (current) play-through where I closed fifty-two Gates before escorting Martin to the Imperial Palace. (During my first play-through I closed little more than the bare minimum.) I go in to some detail about this in the initial installment of my old http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1114736-thoughts-on-my-second-play-through thread.

-Decrepit-

The Main Quest wasn't all that bad, but after having finished 50% of the MQ it became a bit too repetative.

I had (although to a lesser degree) the same experience as The Vyper:



I truely do hope that Bethesda does a better job with Skyrim :sweat: (I've just pre-ordered it)

Oblivion is a good game; there is nothing wrong with the quests.

Players only got disappointed by the fact that completing the quests did not result in satisfaction.
I am talking about the satisfaction of having the feeling that your actions in the game world had real value.

Example:
You’re asked to save the game world of Tamriel and prevent Oblivion from invading.
In theory this would result in a few scenarios

1. You successfully save the game world of Tamriel and prevent Oblivion from invading.
( Instant success you’re the hero )

2. You try to save the game world of Tamriel and fail to prevent Oblivion from invading.
( You have to try again and again to succeed and try to contain the invasion )

3. You do not save the game world of Tamriel at all from Oblivion invading.
( You now have to live with yourself and make the best out of a invaded world )

Same for Fallout, but Fallout was more EPIC in kicking the player out of the game. I never went back after I was kicked out of that game.

I really hope Bethesda has learned from Fallout and Skyrim does not kick me out after I killed the last dragon, or what ever thing I have to do to save the world.

I enjoy the MQ. I think Uriel, Baurus, Savlian, Martin are all really neat guys. Don't care for Jauffre much.

On the other hand, I don't enjoy the MQ for the SI. Fun land to explore but the little dweep that runs the place can stuff his silly quest. :tongue: