I got into TES via Morrowind and played it a LOT, finishing the main quest a number of times with various different characters.

Then Oblivion came along... I got it, (of course!) and played it a fair bit. However, I just couldn't get into it like I had with Morrowind and I haven't even finished a full play-through yet.

After that came Skyrim. I've played that lots, and in the main enjoyed it, although it does admittedly have some weaknesses and short-comings.

Now I'm thinking it might be time to have another crack at Oblivion. It's well established and patched now, with a healthy modding community.

So I thought I'd see what the TES community think of Oblivion these days. It seems to still have a very healthy following, so, what do you reckon? Should I have another go at it?

I think that most of the people who post regularly on this forum will tell you it's worthwhile. Some of us have thousands of hours in the game.

I certainly recommend it.

I think it is very much worth it.

Well, not surprisingly those who hang out here will tell you it′s worth it. If we didn′t think that we′d be at other sub-forums

Then again, it suits us but it may not suit you. Either way, I say give it a go

What have you got to lose, except a few thousand hours of your precious time?

Right?

In my opinion Oblivion is as good as any game you will find and better than most...it just has a price of admission. Every time I rebuild my computer or otherwise format the drive I think I'm done with Oblivion, but eventually I always pay that price. With about a week's worth of wasted time sorting through mods, installing, balancing, resolving conflicts, etc. I wind up with a really great game I can play and enjoy for a long time.

My recommendation...get all the modding out of the way, then enjoy the game for as long as you can. If you get 'hooked on modding' it is entirely possible to lose your gaming time to a frustrating treadmill of never having the game quite right to play. Of course some people really enjoy the modding process and you might be one. I'm just not. I'd rather buy a game and play it than build it myself, but I've built some Oblivion based games that were well worth the effort.

We can not say if you will like it.

Since you already have the game I would say definitely give it another try. Some games I have found takes a second or third look before you fall in love with them. Other games you fall in love at the beginning but sometimes that feeling does not stay that long.

Since you have not played for quite some time it might just be best to limit your mods just to the unofficial patches mods, OBSE, and likely Stutter Remover mod. After playing for a bit and seeing how stable the game is, it makes it easier to see what mods if any you might need to make the game feel better for you.

Using mods it is recommended to use BOSS and Wyre Bash. I also use Oblivion Mod Manager and Nexus Mod Manager for a few mods. Sometimes for Nexus it is not installed but just loaded into it so it makes it easier to find it if an update is available for any of the mods available at the Nexus. Sometimes it is best to wait to update before updating since it might cause issues with other mods so read the readme and maybe some of the recent comments before updating.

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Tim is right that it is usually best to look at getting all the mods quite quickly but it is best to install each mod separately and to test it out for an hour or two before installing the next one. When it is all done it is best to start a new character and limit any new mods and do not remove any mods. Take care with updates, Read the read me files before updating.

I agree completely about the modding process. Use all the best tools, install one or maybe a very few at a time and test, finish the process before really getting going with a character for the long term. At that point I actually don't update anything...mods come out with new features all the time, but my objective is to have a good game and play it, not continuously improve it.

And I disagree with this part.

There's a reason you didn't get into Oblivion the first time. Outside of this community, and to an extent even in this community (on the modding forum particularly), plenty of people would say it was because with Oblivion gamesas produced a truly awesome world space to play in, and a true stinker of a game to play there.

This is what I always recommend to new players. Avoid all modifications to content; no new houses, towns, quests, etc. Overhaul any, and preferably all, game systems; character leveling, world scaling, magic, and stealth as a minimum...maybe economy, persuasion, combat, whatever else catches your eye.

The world space is absolutely awesome, but you only get to experience any part of it for the first time once. Think of it like losing your virginity, and the game Bethesda provides is a bumbling schoolkid that will put a severe limit on how great the experience can be.

Once you've worn out whatever game you build go back and add new content, maybe fine tune your game overhaul, and effectively you have a new game.

I hope new players ignore you. This is the worst possible advice anyone can give a new player.

The only intelligent way to add mods to a game is to first decide what you want to change about a game and then find mods to make those changes. A new player cannot possibly know whether they like vanilla character leveling, world scaling, magic and stealth until they have experienced these things. It is irresponsible to advise any new player to radically change a game they have not yet played.

Believe it or not, some players actually like vanilla character leveling, world scaling, magic and stealth. Some don't. How is a new player to know whether they do or don't like these things until they have experienced them? I cannot tell them. You cannot tell them. They have to decide these things for themselves. And to make an informed decision they need to play the game.

Tim how is he going to know which mods he wants or needs without refreshing his memory on the game. It could be quite a few years since he last played Oblivion.

During the testing phase to make sure the unofficial patches he/she might know more on what is needed and then go from there.

Important note to OP: Avoid all mods!

Play the game vanilla first and see for yourself what you like and don′t like. You can always mod it afterwards but you shouldn′t ruin the first experience with the game for yourself

This is frankly the worst advice you could ever give anyone, simply because any modifications are done based on your opinion, not the opinion of the player which is the only one that matters.

As someone who's played this pretty much exclusively on 360, barring a time when I tried it on my laptop, I don't think that there's anything like the level of problems you seem to see.

Frankly, if you've got to change the basic mechanics of the game to make it enjoyable, you're playing the wrong game.

This is exactly my point. The first experience of the world of Oblivion is valuable and shouldn't be wasted.

It isn't hard to find plenty of anolysis about the deficiencies in Oblivion from a game play standpoint, or find comparisons about how different game mechanics compare in their vanilla version or with various mods. Anyone can read about how gamesas's world scaling works and what other options are available and decide what sounds good for them. Same for every other major system. There's a reason that Oblivion has massive overhaul mods that completely revamp the game play and those mods came out very quickly, and it isn't because the original game play was so great that it's 'the only intelligent choice'.

Oblivion offers a terrific world space to play in; great lore, interesting plot lines, cool characters. With mods to fix the game play there is a great game to be had there, and said mods are readily available.

There's a great game to be had there full stop.

Mods are optional, not mandatory. And are most definitely not something to use on the first playthrough.

I'm not trying to force anyone to use mods. I just have a different opinion on the greatness of the original game. The things I believe are flawed in that game are 'public record' so I see no point in dissecting them yet again. A new player can, and in my opinion should, do some research and see if those 'features' sound good to them or if they sound like things they would just as soon fix before they play the game and get that first experience that can never be repeated.

I think Skyrim is a great game. Probably a great game unmodded, but I wouldn't be able to honestly say because I installed a UI mod before I ever played it. I didn't need to 'see for myself' to accept the widely reported claim that in porting the game to the PC gamesas didn't try to take full advantage of higher resolutions and more expansive controls, because developers seldom do in a PC port. I also installed a 'basic needs' mod because my experience with Morrowind and Oblivion plus reports from gamers I know lead me to believe I would like the game better that way. Do you think I 'lost' something by not playing a weaker version first?

Thanks for the replies so far.

I'm re-installing the game now. I do remember some of the things that used to annoy me first time round, and I may look to use some mods sooner rather than later. But, in the main, I'm going to stick to patches and bug-fixes until I get more of a feel for it again. As someone mentioned, the UI is one area to address, that's one of the first things I did with Skyrim. But as I haven't completed the main quest yet, I'll avoid any major game-changing stuff until I've at least done that....

Well, as long as you′ll have fun playing

You know what character you want?

I am back as an Oblivion player. Sticking to the 360. Personal choice, just don't feel like re modding to how I had it a few years ago, so Vanillia for me.

So you will have to get use to the graphics a bit. Even the play style you have to get use to. I keep playing like Skyrim since that I was what use to. So have to get use to Oblivion ways, not Skyrim ways.

Thing is, what didn't you like about Oblivion? The problems you had before could still be the same for you. What were they? If you are on the PC which I believe you are, you will have to say what they are, or you will not like Oblivion now, most likely. So maybe you will need to add a few mods to fix hopefully what you didn't like.

As for UI you have a few choices depending on your personal taste.

Darnified UI

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/10763//?

DarkUI Darnified

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/11280//?

BT Mod

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/1825//?

DarkUI BT Mod Skin

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/1962//?

Major Jims UI

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/4768//?

The last three are quite old and some mods might not work that well with the interface if those mods makes some changes/adjustments to the ui. The first two UI mods usually has a plugin for some of those mods. Usually leveling mods might have an issue with the choice of UI.

I've played the three newest TES games and Oblivion is my favourite.

After playing Skyrim, the bland/uninspired dungeons in Oblivion will easily discourage you, my advice would be to personalise your character a bit. Join your favourite guild, earn enough coin to buy a house in your favourite city and decorate! Hang up your favourite armour sets and maybe have a chest of valuables in the basemant?

The guilds in Oblivion are so much better than in Skyrim imo. The cities are also very fun to explore, and in my experience the counts/countesses seem to be very unique and have a healthy amount of dialogue!

Install the Unofficial Patches, and if you think it's needed install one of the quest reward scaling mods (AULIAS, I think), for your first playthrough.

I just recently came back to Oblivion and I didn't really enjoy it.

The problem is because it is completely in between Skyrim and Morrowind. It doesn't have Skyrim's action, heroic, fast paced vibe and it also doesn't have Morrowind's immersion and depth. It has a bit of both. It has more combat focused, action stuff than Morrowind has and it also has more depth and RPG elements than Skyrim has. But it doesn't do either well as the other two games do. Oblivion's mechanics are middle ground between Morrowind and Skyrim.

I think that is why I struggle to enjoy it now. Sometimes I want to immerse myself and really take my time exploring and role playing. I'm going to play Morrowind. Sometimes I want to be epic and explore and kick ass. I'm going to play Skyrim.

I hope that made sense. For the record, I do really love Oblivion. I just struggle going back to it now.

For me it's always worth coming back but I usually circle between Beth games, so when I play Oblivion for some time, let's say a few months, I usually move to another game for some time. Currently I'm in Skyrim but whenever I return to Oblivion, I know that it'll be worth it.