New to Skyrim: Oblivion Experience Needed?

[LiquidSolstice]

Well, the title say sit all. I've never played Oblivion before, and I've been steadfastly ignoring any mention of Skyrim on the internet (although I piece together it's a good game). My interest is now piqued, do I really need to play the first game before I try the second? I don't mind if you think it's best that I do so, it's pretty damn cheap after all.

Thanks guy.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Oblivion is the 4th game in the Elder Scrolls series, Skyrim is the 5th
They're all pretty much self contained games, except for the fact they take part in the same world. Apart from a few references that you wont 100% understand (although you'll get the gist of it) there's no reason that not playing Oblivion will affect your Skyrim experiance.

 

[SamwasKing]

I think you can easyly enjoy Skyrim without playing oblivion, although you might miss out on a number of the referances, It should acctually make it easyer to enjoy because you wont know about all of the things that they removed from Oblivion.

 

[Maze1125]

Oblivion was actually the 4th game, not the 1st.

But the answer is no, there's no problem with starting with Skyrim. Each game in the Elder Scrolls is almost entirely standalone. You get can get a bit more out of things playing the previous ones, but nothing more than a few "Ah, so that's what happened to that group!" moments.

 

[Scrustle]

Nope. The stories aren't connected in any way that will impact your experience of Skyrim. All the important stuff is explained to you if you ask NPCs about it in the game. And the way the game works is explained pretty well and should come pretty easily to anyone who has ever played an RPG before anyway. And if there's anything that still puzzles you then you can just check out UESP.net, that place is a great resource for everything Elder Scrolls related.

 

[Ranorak]

Short answer: No
Long answer: Fuck no

Really long answer: You might miss 1 or 2 cameo's but that's it.

 

[LiquidSolstice]

Sounds great! I'll pick it up near the end of this week. Thanks everyone

 

[Vampire cat]

The nice thing is you can pick up the action from the previous games in hte series by reading certain books and book series inside Skyrim! You won't know for sure of course that your reading one, but you can X3. I though that was really neat Oo...

As a whole you can easily enjoy Skyrim without having played any previous game. They are all great standalone games, and plenty of my friends that do not usually play games have picked up Skyrim because it just looks that much fun.

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

You can pick up most of the lore from the wiki and books from previous games that reappear in Skyrim, although you will be missing out on a few references to previous games (Sinderion springs to mind).

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

If you want to enjoy Skyrim to its fullest you have to play and complete each of the following, in the corresponding chronological order:
1. Arena
2. Daggerfall
3. Redguard
4. Battlespire
5. Morrowind + expansions
6. Oblivion + expansions

You also must read, in the following order:
1. The Infernal City by Gregory Keyes, based on The Elder Scrolls
2. Elder Scrolls: Lord of Souls by Keyes

 

[Voration]

No you don't need to play Oblivion, although if after playing Skyrim you want more then investing in a copy and playing it would be fun. The Dark Brotherhood references would be the things I'd regret not understanding but other than that its stand alone.

Each Elder Scrolls has its own pros and cons but they're all fun to play.

 

[Matt9102]

If you want to enjoy Skyrim to its fullest you have to play and complete each of the following, in the corresponding chronological order:
1. Arena
2. Daggerfall
3. Redguard
4. Battlespire
5. Morrowind + expansions
6. Oblivion + expansions

You also must read, in the following order:
1. The Infernal City by Gregory Keyes, based on The Elder Scrolls
2. Elder Scrolls: Lord of Souls by Keyes

Yes. There were really 7 games in Elder Scrolls. The books and the 3'rd and 4'th are not really required but help. God, Skyrim is 7'th and Oblivion is 6'th get the facts straight.

 

[DEAD34345]

Nope, you don't need any experience whatsoever.

About the only difference between your experience and a TES veteran's experience is that a veteran will read some of the history books and think "Hey, I remember that.". You on the other hand will read those history books and think "Hey, that's interesting.", or more likely, you won't bother to read them at all.

 

[krazykidd]

Lol@ 1st game and 2nd. You do know the game is called The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim, right? Sorry not tryong to be a dick but i actually lol'd.

OT: no need to play the previous games to understand this one , it is barely related story wise . There are a couple of references but nothing you can't learn from reading an in-game book on Oblivion.

 

[Jandau]

Oblivion was actually the 4th game, not the 1st.

Actually, Oblivion was the 6th game in the series (Arena, Daggerfall, Battlespire, Redguard, Morrowind), and that's not counting the mobile games set in the ES universe.

But no, you don't previous Elder Scrolls experience to enjoy Skyrim. The game provides the most pertinent data readily and most of the backstory is also contained in the assorted in-game books.

 

[Eumersian]

Oblivion and Skyrim have virtually nothing to do with one another. I started playing the Elder Scrolls series at Morrowind, the 3rd title in the series. I didn't need to play Daggerfall in order to have fun with it. In fact, I might even go so far as to say I'm glad I didn't play Daggerfall, what with all the glitches.

All of the true Elder Scrolls titles (excluding the spin-off games Battlespire and Redguard) are available as stand-alone titles. Sure there is all the lore and stuff that has to do with the game universe as a whole, but you don't really need any of that in order to play Skyrim, or Oblivion, for that matter.

I'll be honest, you might as well go pick up Oblivion. Sure, it wasn't as good as Skyrim seems to be, but I still had a blast. And besides, if you like Oblivion, you can play until you've done everything, and by that point, Skyrim will probably be a bit cheaper on its own.

Have fun.

 

[Jazoni89]

Morrowind has the best roleplaying elements of the series, and Oblivion has possibly the best quests of the series (with the Dark Brotherhood and Shivering Isles quests being a joy to play through), but everything else is firmly in Skyrim's court, and has been improved upon greatly over the previous two games.

You don't need to have play the others story wise, but I recommend picking up both game of the year editions of Oblivion and Morrowind (you can probably pick them up both rather cheap on the PC, but the original Xbox version of Morrowind GOTY goes for a pricey penny, as it's rather rare) once you have played and enjoyed Skyrim, as they are both great games in their own right, and they need to be experienced.

You could also play the original two (Daggerfall and Arena) on dosbox legally for free on the Elder Scrolls website, if you are inclined to.

In case you don't know, the game of the year edition of both games are expanded editions of the game with additional content. The game of the year edition of Oblivion comes with Knights of the Nine, and Shivering Isles (which is very fucking good), and the Morrowind game of the year comes with Bloodmoon (were you can play as a werewolf), and Tribunal.

Also, if you do take my advice and get Morrowind, beware of the fact that there is no convenient fast travel (only fast travel to cities), and zero hand holding. You are literally thrown in the middle of nowhere, and told to find your own way around. Yeah it's punishing, but that what makes it so compelling.