Now that it is out, is skyrim better than oblvion?

[jackpackage200]

I like rpgs but i hated Oblivion(raises flame shield). Is this any better?

Edit: My problems with the game were that combat did not flow very well and the interface was terrible.

 

[Trivea]

I think Skyrim has taken a huge jump in quality, yeah. Mainly, the primary quest is far, FAR superior; I would take slaying dragons over closing Oblivion gates any day. I hated those gates.

The interface has taken a huge upgrade and is both prettier and easier to use (plus the perks are way awesome), and as far as combat... I can only speak for magic, one-handed weapons, and bows, but I find dual-wielding two different spells oddly satisfying, as well as dual-wielding swords, though archery takes a bit more precision if you're going to be doing any kind of long-distance sniping.

This is just my opinion, you understand, but if you like RPGs I recommend giving it a try. The story is better, at least.

 

[blaize2010]

yes yes dear god yes. so much yes. infinite yes. all of the yes.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

Yes.

Really, have one fight againest a dragon in this, and then you will realize just how AWWWWFUL the combat in Oblivion was.

Really.

Awful

 

[Phlakes]

In every single way. I expected a decent improvement over Oblivion, but instead I got one of the best games I've ever played ever.

And I'm serious, in every aspect except being Oblivion, Skyrim is better.

 

[Mekado]

Yes absolutely.

The only thing Oblivion was better at was mods, and since the modkit should be released soon for Skyrim i expect this to be fixed shortly

 

[DracoSuave]

The one thing I expected was a lot of 'lawl bethesda bugs' but frankly, I'm pleasantly surprised. The QA seems to be a lot better this time around... only two game freezes and a LOT of game play.

The part that impresses me the most is how they got the game balance -right-. Skills will level you up at different rates depending on how often you use them, so if you decide you want to level up a lagging skill, it won't cause you to level up your enemies as quickly.

The one thing I miss is the make-your-own spell system and such... you can't do broken stuff with spells any more like 'Fortify Personality 100//Fortify Mercantile 100//Charm Touch 100/1 Second Duration' However, the tradeoff for it? Having a levelling system that isn't busted or broken, that works well, and honestly tries its best to make whatever you choose to do viable and fun. At the end of the day, I'm pleased with their decision for how its made the game a lot more playable for nonmages.

I'm playing an archer thief and having the time of my life... Oblivion was fun to break, but Skyrim is fun to play on its own terms, and frankly, I'm having a much more engaging experience.

 

[electric_warrior]

In every conceivable way except the absence of open lock spells. Still, they're not necessary because the lock picking, like everythign else, is so much better

 

[franconbean]

The interface is definitely geared towards consoles (if anyone decides to yell at me on this one, I have played it both on PC and Console, and its a lot smoother on a gamepad, which is an achievement really, but overall, The NPCs look much nicer (Orcs in particular no longer look like big green nords who have been hit by a train), dungeons are more flavourful, the AI is generally more tolerable (even though shopkeepers ask you if they can help you every two seconds you arent talking to them) and the new crime system is a fricken godsend.

also, the skill system is what Oblivion should have been: Whereas oblivion's skill system was a marginally simplified version of morrowind's with off screen dice rolls removed and a couple of minigames slipped in to fill the gaps, Skyrim works off percentages and perks, and skills have more sense of progression than before, where you just suddenly got one massive benefit every 25 levels. Added on to this, the lack of forced specialisation gives more responsibility to the player to specialise, although at first I was not enamoured to this (it also makes levelling much easier) it has definitely grown on me. Furthermore, The addition of companions makes the game a much less lonelier place to be, even if they do rarely speak unprompted.

So yeah, miles better than oblivion, apart from speechcraft now being a bit of a pain to level naturally and blacksmithing being ludicrously easy to level

The one thing I expected was a lot of 'lawl bethesda bugs' but frankly, I'm pleasantly surprised. The QA seems to be a lot better this time around... only two game freezes and a LOT of game play.

There are a couple of quest bugs, including one game-breaking bug in the main quest I found, but It happens so early on that it doesnt matter.

Also: Bring back spears and thrown weapons, Bethesda! they were fun!

 

[MiracleOfSound]

It's infinitely better than Oblivion in just about every conceivable way.

My only gripes are that you can't separate stuff into their categories when storing them in containers and one or two stupid escort mission NPCs.

 

[Freaky Lou]

I'd disagree that it's better in every single way. With that said, I think Skyrim will prove to be overall the superior game.

The combat in Skyrim is far, far better than Oblivion's. The melee, the stealth, the magic---all are a lot more satisfying and involved now.

The leveling system is also definitely improved. You just get better at whatever you're doing, so there's no need to plot out a character before you start. (This does have the downside that you can reach a high level without ever raising any combat skills, though---but this is balanced out a little by the fact that not everything's scaled to your level. You can always go beat up weaker enemies.)

The overworld is VASTLY superior. In Oblivion there's really not much to do if you just wander around the landscape. Skyrim is actually a lot more fun to aimlessly explore, much to its credit, because that's something you look for in a game of this type. This is probably Skyrim's strongest point over Oblivion.

The menus are also far better now---assuming you're playing on console. Skyrim's interface was very much designed with consoles in mind, and nowhere is that more evident than the inventory screens. They're really awkward on PC.

The one thing that Oblivion was better at is quests. Don't get me wrong--Skyrim's quest JOURNAL is better, with the ability to set multiple or no quests as active. But Oblivion's were more fun, more complex, more involved. There's nothing I've found yet as strong as Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood questline, and most of the quests themselves are either "go get this item" or "go kill this guy". It doesn't help that they're heavily weighted towards the former.

The writing hasn't really improved either, with one character from an early Brotherhood quest in particular standing out as a preposterous cruel stepmother archetype, even more overblown than in most fairy tales. Not a lot of likable folks, either, for that matter. There were a lot more characters I liked in Oblivion.

Bear in mind that this is all my opinion, but I think it's all fair to say. The quests here aren't as good---but that doesn't matter as much as it might, because everything else is so, so much better.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

The combat still needs a lot of work. It gets old really quick, the main problem is how the weapons feel. You forget you're even attacking an enemy after a while in melee combat and just watch the red bars at the top of the screen deplete. Implementing realistic reactions and visible body wounds from the weapons would help, I didn't mind so much back in Oblivion, but I expect more from a game released in 2011. Archery isn't much better either, it relies too much on sneak or the perks that allow you to draw quicker and move faster whilst drawn (lv60+ perks). I don't even know why they're so far down the tree considering it's a pain to play without them. Magic is probably the best thing in combat, you don't have to put up with the bullshit of melee or archery. The spells sound and look good and there's a lot of variety throughout the different magic trees. It'd be nice if they included spell creation again though.

It seems to get progressively worse in terms of combat the more you play, they've failed to implement a worthy challenge. They just increase the health bars and damage, the AI is still as retarded (*arrow through face* "What was that?... must just be my imagination..") and ranged NPC's will fire one shots half way across the map that you can't even avoid. From what I can tell you're either gimped to the state of not being able to do anything but abuse faulty AI (later level stealth combat) or so overpowered you can one shot dragons (later level melee combat).

It's good that it excels in other areas, but it's kinda sad that it still kinda fails on the combat front, they should really take lessons from good action RPG's. They've advanced with magic (although apparently destruction sucks balls at later levels), but the melee combat and AI is still poor, it needs to be more satisfying. I know to some chaining scripted power attacks together is fun, but it lacks engagement, I'd go as far to say the melee combat is on par with Saints Row's melee combat in terms of depth.

 

[Idocreating]

The people who follow you could use a little more personality. A light touch of the Bioware magic could really make some adventures in Skyrim better.

For example, there's no real sense that Lydia likes or dislikes her job serving her Thane. She just does it.

 

[Googenstien]

Infinitely better.

Finally we get to see how weak Oblivion was for a Elder Scrolls game.. Skyrim is a fantastic game.

 

[Leole]

I'm only assuming that you mean "Vanilla Skyrim is far better than Vanilla Oblivion". Then yes, it is, but I still think Modded Oblivion to be better than Skyrim (no one could ever replace my broken spells <3).

That said, I can't wait until they mod Skyrim, it's gonna be awesome.

 

[x-machina]

I like rpgs but i hated Oblivion(raises flame shield). Is this any better?

Edit: My problems with the game were that combat did not flow very well and the interface was terrible.

The game is a lot better, improved combat ,quests etc. But the interface is a lot worse, and thats saying something. (at least on PC) The mouse really doesn't work, so you need to use W,A,S,D, to scroll through menus. It's incredibly awkward.

 

[Torrasque]

Incredibly so.
This certainly feels like Fallout 3 more than Oblivion, which I don't mind at all.
Lock-picking is amazing, combat is amazing, hearing ~20 different voices instead of ~7 is amazing, the guilds are amazing, the dungeons are amazing, etc. etc.
The only thing I don't like is how some textures are really blurry and un-detailed when they shouldn't be. I play on xbox, so these might be diff for PC players.
The imperial shinguards/boots are really blurry as well as most bracers (up till Elven/Dwarven) and 2 slates of stone outside of the Palace of the Kings that tell about past kings, are really blurry as well. It isn't the "I downloaded Skyrim onto my hard drive QQ" thing, they are just always blurry =/

 

[Wuggy]

[EDIT]

 

[Gammayun]

just gonna put another "yes" comment here.

 

[Irridium]

It's infinitely better than Oblivion in just about every conceivable way.

My only gripes are that you can't separate stuff into their categories when storing them in containers and one or two stupid escort mission NPCs.

To add to this, the UI also likes to flat out not work for a few seconds when you bring it up. And it seems to have been designed more for style than functionality, which sucks. Comparing armor stats is far more obtuse than it needs to be. But you get used to it after a while...

Other than these things, this game is far, far, far, FAR better than Oblivion. Other than those things, every single damn thing in this game is amazing.

The characters are all far more interesting than Oblivion's mannequin NPC's that are wandering around. The quests are much more interesting and fun and interesting compared to Oblivion's boring-ass quests(save for the Dark Brotherhood. And Skyrim has that and far more). The leveling is greatly improved, and so many more little things that I can't list here.

Skyrim is amazing.