Oblivion is impossible!

[JET1971]

You should murder a random person in the game and then sleep. Wonderful things will happen! =D

LOL I think it takes a couple random murders for the wonderful things to happen. You get the message that someone notices what you are doing or something...

OP I suggest restarting and follow one of the character guides*. when you first start and get out of the sewers, you could ignore the main questline and do some dungeon crawling. directly across the river from the prison sewer exit is Vilveran and its a good one to go and visit, plus you get an item thats used in a side quest there. Doing that gives you time to get used to the controls, collect some better armor than what was found in the sewers and LOOT EVERYTHING thats not nailed down and sell it. early on getting gold is very very slow. once that dungeon is completly cleared and fully looted is a good time to start on side quests. I went and did the fighters guild first then did the mage guild.

excelent guide is http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page And they have a great map thats quite usefull too: http://www.uesp.net/maps/obmap/obmap.shtml

*http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Character_Creation

 

[Kahunaburger]

Not to be insulting but really? Oblivion, hard? Morrowind is hard you try to conquer dungeons at level 1 oblivion can be hard only if you pick bad main attributes ( which you probably did )

Really, they're both pretty easy. A mage can do anything in Morrowind by like level 4 (and theoretically level 1 with the right build, although by the time you got all your stuff going you would probably already have dinged) and can make basically everything in Oblivion trivial with illusion.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

If you're playing the PC version, I suggest, foremost, to install the OblivionXP mod. It makes it so the levelling system IS based on killing things instead of skill-grinding. It really made the game better for me.

Stopped playing Oblivion for almost two years, just started again yesterday on a whim. Did not know this mod existed, if it did I wouldn't have stopped playing. Skill grinding is an uncommon brand of hell I wouldn't wish on the worst RPGs out there.

As for the main quest, don't bother with it until you are at least level 10, depending on your class. Get mods, lots of mods. Mod the hell out of the game, vanilla is too boring.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

You're approaching it in the completely wrong way.
And yes, the leveling is broken. You need good equipment in good shape, you need to have selected the attributes you WILL use all the time and taken race bonuses and penalties into consideration. Its not a game you just jump into, you gotta think about it some. Also: if its too hard, LOWER THE DIFFICULTY.

Also: use the UESP wiki. It will help you.

And just be happy it isn't Morrowind you bought. If you think OBLIVION is hard, then Morrowind will make you cry like a baby.

 

[Canid117]

snip

http://www.tesnexus.com/

That is why it is so loved sir.

 

[JMeganSnow]

Don't make the mistake of abandoning the main questline and powerleveling. Then you will really learn what it feels like to be out of your depth. Stick with it, if it gets too hard turn the difficulty down.

Actually, if you want to be a real cheesemonkey in Oblivion, you do what I did: take all the magic skills as your main skills. (I like Bretons as mages, personally.) Then proceed to run around with weapons very slowly beating up all the crappy low-level monsters. Do lots of side quests, particularly the ones that drop specialized loot. Get into the Mage's Guild. Make your own spells. Power-level yourself to level 12 or so by casting spells over and over and over and over. Go do all the Daedra prince quests.

Congratulations, you're now a god.

 

[mudE13]

Maybe you could say...

*Puts on sunglasses*

The enemies caused Oblivion.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

 

[TheLiham]

DON'T DO THE MAIN QUEST!! Like ever!

I've had this game for years on PC and 360 and have still never done the main quest all the way through except once... because it's literally the worst part of the entire fucking game!

Rant over. Oblivion isn't a bad game it's just hard to get into and a complete failcake of a RPG system. Luckily, I heard that Skyrim will be using something more similar to Fallout 3/New Vegas with perks and stuff (not sure about SPECIAL)

 

[cainx10a]

Only complaint I had about Oblivion were the voice actors and the feeling that the world was very empty and dead. Preferred M&B's world, medieval, dynamic, blah blah blah. If you have it on PC sir, make sure to get a few mods.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/07/16/ten-essential-oblivion-mods/

#4. Unique Landscapes ... sure the world might be empty .... but those dude/dudettes behind the mod ... are gifted!

 

[link1o1o1o]

For your primary skills, put skills you have FULL CONTROL over!!! Skills like acrobatics and athletics can be a pain because you may not want your stats at the end of each level up to be about speed or something like that. You will eventually reach a high skill for those...skills anyway because you practically jump, swim, and run all the time.

 

[Nieroshai]

I take it you aren't an RPG guy... well, not everyone is meant to like any one game. Elder Scrolls is primarily a stats game, really.

 

[Epona]

The best advice I can give is: Don't try to cheat the level system. Since the enemies level with you, you can actually beat the game at level 1 but still be very powerful from raising your minor skills. However, doing that takes out the fun. When I did that on my second playthrough I found myself constantly thinking about and looking at my skill levels.

Since your minor skills don't cause you to level up you could choose the skills you use the least as your major skills. I wouldn't though, just play it the way you like and adjust the difficulty to suit you. Bethesda really screwed up the level system but atleast they gave you a difficultly slider that can be changed at any time. It's bad design to force the player into cheating the system, either via the level system or via the difficulty slider, but Oblivion does just that.

 

[Booze Zombie]

Edit: Hey guys, thanks for all the replies. I was going to give another shot anyway, but for sure I'm going to lower the difficulty. Apparently archery sucks and or requires too much stratgie. I'll still to my blades and forget about archery all together. Does anyone know if there is a follower that could help me out this early?

Everything auto-levels with you, which is very annoying. Try focusing on heavy armour, spells, magicka regen and magicka in general... so, play as a Breton with heavy armour, effectivly.
Also, if you're playing it on the PC, put "Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul" and the Unoffical Oblivion Patch on your game for mucho joy.

Now, what happens with the set-up I've suggested, once you're good with your armour, is that you can heal yourself with the restoration spells, murder people with your destruction spells and well, easy sailing, but you've got to focus your stats and your skills or you'll get destroyed.

Rant over. Oblivion isn't a bad game it's just hard to get into and a complete failcake of a RPG system. Luckily, I heard that Skyrim will be using something more similar to Fallout 3/New Vegas with perks and stuff (not sure about SPECIAL)

They've ripped out all stats and instead you buff health, stamina or magicka directly with each level up.

 

[juraigamer]

Oblivion isn't the kinda game you can just jump into and expect to win. You have to build your character properly.

Also, don't powerlevel. Level slowly and somehow acquire the spell invisibility for any character. Why? Even if you make a character that sucks, you can always run away.

 

[newfoundsky]

Maybe you could say...

*Puts on sunglasses*

The enemies caused Oblivion.

I feel like you tried much to hard for that.

 

[Roamin11]

Really... I don't know your regular choice in games, but Oblivion is a pretty easy sauce game.

If your having problems, turn down the difficulty.

If you have a problem with the leveling system, at least Oblivion tried something new to the leveling system for say pacifist characters, it leaves a lot of things open.

Really, its a pretty easy game, just L2P

 

[Lonely Swordsman]

I hate to sound like the snobby elitist but every problem in your post could be answered by a quick look at the manual. Just saying.

 

[00slash00]

So I bought Oblivion friday (late to the party, I know) because I was looking forward to Skyrim without ever playing a Elder Scroll game. I figured I'd check it out before I paid for Skyrim.
In short, I hate it. The combat is wierd. Why don't enimies has health bars? And whats up the with leveling system? I don't get expirience from killing things? You're telling me I can level up by increasing my acrobatics skill 10 times?
And why is it SO hard? I'm at the FIRST Oblivion gate! It's impossible. I got there at level 2 (because it's the second fukin mission) and now I'm level 4 and still can't come close to beating it. I have a iron bow and steel arrows, and a "fine steel longsword" I'm Aprentice in Archery and Blade. Why do people like this game? I think it will be the first game I give up on due to difficulty in years. Atleast I only spent $20 bucks on it.
Edit: Hey guys, thanks for all the replies. I was going to give another shot anyway, but for sure I'm going to lower the difficulty. Apparently archery sucks and or requires too much stratgie. I'll still to my blades and forget about archery all together. Does anyone know if there is a follower that could help me out this early?

i never had trouble. actually thats not true. i originally made a thief/fighter and did all the side quests first so when i started the main quest, all the enemies in the portals were absurdly overpowered. you really shouldnt be having that much trouble unless you fucked up when making your class (i assume you made a custom class because all the preset class suuuuck). dont give up on a game just because you find it too difficult. games are supposed to be difficult. as far as i remember, the method for leveling up is the same one they used for morrowind so i have to ask, why the interest in skyrim if you didnt previously have any interest in the past elder scrolls games?

overall oblivion is a good game but not great. the combat was good for its time and i killed an entire summer playing nothing but that game. but the side quests were the only great thing about it. the main quest is rubbish

 

[beniki]

It does have a unique leveling system. It's actually more realistic than other games though, in terms of skill development at least. I think that taking out the attribute system would have solved all of their balance and progression planning issues, or at least tweaked it so it doesn't matter what skills you increased to get to the next level.

Happily they agreed with me and made that fix in Fallout!

Oblivion is a good game though. It's not a hand holding experience though. It's very much a case of the game saying, 'So what you wanna do now?' and it has a very heavy emphasis on side questing. If you don't really like it, then stick to Bioware type RPGs, where the story is the main focus.

Personally I didn't like it. Not because of the combat system, or the complicated character progression, or even because of the heavy side questing. It just felt so damn lonely. It was like playing an MMO without anyone else on the server. There is something cool about being the lone adventurer, trekking across mountainsides to find the magic maguffin, but sometimes you want people to recognise you.

Hmm. Think I'll try it again though. Maybe get past level 10 this time...