Oblivion: My on-again, off-again relationship

[noles82]

I wish I could quit you, I do. But I can't. I've traded in and re-bought Oblivion three times now. I've tried scratching my open world Western RPG itch with games like the Fallouts, Dragon Age, and Two Worlds II (blech), but all they do is make me want to go back to the familiarity that is Oblivion.

Of course, each time I fire up my new character and explore Cyrodiil, I feel the honeymoon phase all over again, but it quickly diminishes when the familiar complaints heard here a million times rear their head: the quirky level system; scaling enemies; how homeless bandits can somehow acquire some of the best armor and weapons in the game seemingly overnight.

Alas, I find myself in the possession of this beautiful disaster once again. But this time I feel it can be different. I want to feel the romance I did when I first popped in the disc and surged with adrenaline as I crept around a dungeon with just a handful of arrows and not a save file for hours.

So I come to you, Escapist, arguably the most complete video gaming community on the interwebs. I see the similar passion for Oblivion in threads past. How do you keep it going? What can I do to overcome the aforementioned shortcomings?

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Just slide the difficulty down a few notches if you don't want to grind all your minor skills.

If it's fair in your head then it's not cheating. Single player has no rules! I do it for any new characters as I got sick of spamming the right shoulder button for spells I'd never use otherwise. It's a dumb levelling system so I've no problem making it less boring by dropping the difficulty.

 

[Deadyawn]

Maybe you could try some mods? IDK. I might have Oblivion, and while it's quite a well made game and all, it never really spoke to me. I just couldn't get into it. I hear mods can just about fix everything though. Not that I would know but its just a sugestion.

 

[Tax_Document]

Oblivion was a fantastic game, but what most people don't remember is that it's actually quite old, the engine is failing and some of the mechanics now seem foolish and quite broken.

But you could always use mods to fix the scaling system and most of the bugs.

 

[lovestomooch]

I was in exactly the same boat as you having completed the game *hangs head in shame* nine times now, and then I played Morrowind. Its one of the few where you start where everything can whip you silly and finish (well not even finish, maybe half way through) as a god.
Seriously... play it

 

[Simon Pettersson]

In short mods, lots of lots of mods.
Personly i liked the Dragon mod and flying over Cyrodil on a Dragon was awsome. Tried other mods too but don´t remember much was a long time ago
And shivering isles mmmmm ...

 

[Merkavar]

i was having fun with oblivion recently till i became basically invincible. i dont really want to start again but its not as fun being invincible.

 

[Black Phoenix]

The horrid levelling system is what finally made me stop playing Oblivion, when I found myself spending the majority of time sneaking around the upper floor of one of the Mage's Guild buildings at night than actually playing the damn game. The monster scaling I suspect I could have lived with if the levelling system wasn't so horrible. As an aside, the other thing that stopped me playing was the fact that it would crash 9 times out of 10 if I alt+tabbed out and back in, which I do regularly when playing games on my PC.

Part of the reason I'm yet to try Morrowind is because I'm worried the levelling system will be too similar. Is that right or not?

 

[noles82]

I should have mentioned in the original post that I only have a PS3, so mods are out of the question. :\

Same goes with Morrowind.

 

[mythlover20]

Honestly, and you're going to hate me for this: I haven't even finished Oblivion. I had to do absolutely EVERYTHING in it with the same character. But I bought the GOTD edition and the vampire quest thing is stuffed, but I didn't know that, thought i had done something wrong, so started with another character, doing EVERYTHING. Got tired of it near the end and just haven't finished it yet. Have to before skyrim comes out.

I have the same thing though with Dragon Age Origins. Love the game, love the story, played it through about five time, started seven, and two of my characters ended up hooking up with zevran. both female mages too, so i guess mages are attra cted to assassins or something.

So yeah, mods. lots and lots of mods. if you have a pc. i only have a ps3 which, while holds a firm place in my heart (right next to heavy metal, my books, and my ballroom), doens't allow me to do mods. ps any one who knows where i can buy cheap reconditioned parts for a decent gaming pc in australia (north qld specific please) let me know. i'm trying to buy one in between paying for three holidays, one dance comp, three dance dresses, new shoes and a trip to europe. (I've got no hope have i?)

 

[Jatyu]

Get the PC version, the mods give the game infinite content, and can fix all your leveling nd scaling problems.

 

[Jaranja]

All I could do was think of this:

 

[lovestomooch]

To Black Phoenix: yeah the levelling system is the same but you can pay for unlimited training, so no 5 trains per level which removes all the grind

 

[michael87cn]

Take a break from the game - it sounds like you're forcing yourself to play it. I find that if I play a game because I have nothing better to do I am bored quickly, but if I let a game sit around and one day I'm like hey I feel like playing that! then I'll enjoy myself more. Though that may not help you if you don't have other games to play..

Perhaps try to accomplish something you've never done before. Find every marked location, max every skill, make a gimped character on full difficulty, etc.

Try to shake things up, because the reality is you may never get that immersive "wow!" feeling again, it's hard to get in Bethesda's games because once you seen everything and done most everything, the immersion and feeling of wonder is gone. I found in Fallout 3 that once I found every location and leveled up fully, there wasn't a lot of incentive to keep playing beyond acquiring mass quantities of ammo and going on killing sprees..

If you don't have Morrowind I suggest you get it! It will definitely curb your desire to experience something new that "wows" you. Don't buy it expecting Oblivion though, it plays differently and does have worse graphics.

 

[Vault101]

Ive said this a million times

My problem with Oblivion was my charachter didnt really feel connected with the world, I was just a walking camera

 

[Vibhor]

Mods.
Mods are the answer to everything.
If you are not playing on the PC then guess what?
You're fucked.

 

[noles82]

I remember reading somewhere that the way to avoid leveling too quickly... or at least controlling how you level up... was to actually make the skills you want to use actually be your minor skills? So if I wanted to be the classic stealth class with archery, sneak, and blade as my main attributes, I'd make them my minor skills instead? That way my leveling is more controlled?

About Morrowind and mods: I have a gimpy Macbook. So no-can-do there.

 

[sumanoskae]

There are... performance enhancers. You just drop one o' dem mod files into yo folda, and it's like magic yo, the life suddenly returns

 

[noles82]

Mods.
Mods are the answer to everything.
If you are not playing on the PC then guess what?
You're fucked.

I realize mods are fantastic, but they're not the end-all. I had fun with plenty of games in their vanilla-est.

I'm sure there are optimal class layouts and/or suggestions. Hell, I never even did Shivering Isles...

 

[banthesun]

Mods.
Mods are the answer to everything.
If you are not playing on the PC then guess what?
You're fucked.

I realize mods are fantastic, but they're not the end-all. I had fun with plenty of games in their vanilla-est.

I'm sure there are optimal class layouts and/or suggestions. Hell, I never even did Shivering Isles...

For Oblivion, mods are the general catch all solution. And that's because they work. Damn well. I loved vanilla when I played it, but now that I've modded it I couldn't stand to go back (even though I've loaded so many of them it crashes everytime I load unless I go through a very specific sequence).

If you're having trouble with the leveling, turn the difficulty down. Also no fast travel makes the game a lot more immersive, though pretty damn tedious in some places. Prioritising missions by how far you have to walk certainly makes some of the quests more interesting.

But seriously, get some mods, the controls might be suited for consoles, but the game really belongs on a PC.