I decided to give Oblivion another shot. But I don't know if that was a good idea.

First big "meh" was when I stumbled upon a quest about going fishing.

With a fucking sword. Fishing with a fucking sword underwater.

oooook......

But then... Something even worse. I entered thieves guild. One of their major rules is "we are not dark brotherhood, we don't murder". Well. Guess what! You can join dark brotherhood at the same time and murder whoever the fuck you want except a very few NPCs during "special jobs" you can't kill. I've even read you can join every freaking guild at the same time.

This is the worst freaking thing I ever seen in RPG game - entering one faction doesn't affect anything. I felt so betrayed by this stupid game I am not sure if I am going to do any other quest ever or will I just loot some dungeons and uninstall this game again.

Worst . Roleplaying. Ever.

I played for about 4 hours before quitting, sad since I bought the game boxed. That's the last Bethesda game I ever bought.

Makes me wonder how these games get such high scores... especially on Meta.

Oh, and another "amusing" thing! During my explioration I found "Unmarked cave".

I entered it, found a locked door. Couldn't find a key anywhere, so I am searching the el=der scrolls wiki.

The cave was supposed to be related to a quest that was finally not implemented in the game so the cave was never finished.

WHAT THE ACTCUAL FUCK. They implemented in a game an unfinished cave that can't be explored?!

Why does every Bethesda RPG I come across has to be so bad and totally anti climatic?

I beat the game, but never really played it again. The previous Elder Scrolls games all had such amazing atmosphere, but Oblivion was just bright and vibrant generic fantasy. Morrowind and Skyrim are both way better games. Oblivion did have way better dungeons that Skyrim though. Skyrim's dungeons are all super linear and rather boring. I never see anyone else complain about that though. I guess completely linear level design just seems normal to people now.

By the way, does joining the factions matter in Morrowind? If I enter a faction, like Slavers in Fallout 2, I want it to matter, I want it to have some impact on the game world.

Does Morrowind do it better?

Lol, reminds of that mysterious locked shed in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life that can never be opened. Apparently, it was supposed to be something, but they scrapped it and forgot to dummy it out. I like to imagine it's the player's torture shed :3

But yeah, I hate Oblivion. I haven't played any other Elder Scrolls games, but if any of the other ones have as bad a leveling system as IV did, I don't think I wanna visit that series ever again...

It's a good thing on paper, but kinda bad on execution.

I am playing a wood elf agent, so one of my major skills is acrobatics. So I jump like a fucking bunny most of the time to get it better. I would like to be better at illusion magic, but this requires using the spells more. So I cast on myself useless spells all the time, because I haven't seen a merchant who would sell a spell doing something more than giving me nightvision for 15 seconds.

Don't forget the unsettling, disturbingly close up, vacant stares whenever you talk to someone.

Hmm. Didn't know Oblivion is that bad. So you guys don't play Skyrim either ? I mean, it is oblivion sequel after all. I never play Elder Scrolls series. I tried Morrowind before. As I was very accustomed to JRPG battle system, that time the battle system was very weird for me. So I didn't continue playing it...

This I can manage. I can understand their engine couldn't do it better. But there's no excuse for poor writing and world creation.


but the stupid Persuasion minigame? Who on earth thought that is a good idea?!

Not really. There are a few factions that are sort of at odds with each other, so you can only join one (I hear there are ways around this though)

The Elder Scrolls games aren't about having a big effect on the world. Its just about living your life the way you want. If you feel like you have to have a big impact on the world, there are better games for you to play.

Yeah, the same thing with Secret of Mana. The skills are tied to using them, which in theory is smart, but in execution means casting "Firebolt" at the same rock for an hour to level up your Destruction spells. The difference being, I at least had some fun with Secret of Mana...can't say the same for Oblivion :/

I like to feel my lifechoice matters. It's not "living your life like you want" when you are reminded at every step you take this is just a game with self-contained quests so you can join opposite guilds at the same time and nobody is even mad at you.

This is the most horrible thing - to see a world that is huge, seems to be functioning on its own, and then you get a blunt strike to the head reminding you - this is a game about looting and completing useless quests, you can't feel like a real person there.

and about Skyrim - I sadly can't afford the game and the computer being capable of running it. But when I do, I'll buy it - I heard it's a vast improvement on many things except level design.

And it's way better in New Vegas - you join opposing faction, so the other one is your mortal enemy. You murder someone important? They will send assassin's after you. It seems when Obsidian does the writing, the bad engine doesn't matter at all.

There are a lot of really interesting quests to complete in the elder scrolls games, but its not just about questing like in most RPGs. I hardly bother with faction quests. I just go do whatever I feel like doing. Its just a big sandbox, and I like to play. Also, I don't think its necessary to have an effect on the world. I certainly don't have much of an impact in the real world either. That's just me though. I do understand where your coming from, and I'm not trying to convince you that you should want the same things I want out of an RPG.