This game fixed most of the issues I had with Morrowind - it actually had great, colourful graphics that were not painful and depressing to look at. Story was also interesting, just not as good as in Morrowind, it also got extremely repetitive with the gates cleaning, but the world itself was actually great to explore. While scaling of enemies was a good idea, the forced marker is debatable. While it made the game easier to play and easier to manage, it also killed some of the exploration, but that was an issue only for those who didn't want to explore in the first place. While vanilla was little weaker than Morrowind, both Knights of the Nine Quest and Shivering Isles made this game stand out, because both of those expansions are excellent and full to the brim with content. This game started many trends, both good (quest markers, scaling) and bad (horse armour) for gaming, but it still holds up to this day. Good game and in my opinion more playable than Morrowind. Recommended.

This game may not be as pretty as Skyrim (which came out 5 yearrs after it, so...) or as intriguing as Morrowind, but it still has most of the elements of what make a great Elder Scrolls game, and a great RPG: interesting story and characters, complex (though not extremely satisfying) gameplay, beautiful graphics (for the time it was released, but it still looks good today), amazing soundtrack and atmosphere and plenty of great quests. It would be a mistake to pass on playing this gem just because of it's more popular brothers.

Without a doubt one of the greatest games that I have ever played, The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion might be just a little bit over 10 years old as I write this review, but it is still one of my all time favorite games to play this day. I could not rate it lower then a 10/10 !

Oblivion is a classic game that provides a marvellous experience for players who play this for the first time. With time, however, this game can actually become very disappointing in depth, even for players who enjoyed playing it for several hours. First off, the technical features of this game were amazing at the time this game was released. Textured armors, beautiful environments and lighting, and fully voiced NPCs that actually move around the area. These technical capabilities, however, are marred by several bugs, graphics that have not aged well, a generic medieval art style, and lackluster NPC schedules. While some of them can certainly be fixed through one of Oblivion's extensive list of mods (which, incidentally, is one of its strong points), they should no longer be considered a feature to watch out for. Regarding the main story, it is surprisingly a bit cliche and underwhelming, with its lack of sprawling cities and NPCs. While the game tries to impose a sense of immense scale throughout the main quest, what you actually come to experience makes it a bit goofy. The real charm in Oblivion resides in its side quest designs and guilds. Many of the stories and experiences behind these quests range from entertaining to intriguing, and are what keeps driving me to pick up this game again after many months of not playing. If you are a person who is most concerned about story and quest design, Oblivion would be a pretty strong contender. One major criticism with vanilla Oblivion would be repetitiveness. Not only do most of my playthroughs eventually end up similar in character design, but many of the dungeons, caves, Oblivion planes, and even NPC voices start to become increasingly familiar and, ultimately, dull. The game's charm of wonder and exploration quickly wears off because of these elements, and it does not help that monsters level up alongside with your character, making the experience of traversing Cyrodil quite meaningless. Which leads to the next point. The leveling system of Oblivion comes with its flaws. Players can only level up when manually sleeping instead of being able to do so on the fly, and there are no perk trees for leveling customization. All monsters become stronger as the player becomes stronger, leading to virtually no difference in combat strength out in the wild. It offers less skills, weapon, and armor options than Morrowind, which may come off as a detriment depending on the type of player. The combat system of Oblivion is a marked improvement over Morrowind's, though it still feels clunky and rough. Animations are very jarring, and players are mostly forced to play in first-person if they wish for a playable experience. In actuality, Oblivion's gameplay does not really mash up well with modern games released today, which might make it difficult for gamers who are used to such games play Oblivion for the first time. Oblivion's one saving grace is its modding community, which has tons and tons of various customization options from varying levels, ranging from simple small weapon addons to massive overhauls of the entire game. In truth, Oblivion cannot be fully appreciated without the mods it has in store. In conclusion, if you are an Elder Scrolls fan, Oblivion might be right up your alley. If you are looking for great sidequests and guild quests, Oblivion is a good choice for you. For anyone else, I would recommend trying out Morrowind for the more old-fashioned players, or Skyrim for the "newer" players.

This game did not have the time and attention it needed. While it's bigger than Morrowind in almost every way, it's certainly not better. It lacks the character and immersion its predecessor had, and that's likely for a variety of reasons. Irrespective of Cyrodiil perhaps not being as compelling a location as Morrowind (specifically Vvardenfell), this is a great game with some rough spots. The main story is lackluster, but the gameplay and world are interesting enough to disregard that fact. There is plenty to do and Cyrodiil is much later than Vvardenfell. The Oblivion gates are also an interesting dynamic that, while they become stale, adds variety to the world. Where the main story fails, Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles make up for it. These two expansions are far better than the base game and make it worth playing. The Dark Brotherhood questline is also of note as being very good. The Arena questline is also worth playing. The biggest detractor of this game, however, is the level scaling. No matter how high a level you obtain and how rare your gear is, enemies always scale with you so you will never feel powerful. Not only do enemies continue to get harder, but they even drop rarer items. The problem with this is you eventually run into highwaymen who are wearing daedric armor, which is supposed to be the rarest set in the game. I also forgot to mention exploring the 300+ dungeons in Oblivion is pointless as the looting tables in the game make chests you open at the end have worthless loot, like an apple and a fork. A great game, but it has major flaws.