Didn't like Oblivion, should i even try Skyrim?

[Nvidiaguy07]

I know its probably an awesome game for most, but its TOO open for me. If it was an online game with other players, like WOW, then im ok with it, but i kind of like a more linear format when it comes to single player games.

I also dont remember hearing this many good things about Oblivion though, and some of my friends who dont even play games that much anymore are playing this and telling me how awesome it is.

Basically is this game just a better version of Oblivion, or is it a new experience?

What game should i try if skyrim isnt a good choice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_IV:_Oblivion

 

[PrincessFrosty]

It's like a much more improved version of Oblivion, there seems to be a good set of more coherent story arcs hidden inside the game world, its up to you to discover them and play them through, if you like linearity you can choose to play through the various main story arcs and just ignore the side fluff and you'll get a few good linear storylines.

The game world itself is open though, but full of small linear style dungeons where most of the action occurs.

 

[terry107]

Is the openness the only thing you didn't like about Oblivion? Skyrim is very open, but if you just want to focus on a particular quest line (main quests, civil war, guild quest lines, etc.) then you can make it more linear. I think this defeats the purpose of the game though. Regardless, Skyrim is a much better game than Oblivion and is a ton of fun for what it is - an open world single player RPG. You would probably do yourself a service by playing one of your friend's copy before shelling out the money.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Yes, I hated oblivion...but as soon as Skyrim started to up, I knew I made the right choice buying the game. 60 hours into it, I've loved it.

 

[Skott]

First of all you have to like this type of game or you won't like playing Skyrim. I couldn't get into Oblivion. I do however like playing Skyrim. Oblivion I don't think got good until after the better mods were made for it however Skyrim is good from the start. Skyrim seems like its a better polished game. However I do admit I didn't buy it until after patch 1.2. If you don't mind playing in these games by yourself then you will enjoy it I'm thinking. No jerks to piss you off and you can do as much or as little as you want in Skyrim. Once they release the creation kit I suspect some really cool additions will be heaped upon this game by the community. Then a good game becomes even a better game.

One thing that would be really cool too if they could somehow do it would be make Skyrim co-op playable. Imagine being able to sit down with family members or friends and just run around Skyrim. That would be cool.

 

[endlessmike]

I liked the idea of Oblivion, but could never really get into it for any significant amount of time because of the wonky levelling and character progression.

I've enjoyed Skyrim a lot, many of the things I disliked about oblivion have been improved enough that I can just enjoy the game. That said, it's still a big open world that can often get distracting, so if that concept didn't seem all that appealing to you before, it might not be much different here either.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Skyrim feels like a much more lively world to me. So, even though I got sick of running around Oblivion, Skyrim is much more compelling in terms of exploration and things to see.

I did like some of the towns and town-life better in Oblivion, but the outdoor areas and caves / dungeons greatly paled in comparison to Skyrim. In Skyrim, I'll see some interesting-looking structure in the distance, and I want to go check it out so badly, even though I'm in the middle of ten other quests.

The main story line and major side-quests are also much more interesting in Skyrim, IMO.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I didn't play Oblivion, so I can't directly compare the two. I generally don't like open-world RPGs, but Skyrim is one of the top 5 games I've played in the last decade. The beauty of the open-world approach is that you can treat it in a very linear fashion if that's what you're looking for; getting involved in a certain quest line automatically progresses you to the next quest, so you'll always have a direct path through a set of missions if that's how you prefer to play. And if you don't like a particular quest line, just skip out on it and start doing missions for one of the various guilds/factions. It's pretty simple to turn the game into a series of linear adventures, and definitely worth checking out.

 

[thespyder]

As has been said, although Skyrim is an open world, and is probably best for that, you can definitely find fun and a playable game with both direction and purpose.

First off, there are bunches of "Big" quest lines to follow which feel like any of the normal more focused games. And they open up as you progress and can provide many hours of feeling like you have a purpose and a destination. Second, the quests/dungeons that do exist are more straight than in Oblivion, so there isn't a lot of wandering around aimlessly looking for what you are supposed to do next.

For an RPG Skyrim is a significant improvement over Oblivion. Follow the main quest line and you won't be disapointed. Even if you branch off, there is always still lots of structure (should you choose to want that) to keep you on focus. And if you just want to wander, you can do that too.

Highly recommend it.

 

[The Green Bean]

No. If you didn't like Oblivion chances are you won't like Skyrim.

 

[BD231]

They might as well have called it Oblivion Scrolls.

It's 2012, who wants to stare at a monitor and read some crappy virtual book with a clumsy interface? I feel sorry for u if u actually enjoy that, it's lazy, cheap and stupid. There's just to many small things that piss you off. Equal rights for women in mid-evil times, scripted dragons that destroy entire towns but leave you unscratched, unimaginative ambient looping audio tracks that are totally uninspiring, its dark and gloomy like this is a normal condition for everybody, even warrior heaven looks like hell !!! WTF?? The fuiggin horse's don't run any faster than you can on your feet, your henchmen can't even get on theirs. Fast traveling everywhere because the world isn't even fun to explore, the combat sucks how many goddamn carrots do I gotta eat???. You don't have mana for sh t so the spell casting is really just kind of an after thought. The console version is a mess, crashes, horse's that fly in the air, same old frikin looting system, blacksmith bs and all those different machines you gotta find. You're frikin dragon born and you gotta find cooking pots?? Salt is an infinite resource but in skyrim there's like 2 salt piles in the whole frikin map?? A barter system with broke ass vendors.

You gotta work your ass off to avoid quest givers, sh tty looking menus, horrible loading sequences *EVERYWHERE*, just to walk into a goddamn hut. I'm just gunna stop. If you're gonna make an action roll play game at least make the action parts fun. I've seen better artwork by 5th graders.

 

[shortylickens]

Had you read the 10 thousand posts we already have on Skyrim, at least a couple would have told you the vast majority feel its better than Oblivion but not as good as Morrowind.


Your choice.

 

[thespyder]

I've seen better artwork by 5th graders.

And interestingly enough I have seen better hate rants by 5th graders.

 

[Skott]

They might as well have called it Oblivion Scrolls.

I feel sorry for u if u actually enjoy that, it's lazy, cheap and stupid. There's just to many small things that piss you off.

No, it just pisses you off apparently. LOL

 

[zinfamous]

<--Hated Morrowind, Never played Oblivion, SKyrim is fucking fantastic.

I have the exact same problem--world is too open, just too damn much to do. Skyrim certainly feels that way when first starting off, and it is quite daunting, but once you get the hang of what does or doesn't really ahve to be done--the generic, never-ending, pointless quests are easy to spot--things feel a bit tighter and you can focus on the major quest lines.

 

[BD231]

No, it just pisses you off apparently. LOL

 

[pontifex]

I did not like Morrowwind or Oblivion but I like Skyrim for some reason. It's more of the same stuff, but maybe done a little better? I dunno.

I'm over 80 hours into it and have barely touched the main quest line

 

[zinfamous]

I did not like Morrowwind or Oblivion but I like Skyrim for some reason. It's more of the same stuff, but maybe done a little better? I dunno.

I'm over 80 hours into it and have barely touched the main quest line

I think, for me, a lot of it is the atmosphere of the world. I just like that Scandinavian world in Skyrim. The environments are gorgeous--I particularly like the caves with springs and glowing mushrooms and such. ....well over 200 hours in and I'm still not tired of those.

I also like how so many of the tiny side quests and interactions will continue to play themselves out on their own--yet you may never notice it. I happened upon one just the other day, many many, many game hours after being involved with it, and only found it because I randomly went looking for these particular people

Spoiler

because I wanted to kill them to charge my sword

. it is a family in Windhelm, whose daughter was murdered and you help them out, the wife is of course depressed over the loss

Spoiler

well, you can eventually capture the murderer, befriend the father in other means, and if you go down another quest line, you murder their other daughter at someone's behest. Had I not returned (her, broken into) that house much later, I would never have discovered that the mother committed suicide, leaving a note beside her corpse.

SO many little story elements like that happen that are very easy to miss.

It's also quite easy to get sucked in to the game. if you go so far as to complete the first quest involving a dragon. The dragon battles are quite epic and satisfying at very early levels. Unfortunately, though, Dragons soon become no challenge, and are little more than a distracting annoyance. :\

Despite that, it's a marvelous game overall.

 

[Sureshot324]

Skyrim feels like a much more lively world to me. So, even though I got sick of running around Oblivion, Skyrim is much more compelling in terms of exploration and things to see.

I did like some of the towns and town-life better in Oblivion, but the outdoor areas and caves / dungeons greatly paled in comparison to Skyrim. In Skyrim, I'll see some interesting-looking structure in the distance, and I want to go check it out so badly, even though I'm in the middle of ten other quests.

The main story line and major side-quests are also much more interesting in Skyrim, IMO.

I agree that Skyrim better in terms of exploration than Oblivion, but still falls short of Fallout 3/New Vegas IMO. In Fallout 3 you can't walk 2 steps without finding something cool and interesting, but in Skyrim it's like, yet another generic medival village. The locations in Fallout 3 had a lot more character and personality.

 

[epidemis]

Skyrim is quite a abit better than Oblivion, but is fundamentally the same game. I hated oblivion with a passion, but found Skyrim tolerable. Judge yoursekf

 

[you2]

I did not much care for oblivion; skyrim (imho) has better mechanics and I enjoy it more but (for me) it is still a bit too open ended. What I mean is that the individual quests have detail touches (such as the one above) but the interaction of quests with each other seem hollow (i.e, what you do does not really change the world around you). You can kill the emperor or overthrow the imperial or wipe out the stormcloak as you wish but after the quest is completed you barely recognize that you actually did these things.
-
I tend to prefer more close ended rpgs where the actions you take impact the world around you (this is a preference; i'm not delcaring one better than the other).
-
So I did enjoy skyrim (i played obvlivion but cant' really say I enjoyed it that much) and might even play a second time in 6 months or a year after a few patches and what have you.

 

[rageofthepeon]

The problem with Oblivion was that it was very Bland and the dungeons sort of ran together in an entirely forgettable blur. Mods made the game great and added a lot of diversity.

I enjoyed Skyrim from the get go however. Each dungeon has been unique and a ton of fun.

@Sureshot324 I'll echo the sentiments regarding Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Each place has a lot of character and the setting is something that more people can imagine themselves in. A war torn post-apocalyptic world torn apart by nuclear war? Doesn't seem so far off with the world now.

 

[thespyder]

The problem with Oblivion was that it was very Bland and the dungeons sort of ran together in an entirely forgettable blur. Mods made the game great and added a lot of diversity.

I enjoyed Skyrim from the get go however. Each dungeon has been unique and a ton of fun.

@Sureshot324 I'll echo the sentiments regarding Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Each place has a lot of character and the setting is something that more people can imagine themselves in. A war torn post-apocalyptic world torn apart by nuclear war? Doesn't seem so far off with the world now.

I agree that Skyrim is by far the superior.

However, one complaint I have between the two is that the Skyrim Dungeons are so very linear. Every single one is a single path. One corridor leading to rooms with one entrance and one exit (unless it is a blocked "return" door). In Oblivion dungeons felt more like someone would actually make IRL. i.e. there was a layout and different path choices and directions to take. Do you go left or right? Sure you may have to backtrack somewhat, but they felt less like a Sonic the Hedgehog Video game and more like an actual physical location.

 

[rageofthepeon]

However, one complaint I have between the two is that the Skyrim Dungeons are so very linear. Every single one is a single path. One corridor leading to rooms with one entrance and one exit (unless it is a blocked "return" door).

Let's hope the Creation Kit and some awesome modders will fix that .

Skyrim Nexus already added a new category 'dungeons' to the list. There is only one thing in there right now but hopefully more to follow.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/cat.php?id=88

 

[zinfamous]

I agree that Skyrim is by far the superior.

However, one complaint I have between the two is that the Skyrim Dungeons are so very linear. Every single one is a single path. One corridor leading to rooms with one entrance and one exit (unless it is a blocked "return" door). In Oblivion dungeons felt more like someone would actually make IRL. i.e. there was a layout and different path choices and directions to take. Do you go left or right? Sure you may have to backtrack somewhat, but they felt less like a Sonic the Hedgehog Video game and more like an actual physical location.

I don't think so, and I made this argument before--if you were actually excavating a dungeon--in real life--you would opt for the design that required far less stone and earth movement. Tunneling is a grueling process, and if you want to try and be realistic in terms of the world of Skyrim, these guys didn't have giant mechanical tunnel diggers like we have now.

You can't just go dig wherever you want, you have to consider the strata and the support above you when choosing where to path. If anything, the most linear, efficient design would be the most realistic.

As far as simple gameplay, I'm somewhere on the fence between meandering and linear--I don't mind the linearity in Skyrim because so many of the dungeons are just freaking huge, and often open up out of places that you least expect. the variation in environment is quite good, too. At least--you know what the crypt dungeon will look like, the caves offer quite a bit of variety, as well as the handful of glades and even the castles have weird variation in some examples. For me, the repetitive thing about them is that they can be too long, and they always have that shortcut return path once you reach the end. I don't mind it, since it makes going back and forth a bit easier (I hate too much backtracking), but as soon as you enter a dungeon, you come to expect and notice that shortcut path which you can't quite enter.