The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

 PC
User Score
8.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 3846 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,010 out of 3846
  2. Mixed: 542 out of 3846
  3. Negative: 294 out of 3846
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  1. PithHelmet
    Mar 9, 2011
    6
    Oblivion is a great introduction into the Elder Scrolls. I loved it so much when I first played it. However, after you play Morrowind you realize how much potential Oblivion threw away. Oblivion is an example of the terrible direction the game industry is starting to go into: Games that are worth buying, and are extremely great in the beginning, but lack the long term value that is veryOblivion is a great introduction into the Elder Scrolls. I loved it so much when I first played it. However, after you play Morrowind you realize how much potential Oblivion threw away. Oblivion is an example of the terrible direction the game industry is starting to go into: Games that are worth buying, and are extremely great in the beginning, but lack the long term value that is very key to have to prevent boredom in the future again. When you finish up all the quests (Which are a lot, but still has significantly less compared to Morrowind) there is no point to play anymore. The dungeons feel prefabricated just like Daggerfall and there is nothing really "new" to explore. The vast majority of them are just filled with common monsters and loot that becomes worthless after you get the best armor and weapons (Which can be gotten fairly easily at higher levels). Oblivion is worth the money, but in the long run is no where near as RPG satisfying Morrowind was. That is what we play RPGs for, the satisfaction of completing quests or completing leveling goals or finding special items. Oblivion denies that ability of satisfaction way too early compared to its predecessors. If you are reading these reviews though you are probably considering buying it. In a simple answer, of course. Well worth the money it costs now.… Expand
  2. Phlakes
    Aug 15, 2010
    6
    This game is not the best game of all time. In fact, it probably isn't in the top 20. For some reason, even though the game is filled with bugs and terrible design, people just overlook all its problems because the side quests are fun. I would like to list some of the major problems with the game that make it a 6 instead of a 9 or 10.

    1. The main story. This should have been the best part    This game is not the best game of all time. In fact, it probably isn't in the top 20. For some reason, even though the game is filled with bugs and terrible design, people just overlook all its problems because the side quests are fun. I would like to list some of the major problems with the game that make it a 6 instead of a 9 or 10.

    1. The main story. This should have been the best part of the game, and it should have been long and involving. It wasn't. All the story missions felt exactly the same as any side quest, but sometimes involving an Oblivion gate. It was boring and very disappointing, especially for an RPG.

    2. The entire engine. Moving feels like your gliding above the ground, and when you're in the air it feels like you're above the surface of the moon moving yourself with a fan. Picking something up off a table causes all the other objects on it to jump, And when and the ragdoll physics make creatures and people look like broken piñatas.

    3. The animations. When you hit something a 20 pound metal rod, you expect it to feel powerful. The animations make you feel like you're swinging a piece of hollow plastic. Facial expressions unfortunately fall right into the bottom of the uncanny valley, and one of the worst problems, Bethesda was too lazy to put in animations for running diagonally. People also just disappear when entering buildings.

    4. The voice acting. The worst problem here is that there are, according to the Credits.txt file that came with the game, 9 voice actors, not including the unique characters. For a game where every single character can be interacted with, only having 9 voice actors is a massive issue. Not to mention that some characters, especially beggars, switch accents mid-dialogue. They greet you the same drawl as all the other beggars, then after you choose an option, they start talking with the same voice as the guards, and then back again during their next line. Another problem is that every single infinitely-spawning guard has the same voice actor. If they just had one other voice, it would have made a huge difference, but there's only one. Most of the dialogue is terribly generic, too.

    There are very many other problems, such as the uninspired music, the ludicrous frequency of load screens, and the copy-pasted caves and dungeons, but I'll stop here.

    Imagine if any other game had all these problems. It definitely wouldn't get reviews like this. If Mass Effect 3 came out with only 9 voice actors, a short and boring main story, no diagonal running animations, loading screens at every door, floaty controls, and planets like Mass Effect 1, I'm sure users would give it something like a 6. But because Oblivion as so much hype behind it, people automatically give it 10s. Now I still like the game. I've spent about 150 hours on it, but it really isn't as good as people think, and it is definitely not even close to perfect.    … Expand
  3. DanielCr
    Apr 12, 2006
    7
    This game is cool.. at firest what then you play it for 40 hours and realize that there is way less content than is advertized. Point one IT IS EASER TO BEAT THE GAME A LVL 1 THAN AT LVL 20 this is fucking retarded and i am not exagerating also there a very few new or strong monsters cause everything just lvls with you you can go back to a dungeons a few lvls later whoopie all the guys This game is cool.. at firest what then you play it for 40 hours and realize that there is way less content than is advertized. Point one IT IS EASER TO BEAT THE GAME A LVL 1 THAN AT LVL 20 this is fucking retarded and i am not exagerating also there a very few new or strong monsters cause everything just lvls with you you can go back to a dungeons a few lvls later whoopie all the guys you killed have come back to life and they have batter equipment. so it's an RPG with absolutly no meaning ful charater devolopment. That's bullshit Actually upon reflection thats really the only thing horrible wrong with the game. Course it means that the are no place you can't go at lvl one wich makes not sense you will never fight an enemy you cannot beat and you will never encounter an enemy who is easy to beat… Expand
  4. marc5477
    Dec 28, 2014
    6
    Objectively, I score this game a solid 6 due to its many unavoidable annoyances. It would score at 7 if the annoyances were eliminated but it is nothing like its predecessor and not as good as its successor. Oblivion had a lot of hype during development. We were promised all star voice acting, real intelligent AI behavior, and a larger landmass... well, it turns out that they were all halfObjectively, I score this game a solid 6 due to its many unavoidable annoyances. It would score at 7 if the annoyances were eliminated but it is nothing like its predecessor and not as good as its successor. Oblivion had a lot of hype during development. We were promised all star voice acting, real intelligent AI behavior, and a larger landmass... well, it turns out that they were all half truths and half lies.

    There was all star voice acting but it was very limited to a hand full of characters. Everyone else was annoying as hell with repetitive comments and inappropriate tones that drove me mad 10 hours into the game. How many times did we run into a young girl with the voice of a raspy women on her death bed? Or an old man with a high pitch youngster voice? Voices were reused and assigned to characters randomly resulting in very strange combination which actually distracted from the game and immersion.

    Intelligent AI behavior? Jobs and economy? Yea right. This was a pure lie. AI behavior was all scripted and none of it was intelligent by any stretch of the word. AI did not have real jobs, they just followed a scripted schedule to open at x hour and close at y hour. At z hour they ate and w hour they slept. It was lame. It was not intelligent. It was no different than any other game made as far back as the NES. How unintelligent was the AI? Well, you could kill a guard next to another guard while sneaking, and the living guard will not care. He will make a comment about a dead person and even if you uncover yourself he will just stand there. You could even drag the dead guard in front of him and he will not care. Same with any other AI controlled character in the game (not just guards). At the same time, god help you if someone in a city sees you stealing because all hell will break loose and every guard in the entire city will instantly know you are a criminal and they will all come after you at once. Lame lame lame lame. This became a major problem sometimes because unless you use the PC console commands, it could break your game permanently. AI my backside.

    Larger landmass they tell us... well, the landmass was "larger" but it was mostly just the same damn environment copy and pasted over and over. The entire place looked the same. Morrowind had character and even Skyrim has some character but Oblivion was just plain and boring. It was the same no matter where you went and even ruins were just copy/pasted over and over (albeit Morrowind suffered from the same issue when it came to ruins). Bottom line, they may not have lied, but it was not as impressive as they wanted us to believe.

    Aside from the annoyances above, there were a few more problems.

    Level scaling... although this happens in a lot of games, in Oblivion is was not done well at all. The same enemy you faced at level will have 10x as many hit points when you are level 10 and they will look exactly the same and spawn in the same places. It killed immersion greatly because combat became mundane and unnecessarily long due to how many hip points each goblin, demon, or animal had as you leveled. The problem is that damage did not increase at the same pace as hit points so it made the player feel weaker. In Oblivion, you are much more powerful at level 5 than you are at level 20 and it killed any feeling of progression normally associated with RPG's. It clearly was not tested enough. They use similar systems in Morrowind and Skyrim but it was much better balanced. On top of that, unique weapons gained from god quests also level scaled... yes you read that right. If you do a quest at low level, you get a weak version of the rewarded weapon! And the weapon does not gain power as you level so it becomes obsolete almost instantly since they are all worse than enchanted weapons anyway. How lame is that.

    Next, enchanting, spell making and itemization were all "streamlined" which we all know means dumbed down for consoles and low IQ players. Everything was strictly controlled gone was a lot of the fun we had in Morrowind like levitating around the world to explore. You can still enchant powerful stuff but it was also made much easier almost to the point that it felt unearned whereas in Morriwind it felt awesome when you were able to trap a soul and enchant even the most basic of things. In Oblivion it was very easy and felt like cheating from the get go.

    Bottom line, a good game but it is no Morrowind. Too many annoyances keep it from being great but still it is better than most games you find on the shelf. It still is a fun open world game with plenty to do albeit without the sense of satisfaction associated with many RPG's.    … Expand
  5. RaghaB.
    Mar 29, 2010
    7
    I love this argument in the PC community about how games are "dumbed down for consoles." Now i'm sure that this argument works for other games, i dont know im relatively new to PC gaming. What I do know is that it does not work for TES games. Remember Morrowind guys? Yeah it came out on the X-box also. On to Oblivion. Being a huge Morrowind fan i was disappointed with Oblivion. While I love this argument in the PC community about how games are "dumbed down for consoles." Now i'm sure that this argument works for other games, i dont know im relatively new to PC gaming. What I do know is that it does not work for TES games. Remember Morrowind guys? Yeah it came out on the X-box also. On to Oblivion. Being a huge Morrowind fan i was disappointed with Oblivion. While the graphics are better (even on my lower end PC) The addition of the Quick Jump makes the world seem MUCH smaller than that of Morrowind. And the main story line is very repetitive. After what felt like the twentieth Oblivion Gate I said forget it and moved on...until i caught Vampirism and gave up all together. I can still pick up morrowind and play for hours but Oblivion was barely aboe to hold my attension for more than a few hours. The combat system upgrades (spell button FTW!!) and the shinnier graphics do not make up for the fact that Oblivion is not as good as its predecessor. If only Bethesda wold release a patch moving Morrowind into Oblivion's graphics and controls. That would be the perfect game. But hey dreamers can only Dream. Overall its a good game, There are just a few things missing from it that should have been kept in the game. Hopefully Bethesda learns from their mistakes and delvers an epic TES:V.… Expand
  6. Eddyward
    Mar 11, 2011
    6
    Well, it's nothing compared to Morrowind. The world felt very small in comparison. The quests were very short, with the exception of the mains toryline, which couldn't have been more tedious. Oblivion feels rushed and they really could've brought a lot more things from Morrowind forwards. I was also disappointed to find the Imperial City was actually quite small, and was miniscule comparedWell, it's nothing compared to Morrowind. The world felt very small in comparison. The quests were very short, with the exception of the mains toryline, which couldn't have been more tedious. Oblivion feels rushed and they really could've brought a lot more things from Morrowind forwards. I was also disappointed to find the Imperial City was actually quite small, and was miniscule compared to some of the cities in Morrowind.… Expand
  7. Smilingcookie
    Mar 26, 2015
    5
    Although I really enjoy Morrowind and Skyrim, I can't seem to get into this one. Art design is bland. Everything seems like a mediocre fairy tale. Interface and controls (or character reaction) are less clean and direct than previously mentioned games. It's big and for the time it had impressive visuals. Story and quests however cannot keep my attention. I always get bored and never feelAlthough I really enjoy Morrowind and Skyrim, I can't seem to get into this one. Art design is bland. Everything seems like a mediocre fairy tale. Interface and controls (or character reaction) are less clean and direct than previously mentioned games. It's big and for the time it had impressive visuals. Story and quests however cannot keep my attention. I always get bored and never feel like I want to keep playing this one.… Expand
  8. Antimateria
    May 12, 2011
    6
    Pretty good. Not so great at first but when modded with own taste. Then the game is awesome. The world is so big.. dungeons get a bit repetitive. And better put some own music choices in folders. Buth with games original merits.. It's good, clearly above average, though leveling system is too fast and kinda sucks. But when you ride with a horse trough the fields at early morning none ofPretty good. Not so great at first but when modded with own taste. Then the game is awesome. The world is so big.. dungeons get a bit repetitive. And better put some own music choices in folders. Buth with games original merits.. It's good, clearly above average, though leveling system is too fast and kinda sucks. But when you ride with a horse trough the fields at early morning none of that really matters. It's heavenly. And then bear attacks your horse, you must dismount the horse and you throw a fireball at it and slash it with sword ten times and run and go back continue your attack finally defeating it. Then you start to think where is my horse and why do I use it. I can run faster but if I do, my furry armors will perish in the wind, cos that's how fast everything wears out. Then you search inventory for repair hammers and you'll find two of them. they both break when you are just repairing your shoes. then a deer comes to your attention, drawing your trusty long bow you aim carefully and release the arrow.. and watch it fly like a old wooden bucket. never hitting the deer. then the game crashes.
    Truly it's not perfect.    … Expand
  9. EsquireIII
    May 15, 2011
    7
    This game stole what little life I already had. It's incredibly fun. Randomly exploring caves and ruins never gets boring, though I do admit, I had to start using console commands to close down Oblivion Gates because I just couldn't take doing the same map I had already done a million times before. Another small complaint I have and that I've heard a lot of is that Oblivion doesn't captureThis game stole what little life I already had. It's incredibly fun. Randomly exploring caves and ruins never gets boring, though I do admit, I had to start using console commands to close down Oblivion Gates because I just couldn't take doing the same map I had already done a million times before. Another small complaint I have and that I've heard a lot of is that Oblivion doesn't capture Morrowind's atmosphere. I haven't played Morrowind much yet, but after playing hours upon hours of Oblivion and stepping of the boat in the very beginning to see a massive insect that, come to find out, was used for transportation made the game feel very alien. Oblivion's atmosphere is indeed more of a generic sort of feel, but there are definitely improvements over a few problems I noticed with Morrowind despite how little I played of it. First of all, combat feels much more smooth, and when you hit an enemy, you actually hit them, rather than using stats to determine your hit chance. In addition, the combat just feels smoother, with the ability to block at will rather than using the block skill to determine the chance of blocking. My biggest Morrowind annoyance is how slowly you moved at the beginning of the game. Being a rather impatient person, that gets kind of old. Oblivion definitely fixed this problem. A change from Morrowind that I think is for the worse is the horrible leveling system. Enemies level up with you, and subsequently, so does their loot. It tends to ruin the realism quite a bit (how do so many bandits find full sets of Daedric armor?) and generally makes the game get harder as you level up, unless you micromanage your skill growth to obtain the maximum boost from each level, which is incredibly annoying and just plain tiresome. On the good side of the game, the world is massive. There are hundreds of locations to discover, many of which have a quest assigned to them. There are also quite a lot of joinable factions. Not as many as Morrowind, I've heard, but still a good amount, ranging from the magic oriented Mages Guild, to the combat oriented Fighters Guild, and the stealth oriented Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood. Each offers a very different experience and all are worth joining, even if you don't really focus on that particular stat (heck, I was a thief and I still became one of the top ranking members of the Mage's Guild). Spell casting tends to be a bit on the weak side when it comes to buffs, many lasting as little as 10 seconds before needing to be recast and the spell making is more limited that many would like it to be. The spell animations tend to be a bit bland after a while, using the same effects for each spell for the most part (for example, a strong fire spell will look the exact same as a weak fire spell. At least prior to impact). I personally do not like the music in Oblivion, though the songs can easily be changed by replacing the files in your music folder. The main story quest is fairly interesting, though I find it hard to play more than once. Even if you don't enjoy the story, the lore still provides an interesting feel to the world you Overall, Oblivion is a huge game with a very nice combat system, a huge world for you to explore, many NPCs to populate it. Finally, though I'm not counting this towards the score of my review, it is definitely worth mentioning that there are a HUGE number of modifications available for Oblivion, improving upon many problems I've mentioned here (like the shoddy magic system and broken leveling) as well as a few I didn't. There are many to improve performance and stability of your game if your computer can't handle the graphics, while others add in various content (homes, weapons, armor, the things you might expect). As a last word. whether or not you use a few mods or a lot of mods or just avoid mods altogether, Oblivion is definitely a game you should pick up regardless of what console you want it for (though if you want mods, the PC is the best console to go with).… Expand
  10. JohnB
    Oct 12, 2009
    7
    The game has a lot of content and enviroments are beautiful. Unfortunately there are some serious flaws. All the npc- characters in the game are ass ugly, generic and they act like robots. There are only adults in the game, and no one has a beard. I'm glad that they didn't include dwarves in this game since they too would propably be as tall as anyone and without beard. The The game has a lot of content and enviroments are beautiful. Unfortunately there are some serious flaws. All the npc- characters in the game are ass ugly, generic and they act like robots. There are only adults in the game, and no one has a beard. I'm glad that they didn't include dwarves in this game since they too would propably be as tall as anyone and without beard. The voice acting is mostly horrendous, and there are 2 or 3 music tracks in the whole game.… Expand
  11. Duderoth
    Apr 15, 2011
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It might be a little late to be writing a review of this game, but I have been playing it on-and-off since practically its release day. To this day, I'm still not sure what all the hype was about.

    Let's just say Oblivion was a good game. Good, not great. If you actually play RPGs for the scope and story, probably the biggest drawback of the game is the story. I wouldn't go so far as to call it contrived, but it's not all that great anyways. Actually it's pretty dull, since what you become known for by the citizens of the empire is something you accomplish within the first couple of hours of the game, had no emotional impact or power behind it, and just established the next flaw with Oblivion.

    Oblivion gates. The first time I stepped through one, I thought to myself, "Oh wow, this is actually pretty cool." Then I went through another one. Then another one. Then several more. They all look the same. They all have the same mechanic. If there was one part of Oblivion that was uninspired, this was it. They all consist of getting to the top of the central tower, and pulling out a "Sigil Stone" to close the gate. Alright, now let's cycle that them through 9 maps that all look exactly the same, and you'll begin to dread going through any of these gates ever again.

    I had a few other issues with the game, such as horseback riding being pretty lame, some so-so dungeons (nothing especially hidden away or secret like there was in Morrowind) and the facial animation and voice acting being the crap they were. But the leveling with your character loot and enemies was insulting. In a game that's supposed to be about go anywhere, do anything, this is an atrocity. Limiting the types of enemies you fight and level of loot you can receive at any given level automatically turns this into an extremely structured game. Sure it prevents getting anything gamebreaking at an early level, but the whole point in adventuring is learning what your strengths and limits are. If, at level 1, you can find a way to beat a level 20 monster, I think you deserve some pretty epic loot for doing so. But this leveling also meant that dungeon crawling was pretty stupid, since there was no incentive to explore other than to "see the dungeon," and they all looked essentially the same within about 3 themes (Aleid ruins, old forts, and caverns/mines).

    Now this is not to say Oblivion was a crappy game. Far from it. If you want some excellent story telling and a much better RP experience, check out the... 4 factions. That's right only 4. Thankfully, each questline for the factions was much more enjoyable than the main questline, and each was quite long as well, which makes up for the fact that there are only 4. (I believe that in Morrowind there were upwards of 15, and many of them affected other factions.) And no, I am not counting the Arena. That was not a faction. You just kill people. You can finish it at level 1.

    The region of Cyrodiil was quite beautiful, but only some areas shined. According to lore, Cyrodiil is supposed to be a jungle/swamp type of area. In this fashion, I quite enjoyed the areas around Bravil and Leyawiin in the game (and the snowy mountains of Bruma to the north), and Anvil was very pretty, but the rest was more ho-hum classic fantasy affair, and the cities all looked very fabricated and themed. Overall it was not nearly as immersive as Morrwind's quite alien locale, setting, and culture.

    So overall, Oblivion was an average game. It definitely felt geared towards console players and much more casual gamers, as was obvious through the main storyline, generic hack'n'slash gameplay, and toned-down classic fantasy setting. But it had some obvious merits for those willing to delve deeper, with some pretty amazing faction questlines, along with some other specific side quests.

    I hope 2011's Skyrim shapes up to be more like Morrowind. But if Bethesda stays down the path of Fallout 3, I won't be too irked, since that game was incredibly fun as well. Give us TES fans something good this time, Bethesda!    … Expand
  12. spadenx
    Jan 13, 2012
    6
    The story for the main quest was pathetic at best, Though the side missions had a lot better stories but none were truely great. A ton of bugs and glitches as well as lag, It doesnt help that the game has only 4 patches that dont even fix a majority of the problems the game suffers from.

    What saves the game is that it can be modded to add a ton of user created, Which is suprisingly    The story for the main quest was pathetic at best, Though the side missions had a lot better stories but none were truely great. A ton of bugs and glitches as well as lag, It doesnt help that the game has only 4 patches that dont even fix a majority of the problems the game suffers from.

    What saves the game is that it can be modded to add a ton of user created, Which is suprisingly better then most of the content in the game.    … Expand
  13. roboticsun
    Oct 8, 2011
    6
    Still do not understand why this game is so well received. It may be good for newcomers of this series, but it is neither as massive as daggerfall nor as fun as morrowind. The setting in this game is painfully average. The leveling system is broken unless you use mods to fix it. Quests are quite repetitive and there is not much story associated with those quests, so you end up with doingStill do not understand why this game is so well received. It may be good for newcomers of this series, but it is neither as massive as daggerfall nor as fun as morrowind. The setting in this game is painfully average. The leveling system is broken unless you use mods to fix it. Quests are quite repetitive and there is not much story associated with those quests, so you end up with doing the same things over and over again. The setting for the factions in this game is just terrible comparing to morrowind. In morriwind, you can establish social relations with different factions, and you can be smooth and slick with them to achieve a lot of benefits which is tons of fun. The factions in oblivion are just like a bunch of quest generating machines to extend the game time. Overall it's a good entry to elder scroll series but probably the worst elder scroll game.… Expand
  14. HenryCase
    Dec 25, 2012
    5
    The worst of all Elder Scrolls games. Badly designed boring world compared to morrowind or skyrim and an absolute broken level scale system made this game almost uplayable to me. I spent weeks to get a propper mod to get rid of the level scaling, but the mods crippled the game even more. It's unbelievable how Bethesda could release such a mess. For all fans of Skyrim who search anotherThe worst of all Elder Scrolls games. Badly designed boring world compared to morrowind or skyrim and an absolute broken level scale system made this game almost uplayable to me. I spent weeks to get a propper mod to get rid of the level scaling, but the mods crippled the game even more. It's unbelievable how Bethesda could release such a mess. For all fans of Skyrim who search another great elder scrolls expirience: simpyl grab the Morrowind Game Of The Year edition. It's Astronomic Units ahead of this broken moneymaker release called oblivion. Still a better game than most modern titles though.… Expand
  15. kungfucat196
    Mar 21, 2010
    7
    My real vote would be 8.4 Ok lets get it started, the gra[hics were good for 2006, its alright. What makes the force of the game is the realism, EVERY but EVERY actions in the game will have an effect on the other AI surrounding you and there is a multitudes of ways to do the scenario, the world is deep and well made, a lot of efforts were put in, but it stops there. The AI is not good at My real vote would be 8.4 Ok lets get it started, the gra[hics were good for 2006, its alright. What makes the force of the game is the realism, EVERY but EVERY actions in the game will have an effect on the other AI surrounding you and there is a multitudes of ways to do the scenario, the world is deep and well made, a lot of efforts were put in, but it stops there. The AI is not good at all, a supplementary 3 month wouldn't have been too much for the game to fix the AI problems and the Glitches. Also, RTS games are my favorite, and i like wen im immerge in the story, like i was in Dragon age: origins or Kotor. The broken AI and universe dosen't help. You can do whatever you want, there is exacly NO LIMITS, a lot pf players are just playing this game for its mods, but i do not know some1 excepted me who alredy beated this game. too much limit is not good, but not enough too. All those facts dosen't immerse you in the story, well, it didn't for me. I had to force myself to finish this game. I didn't like this game, i gave a 7.5 for all the efforts they putted in and to respect those who liked that, but its not a game for amators of games like Kotor, mass effect and dragon age.… Expand
  16. syrik
    Nov 20, 2011
    7
    Picked this up on a recent Steam sale. I had Morrowind on xbox when it came out but I never got into it. It seemed extremely boring and long to get into. Well, years later Oblivion is also extremely long to get into and boring at the beginning, but it sure is worth it. This game is detail on a scale that no other game even approaches much less achieves. From random books scatteredPicked this up on a recent Steam sale. I had Morrowind on xbox when it came out but I never got into it. It seemed extremely boring and long to get into. Well, years later Oblivion is also extremely long to get into and boring at the beginning, but it sure is worth it. This game is detail on a scale that no other game even approaches much less achieves. From random books scattered around the world (that are actually written and can all be read) to thousands of things, just things, strewn all over the place. Each one realized on a scale that makes it almost impossible not to get lost in this game. Imagine taking about a 50 mile square of land in the real world with all the trees, houses, roads, people, animals, water, weather, everything and sticking all of that into a game. That's Oblivion. Houses fully detailed inside and out, random junk that is actually relevant and non-repetitive like people really have. If you want to know what this place you're standing looks like from that mountain top over yonder, hike up the mountain and take a look. You can. In fact, you can basically do anything you want any way you want. It's the most freedom in a game, ever. Period. (notwithstanding other Elder Scrolls games of course) Want to be a spell casting rogue that pick pockets and hides in the shadows? OK. Wanna be a ranger that also swings a gigantic mace? OK. Wanna be a warrior but in leather armor and summoning undead? OK. Whatever you want, there's a way to do it. The game is huge, I'm talking HUGE. Think WoW without the subscription and they probably have about the same content (except this is one release with some xpac content and WoW is constantly updated for the last 7 years). There is a good enjoyable story packed in between all the other side quests and random places to explore also. It's the whole package. This game would easily warrant a perfect 10, except it's not perfect. Unfortunately Bethesda, in all their creative genius, weren't very good at squashing bugs. This game came out in 2006 and despite multiple official patches and DLC content for sale there are literally thousands of bugs in the game they never bothered to fix. The game is so popular that its very talented and committed fan base has created their own mods that patch the game for you correcting many of these bugs, but they shouldn't have to. Bethesda made the money off the game, not the fans, they should be the ones fixing it. So, 7/10 because buggy games deserve ZEROES, but this game really is awesome.… Expand
  17. Dremord
    Aug 16, 2012
    7
    The main storyline wasn't the best for me, but the side quests had me playing until I've finished them all. Great graphics (if you ignore the humanoid characters). Not as great as Morrowind or Skyrim, though for obvious reasons.
  18. IcecreamSnowman
    Mar 11, 2014
    5
    Without extensive modding Oblivion gets to be very samey. Enemies all level with you so there's no difficulty curve and no feeling of progression. Environments are formulaic and get to feel routine and predictable, so even though the world is big, there's very little in it worth seeing. There's only one voice actor per race and far, far too much chit-chat. Most of your time is spent inWithout extensive modding Oblivion gets to be very samey. Enemies all level with you so there's no difficulty curve and no feeling of progression. Environments are formulaic and get to feel routine and predictable, so even though the world is big, there's very little in it worth seeing. There's only one voice actor per race and far, far too much chit-chat. Most of your time is spent in combat but as there are only four classes of melee weapon, this gets old fast if you're a warrior type. There is also the most idiotic trading system I've ever encountered: the richest merchant has 1200 gold so this is all you can ever get for any item but he never runs out; why then are there items worth many thousands of gold when they (at least should) know you can't get that much!? There are mods to fix most of these issues - the entire outdoor world can be changed, the whole leveling system removed so enemies are varied and challenging, the combat made unpredictable and deadly and the horrible trading system thrown out the window. It's still worth buying Oblivion just so you can play Nehrim, though.… Expand
  19. Gor1945
    Apr 8, 2017
    6
    По сравнению с великой Морровинд - просто провал - деградация и упрощения во всем - вырезано оружие, магические школы, мир - стал стандартно унылым (и это после шикарнейшего в своей небанальности Морровинда), основной сюжет банален донельзя - положение отчасти спасала шикарная графика (какой там лес был) и действительно интересные побочные квесты и линейки квестов за гильдии.По сравнению с великой Морровинд - просто провал - деградация и упрощения во всем - вырезано оружие, магические школы, мир - стал стандартно унылым (и это после шикарнейшего в своей небанальности Морровинда), основной сюжет банален донельзя - положение отчасти спасала шикарная графика (какой там лес был) и действительно интересные побочные квесты и линейки квестов за гильдии.
  20. M_Alex
    Mar 26, 2011
    5
    Ths game isn't bad. Some aspects, like the graphics, are very good. However, gameplay wise, this game falls behind. It begins very well, but it becomes monotonous with time. After about 30 hours of gameplay i was running away from any person who wanted to give me a quest, and some time later, I just ignored most of them. Regardless of what they said you are to do it always came down to "goThs game isn't bad. Some aspects, like the graphics, are very good. However, gameplay wise, this game falls behind. It begins very well, but it becomes monotonous with time. After about 30 hours of gameplay i was running away from any person who wanted to give me a quest, and some time later, I just ignored most of them. Regardless of what they said you are to do it always came down to "go there, kill everybody, find an object, come back." The main quest line also is not enthralling, and, moreover, nor original in any way. After gluing me to the screen for a long time, the game simply became tedious.… Expand
  21. DantheMan
    Mar 18, 2011
    5
    The phrase that is often used to described Bethesda's games are "free world". It's apt. It's correct. And either you like that aspect or you don't. I don't. To me, it's not an RPG. Playing a role by definition means there is some type of script. While there is technically a major thread in the game it very easy to lose it and never find it again. You can wonder aimlessly for hours.The phrase that is often used to described Bethesda's games are "free world". It's apt. It's correct. And either you like that aspect or you don't. I don't. To me, it's not an RPG. Playing a role by definition means there is some type of script. While there is technically a major thread in the game it very easy to lose it and never find it again. You can wonder aimlessly for hours. Is it fun? Kinda. But it never offers any real sense of accomplishment for me. I never feel like I'm making progress, like I make a difference in the world. I hate to give this game a five because I respect the quality of the work that went into it. But it's just not for me. If you are Bethesda fan-boy you will love this game like you loved all the others. But it's more of the same old boring crap as far as I am concerned.… Expand
  22. mez
    Dec 17, 2011
    5
    This is a bland and soulless game. The world is huge, but there's little variation throughout and it all feels oddly empty (contrast with the fantastic weirdness and variety of Morrowind). The level scaling takes away any sense of danger. The badly animated characters are ugly beyond reason. The voice acting is truly, truly miserable (think Aribeth in Neverwinter Nights levels of bad). TheThis is a bland and soulless game. The world is huge, but there's little variation throughout and it all feels oddly empty (contrast with the fantastic weirdness and variety of Morrowind). The level scaling takes away any sense of danger. The badly animated characters are ugly beyond reason. The voice acting is truly, truly miserable (think Aribeth in Neverwinter Nights levels of bad). The developers clearly used their whole budget hiring Sean Bean and Patrick Stewart and then had to resort to getting random people in off the street. There's no emotional engagement at all because not one of characters has any personality - they're all just generic, interchangeable quest dispensers. The setting has potential though. I understand the modding community has done some great things, but for me the days of spending a whole weekend auditioning mods are long gone. I don't recommend the vanilla game.… Expand
  23. PrimalHunter70
    Mar 13, 2012
    6
    I honestly couldn't get into this game after I had played Skyrim. Its dialogue is weird and irritating, the inventory is annoying, the map is also very annoying. The graphics are poor, and I have to say that Doom 3 (a game from 2004) had far better visuals. The combat is fun, but very clunky as it is in the Elder Scrolls games. An okay game, and I admit I would have enjoyed it much more ifI honestly couldn't get into this game after I had played Skyrim. Its dialogue is weird and irritating, the inventory is annoying, the map is also very annoying. The graphics are poor, and I have to say that Doom 3 (a game from 2004) had far better visuals. The combat is fun, but very clunky as it is in the Elder Scrolls games. An okay game, and I admit I would have enjoyed it much more if I hadn't played Skyrim first.… Expand
  24. AndrewC
    Feb 28, 2010
    6
    A tragically flawed game, saved only by a lovingly obsessive modding community. The real tragedy of Oblivion is not it's instability, the stupid main quest, the non-existent AI, the horrendously flawed leveling system, the annoying voice acting, the merely adequate combat system or even the ugly interface. It's none of these. Its that if you take the effort to download about 10 A tragically flawed game, saved only by a lovingly obsessive modding community. The real tragedy of Oblivion is not it's instability, the stupid main quest, the non-existent AI, the horrendously flawed leveling system, the annoying voice acting, the merely adequate combat system or even the ugly interface. It's none of these. Its that if you take the effort to download about 10 Gigabytes of 3rd party mods, from bug fixes, to complete overhauls that totally change almost every system in the game, you can see what this game could have been if Bethesda had just taken the effort. Then you understand why so many, me included love this game.… Expand
  25. DavidL
    Aug 17, 2009
    5
    I give this game a 5 because it requires "Fan Made Content' to even make it enjoyable, even after having mods toppled over mods it still don't entertain me as much as my other games do. Morrowind was far better than this game. Morrowind kept you busy even if you where not playing the main plot. The problems with oblivion is every thing that they said was good about it. 1.I I give this game a 5 because it requires "Fan Made Content' to even make it enjoyable, even after having mods toppled over mods it still don't entertain me as much as my other games do. Morrowind was far better than this game. Morrowind kept you busy even if you where not playing the main plot. The problems with oblivion is every thing that they said was good about it. 1.I can't walk up "steep hills" when there really not all that steep. Why can't they have the character crawl up the hill at least with coded textures that make the character do stuff when they touch the texture or some thing that makes sense please. 2.You character can't climb up ledges and pull him/her self up. 3.The magic effects are boring. All i have seen was fire balls, thunder bolts and stuff alike etc. I have not seen any thing epic like a meteor shower or a fire storm or fire arrows or a huge shock wave that shakes the ground and makes cracks and stuff etc. 4.Combat is slow and boring. There is a mod that fixes this, but still with out good maneuverability combat will also fail. (Refer to 1) 5.The story line was great and i give them a 10 for it, but it lacked in game play so it was like watching a movie with a single ending. 6. Random encounters took for ever to re spawn or you won't even fight them because only 1-3 monsters spawn at a time. To get any action you had to look for quests and there hard as heck to find for such a big game. So even though you can go any where you still had to do quests to get any real action so technically the game was linear. 7. Why do you even level up? Why do you even have abilities? Why do you even have any thing for this game when you can beat it at level 1? 8. The character creation concept was awesome, but didn't work right because it takes mins to hours to make a good looking character. The facial hair was a complete rip off because it wasn't facial here it was just coloring. Games that are far older than this had beards and more maneuverability like prince of Persia or dungeon lords. 9.This game has some advantages like being huge (Why is there no MP support?) and the graphics. 10.This game is just a walk in the park. Nothing that caught my eye. I care about game play more than visuals all though i do admit that visuals are very very important for games. So even if a game has bad graphics it can still look nice if it has a lot of detail the objects plus the game play to back it up. Games should be great with many features from the start you shouldn't make your customers do all the work by having to mod the thing inside out. I do love modding i don' t mean to stop make modding tools, i mean make a game that is good enough so that we don't have to make overhauls. This is all my opinion of course. Excuse my typing i,am young and not perfect at English even though it is my own language.… Expand
  26. tangency
    Jun 11, 2012
    7
    Oblivion is a great place to start in Elder Scrolls if you are newer to RPGs or if you want a more laid-back approach. I only gave it a seven because of how much potential it threw away. If you are a fan to the Elder Scrolls series, you know what I am talking about. The graphical changes also kind of annoyed me. I am not one of the people who thinks graphics is the most important in gamingOblivion is a great place to start in Elder Scrolls if you are newer to RPGs or if you want a more laid-back approach. I only gave it a seven because of how much potential it threw away. If you are a fan to the Elder Scrolls series, you know what I am talking about. The graphical changes also kind of annoyed me. I am not one of the people who thinks graphics is the most important in gaming (I still play Mario for the NES) but I think when you go through a drastic change from what they used to be, it kind of ruins a lot. It's like when you change an actor for the same character in a movie. The graphics became cartoony, which made it harder for me to immerse myself into the game. It's a pretty good game in the beginning, and the questline isn't too short. It is annoying to level, however, because of the Major Skill restriction. There aren't minor and miscellaneous skills that you can pull a little bit of level experience off of, like in Morrowind, and you can't pull level experience from every skill, like in Skyrim. The questing system isn't very rounded, either, and some of the questlines can really piss you off because of their restrictions. Like others before me, I would say that it had great bones but started going the wrong way. It lacks relative long term value unless you try every race and every class (but then you are just repeating everything). There are also a lot fewer side-quests to Oblivion than the other Elder Scrolls games.
    Another CON that I have is the fact that they ripped out a lot of good stuff, like Dwemer. Ayleid ruins are nowhere near the same as Dwemer ruins, and there aren't any artifacts based around them.
    Onto the PROS:
    The game is good to be immersed in or just to play as long as you can get by the cons.
    There is actually fast traveling.
    It isn't too easy or too hard to beat and creatures are all leveled with you to some extent (they will replace rats with wolves, and wolves with hogs and bears and trolls and such).
    There is quite a few things to go through and explore even though there aren't as many as the other games.

    All in all, Oblivion is a more laid-back RPG system that is great to play if you haven't played the other Elder Scrolls installments (kinda the same with Skyrim players who are new to the Elder Scrolls universe, I hate them with the burning passion of a thousand lemmings!, although it would help if you played Morrowind before Skyrim and possibly even Oblivion).
    And if you haven't played the other games you won't get the suckerpunch to the kidneys showing that Oblivion is a hell of a difference.    … Expand
  27. HCTristesse
    Oct 4, 2012
    6
    In comparison to Morrowind, the only things that became better are those that HAD to for the next generation: graphics and gameplay. Combat is much more interesting. However, the story is dull, especially when compared to Morrowind, there are close to no hidden special quests and the like, and it doesn't feel as "free" as in Morrowind. The enemies become stronger along with you, soIn comparison to Morrowind, the only things that became better are those that HAD to for the next generation: graphics and gameplay. Combat is much more interesting. However, the story is dull, especially when compared to Morrowind, there are close to no hidden special quests and the like, and it doesn't feel as "free" as in Morrowind. The enemies become stronger along with you, so leveling up doesn't really serve a purpose. Quests are boring and repetitive. Lots of skills were abandoned, the whole game is more straightforward. Exploring caves, ruins etc. is no more fun because they are filled just with generic enemies and treasures - there is no hope you'll find anything special if you're not there for a quest. Still, it's an Elder Scrolls game and therefore worth playing, even with these downsides.… Expand
  28. Pomornik
    Jun 3, 2011
    6
    Lets see; Graphics, they was good back in the days, but now you need mods to make it look decent. NPC faces are creepy and ugly, and thats a big deal since you get zoom in at them every time you talk with them. Luckily it has a great character creation, lets you customize your character any way you want. Story, the main plot is horrible, i would use the console to close the oblivion gates,Lets see; Graphics, they was good back in the days, but now you need mods to make it look decent. NPC faces are creepy and ugly, and thats a big deal since you get zoom in at them every time you talk with them. Luckily it has a great character creation, lets you customize your character any way you want. Story, the main plot is horrible, i would use the console to close the oblivion gates, since it was extremely boring to do it the normal way, over and over again (they were all identical). But it had alot of great side quests, especially the Assassins guild. Class and combat system are almost identical as in Morrowind, which means they are good, but got "simplified" a litte (or dumbed down if you prefer). I really hate how every house, cave and even cities are instanced, doesnt make it feel like a free open world at all. Also no fun skills like levitation, and hearing the same voiceactors all the time is kinda awkward (theres only like few voice actors). I dont really see a point buying this game today, just wait for Skyrim.… Expand
  29. Willybach
    Apr 20, 2011
    6
    Man, I've had a funny relationship with this game over the years. Really really wanted to love it. In fact practically upgraded my PC once just to try to play it as my initial set up could barely get 12 fps with distance drawing off. Downloaded hundreds of mods - all in an attempt to make the most immersive, in-depth fantasy world I possibly could. Ultimately this game is just anMan, I've had a funny relationship with this game over the years. Really really wanted to love it. In fact practically upgraded my PC once just to try to play it as my initial set up could barely get 12 fps with distance drawing off. Downloaded hundreds of mods - all in an attempt to make the most immersive, in-depth fantasy world I possibly could. Ultimately this game is just an unfortunate let down. Even years later after upgrading my PC for a second time, when checking out the game once more, I found myself strangely not enjoying the experience. I mean, I love fantasy, love the idea of an open world. Love RPGs. So why is this game so disappointing? Well, even with pretty good PCs this game will stutter and struggle. The world is very repetitive. Dungeons, extremely so. Combats simplistic. NPCs mostly boring. Plot, okayish. Spells and animations just not good enough. If people like this game, it's almost certainly down to the mods. The community is what made this game in truth. Let's hope they learn from this one (and the modders) and turn out a more polished game for Elder Scrolls V. (And a bigger, more interesting world please). I found myself trying Morrowind because of this game and then strangely hovering in limbo between the two, unable to really get into either - there's Morrowind with it's far more detailed and engaging world, its better systems and story-line - but after Oblivion's combat it's pretty hard fighting in Morrowind. Then after Morrowind it's likewise pretty hard to get into Oblivion's shallow world. Even with the quite outstanding mods out there like OOO, MMM and so many others... nice try, here's hoping someone makes the game I'm waiting for soon ....… Expand
  30. TheChosenOne
    Jan 15, 2010
    6
    Lets get one thing straight; Oblivion has clearly been dumbed down for the consoles, and IS easily inferior in every way but graphics to its predeccessors. The plot is simple, dull, repetetive and stinks of a certain well-known film Franchise down to the voice actors, most of the loot is randomised(so stupid its hard to believe), most NPC's have 5 dialog options at best, and the Lets get one thing straight; Oblivion has clearly been dumbed down for the consoles, and IS easily inferior in every way but graphics to its predeccessors. The plot is simple, dull, repetetive and stinks of a certain well-known film Franchise down to the voice actors, most of the loot is randomised(so stupid its hard to believe), most NPC's have 5 dialog options at best, and the combat has been reduced to the depth of a Turded Salt Ayre. The most annoying thing though by far, is the content thats been removed. An RPG without Spears? Come on Bethesda, theres no excuse, its pathetic. Another brilliant series down the drain because of console gamers inert brains. Great.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best PC Game of 2006
2
#2 Most Discussed PC Game of 2006
2
#2 Most Shared PC Game of 2006

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
94

Universal acclaim - based on 54 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 54 out of 54
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 54
  3. Negative: 0 out of 54
  1. Entertainment Weekly
    100
    It’s just so damned big. That’s what you’ll say after playing Oblivion for more than an hour. Or, for that matter, 50 hours.
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  2. Game Over Online
    96
    Oblivion is by far the closest I have come to playing D&D Sunday afternoons with my friends (yes, I did that, though I’m on medication now), all wrapped up in a stunning package with tens of thousands of lines of spoken dialog and good music.
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  3. Quandary
    100
    I honestly have to say that I am in favour of most of the changes and I think Oblivion is an awesome achievement from Bethesda.
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