Does the game still hold up today?
Whether you are scouring the entirety of Cyrodil looking for more nirnroot or fulfilling a job for one of the many guilds that operate in the province, there seems like an almost endless amount of things to do. Now you might be thinking, “There’s also a lot of stuff to do in Skyrim also, the map is huge!” and you aren’t wrong. Skyrim does have a lot to do and a large map, but when you compare the size of Cyrodil to the size of Skyrim on an in game map, Cyrodil is almost the same size of Skyrim. Not to mention that each city’s quest line in Oblivion is so different that you get absorbed into the drama and turmoil that the city is going through. Even if you added all the DLC to both games, I think Oblivion holds up better than Skyrim and even Morrowind.
Comparing the various DLC’s
When you talk about some of the best DLC’s of all time, Oblivion‘s ‘The Shivering Ilses’ is almost always mentioned, and its no small wonder why. ‘The Shivering Ilse’ added an entire new map that was only slightly smaller than the map for Cyrodil, and it added a quest line that makes ‘The Shivering Ilses’ by far the best DLC Bethesda has released for an Elder Scroll’s game. Getting transported to the realm of Sheogorath in an effort to help the Daedric Prince as he tries to stop the destruction of his realm, you are able to explore the entirety of his realm and really see and understand the deadly beauty of Sheogorath’s madness. Don’t forget about Sheogorath’s oh-so-enthusiastic butler Haskill that you get to summon whenever you need to brighten your day. While Oblivion’s other DLC weren’t as great as ‘The Shivering Ilses’ they still added something to the game, well except Horse Armor.
Now I’m not saying that the other games didn’t have good DLC, ‘Dawnguard’ and ‘Dragonborn’ were both good, and ‘Bloodmoon’ and ‘Tribunal’ were also pretty good. Even though these all added a lot to their games, I still found myself getting bored more quickly with these DLC. Once you complete the main quest line for all of these DLC, there isn’t much to do afterward. ‘Dawnguard’ added a plane of Oblivion you could travel to, that was just got old very quickly, and two extra skill trees to branch into, but you can play the entire game without using them and lose nothing in terms of game-play. ‘Dragonborn’ was almost the same way, it added a few new maps and Hermaeus Mora’s plane of Oblivion, but when compared to what you could do in Sheogorath’s plane of Oblivion, it was a little disappointing that you couldn’t really explore that much of the realm and that there wasn’t anything to do besides getting the black books. ‘Bloodmoon’ was also pretty good but just still can’t compare to ‘The Shivering Ilses’ in terms of stuff to do and story line. The same also goes for ‘Tribunal’ it was good, but when compared, it just can’t beat ‘The Shivering Ilses’.
Looking at the main quest lines
I want to start off by saying that all of the main story lines are good, but if I had to rank them best to “worst”, Oblivion would be first, Morrowind would be second, and Skyrim would rank third for me. In Oblivion you aren’t the prophesied savior of the province, or the next in a line of, basically, superheroes. You are just a normal person that is in the right prison cell at the right time and get the chance to escape all while getting dragged into the turmoil of the realm, to be set on the path to greatness. I also like Morrowind‘s main quest better than Skyrim‘s
because you are on your own. You have to make sure to read your journal to find the right person to talk to, its not just the person with the wayponit above their head. You also have to keep double checking your map to make sure you are going the right direction. Plus, who doesn’t want to help take down a god? I also feel like Morrowind‘s story was more cohesive and thought out when compared to Skyrim‘s. Skyrim‘s main story was the most forgettable of the three, just look at how people mod the game. They add stuff to the game to, more often than not, get further away from the main story and to take advantage of the nice graphics. Were as the most popular mods for Oblivion and Morrowind are to enhance the graphics so players can enjoy the stories and the immersive worlds more.
The classic never die
When looking back Oblivion and really any of the Elder Scrolls games, they hold up years later. I still find myself stumbling upon little easter eggs, or even finding something I’ve never come across, to this day Oblivion is still able to surprise me and keep me entertained for hours on end. So even though the game is over 12 years old, it is still to this day one of Bethesda’s best releases and can hold its own against the newer games.
