Skyrim is shit btw. Oblivion forever (oblivion is worse than Morrowind, but Oblivion was my entrance to the games so I love it)
this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2026
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Bethesda hasn't put out anything above average since Oblivion
Oblivion was overall not good, but it had some moments, mostly involving Shivering Isles
But Oblivion was basically them rejecting everything that made Morrowind such a classic
No unique setting (Cyrodiil was supposed to be fairly Mediterranean if I recall correctly), weak villain and plot (boy, it would be great if I actually did something other than escort Sean Bean to his death) and it was the beginning of them paring down all the crunch that makes RPGs fun
The empire was meant to be the collision between Roman (Colovian) and Aztec (Nibenay) culture. Roman centurions with face tattoos and feather capes. Mediterranean on the coast. Jungle inland etc.
Thanks!
I knew there was supposed to be something more to it than rolling green European hills
Elder Scrolls is not The Simpsons, I can tell you that
I will admit that Oblivion was mostly my introduction to Elder Scrolls, so there is some nostalgia bias. But I feel like Oblivion was overall good and is a medium between Morrowind and Skyrim, and has some strengths of both, and I am an Oblivion defender.
There are some upsides and years ago I would have said Oblivion is better because of how slow and obtuse some of the Morrowind mechanics are if you are new to it. Especially if you just couldn't look up solutions to things on the internet (I keenly remember many hours of wasted searching just because an NPC gave wrong directions to the dungeon). These days I do think Morrowind is better because of the world building and the depth involved. It is the only one I am still replaying occasionally.
Oblivion had a lot of streamlining of the mechanics that made it a lot easier to get into the game and got rid of a lot of the drag of the games and some non-level parts of the grind. But as bad as the Oblivion main quest could get, I still remember how much of the main quest in Morrowind was getting a book for Caius Cossades and that being the impetus for me mostly ignoring Elder Scrolls main quests and just wander and dungeon delve. And even though a lot of things were getting simplified and flattened for this, Oblivion still wasn't anywhere near Skyrim's levels yet. And even if the main quest was boring, several of the side quests before Shivering Isles were good. I still think that the Dark Brotherhood questline was one of the best Bethesda questlines and even the Mages Guild setup of getting approval from every hall, which each specializes in a different school of magic, was a good choice of requiring the character to have some amount of proficiency with magic without a direct stat requirement (yes, you could just buy scrolls and staves to do everything if you were high enough level, but it is better than Skyrim's where a barbarian with a small handful of scrolls could be archmage in a week). Even though the "every hall specializes in one school of magic" conceit just reeks of a bad GM's world building, Oblivion does pull it off.
So I think that Oblivion was actually quite good, even if it wasn't at Morrowind's level. And it did introduce a lot of mechanics that were a wrong turn made more obvious after Skyrim (e.g. unkillable NPCs instead of the "persist in this doomed world" message, the entire world levels with you and gives good loot no mater the quest or area).
I agree with some of your points, except the Dark Brotherhood quest
The individual missions are good, each one showcasing different aspects of a good assassin
But the actual quest is not that good when you consider that it's very obvious that both the player and their character realizes that they're being mislead but are given no recourse to do anything about it. You can't warn Armand or track down the perpetrator until after you slaughter all these fellow assassins or anything
Yes, yes, I know that there's the whole thing with Sithis and the Dark Mother and how they just love killing no matter what, but by all accounts, it's just railroading for the sake of railroading and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth
The railroading sucks, but I liked the story and the Agatha Christie quest. Also killing all your buddies is a real knife twister, which is a rare experience in a game for me.
I just loved exploring in Oblivion. There was something really wonderful about stumbling around in the woods, finding some village and figuring out what its Deal was. I still remember my first playthrough where I ended up ass-first in that painting quest. There were so many of those experiences. I can acknowledge Morrowind is the Better Game, but the nostalgia just doesn't hit the same.
Did not get the same thing with Skyrim. It felt so formulaic.
Skyrim feels like the perfect RPG for the "Epic Bacon" crowd
Every character can do everything, you routinely piss off every other Daedric Lord, and you have the whole Romans Vs. Vikings Vs. Dragons thing
There are little moments that feel alright, like they're building up to something good, but immediately undercut themselves
Like the whole Parthunaax Dilemma, where the Blades are like "We won't help you fight the actual big bad until you kill the one dragon who doesn't kill for fun" and you can just ignore it. There's no punishment for not doing it and no real benefit to doing it, it's the epitome of their design.
Just a big and wide with zero depth
Dishonoured was good.
Arkane developed that one, Bethesda only published it
I should have specified Bethesda Game Studio, because as a publisher they did pretty alright for themselves