what's wrong with Oblivion? I think is a great rpg.
Too big to explore? the main quest too short?
Graphic wise the environment on Oblivion is really medieval, while Morrowind is too much "fake" too much like the neverending story, I mean it's not a D&D kind of Rpg but it's more of WoW rpg.
I like when rpg are more medieval
Just an opinion
Too LITTLE to explore
Especially after Daggerfall (infinite area) and Morrowind (five to six times larger than Oblivion).
But my main problems with Oblivion are:
- Leveled creatures and loot. There is no incentive whatsoever to improve your character, since the enemies will always be as tough as you, regardless of the area. In Morrowind you could run into an area where you would get your ass handed to you if you went there ill-prepared or too low level. You could just pass it and return later to totally obliterate the area with impunity
In Oblivion it doesn't matter anymore, which is boring. And at certain point, every goddamn random thug would carry Daedric armor, which in the lore is supposed to be something only centuries old mages (such as Divayth Fyr in Morrowind, the only person in the entire game to have an almost complete set! You could only get a second set by finding a piece here, another there in the deepest depths of an ancient cave inside a volcano) could ever even hope to land their hands upon.
- The ENDLESS copypaste Ayleid ruins and caves. You could shoot enemies "blindly" in a brand new cave and hit with 80 % accuracy, because you knew it beforehand where the enemies would be
uke: In Morrowind, all creatures, caves and ruins were hand-made one by one, making almost every one completely unique and with lots of neat details to be found.
- There's like three or four voice actors in the entire game. If you can't do it properly, don't do it at all. They should've used a purely text-based system with only the key characters having voice actors, like they had in Morrowind, and how it is in Fallout/Fallout 2. That way you could have a helluva lot more variety and interesting discussion paths to follow.
- The Oblivion world simply feels empty, and in constant state of waiting for a script to be activated when your character walks over a spot. It's like the world is simply there for you and you only. If you'd disappear, the whole of Cyrodiil would simply stop. That removes all the immersion and the feeling of being a small part of a much bigger scheme, with ability to change how events turn out. In Morrowind, key characters could and WOULD die if you didn't protect them (and the game would not end). In Oblivion they don't matter at all, since they are immortal anyway. And slightly related to the leveling and this, the immersion is also lost because a single random Imperial guard would own every creature in the game, so another reason for you is lost - they would not need you to kill Mankar Camoran and Mehrunes Dagon, a single random guard could do it much easier.
- Also the whole armor system was completely watered down. Maybe in Elder Scrolls V you only have one item called Armor and one item called Weapon :Smug: I want to be able to enchant my pauldron, left hand gauntlet, right boot, with whatever I want to. Oblivion screwed that up completely compared to Morrowind. Same thing with enchanting items. In Morrowind you could hand-pick the stats to suit your needs vs. charge/uses available, not to mention have a much bigger capacity for various statistic improving enchantments. The classic is of course the 1-47 Constant Effect Fortify Attribute. Same for skills, which you could improve beyond 100 to bring your character inhuman attributes, just like magical items SHOULD in game. In Oblivion only TWO damn skills do anything beyond 100 (Athletics and Acrobatics). In Morrowind, almost all skills would provide advantage beyond 100.
- All the quests in Oblivion are: "Go to place X, get/kill item Y, return for jack shit as a reward". If all quests would be as inventive as the first Blackwood Company quest, all would be well. But no, it's like they added the majority of the quests as an afterthought.
Of course, some of these can be fixed with mods like Crowded Roads, Curse of Hircine, Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, Wilderness Creatures, and so on, but why couldn't they just make them right straight away.
Not to mention the feeling. Oblivion is just an endless happyhappyjoyjoy area with no rough edges, while Morrowind felt completely alien with lots of darkness, gritty places and completely different landscapes depending on the location.