Poor balancing of the level-scaling, graphics/gameplay bugs, and questionable AI keep this game from being great IMO
The game gives you tons of options for character creation. In fact, it gives you too many. For example, when creating my character, I thought it might be cool to create a bard. Sadly, however, the game does not include any gameplay mechanics that would actually make the "Bard" a Bard. You cannot sing in the game, there are no musical instruments that you can acquire, and there are no music/art/creativity skills in the game. So despite the fact that there are about 20 classes in the game, the truth is, there are only 3 different ways that characters can be played, and this is made even more obvious when you select "create a class". You will be prompted to select from one of three class archetypes: One that emphasises meelee combat skills, one that emphasises magic skills, and one that emphasis physical-based skills (such as athletics, acrobatics, sneak, etc). So in reality, the three classes in the game are: Fighter, Mage, Rogue/Thief.
The character class system is made even more irritating by the fact that as far as I can tell, the game was designed so that most of the classes in the game will be severely handicapped in one way or another. The first 3 characters I tried making all leveled-up way too quickly because I was using several of their major skills repeatedly. Which brings me to the next complaint: the level-scaling. When you create a character in this game, you need to know exactly how you intend to play the game, how fast you want to level, and how you are going to designate your skills. If you select a major skill that you are going to be using constantly, your character is going to level-up way too quickly (typically before you have a chance to develop most of your non-class skills), and many aspects of your character are going to be irreperably handi-capped. Set up a Fighter character and level up quickly by hacking and slashing and blocking and dungeon crawling, and you will find that you personality and mercantile skills are so low you can't sell any of the fancy loot you picked up and can't afford to buy suitable armor and weapons or potions. Focus on non-combat skills and you might find yourself leveling-up TWICE without leaving a city simply by selling and buying goods and talking to townies, then get your butt handed to you in the next combat scenario because none of your attack or defense ratings went up. So setting up a character is very difficult to do if you have not already played the game or are not already intimately familiar with how the game world works. So the learning curve for new players is very high. The game tries to make up for this with a difficulty slider in the options menu, but the slider is way too sensitive. Tune the difficulty down just 1% and suddenly you'll be hacking through enemies like warm butter. Maybe that's what you want. But if you're looking for a challenging game experience that does not frustrate you to no end, you may have a very hard time getting your character and the difficulty level balanced in such a way that the game remains enjoyable for you as you progress through the quests.
I definitely like that leveling-up is not completely dependent on how many enemies you kill. Being able to improve your character by being diplomatic or using your problem-solving skills rather than your sword is a VERY NICE addition to a video game RPG that brings the game a little closer to the classic pen-and-paper D&D on which it is based. However, the fact that it is a video game means that your problem-solving options are still limited to what the game engine will allow. So when all is said and done, combat is still necessary, no matter how clever or diplomatic or sneaky your character might be.
The level-scaling is definitely a two-sided blade. On the one hand, it ensures that the game provides a consistent challenge throughout. On the other hand, focusing on the wrong skills at the wrong times can easily leave your character feeling helpless in many situations, and the reward for many early quests is not even worth the time and trouble you went to complete the quest. It also means that you CANNOT gain access to advanced items early in the game, simply because those items do not exist in the world until you reach a certain level. And the knowledge that the whole world just got a little bit tougher will often times dampen the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that typically accompanies leveling-up in most RPGs. Another issue with the level-scaling is that allied NPCs do NOT seem to scale to your level. More on this later when I discuss NPC AI in general.
But if the Level-scaling were the only problem, then it wouldn't be enough for me to justify not recommending this game, since how you set up your character is completely dependent on your own personality, so maybe I am just a unique type of gamer for whome this game does not work. But there are other problems with the game.
For one thing, it is very buggy. graphics and gameplay glitches abound, some of which are minor. Like seeing an enemy's arm or leg pass slightly through a wall. Some of them are moderate. Like certain side-quest events not triggering correctly, forcing you to have to start the quest over again the next day in the hopes the glitch will not recurr. Some are major. Like a time when the whole game froze when I was recovering items from a chest, or another time when trying to get on my horse caused the game world to lock up in a massive graphics glitch that made the whole environment disapear and locked my character in place so that all I could do was rotate the camera to look at the huge expanse of nothing for about 30 seconds until suddenly the world went back to normal.
The game also suffers in the AI department. Most noticeably with Allied NPCs. To put it simply, they are DUMB. How dumb? Well let me put it this way. In a quest that required me to assist some highly-trained city guards and imperial soldiers take back their home city from a horde of invading demons, the aforementioned highly-trained guards and soldiers made a habit out of frequently rushing headlong into groups of enemies. And that's not even the bad part! What really bothers me is their insistence on going straight for the FURTHEST enemy they can find. Which, of course, requires them to run past the closer enemies, who are then able to get some free hits on the NPC on his way, then, wouldn't you know, the poor, stupid NPC finds himself completely surrounded and get himself dead. This crappy AI strategy is even further compounded by the fact that NPC characters (unlike the enemies you will be facing) DO NOT appear to level scale with your character. So if you begin a quest at level 10, and then come back and finish it when you are level 20, any NPCs that would have accompanied you on that quest will still only be level 10, and will get very dead, very quickly. So anytime you are fighting alongside NPCs, no matter how tough or highly-trained they appear to be, you are going to have to spend the whole quest baby-sitting them. The fact that the only way you can talk to them (and give them orders) is to stand right next to them and look at them means that if they are rushing out into danger, you have absolutely NO opportunity to tell them to stop or come back. And if you go chasing after them to help out, you'll only find yourself being surrounded and beaten on by every enemy on the map. The AI in this game makes the run blockers in an EA Sports football game look smart. But enemies are also prone to stupid AI such as getting stuck on walls or on obstacles, and rushing headlong into you and your allies. Its never as much of a problem for the enemy AI, however, since even with a full group of NPCs by your side, you will still typically be outnumbered 2 or 3 to one. So the enemies can afford to rush straight at you.
Overall, Oblivion is a deep RPG with a vibrant and detailed world and an adequately engaging story that moves along at a reasonable pace assuming you don't just take your character out into the wilderness and run around for days doing nothing. There are some very awesome features such as alchemy, custom magic spells, weapon enchantment, and a very clever character development system. The addition of Patrick Stewart's voice talent also doesn't hurt, even if he is only in a small portion of the game.
If you're an RPG fan, then you should probably enjoy Oblivion, unless you are like me and can't stand dealing with nagging issues and poor AI.