After Skyrim it was time for a revisit.
Six years ago the graphics were amazing, rag doll physics were cool, and it felt like you could do anything in this world, but like all games they age and some loss their luster over time. Oblivion is one of the games that shows it's age not only in it's graphics but game play as well. Six years ago I would have given this game a 9 now I can only give it an 8...here's why.
Obviously the graphics are now dated..does this effect game play...no, but some of the character models now seem fake compared to the current crop. Land scapes still look great but they're not as fully detailed as you'd see in Skyrim. Honestly the caves, dungeons, mines and crypts is where the graphics hold up the most. Monsters look a little more cartoony than Skyrims as well.
The bad other than the graphics is that monsters attacks can be predictable. not a big deal as they can also be devastating and still challenging. Monsters also can block alot of your attacks so sword fights can be still interesting. I found Goblins to be the most challenging of opponents in a sword fight.
Even back in the day when it first came out I had three complaints: One being that the max level was too low for a game with so much to explore. The highest I reached was 48 and impossible to go higher. The problem is that I barely even explored 1/4 of the possible dungeons I could and my levels were maxed out.
I was also disappointed in the beastiery...but after playing Skyrim I realized Oblivion had a lot more variety in monsters than Skyrim and I appreciatied it a little more.
The fact that unlike Morrowind you could basically become guildmaster of every guild with no conflict of interest. You can basically do everything in the game with one character which hurt replay value.
While replaying I remembered another beef I had with Oblivion...mostly the thief class, which really hurts the reason for being a thief. It seems that Oblivion is full of houses to break into and steal from...and while this is true there are a lot of places to rob, the problem is is that all of the houses, no matter how rich they may appear, are full of junk. You really won't find anything of value to make a break and enter worth your time. I'm suppose to be a thief in a world full of houses to rob but no one has anything worth stealing...this really hurts the point of being a thief. Also gems and jewels are worth next to nothing in Oblivion, where they fetched a good price in Morrowind, gems and jewels are barely worth picking up. I remember in Morrowind a pearl was worth 100 gp...I think in Oblivion it's worth may 2-5 gp...I just don't get it. Most of my money in Oblivion comes from selling valuable armor and potions instead of gems and jewels and looted gp.
The main story is really a play through once kind of thing. I honestly found closing the oblivion gates to be tiresome and when I replay the game I usually skip the main story now and just adventure and do side quests.
What I love most about Oblivion is the side quests and exploring. You never know what you're going to run into when you enter a dungeon in Oblivion. They are populated with all sort of monsters and bandits a like. Every dungeon feels like something different. They may have a similar look... which is natural...I mean a mine is always going to look like a mine inside. But the layout is always different...and they are not random. Each dungeon is precreated. I absolutely love exploring in this game ....much more than Skyrim which I found boring to dungeon delve.
I also find the quests unique in structure. It feels like they really went out of their way not to make all the quests seem similar to each other. They are all amusing and full of character. They're not the basic fetch/kill the populated Skyrim.
For anyone looking to flesh out the Oblivion game more there are some DLC you can also get. I downloaded it all!!!!
The ones to skip are the horse armor...which I felt useless and while repairing the Orrey provides you with another quest to do it's not very satisfying.
The DLC I'd recommend the most are The Vile lair(must have) The vile lair provides you with a safe haven that was once an assasin's den. This is great because inside is a pool that will remove the vampire curse when ever you tire of being a vampire instead of having to do the long quest. You also get other things too but that's the icing on the cake.
Mehune's Razor is the games biggest dungeon and is full of treasure and and enemies to fight as well as a valuable aritifact. Recommended download.
The Thieves Den, Wizards's lair and fighter's Stronghold are all really cool too, They help flesh out the world a little more as well as provide you with extra safe havens. The also provide you with extra merchants to sell your wares to. The great thing about these merchants is that where the previous merchants had a cap of 1200 gp no matter the value of the item...these merchants have a cap of 2000....so you get more money for your items.
Spell tomes is okay...it's cheap so I got it. I just consider Horse armor of waste of money but I bought it anyway because six years ago I was in love with Oblivion. Am I still in love with Oblivion...not as much. It's still a great game that still calls to me, I love to make characters and explore but after a while it has that been there - done that feel to it. But it started my love affair with the elderscrolls. I sought out and played Morrowind after it, played Skyrim, but this still remains my favorite.