Unpopular Game Opinion Time: Oblivion vs. Skyrim

I love the Elder Scrolls...probably more than I should. Probably my all time favorite fantasy series next to Zelda (I grew up with Zelda so it holds a very dear place in my heart). And having put countless...countless hours into both Oblivion and Skyrim...I can finally say that...

Oblivion is far...far better than Skyrim when it comes to quests...and a few other ways.

But mainly the quests.

I say this because...with Skyrim, a lot of the side-quests are rather...stock standard. Which wouldn't be so bad if they had meaning...and they don't. It's quite literally "Go kill this cuz I said so" or "Go collect this because I said so" and there's absolutely no explanation or story behind the quest. Save for a few of the bigger quests...and even then, the story/plot is rather vague. (I will admit, the College of Winterhold and Dawnguard quests are pretty damn good, tho. Dragonborn is...slightly less so but still pretty alright.)

As with Oblivion...even the smallest quest...be it stock standard or not...has a story behind, a reason. An example: a farmer has his sheep killed by bears, is afraid he'll lose his stock and asks you to thin out the bears, bringing their claws as evidence. As small and trivial as that is...it's still a REASON to do the quest other than "just cuz I told you so". And you end up with some frickin' weird quests as well.

One, you're sucked inside a painting and have to fight painted monsters and find the artist. Another, you're in a guy's nightmare and have to perform various tasks and puzzles to snap him awake. Yet another has you kidnapped and held prisoner at an island fort to fight for your life until you manage to kill the guy who brought you there. And then...I don't even have to get into Shivering Isles...how frickin' great that is.

Every single little quest has a reason...a story, no matter how small, that's still pretty damn interesting. And to me...it just makes the game that much more immersive. I feel like my character is doing more than just "being the hero".

Hell, even getting your first house is an interesting trip all it's own. Gotta kill an undead necromancer in the basement...and there's even a story about him as well.

Sure, Skyrim has a larger map (and more maps overall) and better graphics and the like...but the quests are boring. There's nothing to them, no lore to be told. So you don't feel as invested in doing the tasks...and they become more like chores than quests. Especially the bounty quests...which give no reason at all as to why you're hunting down these people/creatures in the first place.

There are a few good quests with some lore in them...but they're kind of hard to come by and require a hell of a lot of diggin' around in the environment and dialogue trees to get to them. It's tedious.

Quests aside...I think there are two more things that Oblivion does better than Skyrim.

1. You can use you're frickin' magic and weapon at the same time...no need to switch them out. I find it great that I can stun an enemy with a flame attack and then pelt them full of arrows in one solid fluid movement. It feels great.

2. Oblivion's got the better inventory GUI...I'm sorry to say it but it's true. Sure it's small and has several screens to click through but because each thing is it's own screen...it makes it far easier to find items. Need a potion...just click on potions and there you go. Skyrim's GUI seems to rather hate the mouse and using the keyboard...while suits me just fine...still kind of feels a bit tedious. What I could normally do in one or two clicks...takes me that much longer to scroll thru all the collapsible menus to find what i want. And in a spur of the moment situation...it breaks game flow.

That all being said...Oblivion is better than Skyrim in many ways...and Skyrim is better than Oblivion in many ways. I like them both and I could play them for years to come and never be bored of them. There's just so much to do and so much to explore. And so many paths to take, story wise. All the guilds you can join and the like.

Well, I just thought I'd get all that out of the way. Just something I've been wanting to talk about for a bit.

Later, all.