The world is rich and fun to explore, though some of the core mechanics kinda drag after a while, but the characters are the real highlight. The classic Bethesda buggy rushedness gives everything a level of surrealism that is so fun to experience.
The main story drags in the beginning as it sets up a pretty typical high fantasy story, but in the latter half the wild mysticism of Mankar Camoran and the Mysterium Xarxes makes up for a lot.
The real strengths are in the side quests; featuring genuine whodunits, Lovecraftian daedra worship, a town where everyone has been turned invisible, an all-too-paranoid wood elf, a living painting, putting to rest a thousand year old army of ghosts, and a heist in the literal center of the empire. Not to mention the terrific DLC expansions, one a King Arthur style knightly quest against a reawoken evil and the other an alice-in-wonderland romp in the mind of the God of Madness himself.
Criticism:
Combat is floaty and has no real skill or weight involved in it, and is honestly best avoided whenever possible.
Oblivion gates SUCK. They are identical slogs through wide open spaces that are exclusively red and black, requiring endless fights with overpowered enemies.
Likewise, the world itself falls prey to the mid 2000s bleargh design trend, where colors and spaces are often indistinguishable from each other in the mire of earth tones.
One of the best, still.
The main story drags in the beginning as it sets up a pretty typical high fantasy story, but in the latter half the wild mysticism of Mankar Camoran and the Mysterium Xarxes makes up for a lot.
The real strengths are in the side quests; featuring genuine whodunits, Lovecraftian daedra worship, a town where everyone has been turned invisible, an all-too-paranoid wood elf, a living painting, putting to rest a thousand year old army of ghosts, and a heist in the literal center of the empire. Not to mention the terrific DLC expansions, one a King Arthur style knightly quest against a reawoken evil and the other an alice-in-wonderland romp in the mind of the God of Madness himself.
Criticism:
Combat is floaty and has no real skill or weight involved in it, and is honestly best avoided whenever possible.
Oblivion gates SUCK. They are identical slogs through wide open spaces that are exclusively red and black, requiring endless fights with overpowered enemies.
Likewise, the world itself falls prey to the mid 2000s bleargh design trend, where colors and spaces are often indistinguishable from each other in the mire of earth tones.
One of the best, still.