Should I bother with Oblivion?

[Necromancer]

Alright, so I have a pretty good amount of stuff on my list of games I need to play. Eventually I'm going to get to the Elder Scrolls, so as the title would suggest, my question is this: should I play Oblivion or just go right for Skyrim? At first I had planned on playing it, but a friend of mine who is a big Elder Scrolls fan told me to just skip it. So what do you guys think? Should I play Oblivion first? Why or why not?

 

[Tsuyu]

In my personal opinion, Oblivion's flaws are too big for me to actually enjoy that game. The leveling system is horrible on it's own, but in combination with the world leveling up with your character it can make the game virtually unplayable: if you pick one of the classes that has either the jumping or running skill as a major skill you will accidentally level up by just exploring! And eventually the world is too hard for your underleveled combat skills to handle. And the fact that your Health/Mana/Stamina increase automatically as you level up depending on what category of skills you used the most is also a royal PITA!

Not to mention that with the world leveling up with your character, any form of challenge is removed. What's the point of visiting a Goblin Cave with your new Daedric armour and weapons when all the Goblins inside it has transformed into mighty warlords? They are just as hard as when you first cleared out that cave in leather armour!

That Skyrim would just the same flawed system was one of my worst fears before Skyrim was released, but they got it right this time around. Seems that they got rid of the stupid parts of the system and kept the ones that worked (the concept of making progress by using your skills rather than putting skill points in them is a good one).

 

[Gikoku]

The inventory menus are terrible, the gameplay is really outdated (though Skyrim's isn't that much different) and the voice acting gets very repetitive, but I still have some fun with it once in a good while. But it's typically not a good idea to play a successor before the predecessor. Going back to Oblivion after Skyrim made Oblivion's flaws even more glaring, and at times made the game very boring. Likewise with going to Morrowind after Oblivion, thus making it hard to truly appreciate.

Story-wise, it really doesn't matter with doing Oblivion before Skyrim aside from some references, sidequests, dialog, and books (but they're explained pretty well in the game). But having played the previous titles beforehand does make those quests and references more special. Skyrim in comparison to Oblivion is a case of out with the bad in with the good, and then some.

 

[Quistrix]

Dude.

Morrowind.

 

[Necromancer]

But it's typically not a good idea to play a successor before the predecessor.

Oh I wasn't planning on doing that at all. I guess I should have been more clear. If I go straight for Skyrim without playing Oblivion first, I'm not going to play Oblivion at all.

On a side note, I'm starting to think I should have made a poll in here...

 

[Tyloric]

If you want to get really crazy, you should track down the previous games. Morrowind is a great place to start.

 

[Necromancer]

I don't think I'm going to bother with those.

 

[Gikoku]

Oh I wasn't planning on doing that at all. I guess I should have been more clear. If I go straight for Skyrim without playing Oblivion first, I'm not going to play Oblivion at all.

On a side note, I'm starting to think I should have made a poll in here...

Oh, in that case you'll be fine with just Skyrim. Better overall in my opinion and there's plenty of books littered around the world to help fill the gaps of the previous games and get you caught up on the lore.

 

[Dark Drakan]

As good as Oblivion was at the time as others have said it has its flaws. I loved the game and besides the odd annoying system such as the level scaled enemies aside it was great. Skyrim got rid of most of those flaws and systems however and would appeal to you more.

 

[Necromancer]

So I guess the general consensus is to just go straight for Skyrim, eh?

 

[Aions]

Dude.

Morrowind.

I cant play Morrowind any more, no quick travel and weapons can miss *woosh* *woosh* *woosh* *woosh* *HIT* *woosh**woosh**woosh*...
As much as i love(ed) oblivion i do find it hard to go back to after Skyrim. Give it a try you dont have any thing to lose by just trying it out

 

[Necromancer]

Give it a try you dont have any thing to lose by just trying it out

The only thing that would really fall under that category would be the money I end up spending on it. And if I get it, I'm going all out and buying the GOTY edition, which still probably won't be that expensive I guess.

 

[Tsuyu]

no quick travel

I beg to differ.

 

[Aions]

The only thing that would really fall under that category would be the money I end up spending on it. And if I get it, I'm going all out and buying the GOTY edition, which still probably won't be that expensive I guess.

I saw GOTY at bestbuy for 12$ last sunday.

I beg to differ.

Boots of blinding speed any any flight spell (i found a staff) works better. landing is a bitch though. I miss that Skooma is not a 'drug' any more in Syrim its just a stamina pot.

 

[Angel]

I love both games SOOOOOO much it's insane. As much as I adore Oblivion, I think if you were to play it after Skyrim, you'd probably hate it and get quite frustrated with it by comparison. For me it was a fairly seamless transition from Oblivion to Skyrim but I think if I had done it the other way around I'd have not been able to appreciate the former for what it is. I had that problem with Morrowind - utterly hated it.

The two games, visually, are very different to me too. Skyrim is more Fallout and Oblivion is like one big watercolour painting by comparison. I use Oblivion now to chill out when I'm getting annoyed with bits of Skyrim...yes it's buggy, yes there are glitches but it's a fantastic game which should at least be tried out at some point even if you make the decision to go Skyrim all the way.

tl;dr - you don't need to have played Oblivion first so dive straight in with Skyrim but try out Oblivion at some point if you can

 

[Aions]

Skyrim...yes it's buggy

Ive only had it freeze on me once... and i had a dragon fly backwards once on me but thats it...

 

[Dark Drakan]

Ive only had it freeze on me once... and i had a dragon fly backwards once on me but thats it...

Mine has never frozen and had a mammoth floating before but thats it really.

 

[The Annoying Hoverer]

Well I like Oblivion more than Skyrim ,but it is only because I played Oblivion first and there was such a big difference that it made Skyrim feel weird .:/
So I think that Oblivion is better ,but I think that if you played Oblivion first and then Skyrim it would be a huge change. (it depends weather or not you like big changes really quick )

 

[Angel]

Ive only had it freeze on me once... and i had a dragon fly backwards once on me but thats it...

All hail my complete inability to format my posts correctly! I meant Oblivion is buggy. By comparison, Skyrim is a dream

 

[The Annoying Hoverer]

Mum you'v got to admit you get very frustrated with it,I mean you said that it was bullcrap or somthing like that!:/