Been playing longer than a week? If that'd be the case you wouldn't ask for an explanation.. but since you're asking for it.. here we go..
MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
- Thieving and the police
What they forgot to tell us in the manual, is that the police in Tamriel have allready created a perfectly working police system. Think Minority Report..
*Walks to door, tries to open it. Door is locked, and the pick lock screen appears without warning. Allready starting to sweat, as my intention was not to break in, but to see what was beyond the door before i knew it was locked i gently remove the lockpick and look around. Nobody in the vicinity.. phew. When i decide to continue my stroll through the city i see a guard running toward me from 3 streets away.*
"HALT CRIMINAL! PAY YOUR FINE AND SURRENDER YOU STOLEN GOODS OR COME WITH ME TO JAIL!!"
That.. and the fact that if you have a bounty on your head the ENTIRE friggin' world knows about it.. Every guard in the world will be looking for you..
Bush should ask the Imperial city guard where Bin Laden is.. i bet they could find out in 10 minutes... plus if he's got any unpayed parkingtickets..
- Stealth... system?
You get 1 free hit when sneaking.. with triple damage depending on your sneak skill.. After that, they almost always know where you are, and you can NEVER hide again until this particular enemy is dead.
Shouldn't it be so that if i choose to reveal myself to an enemy to shoot an arrow in his back, i could run around the corner, jump up a roof and hide again..? But i have to be carefull here.. like i said, my thief isn't thát high lvl yet so it might just be my sneak skill..
-Stamina/fatigue?
Only warriors get tired! Everybody knows that..
Casting spells and shooting my arrows doesn't drain any fatigue.. at all..
I guess conjuring up a huge fireball doesn't make you tired at all..
Result: I can run around ultra speed while casting volley after volley of fireballs at my enemy, or just run backwards with my bow and aim for the head..
- Horses
Whoopie! We finally have means of transportation other than clicking the map and magically appearing there! Too bad i can't swing a sword from up on my horse, or even using my bow.
Well.. at least i can whip my horse into high gear and just knock those guards blocking my way over there to the side, running past them.
Wrong.
Not to mention the fact that at high levels i was able to run faster than my horse.
I felt so so sorry for the critter that i just ran ahead, waiting for him to follow.. when he couldn't keep up if offered him to ride
my back.. :S
(No.. i didn't have a black or white one..)
- Guilds
A lot less guilds or joinable factions than in Morrowind.. Off the top of my head i can remember at least
12 factions i could join in Morrowind.
Here there are a lot less.. and if you want to join the deadra cult and destroy the world for example, you have to play "heroic out to save the world" blade-agent for quite some missions, then suddenly switching to a complete evil wretch halfway through, on first contact with an evil cult. o_o
So i finally get to be the guild leader, after much hard work and saving everybody's ass once more..
"Here you go arch mage.. a special enchanted box for you, and a discount on all my wares."
Wtf.. I thought i could like.. command people to carry out orders.. and.. stuff..
- Vampires
Don't even get me started on this..
Besides the fact that turning into a vampire suddenly makes your face turn into a wrinkled raisin, you cannot feed on just anyone.. No.. your target has to be ASLEEP to be bitten. After wich they can just get up and have a conversation with you if you want to..
I'm a vampire for islamic fonzy's sake!! If i want to feed on you you're going down!!
Not to mention the fact that there are no Vampire clans wich you can join, or special missions.. like in Morrowind..
- Leveling enemies
In Oblivion, the type of enemies, and how strong they are is determined by the game, depending on your own level,
in contrary to Morrowind, where certain area's had very strong enemies, and were thus unplayable in the beginning. Resulting in you having to level up in order to explore the entire world because you just couldn't stay alive otherwise.
A matter of taste..? Perhaps.. yes. Unfortunately, i can also be high level without having trained fighting skills.
I made a merchant like character wich i trained in the arts of speechcraft and mercentile, a high charisma rating, and the ability to sell and buy goods like no other. While training these skills i leveled up quite a bit.
Unfortunately when i go outside now, my enemies have also leveled up because i have, resulting in my merchant having an epic battle of 45 minutes with a mudcrab i could take out in 15 seconds 4 levels ago.. :S
- Items
Finding items depends largely on your level. When you reach higher levels, ordinary bandits and robbers suddenly start wearing Mithril and Glass armors, wielding 13k Ebony Warhammers, while trying to rob you for 100g.
Also, shops and such start selling better equipment and stuff when you level up.
In Morrowind, finding good equipment was a matter of exploring the lands and finding out where to obtain that mythical Glass/deadric armor, or a good Ebony weapon. No matter how high your level was, the shops selled the same stuff, and the truly good equipment wasn't bought in shops when you finally reached lvl 50, but found by accident in an ancient tomb you discovered in the highest mountains of Molag Amur.
- Attribute system makes no sense anymore.
Each skill is tied to a certain attribute. For example, Blade skill is governed by the attribute strength.
In Oblivion, they managed to mess up a perfectly working system they had from the prequel.. Morrowind.
For example, in Morrowind the skill to use daggers, was related to speed. In oblivion they changed it to the attribute strength.
Result?
I cannot use melee weapons anymore without being strong.
Wich makes absolutely NO sense at all..
Using a dagger isn't about being strong.. it about being fast and agile enough to be able to stab you in the neck 4 times before you even get the chance to swing that mighty warhammer at me.. :S
- Talking about skills..
What happened to Medium armor? Or teleporting? (Mark and Recall) Or Spears? Or levitating? (flying)
And no problem if Enchanting isn't something that is available to every beggar in the waterfront and his uncle, but as a lvl 90 mage i think i should be able to enchant my own stuff instead of having to go to the local enchantomatic bookshelfthingie and pay gold for it.
And in Morrowind, we were able to enchant exactly the way we wanted.. a lot more freedom of choice in how you wanted the enchantment to work precisly.. A constant effect enchantment for example was VERY hard to make.. you needed a very powerfull soul (Golden Saint, Winged Twilight, etc) to create it. Now you can do it with the soul of a rat if need be, only the enchantment will be less potent.. ;/
Also, it was quite interesting being able to have your sword enchanted for you as a warrior, of your bow as a thief. How they solved this? Sigil stones to upgrade your stuff.. wich you can get from the impressive oblivion gates that pop up every 10 feet you travel. (leaving you NO choice in what enchantment should be on your eq.)
- Oblivion Gates
The phenomenon that drives the entire story line. But they are almost as common as a bandit cave hideout. And almost just as creative.
Get out the gate, fight the smaller creatures outside, proceed through 2 areas of cavers, get inside the big tower, fight your way upstairs and remove sigil stone. Oh.. sometimes you can't get into the big tower.. try entering a smaller one and open a gate from there.. *excitement*
The first 3 oblivion gates are... interesting. After that.. i didn't take the effort to close another.. or did it in like 3 min because i wanted a new sigil stone.
-
The world is smaller than that of Morrowind.. And no.. it's not the fact that i can instant travel in Oblivion that makes me think this.
- The story concept
is actually.. quite nice.. too bad it doens't get built up, but you get thrown into the story without much introduction.
*Brings the amulet to jaufre without a clue.. suddenly i have to go get a priest guy, to relight the dragonfires! City destroyed! Save the priest! Son of the emperor! Oblivion gates EVERYWHERE! OMGZZRZ! Save the world! By yourself (Blades are the special agents of the empire?! They are sitting on their hands!)
- Horrible voice acting
The voice actor who also plays Jauffre is an actor for at least 6 different characters in the game, from bandits to villagers.. clearly noticable..
Characters also switch voices very often, depending on the subject being discussed. You're talking to this guy with a squeeky begger voice, only to speak with his schizo alter ego the soffisticated aristocrat when switching the subject of the conversation.
Not to mention
The
countless bugs, including clipping through bridges, rocks, and even walls, resulting in being trapped inside a solid wall, unable to escape, doomed to die out of boredom..
Mission critical characters suddenly disapearing, causing you to be unable to finish quests, etc, etc..
I'll just leave it at this.. i could carry on for quite a while.. but my therapygroup consisting of other traumatised players says i have to let it go..