I agree, really. There were things that Oblivion did well, and there were things that Oblivion did terrible. Animations were terrible. Fighting was rather boring, as, really, you just keep mashing the attack button when they’re not attacking, and holding the block button when they are. Lockpicking is terrible. Persuasion is terrible. Fast travel the way they did it was absolutely horrible (I like actually travelling everywhere I need to go). The new barter system was confusing at first, though it was a slight improvement.
As for the story…you can beat the entire story in less than a day, real-time. They spent more time getting Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean (Patrick must’ve been harder, though) to do the voices for the characters than they did actually making you care about them. The only chars in the entire main quest I liked, was Baurus (sp?) and Jauffre. Everyone else sucked. I got through the main quest in one game before I was even level five. To do that in Morrowind, you had to cheat, either to get great weapons and armor, or god mode.
The world was awesome, but the whole “levels with you” idea, they way they did it, sucked. Travel the whole world as level one, and never see anything other than a few wolves. Same thing at level 15, and MINOTAURS EVERY CORNER! Morrowind, if I recall correctly, had all of the animals leveling with the player…which meant the animals temselves. They didn’t get replaced with tougher enemies, they got stronger themselves. Sure, higher level enemies didn’t show up at lower levels, but still.
Morrowind had two expansions with detailed quests, dozens of new weapons, armors, and monsters, and a brand-new worldspace each. Oblivion had eight DLC’s with simple, one-off quests that took a part of the existing worldspace and morphed it. Castle got built overnight, cave delved in one spot, etc. It got one DLC that added a pretty cool set of quests, but again, no new worldspace, just modified worldspace with a few new dungeons. And one DLC, which they call, and sold seperately as, an expansion pack, that adds a limited amount of new things and a new worldspace.
The feel for Morrowind was a new fantasy world that was dark, realistic, and interesting. Something not seen before. The feel of Oblivion was “Look at the pretty world! Generic ruins! Generic fantasy monsters (with a few unique ones)! Lord of the Rings armors! Isn’t it awesome!?”
I liked Oblivion, though. Sneaking and archery were improved. Complete voice acting was a good idea (Even though everyone sounds the same, and looks extraordinarily like everyone else [it was the nose and the hair…everone had the same nose and hair…]). The world was pretty, though I would have expected it to be populated with more than deer and things that was to kill me. The clothing was better (Though the armor system sucks…hooray for armor that comes in five pieces! I missed the Morrowind style…two boots, greaves, chest piece, each pauldron, each gauntlet, the helmet, and the shield…imagine the possibilities…). Oblivion had a better magic system, overall…but Morrowind’s item enchanting was better, IMO.
Oblivion did some things well, and the things it did well, I liked. Archery, sneaking, clothing, voice acting, graphics, etc. And I will admit, I like the lockpicking minigame, but I would not be sad if it was gone. But there were a lot of things Morrowind did better Persuasion, fast travel, story, characters, monster leveling, unique feel. Would I rather Oblivion took some hints from Morrowind? Yes. The things Morrowind did better, I want to see improved. Is Oblivion a bad sequel…in a way, yes. It is a good game? Yes.
