Reviews from

in the past


This game marked a transition for Bethesda as a studio, and it's clear that they were still experiencing some growing pains

Carried by few questlines, cozy vibe/soundtrack and Shivering Isles dlcs. Everything else is mediocre or straight up bad.

Still my childhood, but not as much as Morrowind. Spent countless hours in this world and ended up appreciating Morrowind even more.

Joguei o começo, mas como a missão bugou e perdi aquele save eu desanimei


The trajectory of The Elder Scrolls - from rough freeform complexity to polished, restrictive 'streamlining', reached a magical balance with Morrowind. But the release of Oblivion began their descent towards the latter end, of guided storytelling, less complex RPG mechanics, fully-action combat and lush environments, i.e. towards greater mass appeal. Like its predecessor, much of the intrigue is owed to its playstyles. This time it's the leveling system that influences gameplay, and in particular their major/minor skills, of which only the former awards level EXP. When played normally (as in: selecting the right major skills for one's intended build), the experience suffers from oppressive level-scaling and chronically weak combat. When played in reverse (as in: by assigning seldom-used talents as major skills), the player is faced with an oddly accommodating RPG. Morrowind had balanced this by way of dice rolls, which made building low-level misc skills (here known as minor skills) especially difficult without a trainer. Their absence this time around allows one to easily hone talents regardless of the character's class, and even stay at level 1 for hundreds of hours (although exempted from major quests and stuck with lesser treasure). It's yet another exploit-prone system, but the exploit's effect on gameplay is unusual: Players level up with complete agency and ideally when prepared to increase the difficulty & loot. As skills improve, the attribute bonuses of old lead to carefully-sculpted builds reminiscent of Pokemon's EV-training.

Acrobatics (or regular jumping in general) replaced jump spells as the alternative means of world traversal, now equipped with much better air control that - at high levels, turns areas into quasi-platformer stages (with potential to sequence-break dungeons). The rest is a mixed bag that's heavier on the negatives: Features such as spellmaking and enchanting are tidied up and locked behind quests. Weapons lack feedback despite removing skill-based hit chance. The icon compass and a return to fast-travel-from-anywhere detract from the sense of discovery. And finally the inclusion of voiced dialogue (more than a line or two) indirectly reduces the quality of writing, but that does little to hurt their scenario-building.

this is one of my favorite games ever. Even though I played this game long after its release (in 2021) and with a very fetishistic point of view for its look and uncanny dialogues, I was amazed by how despite everything it was an extremely playable game nowadays. So putting all of this together, it was a mystical experience for me, even though I'm not an Elder Scroll fan. Skyrim lacks all the soul this game has, it's full of empty things.

you have a hands of a healer

I never engaged with the main quest and still was able to sink countless hours into this. The Shivering Isles DLC also boosted the play time for me with its eclectic cast, environment and enemies. More depth than Skyrim, but this was the beginning of the downfall of the Elder Scrolls with more streamlined RPG mechanics and progressively less character-driven story. In saying that, the Dark Brotherhood questline is still a huge highlight.

Oblivion truly felt like a wonder back in 2006-2007. A whole world to explore full of dungeons, things to find, and people living their lives. It truly felt like a big ol' sandbox to get lost in and I loved it so much - jank and all.

Felt like a living breathing world for 2006. Thieve’s Guild and Dark Brotherhood stand out in my memory. Need to go back and replay as I have forgotten the DLC story.

This game is so special to me, it invokes a feeling of nostalgia unlike any other, wandering around the world Bethesda created hearing the superb soundtrack by Jeremy Soule is instilled deep in my memories that i will never forget it.
Oblivion has imo one of the greatest side quests in gaming, with a lot of quests and guilds to play, the game is very immersive with its interior design and dynamic AI system which was ahead of its time.
There is no denying that Oblivion is flawed, it might be the weakest Elder Scrolls game, but beneath the flaws lies a very ambitious game that is personal to me.
Comfiest game ever made, even when the game is buggy its funny and memorable.
I fought Mudcrabs more fearsome than you!

More advanced than Morrowind, but still, it takes less space in my heart.

meu segundo contato direto com elder scrolls, e me prendeu por INÚMEROS meses dentro desse mundo, definitivamente um dos melhores rpgs eletrônicos de todos os tempos, uma dinâmica incrível de oblivion portal's ao redor do mapa, narrativas, histórias paralelas e sistemas de guilds, enfim, defasado? sim. mas ainda acho que é uma experiência necessária a todos os fãs do gênero.

tried to play it twice but it didn't connect with me, the music is amazing and i love the 2000's graphics
this is the kind of bad game that you have to play it as a kid to enjoy as an adult

This game is peak performance. If you are looking for a silly old fantasy RPG with good story and mechanics, then this is your dream girl.

Eu ainda preciso jogar mais ele, não consegui jogar muito

I can't wait to someday play this game without it breaking in 10 hours.

Step-down from Morrowind for me personally, but fun RPG nonetheless.

While I love Skyrim and have spent an ungodly amount of time with it, Oblivion will always be my favorite Elder Scrolls. The last grasp of the golden age of Bethesda... They are never going to make a game this good ever again.

This game is a busted hot mess. I love it so much

borrowed a friend's ps3 back in the day, didn't get to borrow it long enough to finish this, though...


The graphics were super impressive back then, incredibly pretty. I only played through it years later with all the DLCs. The faces were really derpy and the bugs were hilarious :D What I really liked were the quest lines of the individual guilds, especially the Dark Brotherhood is legendary for its quests in this game. The combat system was a huge improvement compared to its predecessor, but it's hardly playable from today's perspective :D The sound design was great and the world was very nicely designed, although not nearly as unusual and unique as Morrowind, more classic high fantasy. The game got a lot of hate because it simplified or deleted some systems from its predecessor, but I could forgive that. Shivering Isles is the best DLC, Sheogorath is just the funniest dude.

So what can I really say that other people in this particular camp haven't about this fucking hilarious, broken, enthrallingly charming game? Bethesda will (likely) never make a video game that is as good as Morrowind again. Oblivion is my favorite.

Walk into a damn tavern in the Imperial City in the evening and just sit down. It'll take approximately 5 seconds before you're in tears. Those mudcrabs are filthy creatures. Also, those boycotts led by those syndicates of wizards on those Imperial goods. This is a game where so much has aged 'terribly' great. I do not get the same sense of amusement in any other Bethesda game that I do from this one.

This is also a game that aged ... terribly awful even on release! I don't have the patience to explain the Leveling + Level Scaling but just google that and you'll find threads dating back to the stone age in bewilderment that certainly the team was cracked out making this one that they didn't take into account how horribly fucking awful it is. There's various ways to mitigate it but it sucks.

This is also a game where it feels quest after quest generally has a real interesting concept/narrative around it. Yeah, the guild quests are often seen as the games highlight and yeah, I do feel they suffer from the Skyrim problem of wanting to give players no opportunity to miss out on content so you kinda become the master of all, but when they are as compellingly interesting as they are, it's hard to be too bothered. Add in a bunch of super amusing Daedric quests, and general MISC quest around the world that rival any game. There's a particular side quest involving a painting that to this day, I might be out buying some groceries or at the bar grabbing a drink and it 'pop' into my head and I'm like aahhhh, that Oblivion. What a game.

The world gets flak for being more 'generic LOTR-inspired fantasy' and sure, it's not the volcanic alien wasteland of the former but the almost atherial quality of the lighting, the high-saturated pallete of the world lends a real charm to the rolling hills and forests. There's an almost soft haze to everything and I adore it. God-awful potato faces and all.

Another favorite is, while I love the slow-burn deliberate pacing of the narrative of Morrowind, I also really appreciate in Oblivion that you're not the 'Chosen One'. Sir Patrick Stewart certainly saw you had a very important role to play in the days ahead, but it's not you who is ultimately the big hero. I have only about 5 hours in Arena and around 20 in Daggerfall so I'm unsure, but I feel Bethesda has never really done that before this and certainly not after. Praise be to Martin!

Add on top of that, one of my all-time favorite expansions to any game with Shivering Isles. If you ask someone who their favorite Daedric Prince is and they answer back in 0.5 seconds SHEEEEOOOOGORATH! There's a damn good reason for it. It involves cheese.

It's a game for people in the chess club. Who's laughing now?

It's crazy that a game from 2006 with a much smaller dev team and budget feels so much more complete than Starfield. 0/10 tho you started microtransactions.