This is one of those gems that maybe you've heard a lot of people talk about but you never actually sat down to play. Or maybe you did play it but its been years since. Nonetheless this is a fantastic title in the TES series and while it has its caveats its is still worth running in today's age. It may not have skyrim's more robust dialogue system but the main & side quests are very rich and the world building is certainly up to bethesda's par. For many this was beth's magnum opus for quite some time and while I don't agree with it I can understand why people view it as so. As an older bethesda title it can be a little difficult to mod but hey thats why I got yall with a modular modding guide (only sections 1-3 are mandatory.)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3009367763

Played on PS3 and did some of the Dark Brotherhood and all of the Thieves' Guild questlines.

Still a lot more to do in the game, but will replay fully on the PC.

Cons:
Leveling system is fucking stupid and ruins the strength of progression

-clean the tutorial
-kill a dude and sleep
-joins the dark brotherhood
-do the questline
-quit

Despite the age and its infamous quirks, I still think exploring Cyrodiil remains one of the most arresting RPG experiences out there. A prisoner in the cells beneath the Imperial City, you find yourself freed after the Emperor himself escapes through a hidden tunnel in your cell. When he is assassinated by cultists trying to summon the monstrous daedric prince Mehrunes Dagon, he tasks you with finding his lost son and heir and help him defend the world. Of course, in true open-world RPG fashion you can entirely ignore this; there's a staggering freedom once you're out in the world, with tons to find and explore.

The gameplay is perhaps the thing people remember least fondly about Oblivion, and many will point to its dodgy level scaling, wonky combat, and menus that are stuck in a hinterland between PC-obsessive and console-friendly as reasons to dislike Oblivion. These are all fair criticisms, but I think the atmosphere of Cyrodiil is hard to match, and I love returning to its fields and forests over and over again.

A spur of the moment playthrough as a break from playing Dragon's Dogma turned into a full main quest playthrough. I found that (with a bit a of light modding) this game stands up better than people give it credit for.

The art direction is actually stunning looking back. The world is well realised and each area of Cyrodiil feels unique. The biggest let down with the art is the character models and animations but they stand out in a very well made fantasy world.

The voice acting is actually quite good most of the time, it's just an obvious shame that they had so few actors but they all really sell it, especially in The Shiver Isles. So when everyone sounds the same you pick up on the idosyncracies of their performace and it starts to wear thin.

The repetivitveness of the Oblivion Gate dungeons was the nadir of the game for me but eventually you learn how to speed run them so it didn't really matter after a while.

The Knights of the Nine questline was very interesting and the set piece moments in that are very well done and had a big impact on me.

The Shivering Isles stands out as a great DLC especially for the time. A whole new map, new items, an interesting quest and writing that leans into the weird tone of the base game.

I wish I could consider this game complete because it's very special to me. My journeys through Tamriel throughout the early days of COVID is where I can pinpoint the cause of my infatuation with RPGs. The world doesn't just feel large, it's genuinely fucking huge, my world map is almost filled out at nearly 200 hours, but there remains hours of exploration worth of unreached corners, and a plethora of incomplete questlines. The Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, random city quests, the Arena, there are so many fun, interesting quests with often simple storylines, but distinct identities that make them uniquely "Oblivion" quests. It's hard to explain why they work so well, with so many reused environments and repetitive objectives, but the exploration that takes place during and between pursuing quest objectives is where the player's primary source of agency stems from. This game is not a good RPG in the pen-and-paper sense, builds are pretty homogeneous, as all skills can be maxed out and specialization is a choice, not a framework that players structure their character around. Where it excels is in adventure, atmosphere, combat, and creativity. All objectives may or may not be pursued for completion of the game, and if a questline is uninteresting to the player, they won't lose much by deciding to focus on something else. Open-world fans can find something they love in this game and focus on it, not compelled to fulfill the gargantuan task of completing everything unless their heart desires it. The voice of Bethesda's writers and developers shines through the charm of the NPCs, the uniqueness and depth of cities, and the mood established through the tranquil OST and sound effects numbing the sense of "epic adventure", a symbol of a bygone era of being a traveling adventurer, enjoying the journey. Unfortunately, the innate need for modding represented by the multitude of bugs and graphical shortcomings, supplemented by visual and gameplay overhauls (including one with Arthas' Lich King armor and Frostmourne) has caused my save to break. I'll have to retire this game, but I'll always be thankful for the joy and appreciation brought to my life while pretending to be a Breton saving Tamriel from the jaws of Oblivion.