Oblivion versus Skyrim

OBLIVION
In Oblivion, you play as a prisoner who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (or the right place at the right time, perhaps). While incarcerated, Emperor Uriel Septim ends up passing through your cell which has a secret passage as he and his guards try to evade assassins. You end up tagging along, and when the emperor is inevitable assassinated, you must track down his illegitimate son and only remaining heir to the throne. While on this quest, you discover a cult known as the Mythic Dawn, a group attempting to bridge the gap between their world and the realm of a powerful demonic prince named Mehrunes Dagon. Unfortunately, the true hero of this game is not you, but Martin Septim (the heir). Yes, you play a key role in the plot as it unfolds, but you're essentially nothing more than a courier who delivers items to Martin so he can prevent Dagon from leaving his realm.

SKYRIM
You are also a prisoner in Skyrim, although this is really nothing new to the series. You are about to be executed by the Empire in a city called Helgen when a dragon named Alduin attacks. You escape the city and eventually learn that you are a man of dragon's blood, known as Dragonborn or Dovahkiin. You cross the province of Skyrim looking for the right tools to stop Alduin and his dragon army from destroying the planet. There is also a subplot involving two factions engaged in a civil war. Long story short, the Empire runs all of Tamriel. The Aldmeri Dominion, a group formed by Altmer and Bosmer, went to war with the Empire in what is known as the Great War. They came to a truce but the Empire was left at the mercy of the Dominion, which forced the Empire to outlaw the worship of Talos, a man turned god, claiming him to be a false god. Ulfric Stormcloak, the ruler of a large portion of Skyrim, built up an army of soldiers called Stormcloaks, determined to kick the Empire out of Skyrim and worship Talos freely.

WINNER: SKYRIM
Ultimately, Skyrim is the winner because a) you are the hero, not the hero's delivery bitch, and b) the main plot and the civil war subplot intertwine, making for a much more complex story. One thing that is worth nothing in both games is that the villain manages to destroy a city that you never actually get to see in its normal/restored form (without the use of mods).

OBLIVION
Oblivion's combat consists of magic, ranged weapons, and melee weapons. Melee weapons are categorized into families: blunt (battle axes, war axes, maces, warhammers) and blade (daggers, short swords, long swords, and claymores). The magic is mapped onto one button and the destruction magic is generally limited to just fireballs or lightning bolts. The problem with Oblivion's combat system is that it underpowers anything that's not melee. Good luck playing as a straight-up mage or an archer. You'll get your ass handed to you because your spells and arrows will amount to jack-shit.

SKYRIM
Skyrim's combat is a bit different in that you are able to wield a weapon in each hand. You can dual wield swords, do a sword and a shield, a sword and a fire attack, or even wield a warhammer with two hands. Blunt and blade are gone and have been replaced with one-handed and two-handed, each its own skill. Skyrim balances the different types of combat options, so you can successfully be a pure mage or archer. Melee combat appears to be better in the beginning, but I've been working on a mage character and I've been doing well. She's a female Breton around level 8 or so (I started her last weekend) and it was tough playing as her initially but I stuck with the magic and now I can kick all kinds of ass. Skyrim's combat overall feels more visceral. With Oblivion you could just be swinging at the air, but here you actually feel the impact of your attacks. Dragon Shouts are a new mechanic that really help. If you're an archer and an enemy gets close to you, you could always punch them with your bow, or you could use Unrelenting Force to send them backwards and distance yourself for another shot.

WINNER: SKYRIM
Skyrim completely fixed every issue I had with Oblivion's combat system. It allows for more freedom regarding how you want to craft your character and ultimately just feels better.

OBLIVION
Oblivion takes place in the province of Cyrodiil, the capital of Tamriel. Each city has its own unique style and personality which makes them all worth visiting. The main fault in the world is with the dungeons, which are completely repetitive. You've got caves, mines, fortresses, and Ayleid ruins . . . that's about it. The environments generally are not that varied in terms of climate, so you'll mostly be seeing forest.

SKYRIM
Skyrim's world is definitely more versatile in its environments. There are forests, open plains, and snowy mountains, each with their own creatures that inhabit them. Unfortunately, much like Oblivion, the dungeons can be repetitive. You'll usually see caves, mines, forts, and Nordic ruins. In addition, some of the cities feel generic and don't stand out. Falkreath, Morthal, Winterhold, and Dawnstar all look like other cities and don't have much to offer. The cities in general are also smaller than those in Oblivion. Throughout my travels in Skyrim, I never really found myself visiting the aforementioned cities aside from Winterhold which houses the College (the Skyrim equivalent of the Mages Guild).

WINNER: TIE
Each game has its pros and cons. Skyrim definitely gets the scope of the world down and offers varied environments. Oblivion has much more unique and interesting cities. Both have repetitive dungeons. Really, it's all about preference with this one.

OBLIVION
The biggest complain with Oblivion's visuals was with the character models. They had melon faces and generally just looked TERRIBLE. The game itself looked good for a 2006 title but is obviously dated now. Still, the environments are very colorful and nice to look at. Some of the design choices for the creatures are questionable, such as the troll. In addition, most of the armor looked silly.

SKYRIM
The new character models don't look GREAT, but they are much-improved over Oblivion's. For example, Orsimer actually look intimidating rather than looking like Rosie O'Donnell if she had green skin. The creatures all look very cool as well. The color palette isn't all too vibrant but it does offer a more realistic look. Finally, the armor actually looks badass now.

WINNER: SKYRIM
Oblivion's character and creature designs were cartoony and overall just laughably bad. Skyrim improves upon the look of the characters, creatures, armor, and the level of detail in the environments.









SOUND
[spoiler]OBLIVION
Oblivion is known for its lack of voice actors. You would basically have two voice actors per gender per race. That's not a lot of voice actors. However, Oblivion makes up for it in the sound department by having an incredibly atmospheric and wonderful soundtrack.




SKYRIM
Skyrim has a bit more diversity in the voice acting but still not a lot and some of the voice acting is really bad, even worse than Oblivion's. In addition, the soundtrack isn't as memorable as Oblivion's despite having an awesome opening theme song, and can sometimes be pretty boring.




WINNER: OBLIVION
Both games are lousy in the voice acting department but Oblivion gets the edge because of its incredible soundtrack. Jeremy Soule is the go-to guy for The Elder Scrolls soundtracks and while Morrowind and Oblivion have incredible soundtracks, Skyrim's is merely good, nothing more.

OBLIVION
Oblivion has a ton of content, including six questlines to complete as well as various sidequests. Unfortunately, it IS possible to run out of quests to do. Playing an open-world game without direction can become boring after awhile.

SKYRIM
Skyrim has seven questlines, plus a ton of sidequests, AND it has a dynamic quest generator that creates miscellaneous quests for you to do all the time, so you always have a task to occupy your time. Plus, because of the balanced combat, the game is worth playing through again with a different type of character.

No, but really, Skyrim wins.