Keen and Graev’s Podcast Episode 6

I played Morrowind and Oblivion, and I liked Oblivion much more.

You think it’s “easier” because of your playstyle, Graev. My playstyle doesn’t involve a thirst for intellectual challenges. I’m a smart guy, pretty good at puzzles, but I’m more into action and exploration (though there are exceptions, like Text Twist or Puzzle Quest). I think Oblivion was made more for folks like me who wanted a more action-oriented experience. In fact, when they were doing interviews before the game, they talked about how they wanted to improve the combat system from Morrowind.

Oblivion has the best bow-and-arrow and sneaking gameplay to date (upping the ante from another Bethesda game, Thief 2). It has a ton of room for exploration, including through skills like Acrobatics. Instant travel is only between cities; everything else (most of the gameworld) must be travelled to on foot first. And the main quest might be more streamlined, but I was able to play for around 6 months before ever tackling the main questline… that’s how much peripheral content there is, and I still have located every place on the map (it adds icons to teleport to as you find them). The gameworld might not be as big as Morrowind, but it’s plenty big enough for me. There are some things that bug me about the game, but it’s still the centerpiece of my 360 game collection.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that Bethesda didn’t water down the Elder Scrolls from Morrowind to Oblivion. The game’s core audience seems to still be hardcore gamers who can handle high learning curves. They just made some changes to the core experience, and that understandably irks people who relished the old Elder Scrolls experience.

I’m with you in doubts about Elder Scrolls Online (if that is the MMO Zenimax/Bethesda is making). Be it Bethesda or Bioware, nobody’s going to surprise me if they put out an all-too-familiar, shallow grindfest. But all Bethesda’s past games tell us is that they’re open to changing core aspects of the series, not that they’re jumping on the casual gaming bandwagon.