On itself Oblivion is a pretty good game, but will be compared to its predecessor. First the good: Combat has been greatly improved. It's still far from perfect, but much more fun than the dice-based clunky combat of Morrowind. There are traps and everything seems much more dynamic. Conversations are fully voiced. There aren't any walls of generic text for each character. There's a bit more personality. The world is very big and the first few Oblivion gates are pretty exciting. But there's a downside: Conversations are limited and generic. While it's fully voiced, it voiced with only a handful of voice actors. Most characters are empty shells and just filler for the world, towns are lifeless. Bethesda tried to appeal to a greater audience and it shows: quest markers, generic fantasy world, and a mediocre story. The game isn't bad thouh, gameplay-wise it has great improvements over Morrowind. It's much more fun to play. A lot of the downsides can be minimized by a great collection of fantastic mods, which I would greatly recommend you do. Without mods I would give Oblivion three stars. With mods, I would give it four.
On itself Oblivion is a pretty good game, but will be compared to its predecessor. First the good: Combat has been greatly improved. It's still far from perfect, but much more fun than the dice-based clunky combat of Morrowind. There are traps and everything seems much more dynamic. Conversations are fully voiced. There aren't any walls of generic text for each character. There's a bit more personality. The world is very big and the first few Oblivion gates are pretty exciting. But there's a downside: Conversations are limited and generic. While it's fully voiced, it voiced with only a handful of voice actors. Most characters are empty shells and just filler for the world, towns are lifeless. Bethesda tried to appeal to a greater audience and it shows: quest markers, generic fantasy world, and a mediocre story. The game isn't bad thouh, gameplay-wise it has great improvements over Morrowind. It's much more fun to play. A lot of the downsides can be minimized by a great collection of fantastic mods, which I would greatly recommend you do. Without mods I would give Oblivion three stars. With mods, I would give it four.
As Arcania didn't end, you'll have to buy this as well to get to the boring conclusion. It's baffling to me that they dare to ask $35 for the whole package. Gothic 1, 2, 3 and Risen 1 are much better games than this on every level (well, maybe graphically, Arcania is technically superior, even though the world design is generic and boring) Don't get this. If you want a Gothic fix, play Gothic again, or get Risen 1.
Ah, Arcania. A Gothic game? Is it? No. But it has the same characters! What is it then? What's the story? You play a boring shepherd, going on his boring quest of revenge to avenge his annoying girlfriend, who was killed by King Rhobar, who is a boring version of the hero from Gothic 1,2 and 3, but now posessed by a dull Demon. You'll meet Rhobars former friends (Diego etc.) along the way, but they're made as uninteresting as possible. - It's a 3d action adventure with rpg elements. - Railroaded world, chopped up into smaller parts. It's more like levels with a bit of freedom, than the open world RPG of Gothic 1, 2 and 3. - Boring story - Boring combat - Boring characters - Generic world It's a grindfest from start to end. You'll fight the same-ish enemies the entire way and it grows dull pretty quickly. I played the game through hoping it would become good somehow, or give me a nice conclusion, but even that was dull.
