How could anyone say that? I'm not saying that skyrim is the deepest RPG ever, but i'm sure that it is much more complex, well writen and has a much better cultural coherence (sorry, i dont know how to say exactly what i want) than oblivion. I found a lot of interesting short stories and met a lot of interesting characters, well... some died too fast XD, and i did only a few steps of the main quest.

Skyrim is about as deep as any other open world hack & slash game.

IMO Skyrim is a hell of a lot more deep. Everything comes together to make this believable world, all the places and people with individual stories. It's spectacular.
I could kind of guess the tone of your reply before reading it just by looking at your signature.

I agree, Oblivion was a lot deeper then Skyrim. Everywhere I went in Oblivion I felt each place had a well written backstory along with all the characters and quests. Oblivion felt massive and large to me, each place I went to I knew it has some significant importance of some sort, but I never knew what it was.

Because Skyrim is incredibly shallow.

Nothing you do affects the world.
The 'guilds' arent guilds, they are excuses for a questline. They dont interact with each other, the world, or even the player.
No one in the world cares about the main quest line.
After youve done the civil war, NPC's still act as if its going strong.

Then there is general sloppiness.
I cleared a mine of Forsworn. Miners happy, they can go work there again. And they do. Only the Forsworn respawn so they all get killed.
I killed a named giant spider. It respawns, complete with name.
After the civil war quest enemy generals are still essential.

And yet for all it's faults I still feel the story is deeper then the one in Oblivion. Even the story of most guilds, they are just way to short.

But at least in Skyrim someone put some thought into it somewhere to make the start make sense. The MQ is also a lot better then the one in Oblivion was.

Except for the endings of all guild quest lines and civil war quest line and main quest line.
None of them are statisfactory.
I agree that the build up was great in most cases.
But its like they ran out of time or something and just went with what they had.
The mages guild questline ends in the biggest deus ex machina imaginable and gives no answers as to why you even did the entire questline.

The ending of the main quest was so underwhelming, I have no words.
Especially since it changes nothing in the world.
Oblivion at least had a great speech from Mankar and a wonderful other realm to explore.
Sovngarde is very small with nothing in it and Alduin turns out just a dragon like all the rest.

While I do agree that the world OF Skyrim is a lot more deeper the world OF Oblivion, But Oblivion beats Skyrim in a long shot when It comes to the quests and the factions. In Skyrim if they had you kill a man, they would say Go Kill [NPC]. Then you could ask more info about him and they would tell you he used to do this and the best time to kill him would be this. In Oblivion they would set you up with a fun and complex way to kill the man. They would tell you a lot of details about him, then send you off to kill him by replacing his medicine with poison. Once you got there you would travel through a small medium dungeon, sneak past all the guards, you would then kill him and run off. Oblivions quests are a lot more complex then MOST of Skyrim's go here and do this quests.

Unfortunatly you are wrong. Oblivion is way more deeper than Skyrim and Morrowind was way more deeper than Oblivion. The games have been getting worse and on a downhill slide. The problem is that you have gaming publications so far up Bethesda's butt that Bethesda doesn't even realize that they are heading the wrong way with the series.

Even as bad as Oblivion was, it was more deep than Skyrim.

The College of Winterhold is a questline that ends horribly. I still prefer it to killing Mannimarco as you did in Oblivion, what kind of a stupid thing was that? Also what the hell happened to the guild, it was supposed to about opening up magic to everybody and all of a sudden they limit magic to just a few elite members? Bunch of idiots that's what they were...

As for the MQ, Mankar's speech was the only thing about it that made it any good. Here Alduin is so much more then just another dragon (although still dissapointing). I guess it's a matter of taste, but Oblivion left me bitterly dissapointed with the story throughout most of it, Skyrim at least build up my expectations.

I'd say it evens out for me. But saying that, I haven't finished the MQ or most of the guilds, so maybe I will change my mind on that front. But as it is, I don't think Skyrim has more depth than Oblivion (nor is it more shallow imo).

Janusch, I'm finding depth and along with the intricate gameplay (lots of systems to learn) as I've moved through Skyrim too. Last night I dove back into the Main Quest and climbed High Hrothgar again to see the Greybeards. There's a lot going on in the story and I'm seeing the lore get deeper so I can't wait to see where it's going to take me next and what I find out about why the dragons have returned.

I agree that morrowind was deeper than both, but i disagree about oblivion, i think they make great improvements thinking about oblivion. About morrowind, i think that the politics there were better designed, or i liked it better than the Jarls and King/Queen of Skyrim. On the other side, morrowind was the first game of this kind i played, what makes my thinking about this a little biased... Its like comparing Chrono Trigger to any other rpg XD It was and will always be my favorite.

I'm...... actually lost for words right now. Oblivion was absolutely ripped to shreds before Skyrim was even announced, now all of a sudden it's a deep experience and better than Skyrim.

How things change.

People will always complain, usually without making sense... A great deal of the people complaining about Skyrim now will complain about Summerset (I hope) after it's release in a few years and say that Skyrim was infinitely better. You just can't do this right. It also depends on what you look at in a game like this, for me Skyrim is definitely better then Oblivion. But you know different people different opinions and stuff.

Well before people where comparing it to Morrowind, which was a lot deeper. Since Bethesda has completely dropped the ball on this game, Oblivion is more deep. I bet the next game will have 3 Skills, 3 Atributes, and 1000 quests asking you to fech somthing for someone

Oblivion was ripped to shreds for all the awful things it featured compared to Morrowind, and the removal of options.

Skyrim is ripped to shreds for all the awful things it features compared to Oblivion, and the removal of options.

I see no incongruity, I see a trend.
I see TES getting simpler, shallower and less game for your buck.
Had they reversed this trend and made Skyrim a game more akin to Daggerfall or Morrowind you would not see these things.
But since the trend of making the games less has continued, I think it is logical we see dissent.

I agree. I adore Oblivion. But how people can even say that it's deeper I don't understand.

In Oblivion, the guilds didn't interact either. Being archmage, the associates still told you to "go away" because they were busy. The Mages Guild boss was so unclimatic it was insane, and even after then no other quest line acknowledged you were arch mage. No one acknowledged you were in the Fighters Guild, they still made you kill some rats even if you were the grand champion of the arena. The arena guy called you a maggot even if you were proclaimed the Champion of Cyrodiil. No one wondered why you were constantly entering an abandoned house, or climbing down a well four times a day. There were oblivion gates 10 foot from the city yet the guards just stood there and talked to the people about mudcrabs.

How anyone can say the game is deeper than Skyrim.

Oblivion really had very little on Skyrim. The MQ was terrible, though it admittedly had a greater impact on the world as did many other quests. Oblivion also had much more in-depth guild quests. Despite this, it still fails terribly to defeat Skyrim. I don't think alot of people really remember how incredibly dull the world of Oblivion actually was.

In Skyrim there are bards who sing at the taverns, and the other patrons dance and cheer to them. In Oblivion people people sit at tables and sometimes get up and walk to a new chair to eat or drink or just walk around aimlessly.

In Skyrim people walk from Merchant to Merchant, examining and sometimes commenting on the goods. In Oblivion people walked around aimlessly, sometimes commenting on what terrible creatures mudcrabs were or having awkward conversations like, "Hello. What say you? Good bye."

In Skyrim there are dozens of dungeons and towers with their own, non quest related, stories. They are sometimes even scripted. What I'm talking about here, for example, is the burned down house with a summoning circle and a scroll of summon flame atronoch attached to a corpse. I'm talking about the fort of bandits with a mutiny on it's hands, and the opposition shows up extremely happy to find that you eliminated the opposition for them. Another example is the Light house where you discover a family attacked by the Falmer and you slowly discover what happened to each of them and why as you progress. Or how about the bandit den attacked by the falmer, and when you go to leave some bandits expecting to be served a drink by their favorite bandit bar tender find the place ruined and think that you did it.

In Oblivion you get Vilverin...and that's about it.

In Skyrim there are tons upon tons of unique dialogue between bandits, necromancers, and other hostile enemies in dungeons that is unique tho their particular situation. The dialogue from a particular Afflicted woman in the Bthardamz dungeon is kind of moving if you listen to it and don't kill her. In Oblivion, humanoids had the same random dialogue as all other npcs in towns.

In Skyrim people work forges, actually mine in the mines, they tan leather, work at alchemy stations making potions, they cook over fires, and there are lots of other animations for lots of other sorts of activities that happen occasional. In Oblivion people either stood in one space staring blankly ahead or walked around aimlessly.

Oh yeah...Oblivion was so much more complex and deep than Skyrim...for sure...

The only trend i see is gameplay getting better. Anyway the world is going to end this year so we wont be able to see if your theorie is true... cause if it is, a couple years ahead, ES games will become like.... well... super mario world?

What a bunch of fan boys, Arena is obviously the deepest in the series.

RIP The Elder Scrolls: 1994 - 1994

Though I agree, it doesn't necessarily mean deeper. Morrowind was better then Oblivion and Skyrim yet NPC's just stood around 24 hours a day staring at whatever was in front of them. Only guards ever moved.

Depth can come from quests as well, dialogue and Lore... IMO both Skyrim and Oblivion have far to little of it, but Skyrim does have it better then Oblivion in most fields.

This is a big place, chances are that those who bashed OB before are still bashing OB. OB has always had it's fans. I'd be very surprised if you could find someone who completely hated it before and is now singing its' praises.

This I can agree with. Quests in Skyrim, as another poster stated, seem as though they started out with something epic and then ran out of time. Oblivion has the one up on Skyrim in this regard. Morrowind certainly had that even more so than Oblivion, and it was an amazing game. In every other respect, I feel that Skyrim wins.

See, this is why I hate coming to this forum...
No, it won't have near 3 skiills, It won't be dumbed down as the games haven't been dumbed down.

Look, I'm sorry everyones annoyed they aren't getting Morrowind 2.0, but Its just not happening.
Bethesda did not drop the ball, and I'm sure most of the customers agree with me.

But that doesn't matter because everyone who likes a new Bethesda game is obviously a console kiddie with no brain....