With the release of the classic and highly belovedElder Scrollsgames on Gamepass as part of the Bethesda acquisition, players are stepping foot back into the worlds of Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and Morrowind.Oblivionwas an amazing entry point for many first-time Elder Scrolls players but the follow-up,The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrimtook things to the next level.
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It’s remained one of the most iconic games in the past decade and has seen multiple ports and has sprouted an entire modding community that is very active to this day. It’s hard to find someone on this planet that hasn’t heard of Skyrim in some sort of way. But ultimately,isOblivionbetter thanSkyrim? When choosingOblivionorSkyrim,there’s a lot to consider.
Updated July 21, 2025 by Erik Petrovich:Rumors of a remake of TheElder Scrolls IV: Oblivionare abound with the announcement that no work has been done on the sixth entry in the series. While the game still holds up perfectly fine today, there are certainly a few things that could use an update for 2021 – like the game’s outdated graphics. There’s a lot that Oblivion does better than Skyrim, though – its star-studded voice cast, for one. It’s not a perfect game, but any fan of The Elder Scrolls series should give it a go. It’smore user-friendly than Morrowindwas, but it still offers more of a challenge than Skyrim ever could.
12Better: The Voice Acting Cast
The voice acting inThe Elder Scrolls Oblivionis both a boon and a drawback for the game, as it’s phenomenally done but there’s an overall lack of diversity. However, while a player will usually be easily able to tell which characters were voiced by the same person (usually Wes Johnson, who famously voiced all Imperial males, Sheogorath, and others) there are a few standouts.
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None other than Sir Patrick Stewart played the role of the Emperor for the introductory sequence, and Sean Bean played Martin Septim, the destined Emperor of Tamriel. The quality of their voice performances elevates the experience of the main quest ofOblivion.For as memed and repetitive as all other voices in the game are, one cannot deny how iconic “STOP! YOU VIOLATED THE LAW” has become in modern video gaming.
11Not Better: Variety of Vistas
When it comes toSkyrimvsOblivion,One thing that the former definitely has over the latter is the variety of locations, terrain, and everything else that makes a landscape interesting to look at. The Reach looks completely different to The Rift, the buildings of Solitude are different from those in Falkreath, and looking out over Skyrim from the top of the Throat of the World reveals completely different vistas in any direction.
Oblivionis different. There’s no denying the classical beauty of the game’s landscapes and rendering – vibrancy goes a long way in making things look nice – but everywhere is green, hilly, forested, and generally lacking any kind of diversity. The view is practically the same from outside the Imperial City as it is looking out over Cyrodil from above Anvil. There are lots of mods that make the game more interesting to look at, but without these players have to get used to saturated green as far as the eye can see.
10Better: Higher Difficulty Level
Oblivionis much more similar to traditionalElder Scrollsgames rather than the newer modern RPG style thatSkyrimadopted. The combat is much more difficult and the quests don’t hold the player’s hand as much asSkyrimdoes. Some of the quests really require the player to engage in the lore of the game. This could be both a good and a bad thing depending on the player’s style. It does definitely make the story and side quests a lot more engaging.
Skyrimcan be fairly easy unless mods are added to make the difficulty levels more intense. This is obviously a bit harder to do on consoles as mods are quite limited. Even with its difficulty level,Oblivionis still very enjoyable but could be a turn-off from fans that started their adventures withSkyrim.
9Not Better: Character Models
One of themajor downsides aboutOblivionis that the graphics really don’t hold up after all these years, unlike Skyrim which still looks pretty decent. This isn’t necessarily a major flaw but some players may find themselves not liking the graphics style. There is something really special aboutOblivion’sgraphics. It could be nostalgia or just the fact that the world of Cyrodiil is extremely colorful and the character models sometimes look hilarious.
Overall it isn’t a reason to not want to play the game but a lot of players may find themselves wanting to download mods to make the graphics a bit better. There are a ton available that enhance the game’s look while keeping it close to the original game. When it comes down toOblivionvsSkyrim, though, the more modern title easily takes it.
8Better: Oblivion Gates
The Oblivion gates are one of the most interesting things to ever be introduced into an RPG game. They appear randomly and are quite terrifying at first. They act as bridges between the Mortal World and the Daederic World. The enemies within can be quite challenging to kill at first and it’s very rewarding to close the first couple of Oblivion Gates that appear in the game.
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Skyrimdidn’t really have anything like this. There are a couple of references to the Oblivion gates found within books and text in the world but players never get to actually travel into one. It’d be very interesting if the nextElder Scrollsgame implements Oblivion Gates in some sort of way but also improves on it.
7Not Better: Late Game Oblivion Gates
Some players find Oblivion Gates to get extremely tedious towards the late game as a lot of them get really repetitive to complete and offer the same experience as the last. That being said, it could be a good thing thatSkyrimdid not bring them back in any sort of way.
A lot of the time the Oblivion Gates would offer a higher leveled character nothing to really reward them in the story besides pushing them closer to completion of the main story. Some of the creatures within the Oblivion Gates can be annoying to deal with even for higher leveled players with good defense and armor.
6Better: Exploration and Questing
Exploration is something that bothOblivionandSkyrimare almost tied on.Obliviondoes feel a bit more alivethanSkyrimat times with random NPC’s constantly coming up to the player and strange events happening almost all the time while traveling. There’s danger in cities, quests around every corner, and one never truly knows what they’re getting into.
Side quests are written far better than inSkyrim, too. For example, one quest sends the player inside of a painting to recover a lost artist, and another puts the player in the role of Detective in a murder mystery mansion. It forces the player to actually want to explore all around the world and find all the secrets deep within the world.
5Not Better: Leveling System
The leveling system is one of the major flaws of theObliviongame. It may have worked out in the past but definitely doesn’t hold up compared toSkyrim. Oblivion requires players to increase any of their major skills by 10 before reaching the next level. Once that’s done, the player will need to find a place to rest to fully gain the level.
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It’s a system that just hasn’t aged very well and could take the player out of the world by having to travel somewhere just to gain an extra level. The system inSkyrimis better and requires far less grinding. It feels more rewarding and progression has much more replayability.
4Better: Class System
WhileSkyrimgives the player more freedom,Oblivionfeels more like a classic RPG game. There’s something special about really having to think out the playable character’s background and picking out what they’ll specialize in. It’s a lot more lore-heavy than what’s introduced inSkyrimbut may only stick out to fans of the older games or other games in the genre.
It creates a sense of immersion that carries with the player throughout their journey. If the player wants to become a dagger-wielding thief, they can specialize in that early on.Being a mage inOblivionfeels far different than being one inSkyrimas the spells feel more rewarding to get.
3Not Better: Modding Community
The modding community inOblivionis not as good asSkyrimwhich has such a huge library of mods that are very accessible to players on both pc and console. Ever since theSkyrim: Special Editionrelease, console players have been able to get their hands on some of the mods that are available on PC.
While not all of them are available to console players, itstill is an amazing featurethat adds more replayability to the game.Oblivioncould eventually get this if it is ever remastered. The mods available forOblivionare great, typically total overhauls in nature, but they just are not on the level ofSkyrimand probably never will be – what’s better than Macho Man Randy Savage as Alduin, after all?
