[JemyM]

Oblivion is "RPG Light", created for the console generation. Game developers do not have high thoughts about console gamers and their intellect and this really shows in Oblivion. The lack of choice in how you pass through the game is stunning. Part of the problem is the crappy dialogue system that limits you from say anything with more depth than "Mudcrab" or "Grey Fox". When you are done with the quests the city will end up identical to every other player. This is not roleplaying. This is for players who arent used to RPG's to begin with.

You never feel progress in Oblivion. In normal roleplaying games you can go back to areas you earlier got beaten up in and now whip the enemies like nothing. You can discover new cities and maybe finally go down in that dark underground temple in which you know there is a powerful weapon you couldnt get before due to the mighty opposition. You get happy when you finally reach that cave where the end of the quest should be.

This doesnt happen in Oblivion. Wherever you go the monsters are so-so in power (unless you built your character wrong, then they are always more powerful than you, alternatively always weaker). The cities are marked on the map right from the start of the game and you get there with a mouseclick. You can find the maps largest cave just to find it filled with rats and when you reach the last chest in the last room you find a weak sword since you are low level. The goals of the quests seem to be simply marked on the map to cause minimal friction and difficulty. You never get happy to solve anything since there was no challenge to begin with. You can walk out in the forest to walk on your own. You will find caves, temples, all sorts of things, but nothing inside will be something you havnt seen before and its a waste of time going there.

Oblivion is aimed at people who do not usually play roleplaying games. People who want a light adventure without challenges.

The roleplaying veterans I have spoken to who have grown up with games like Ultima, Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Master, Wizardry, Might and Magic, Baldurs Gate, Fallout etc usually feels the same about Oblivion. It's a class of its own which do not contain the stuff that makes a RPG good.
Deep dialogue trees, meaningful object interactions, tactics and strategy, research, exploration, looting, romance, multiple ways to end each quest, making major moral choices, questpaths, forging your characters ethics etc...

Personally I lack interesting NPC's. I do not care if people go to work in the mornings, smile when you speak to them or give you some random comment, it's all generated, there are nobody to care for. In games from Black Isle, Bioware and Obsidian the NPC's was as deep and well written and effect the storyline. I also missed a storyline worth caring for. Oblivion did not have an original story, I can frankly not remember it at all. I finished every quest in the game and there was a tiny few worth the effort. In the grand titles like Knights of the Old Republic I remember many quests, the options I made to finish them, I even remember the ending, the main villian, even the villians henchman.

As a roleplaying veteran for 21 years, Oblivion looked absolutely stunning, and it might pass for a medieval fantasy simulation, but it's a weak RPG that simply fades next to legends like Planescape Torment, Throne of Bhaal, the Gothic series etc.