Summary
It’s no surprise that once the newOblivionremake dropped, the gaming world stopped everything they were doing to pick up one of the greatest RPGs Bethesda has ever made. For many people,Oblivionis a formative RPG experience, but in actuality, it’s just one more step in a clear line of succession from some brilliant RPGs that came before, inspiring everything gamers love aboutOblivion.
Whether it’s games that revolutionized how first-person RPGs worked, or the best fantasy writing ever made, there are plenty of precedents forOblivion’s success that were clear inspirations for Bethesda. This list is ranked both by how influential the games were onOblivionand by the quality of the games themselves.
Stealth gameplay in a first-person setting is a notorious design challenge, as it’s sometimes hard to get a true sense of surroundings in a limited perspective compared to a floating third-person camera that can provide a full 360-degree view for the player to make better choices.
However,Thief: The Dark Projectrevolutionised first-person stealth by showing best practices that were adopted by a lot of games moving forward, likeOblivion. By slowing the pace down, having a variety of indicators that relay enemy awareness, and a focus on the detail of stealth such as materials and floors' effect on movement noise,Thiefshowed that first-person stealth not only works, but has the potential to be thrilling, a lesson thatObliviontook to heart andstill influences stealth games to this day.
At this point, every modern-day RPG fan has probably playedBaldur’s Gate 3, the long-awaited sequel to the cult BioWare series that took the CRPG format and had one task. Bring the world ofD&Dto the digital space,introduce beginners to the world, or die trying.
Luckily for the gaming world,Baldur’s Gatewas an unmitigated success, becoming a formative game for many and a gateway drug to the world ofD&D. It also has clear influences in howObliviondesigns its character progression with a clear focus on central attributes, then ancillary skills, communicated simply enough for anyone to understand, but retaining a lot of depth for RPG fans who love to min-max.
Though the immersive sim genre already existed before the release ofDeus Exin 2000,Deus Exwould become the genre’s defining game, and for many, it remains unsurpassed to this day,both within the franchiseand in gaming as a whole. Taking the role of Denton, players are let loose into open spaces to achieve their objective the way they see fit based on their skills and attributes.
The unparalleled level of freedomDeus Exoffered was a massive inspiration for games likeOblivion. In fact, it’s hard to imagine the more open-ended Dark Brotherhood missions without games likeDeus Exto pave the way.
WhileDeus Exusually receives all the glory as the immersive sim game,System Shock 2actually predates it by almost a year and has cemented its place in gaming history as one of the best immersive sim games ever made. Taking a more constrained approach by placing players in levels within a space station,System Shock 2is all about systemic design, where the path to the goal is obscured, and the player must rely on emergent systems to succeed.
InOblivion,this is seen not just in the Dark Brotherhood questline that encourages creative murder methods, but also in the brilliant spell-crafting and potion-brewing system, where any conceivable effect in the game can be combined with any other, resulting in some truly wild spells that can entirely shift how builds work. It’s all in the player’s hands to use the systems given to make that leap, and thenew upcoming remasterproves its undying appeal.
Vampire: The Masqueradeas a franchise has had a bit of a rough ride, with delayed sequels, commercial and critical underperformance, leading to a fanbase that is rabid for a return to the glory days of great RPG fundamentals likeVampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.
Taking on the role of a newly converted vampire, players are tasked with solving and navigating the complex politics of the vampire world, all while fending off supernatural monsters and big, distinct personalities. The writing is very strong, and it shows how pulp genres like vampire horror (or in the case ofOblivion, high fantasy) can still be taken seriously in the writing while indulging the silly side of things.
RPGs have always been known for their incredible writing and storytelling chops, likely because players who engage with them are willing to take their time and experience a story on a truly epic scale. Determining any game as being the “best” written RPG is tough, but if any game has a claim to the throne, it’sPlanescape: Torment.
In this CRPG, clearly inspired byBaldur’s Gate, players embody a character known as The Nameless One as they navigate the strange, peripheral planes of theD&Dcosmology to discover their own identity. It’s an existentialist masterpiece that shows how capable video games are of delivering emotionally powerful stories, and the quality of the writing no doubt had a big impact on the aspirations ofOblivion’s writers.
The “best"Falloutgame is always a heated topic within the fanbase, particularly between the first two games in the franchise. However,Fallout 2usually comes out on top as the fan favorite, inspiring the likes ofFallout: New Vegasafterwards with its delicate high-wire act of balancing goofy humor with genuine emotional storytelling.
Fallout 2was also an incredibly popular game, and showed game designers that players were more than ready to have RPGs that weren’t just about making numbers go up and grabbing loot, but that they could tell genuinely brilliant stories for a wide audience.Obliviondoes this in spades, and considering Bethesda’s relationship with theFalloutseries afterOblivion, it’s hard not to imagine the franchise had an impact long before the release ofFallout 3.
This might be a boring choice for the top of the list, but there’s little doubt thatMorrowindhad the biggest effect on every part ofOblivion, from snout to tail.Morrowindwas a revolutionary game, making an earnest attempt to render the sprawling worlds of the first twoElder Scrollsgames but in far more detail, amplifying immersion to such a degree that a player really feels like they’re in the world.
Morrowindwas a massive success, and it proved to be the foundational formula for the entirety of Bethesda Studios moving forward. For many,Oblivionperfected the formula, balancing complexity, open-world hijinks, and memorable immersive world-building. It’s just hard to see how it ever could have existed withoutMorrowind,the game (with the help of some mods) that still brings players back to this day.
