If you’re a gamer with a pulse, then you’re no doubt excited for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but it’s a little while away. So we’ve put together our favorite mods to use with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to help you fight off the summer gaming lull.
Oblivion is a wonderful game, but sometimes little changes make a big difference. This little change will open up a whole set of classes to people who were afraid of archery. It’s called Faster Arrows. Certainly there are plenty of arrow speed mods, but we feel this is one of the best because it’s the simplest.
Arrows in vanilla Oblivion floated like cardboard tubes with suction cups on the end. This mod turns archery into the fast experience it should have been from the start.
Darkness makes the game infinitely better.
Darkness can be a powerful atmospheric tool in video games but it is something many developers have a hard time getting just right. Caves and dungeons in Oblivion are only sort of dark and they render most lighting spells, vision spells, and torches absolutely useless. The mod Let There Be Darkness changes that. Now caves are only lit in tiny areas where the sunlight creeps in or from other smaller local sources of light. Mix in the mod Droppable Lit Torches and you can fight back the darkness by leaving a trail of these inexpensive pieces of tinder.
We are suckers for stealth games, and the Thieves’ Guild and Dark Brotherhood missions in Oblivion are some of the best stealth missions found in gaming. But there are few good choices for good stealth armor.
Two of our favorites are Assassin Elite Armor and Ranger’s Shroud Armour. Assassin Armor gives players a set of very cool gear that looks to be a cross between a Dark Brotherhood armor and ninja armor. The armor is two-piece and it is comes pre-enchanted. It also comes with two different VERY beautiful but completely overpowered swords. Nothing ruins a game faster than taking away the challenge, so we use the swords for display purposes only.
Ranger’s Shroud Armor comes in different pieces that you can purchase in Bravil. They are non-enchanted and it offers roughly the same amount of protection as mithril armor, but looks 100x cooler.
A cleaner interface makes everything so much better.
For PC gamers, one of the most annoying aspects of Oblivion is the menu system. The large, chunky fonts and the overly small map proved to be frustrating if left unmodded. DarNified UI is one of the best, and most user friendly interface mods available giving the player complete customization over their experience.
After playing with Deadly Reflex, it’s hard to go back to a modless Oblivion.
Deadly Reflex is a mandatory mod for people who found hand to hand combat to be boring and repetitive in the original Oblivion. It adds in new combat moves and makes almost every enemy encounter a life or death situation. It is scalable based on how difficult users want their combat to be. But after using it, we can barely play vanilla Oblivion.
Fun fact: if you cast a spell of life detection, these statues will show life for a short second.
One of our favorite mods is simply for kicks and giggles… and vanity. Reznod Mannequin gives you the option to buy and place wooden or stone male or female mannequins in your homes and castles. They’re great for putting all the armor you’ve found in the game on display and they’re completely posable too.
Cyrodiil never looked so good.
One mod that no PC gamer should miss is actually the compilation of the work of many different modders put into one. Together, they remolded the original territories in Oblivion into stunning landscapes. Unique Landscapes Compilation also mixes in the mods for Natural Habitat, Weather, Vegetation and Water. The end result is a breath-taking new Cyrodiil that has to be seen to believe. What we can show here does it no justice.
Certainly, there are other mods out there that are completely worth your time. Nehrim is worth a try. Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul is a masterful total revision of the Oblivion experience. And we are anxiously awaiting Andoran almost as much as we are for waiting for Skyrim.
Playing with mods is almost as much fun as playing Elder Scrolls games themselves. But the mods we’ve listed here should keep most of us occupied for a little while longer. Feel free to share your favorite mods with others in the comments below, or on our facebook page!
@paraphrased
Playing with mods is almost as much fun as playing Bethesda’s games themselves.
Gotta agree completely. I’ve spent probably as much time modding NV and FO3 as playing them. The mod support is one of the greatest things about Beth’s games. You guys should do a similar list for NV and FO3. Basic for those two are Project Nevada (for NV) and FWE (for FO3), as well as MTUI/Darnified UI for both and Fellout/any weather mod that rights Beth’s/Obs’ “cinematic visions”.
Man i love mods
Good idea, Zky. I think I’ll do that!
Mods are freaking awesome.
By the way, on these mods in particular, i can’t say i’ve tried any of them since i don’t play Oblivion much, but anything that fixes the horrid UI is vital, and Darnified UI for FO3 & NV is pretty great, so i reckon it’s the case here as well.
I know there’s a mod that makes creatures behave more interesting and randomizes their attributes and looks to add some variety. Bart’s mod or something like that. Haven’t tried it myself because it conflicts with the roaches removing mods i’ve installed, but i know for a fact those are pretty good.
Oh, and Oblivion is just plain unplayable with a Keychain mod.
That’s all i got 😛
There’s a few more mods that I kinda like. There’s one to add female guards to the towns that actually works well.
Someone also modded some Blades Elite armor and Blades Light armor that I thought were pretty fun to use too.
I just hope that Skyrim will be as moddable as the rest of Bethesda’s games. The modding community breathes so much life into them.
Yeah, modding support is the confirmation i’m eagerly expecting from Beth. I can’t imagine playing any of their games without spending a bunch of hours modding them. It’s such a core part of their games. Actually, the other day i was at an art games class and had to argue that mods are part of the games’ core dynamics (dynamics as per the MDA model). That, and cheat codes. Real fun
So Beth should give it real thought to their approach modding in Skyrim and their post-Gamebryo games, because it’s a big part of what makes their games special. Imagine Valve or Epic without modding. A quick scan of the quality of Beth’s games’ mods will should you Beth’s right up with them two. PC side, course. And unfortunately we don’t matter much 😛
By the way, i’ll never understand Beth’s decision to invent “glass armor”. How does it work? How does it manage not to explode upon collision, shatter into a million pieces and get stuck in your eyes? And why in Earth is it freaking green!?
*sigh* agreed…. And even if it wasn’t “glass” or green, it still looks pretty bad.
In my dozens of playthroughs of the game, I can’t say I’ve ever used glass armor.
Maybe they should have made a Clannfear scale armor instead.
If i remember correctly, Oblivion didn’t have much armor variety, at least for fighter types, so i remember wearing it with shame, at least until i got those Sauron armors from one of those wealthy robbers down the road.
Man, Oblivion was goofy as f*ck 😀
Surprisingly, though, i’m pretty hyped for Skyrim (will honor your pledge and won’t tell you why, Randy) and so far it looks mighty good. It’s Beth and i’m bound for dissapointment, and i won’t do day 1, but i’ll pick it up down the road. Will be interesting to see if they’ve learned anything from FO3 and from Obs’ take on their style of games. It’s doubtful, but you know, we gotta make do with what few RPG devs still live.
Definitely a game that’ll stand the tests of time!
I’m not excited for Elder Scrolls V… yup, and I still have a pulse. Let’s face it, Dark Souls is going to be better in every way =D
@Korne
Sorry sir, you are incorrect.