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Kohlar the Unkilled

Time for some ale
In all the discussions regarding Oblivion being better or worse than Skyrim, I never see mentioned the Oblivion gates. Well, to me they are immensely sporting! First of all, graphically, an Oblivion gate is simply awesome to behold. Seen from a distance they're terrifying, then you get closer and the very sky changes, becoming altered as if you're already inside. Inside, it's a compelling vision of hell. Skyrim certainly has no analog to this.

So now, I find that all I want to do the past few days when I play, is crash Oblivion gates! I'm only level 10, but there are gates everywhere! Including Kvatch, I've probably closed 9 or 10. Good stuff can be found within fleshy pods, and I make fair coin from collecting fire salts and Daedra hearts. I made a special frost spell specifically to deal with flame atronachs, and summon my own flame atronach to assist in dealing with everything else. I'm an expert in conjuration, yet can't seem to find a 'summon frost atronach' spell.

Anyway, I'm a bit disappointed that the realms repeat so often. One particular layout, I've traversed 3 or 4 times now... But I'd like to hear from others regarding Oblivion gates. Did you initially enjoy them as much as I currently do? Or did you hate them? I know I'm bound to get sick of them, but for now I just look forward to crashing the next one! :beermug:
 

The Honorable Gidian Diva of Sass

Sahrot Vahlok Spaan. Bahnahgaar. Minion #88!
Staff member
Oblivion hasn't aged well for me, but I loved the Oblivion Gates. I don't think I'd ever play the game over Skyrim though, even with Skyrim having nothing similar.
 

Amapola

Member
ughh... The Oblivion gates were in fact the thing that kept me from finishing the game. I just couldn't be bothered to close all of them, a main reason them being all alike, and I never much cared for the "fantasy-hellfire-atmosphere". But then, that was me years ago. so when I play Oblivion again, maybe I will enjoy them more :-)
 

Gregor Moon Fang

Champion of Azura
You see the same layout so often because there are only 7 different layouts for the Oblivion Gates and it's randomly chosen which one you go into each time (save for Kvatch, Peryite, and Boethiah as those have their own layout).

Anyway my opinion on the gates. I would honestly say they are pretty much the same as the dragons in Skyrim: Fun to come in contact with at first, but they get more and more tedious the more you play the game. The only things that are different are the gates are limited (60 gates including main quest gates) and if you don't want to deal with them anymore, all you have to do is finish the main quest and all of them will get sealed.

There are good reasons to venture into as many as you can though. The planes have alchemy ingredients that basically can't get anywhere else like bloodgrass and that plant that whacks you when you get too close. There's also a quest in the game that calls for a lot of bloodgrass so stock up on that. These ingredients usually have good effects to them so when your alchemy gets high enough you'll be able to make good potions of your own.

Also save the gates until you get high in level (like around 18-19). You'll fight stronger enemies (Daedroth, Daedric spiders, Storm/Frost Atronachs, this humanoid panther looking enemy) but you'll get a lot of better loot, especially with the sigil stones and the ebony and daedric armor/weapons.

Oh damn I go from giving an opinion to giving pointers. Oh well it works the same way I guess. The gates can get very tedious the more you play, but they have their uses all the same.
 

Kohlar the Unkilled

Time for some ale
You see the same layout so often because there are only 7 different layouts for the Oblivion Gates and it's randomly chosen which one you go into each time (save for Kvatch, Peryite, and Boethiah as those have their own layout).

Anyway my opinion on the gates. I would honestly say they are pretty much the same as the dragons in Skyrim: Fun to come in contact with at first, but they get more and more tedious the more you play the game. The only things that are different are the gates are limited (60 gates including main quest gates) and if you don't want to deal with them anymore, all you have to do is finish the main quest and all of them will get sealed.

There are good reasons to venture into as many as you can though. The planes have alchemy ingredients that basically can't get anywhere else like bloodgrass and that plant that whacks you when you get too close. There's also a quest in the game that calls for a lot of bloodgrass so stock up on that. These ingredients usually have good effects to them so when your alchemy gets high enough you'll be able to make good potions of your own.

Also save the gates until you get high in level (like around 18-19). You'll fight stronger enemies (Daedroth, Daedric spiders, Storm/Frost Atronachs, this humanoid panther looking enemy) but you'll get a lot of better loot, especially with the sigil stones and the ebony and daedric armor/weapons.

Oh damn I go from giving an opinion to giving pointers. Oh well it works the same way I guess. The gates can get very tedious the more you play, but they have their uses all the same.
I'm holding back for now, as I have plenty of weaker sigil stones. Being a Dunmer has been advantageous thus far with my fire resistance. All the fire traps, flame atronachs, and scamps only serve to improve my tan, as I lounge in their line of fire.

I do hate those bloody whackin roots. :beermug:
 

Kohlar the Unkilled

Time for some ale
Yeah, I'm with you on that now. What I've done on my newer character, is close enough gates to get some nice second-tier sigil stones, (called Subjacent sigil stones I believe), to put enchantments on all of my equipment. Now I will proceed to do various things in the game until I reach level 20, when the final tier sigil stones become available. At that point I'll close as many gates as I can, collecting the stones that will be useful to me before the act becomes completely tiresome. :beermug:
 

JoeReese

Well-Known Member
I agree with most of the awesome-but-gets-old sentiment, but once I discovered the enchanting power of sigil stones, they became like a trip to the supermarket for me.
 

JoeReese

Well-Known Member
Not sure I'm familiar with that. Do you mean the player home at the Arcane university, or a is there a DLC?
 

JoeReese

Well-Known Member
Oooh, I shall have to try it. I think we have Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles, but not sure about the Wizard's Tower. I'll look.

Are you familiar with the scroll glitch?
 

JoeReese

Well-Known Member
No, ty, I've pretty much mastered it. The mention of the wizard's tower glitch had me wondering who else knew about it.
 

raze1907

New Member
I like the loot but they get horribly repetitive ( and tedious ), more than any other dungeon type, after a while. I've used the tcl cheat on more than one occasion, I admit.
 

CemeteryGates23

New Member
Liked them at first, but by the 7th or so I was done with them. I still made it a point to close every single one, and boy, what a chore that was. But yeah, by the 30th or so, I began appreciating them again for the sigil stones.
 
Loved oblivion, but never really liked the realm "oblivion", I preferred exploring old ruins and the high contrast scenery :)

But I can see why people liked them and it did make a nice change in atmosphere to the game something which it lacked, but still not my cup of tea.
 

Kohlar the Unkilled

Time for some ale
Tis a shame that they became so repetitive so quickly. Here's hoping that the next installment in the series allows us to explore the various realms of Oblivion. :beermug:
 

Gregor Moon Fang

Champion of Azura
I've had this game for ~7 years and I just discovered yesterday on accident that using Sea Stride on the lava shaves off half the time it takes you to travel through the realms that require you to go through the tunnels to get to the main tower. I don't know whether I should feel excited for this discovery or stupid for just now learning about this.
 

Harc

Big Hog
I played Oblivion when it first came out, I was around 6-7 years old, I really only played it to attack the guards and mess my dad's progress up at that time. I started religiously playing it when I got my own Xbox in 2008 and I was a little older, I loved it, and Oblivion still holds the title of my favorite game. BUT the gates, the damned gates, they got no love from me. At first, it was really cool! "WOAH sweet, hellish looking sky, cool looking gate, monsters!" and then when you close the gate, you feel so accomplished and cool, you also get the sigil stone. Though after the second or third gate, they become a total drag. As previously stated in the posts above mine, same layouts, same creatures, same general idea on how to close the gate "This plops again? fl*ff this I'm not doing that." I would say to myself, as I stormed out of the area and went to go kill bandits in Bravil and whatnot. I love Oblivion, and always will, best environment and scenery in my opinion, best musical soundtrack, most interesting (though tedious) questline, and the gates surely contribute a lot to that.
 

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