User blog comment:Draevan13/Thoughts on TES IV: Oblivion./@comment-4113369-20130305164712

Keep in mind that the setting alone isn't the only thing that makes Oblivion feel bland and generic to some folks. Certain game elements only made it worse.

Skyrim didn't have a regular old western fantasy theme going. It had elements of it, sure, but it deviated enough from the norm to feel like something new. It took a lot of inspiration from nordic folk tales, and the province itself wasn't endless, almost non-distinguishable & procedurally generated forest. Nor was it filled to the brim with zombies and imps, for that matter. Oblivion looks like a somewhat unimaginative DnD-setting, not an entry in the Elder Scrolls series. Admittedly, Arena & Daggerfall suffered somewhat from the same problem, but in their cases it was mostly due to graphical limitations. The background material was rich, but they couldn't really show much. The "genericness", if you can call it that, runs even deeper: Most dungeons in the game were incredibly hard to distinguish, and the seven random oblivion worlds might as well have been just one. Having two voice actors per race didn't exactly make the game feel more varied, either.

There was also one rather big "lore rape" incident (did someone seriously call it "lore rape"? Really...?): Cyrodiil was supposed to be a jungle. Then, when they for god-knows-what-reason changed it to what we currently have, they said "Talos did it". I don't mind retcons as much as some other people do, but it stings when they ignore established lore for something much less interesting.

As for the storyline... They all suck (in their own ways). They're the weakest point of the series as a whole, honestly. It's worth noting however, that of the three newest TES games, Oblivion has the fewest by far with ~230, compared to ~430 in Morrowind and Skyrim (Actual numbers are somewhat lower, as those totals include sub-categories).

Oblivion looked rather bad coming off of Morrowind, true, but with Skyrim's release I'd say it only looks worse. If Skyrim had a setting as bland as the one in Oblivion, then Morrowind would be the odd one out. Instead, Oblivion sticks out as a very samey game that doesn't blend well with Morrowind and Skyrim.

tl;dr version - I disagree, and not only for the reasons you've brought up. Also, I care way too much about people comparing Oblivion favourably to Morrowind & Skyrim.