The Dark Brotherhood questline in Oblivion actually respects your choices way more than Skyrim's

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

I just finished the DB line in Oblivion on a replay and man, the way it handles your decisions is so different. Like, in Skyrim you're basically on rails - you join, you do contracts, you get the artifacts, boom you're Listener. But Oblivion? You can actually refuse contracts. You can kill the Night Mother. You can betray people and face actual consequences within the questline itself, not just "oh well I'll reload."

The contract variety is also way less predictable. Skyrim's contracts feel like "go to location, kill target, come back." Oblivion makes you think about HOW you do it - the poisoning one, the arena setup, the ones where you need to be creative about framing it as an accident. It feels less like a checklist and more like you're actually a member of an assassin's guild with standards and methods.

And Cicero? I get that people love him but he's basically just comic relief. The DB members in Oblivion feel more like actual people with their own agendas. The whole thing feels less "chosen one" and more "you're a hired killer in a dangerous organization."

Does anyone else feel like Skyrim's DB questline is actually the weaker of the two factions? Dark Brotherhood vs Thieves Guild in Skyrim I'd take TG every time, but Oblivion flips that for me.

 

[EbonyWarrior]

I think you're hitting on something real here, but I'd push back a bit on the "on rails" thing - Skyrim's DB questline does have some branching, it's just way more subtle and easy to miss. Like, you can actually refuse to kill Paarthurnax if you want, or skip some contracts entirely without getting locked out. The problem is the game doesn't really punish you for it or make you feel the weight of those choices the way Oblivion apparently does.

That said, you're totally right about the contract design. Oblivion's approach of "here's a target, now figure out how to make it look like an accident" is genuinely more interesting than Skyrim's "go here, kill this person, leave." Skyrim contracts feel more like radiant jobs that happen to have a story wrapper around them. And yeah, the Oblivion DB members had actual personalities and conflicts with each other - I remember the politics mattering in a way they just... don't in Skyrim.

Where I'll disagree though: Cicero gets a lot of mileage out of being unhinged in a way that's actually unsettling if you're paying attention. He's not just comic relief - he's genuinely creepy. But I get that it's a different vibe than what Oblivion was doing. Skyrim's DB leans harder into the weird cult aesthetic (which honestly fits the Night Mother better imo), whereas Oblivion was more "actual assassin organization."

The Thieves Guild comparison is fair though. Skyrim's TG questline absolutely crushes its DB line, whereas in Oblivion they're more balanced.