Should I use Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul when playing Oblivion for the first time?

I'm rather happy playing Morrowind*, but now I decided to finally have a look at Oblivion. I read lots of criticism from Morrowind fans (yeah, obviously it's not Morrowind 2) and now learned about OOO. Since I don't actually have the time to play both vanilla and OOO exhaustively, I'd like to know whether I miss something by skipping the vanilla experience.

What sounds good about OOO is the removal of the levelling enemies, and more items probably won't hurt. However, I enjoyed exploring in Morrowind and didn't like the Morrowind Comes Alive plugin being a bit too generous with additional hostiles (even in cities!) so I'm afraid OOO's "more challenge" could result in having to fight most of the time when I was just enjoying the landscape ;)

So let me repeat my question:

For someone who quite liked Morrowind, can you recommend starting to play vanilla Oblivion or OOO?

(I don't ask which way Oblivion is more like Morrowind, since the answer then is "Play Morrowind, it's perfect* already")

(* using some of the great plugins and MGE, but considering vanilla enjoyable as well)

Solution 1:

OOO doesn't take away anything from the "vanilla" experience, if anything, it adds a lot, plus fixes some of the broken mechanics (like level-upping the NPCs according to the user level - playing "vanilla", I finished the Arena at level 3, which is ridiculous), while adding some cool new features, like quests and factions and a lot of other stuff which I can't recall right now (it's been a while since I last played it). The one thing is that it makes Oblivion more difficult... Which isn't a bad thing since, like I said, I finished the Arena at level 3...

Either way, I'm of the opinion that OOO, along with the Unofficial Oblivion Patch and the Uncompressed Textures make TES: Oblivion a much better game, both gameplay-wise and graphically.

To quote Raven Dreamer:

Don't forget the unofficial oblivion patch supplemental. The UOP introduces a major bug regarding the Fort Sutch Oblivion Gate, but the supplemental fixes this, among other things

So, yes, I recommend starting with OOO and just forgetting about vanilla Oblivion.

Solution 2:

Without question, yes, especially if you've played Morrowind.

The challenge that OOO adds only requires a general familiarity with the game mechanics of the Elder Scrolls series to overcome, which you already have. For the most part, it just means that you'll come across some tougher enemies and challenges that you aren't strong enough to conquer yet. You're probably used to this from Morrowind already, or really from anywhere if you've played other western-style computer RPGs in the past.

I wasn't a big fan of the vanilla game on release, but a few years later I gave it another try with OOO and loved it.

Solution 3:

I have asked a similar question earlier. It is much better to play a game vanilla at first, because you can learn how to play the game , and experience a unique adventure . After clocking the game, you can Take the challenge to spice it up with addons like OOO to make the game more challenging and rich with new content.

Face it. You don't shoot a bow with a stick-thingy-with-tip in it in melee combat. Get my point?

just to refrain from my previous question, I have already completed the game vanilla!