Oblivious To The Difference Between Remake And Remaster
HIGH Exploring an open world that was made with passion and densely packed with content.
LOW Some bugs, old and new, rear their ugly heads.
WTF Why are the atronachs so hot?
I was born 30 years ago, and for four of those years, I have reviewed titles here at GameCritics — but during all that time, I have never played the original Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
That admission is perhaps a bit surprising, since I’ve played every singleplayer Elder Scrolls RPG that has come out after 2006, which is… just Skyrim, but also every Bethesda Fallout, and these are essentially post-apocalyptic versions Elder Scrolls, for better or worse.
In any case, I enjoy open-world games greatly when done right, and what better excuse is there to check off a game from my backlog than a fresh remaster? I’ll begin with items specific to the remastered version.
The most obvious changes are visual. An incredible level of detail has been added to textures and lighting throughout, which can look impressive on hardware capable of rendering the higher-level settings. Even at low settings, many details from the 2006 version have been modernized, from the rigging of facial models to the (seemingly obligatory) desaturation of colors from the original.
As for performance, I played on two different setups.
On the Steam Deck, it held an average framerate of ~40fps on low settings and struggled to hit 30fps consistently on medium settings, with heavily forested areas hitting the system especially hard. On my PC, running with a 2080, it managed a steady 60 in most situations with a mix of medium/high settings. I only experienced one crash during nearly 30 hours of play — one freeze on a loading screen.
Bugs were not too common, but they were… present. Most of the ones I encountered were visual, but one did affect a main quest and effectively froze progress until I looked up what I was supposed to do next –this specific bug was apparently present in the original. Besides these few bumps, I had a fairly smooth experience that let me become engrossed in the world, easily losing track of time.
For those who want more than the lowdown on the performance bump, Oblivion opens with the player trapped in a prison cell, being goaded by a fellow inmate. The player then gets to make their avatar, who is fully customizable thanks to a fairly robust character creator with many choices, both visual and with those that pertain to gameplay, such as various racial options, each offering different boons and drawbacks.
The introduction plays out with an escape through the sewers as the player fights everything from rats to elite mage-assassins. At the end of this tutorial, the player is released into the world and told very explicitly that they can pursue the main quest or whatever else they want, and the adventure’s design embraces and supports this player freedom.
For example, dungeons and ruins are almost never linear paths, but instead winding labyrinths that can be completed via multiple routes. The experience system encourages players to find their playstyle by rewarding them based on the skills they use. If one uses bladed weapons, then the Blade skill will level up, and so forth. Many skills not tied directly to moment-to-moment action-oriented gameplay, such as lockpicking or speech, offer engaging interfaces that ‘gamify’ the experience.
I did discover some oddities during my time with Oblivion. Shopkeepers have a listed supply of gold (much like in Bethesda’s other RPGs) but the number does not change no matter how much I buy/sell, and I am under the impression their gold supplies are infinite. Followers have limited behavior options and sometimes choose odd pathfinding or will arbitrarily decide to wait at a location and need to be found and told to follow again. I am unsure if these are instances of bugs or perhaps idiosyncratic NPC behavior, but things like this did not substantially impact my experience.
In fact, that sort of oddness found in these characters and the larger world around them are incredibly charming. The world is densely packed with things to do and places to explore, unique quests were easy to come by, and if I ever saw a place and thought “that looks interesting,” I could go there and find out that it usually was.
This fresh version of a beloved adventure from the 2000’s is as good as it ever was, and those (like me) who have yet to make the journey will find it well worth the time, even all these years later.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Buy ES IV Oblivion Remastered – PC – PS – XB
Disclosures: This game was developed Virtuos and Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is currently available on PS5, XBO/X/S, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC and Steam Deck. Approximately 27 hours were devoted to the game, and it was not completed. This is a single-player-only title.
Parents: This game has received an M rating from the ESRB and contains Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, and Violence. From the ESRB: “This is a role-playing game in which players assume the role of an escaped prisoner navigating the world of Tamriel. As players explore open-world environments, they can perform various quests that guide and impact their character’s storyline. Players use swords, arrows, and magic attacks (e.g., fireballs, blasts of ice) to kill various enemies (e.g., rats, monsters, human soldiers and bandits). Combat is highlighted by cries of pain and frequent blood-splatter effects. One sequence depicts a room with assorted limbs, torsos, organs, and heads among blood-splattered walls/floors. Dialogue and game text contain some sexual material (e.g., “It was no secret that they were all prostitutes, and after the March and the Flower Festival that evening, they would be available for more intimate business;” “She…raped their men as cruelly as [he] had ravished her;” “Remember when you thought [he]…was hiding being every tree with lewd intent, intent on making you…into his personal sex slave?”).”
Colorblind modes: There are no colorblind modes.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Subtitles are available for all dialogue and the text can be resized. There are some sound cues during a few puzzles and combat that have no other tells, visual or otherwise. This means that this game is not fully accessible.
Controls: Controls are fully remappable.
As a lover of portable gaming, he plays on his Switch when he can and alternates between older handhelds when it suits his mood. He also enjoys playing a wide variety of games on PC, in particular strategy games like Victoria II. His favorite game is TWEWY (The World Ends With You) and he owns a copy of every version to prove it.
The humble Ohioan hopes to develop his writing and analysis through his work at GameCritics in his spare time, and also mess around with music production and maybe invent a new subgenre.
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