The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Review

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

With the help of a stunning visual upgrade and a more modernized approach to some of the original game systems, the Oblivion remaster does more then enough to please fans of the original as well as fans of the series as a whole.

It is a rare feat for a game to instill the same sense of awe and wonder as it did when you were a child. For many of us that were young in the Xbox 360 days, Oblivion was the game that either introduced us to the Elder Scrolls world or built off of what we already knew from the Morrowind entry years before. Being a kid in the 2000's myself, I fell into the same camp as many of you. I played a bit of Morrowind on a PC that could barely run it, but was infatuated with the world and the stories it had to offer.

The vibrant world and the story attached to it were more than enough to keep me locked in for hours on end. Fast forward a few decades and it's no secret that the Elder Scrolls series has become a monster in its own right since that time. Skyrim has sold untold millions of copies, and been ported to every system known to man at this point, and fans are foaming at the mouth for anything that feels and looks new in this universe.

Enter Oblivion Remastered, a game whose existence seemed all but guaranteed through leaks, but was wrapped in a field of uncertainty to when it was actually coming out. Well folks, that day is here and let me tell you you better strap on your nostalgia pants. We're in for a good time.

A World Ending Quest: The Story

The story of Oblivion is more or less the same as every Elder Scrolls game on the basis of how it starts and how it progresses. The intro cinematic introduces you to the stakes almost immediately with the voice of the emperor foreshadowing the end of his life, and the danger of a Daedric invasion that will soon follow. From that point on, you are in control. You are an unlikely hero thrown into a world ending quest with nothing but the wind at your back to drive you towards the goal of saving Cyrodiil.

After you finish that initial tutorial and choose from a variety of different aspects, from star signs to what class you plan on building towards, the world is your oyster. You can dive head first into it from that moment or completely ignore it, and honestly, you're doing yourself a disservice by rushing into it. This isn't to say the story is bad at all. In fact, I would go out on a limb here and say that Oblivion's story was the one I enjoyed the most out of the entries released so far, but it can be completed relatively quickly.

Without giving away too much, the basis is you are tasked with finding the emperor’s long lost heir and helping him realize his destiny as the savior of Cyrodiil. This has you closing the token gates of Oblivion, which are these amazing terrifying vistas of fire and stone, saving cities from the forces of Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric prince of Oblivion, and fighting your way through his crazed followers as you try to stifle the invasion.

That is pretty much it from a main story perspective. It's short and you can realistically finish it relatively quickly if you are intent on doing so, but it really shouldn’t be your focus in those first few hours. What you should be doing as soon as you leave that tutorial area, is forgetting the story even exists and digging into what I think is the best part of Oblivion: The world and everything attached to it.

Beauty in the Details: The World

The world of Oblivion is what I consider to be its strong suite. Though the remastered version doesn't have the same level of bright colors and suffers from quite a bit of stutters in the open world, it's more than what I would consider a pretty game by every extension of the word. Even on my base PS5, I found myself saying "˜wow' more than a few times in regards to the various landmarks that are scattered throughout the world from the Oblivion gates to the dozens of dungeons and other structures in the cities.

Everything has a very polished look to it and I really do have to commend the developers over at Virtuos for the job they did. I can get past the stutters personally, and I found that disabling motion blur and screen space reflections more or less gets rid of them, though they can still occur when you first leave a dungeon or first enter a city. Other than that you're in for a treat. The wilderness outside the cities looks great, albeit a little empty sometimes as far as enemies and npcs, and cities feel just the right amount of alive with tons of stuff to do.

The world is really the meat of the game and this excels through the questlines you can be a part of.

A Job For Every Type of Hero: The Questing

There are half a dozen major guilds you can join from The Dark Brotherhood to The Mages Guild and no niche of character should feel left out. Want to embrace the dark path of an assassin? You can. Want to play the role of robin hood and steal from the rich to give to the poor? You can fully commit to that with or without the thieves guild. There is even an arena in the middle of the imperial city where you can fight your way to the title of Grand Champion.

These guilds, along with the boatload of side quests from various different characters scattered throughout the realm, are what I believe to be the true Oblivion experience. You really should make an effort to go out and join as many guilds as you want, and if you lose interest in one, there are plenty more you can try. These guilds as well as the world are held together by the huge variety of characters that call it home.

Long gone are the stiff facial expressions from the original game. They have been beefed up in an impressive way and show emotions for the tone of the conversations the player is having with them. If the NPC is angry or sad, you'll know from the moment they engage with you. Virtuous even kept in the token camera zoom when you talk to someone to retain the feel of the original. You got everything from traders and merchants, to dukes and duchesses, and everything in between. If you know and love the Bethesda formula of npcs, you'll be right at home.

The gorgeous world paired with the fact that there is literally something to do at every corner of the map really does give you an open playground to do more or less what you please. I really can't reiterate enough that you as the consumer are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t stray off the beaten path a bit.

There's a whole ‘nother story outside the main quest that allows you to form your character into the legend you want, and it is more than worth it to at least give everything a try once. I knew exactly the path I was going to take and the guilds I was going to join based on my Xbox 360 playthrough decades before and I still found myself roaming off the beaten path every opportunity I could.

The Gameplay: Simplicity Is The Name Of The Game

Now I will go out on a limb here and say the gameplay might turn some people off that are expecting Skyrim like combat. This game’s combat is very simple in the normal difficulties and usually dumbs down to smacking the enemies with the strongest weapon you have at your disposal or blasting them to bits with your spells. That is essentially it. I would go as far as to say that the system is very basic, but on the same note you have access to such a wide variety of weapons and spells that I think anyone can have a good time with it if they can get past the repetitive nature of most of the fights.

For example I've always been a slave to the single handed longsword type in these games, but even I found myself leaning towards daggers and other weapons just because they pretty much improved every game system as far as how they handle and the animations that are attached to each weapon. No two weapons look the same when you are attacking enemies and it really comes off as one of those minor things that I think longtime fans of the series will enjoy.

It isn't overly animated to the point where it feels like a new game entirely but it's just good enough to pass in the modern age. Mostly everything else is untouched as far as how the combat handles. You can still quickly cast a spell without pausing the game or equipping it to your right hand, and honestly I think a lot of the people that are coming straight from skyrim without any prior time in oblivion are going to be really happy with how seamless magic works with your bladed weapons.

You can have a sword in your right hand and a shield in your left, and still caste as many spells as you want without anyone to tell you the difference. It’s seamless and perfect in a way that gives you melee weapons weight with every hit, but also gives you the flexibility to explore beyond just using bladed weapons. You of course still have access to the most fun build in the game, the stealth archer, and ranged combat feels good with bows and with most of the magic abilities.

Skill System: No More Min-Maxing

As far as the skill system, it has been totally revamped. What was once a battle of min-maxing has now been simplified in a way that makes it less about what you level up in your skill tree, but more about what you actually use. Want to level up your sword skill? Simply use a sword more and that applies to every minor skill in the game. When you do level up, simply choose what you think is best for your build. Strength is attached to swords, blunt weapons and unarmed while also giving you a higher limit to how much you can carry, Willpower is attached to more magical aspects such as your destruction, restoration and alteration and so on.

The new system is honestly amazing in the most simple way and makes it so that by the time you're level 15, you are more or less a jack of all trades as you'll have points in a little bit of everything. I vastly enjoyed the skill system in this version of the game and I really do think many people will find its simple nature and ease of use a welcome sight in a decade plagued with unnecessary skill trees and leveling aspects that add nothing to the game.

Final Thoughts

I think it's no secret from my review that I enjoyed it. The graphical upgrade with the small addition of a ton of quality of life features really makes me feel a special type of nostalgia that I haven’t felt in gaming in years. The game might still have its jankiness in most aspects, but I do think that is what makes it unique. A lot of people said right off the rip that this was a remake, and I have to disagree. It is very much the oblivion of old with a very nice, be it a little stuttery sometimes, paint job that feels like something new while also keeping the same gameplay aspects and story that made it so good back in the day.

The story is great, the world is gorgeous and filled to the brim with stuff to do, and the amount of content you have at your fingertips for a fifty dollar game is huge. This is without me even covering the two free DLCs that are included free of charge. The Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles are both fifteen plus hour campaigns in their own right, with The Shivering Isles being my favorite Elder Scrolls DLC ever released besides Dawnguard. The game is a lot of fun and you have hundreds of hours of content available at your fingertips for less than it costs to play a modern AAA game.

For this reason, I entirely recommend this game to anyone who has always wanted to get into Oblivion, or really anyone that is a fan of The Elder Scrolls series in general. Many of us old heads consider Oblivion to be one of the best entries released, and now that you can play a modernized version, you really have nothing to lose. She's here, she's back, and she's all prettied up just waiting for you to take the dive.