Bethesda has officially confirmed the heavily-rumoredThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered. The game uses Unreal Engine 5 and contains all DLC, intending to provide the completeOblivionexperience to a new generation of players, with a new leveling system and new voice lines.Oblivion Remasteredcan be purchased and downloaded today, April 22, for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5, and is also available as a day-one Game Pass title.
The game was officially revealed during a live stream event fromBethesda Softworkson YouTube and Twitch. It featured developers from both Bethesda and Virtuos, the partnered studio primarily responsible for revampingOblivion. In addition to the significant graphical updates, the livestream highlighted a number of other changes,including an improved third-person perspective and new, unique voices for each of Cyrodiil’s races.Oblivion Remasteredcomes with all additional content released for the original game, including the two major expansions,Knights of the NineandShivering Isles.
New Features Hope To Build On The Original Experience In Oblivion Remastered
Enhanced But Not Completely Remade
Virtuos was adamant throughout the reveal that the core ofOblivionis intact. In fact,a large majority of the game logic appears to have been preserved inOblivion Remastered, with Unreal Engine 5 described as the remaster’s “body” controlled by the “brain” ofOblivion’s original programming. That said, there are a number of changesOblivion Remasteredhas made to the original experience. Most overt is the visual overhaul, which replaces the bloom-heavy graphics of the 2006 original, but also noticeable are aUI and UX revamp, modernizing the scroll-like texture of the game’s menus and HUD, and improved audio effects.
Significant mechanical changes were covered in theOblivion Remasteredannouncementas well.The leveling system has been reevaluated and alteredto be a combination of bothOblivion’s andSkyrim’s.Skyrim’s influence extends to the addition of a sprint capability, which wasn’t possible in the 2006 original. Animations have also been reworked across the board, from hit reactions in combat to facial movements when speaking to NPCs. A key area of Virtuos' focus was also modernizingOblivion’s third-person mode with an over-the-shoulder camera (as opposed to over your character’s head) and proper crosshairs.
Our Take: Oblivion Remastered’s Extensive Changes Breathe New Life Into A Dated Game
I Can’t Believe It Came Out Almost Two Decades Ago
The above changes toOblivionare likely to be a disappointment to some longtime fans, and I am personally cautious about preemptively celebrating some of them, but it’s still promising to see Virtuos and Bethesda approachingOblivion Remasteredwith such gusto. There’s clearly a lot of passion and thought put into these changes, and the19-year-oldOblivionarguably needed the work;it was cutting-edge in 2006, but is beyond clunky compared to more modern games.
The game looks familiar, despite the massively improved models and textures, right down to the pattern on a Silver Sword. The way a skeleton swings a weapon looks practically the same despite some clear improvements in how its torso moves separately from its lower half – something specifically pointed out by Virtuos during the reveal. Rumors had long suspected this was a full remake ofOblivion, but now that it’s been shown off,The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remasteredis clearly the correct title, and this first look is a promising introduction to the revamped classic.
