The games industry rumour mill being what it is, most of us weren’t completely blindsided by the announcement of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, though we were quite surprised when the full game dropped on the day it was announced. And straight onto Game Pass, no less. For many people, Skyrim served as the entry point into the Elder Scrolls series (unsurprisingly, considering it’s been ported to anything with a control method), but a lot of us remember further back.
I jumped into the series at Morrowind, and while that was one of the weirdest epic-scale RPGs of its time, it was also pretty damn ugly for most of the runtime, mixing several dozen shades of brown to carry its entire aesthetic in much the way Fallout 3 did. And Morrowind was pretty damn weird too, and hit the world at a time when that kind of RPG wasn’t common on consoles. Despite its limited appeal, it set the stage for Oblivion to take the world by storm, offering a vaster, more traditional fantasy play-space and some of the most gorgeous visuals ever seen at the time.
Bethesda nailed the voice cast, too, or at least two key roles in it. Just as they’d secured Liam Neeson’s talent in Fallout 3, they pulled in both Sir Patrick Steward and Sean Bean to star in Oblivion – though Patrick Stewart’s role is minor. He’s there to deliver a killer opening monologue (seriously, the nostalgia wave hit me hard as he finished speaking and the music kicked in) before his character karks it and catalyses the plot.
Opening in a prison (obviously, this is an Elder Scrolls game after all), Oblivion sees your character meet Emperor Uriel Septim as he attempts to escape the Imperial City with what’s left of his honour guard. After selecting your starting race and class, you’re sort of told to do whatever but stay out of the way. Fate intervenes, of course, and you end up entrusted with a powerful MacGuffin by the Emperor himself before he’s murdered.
Class selection offers a huge variety of starting playstyles, all of which you can change through play, which interact with the different stat bonuses offered by the nine races. Redguards and Orcs make better fighters initially, for example, while Wood Elves and Khajit excel at thievery and stealth. Oblivion is truly old school in its character progression, offering an immense amount of choice that genuinely changes the way you approach the early game.
Once you’re out in the world, you’re more or less on your own. You can follow the critical path, which will eventually see you meet up with Sean Bean’s Martin, heir to the Empire, and set about closing Oblivion Gates that spew demons into the countryside, but crucially you don’t have to. You can join multiple factions from the Mages’ Guild to the Dark Brotherhood of assassins, or muck in at the Arena to earn money and fame. You can become a Blade, and serve as a dedicated honour guard, or play a thief and rob everyone blind.
Player choice is at the forefront of everything, as Oblivion layers systems upon systems, even going so far as to allow you to create your own unique magic spells from a variety of effects. One of my old favourites still works, which is a combination of Fortify Strength, Fortify Acrobatics, and Feather, which essentially allows you to climb anything in the game. I’m sure a list exists somewhere, because the possibilities are almost endless. Most of them can break the game in some way, and often did.
Oblivion was always incredibly janky, even by Bethesda’s standards, and Oblivion Remastered has fixed almost none of the issues. They even left some of the more infamous bugs in the game, as well as a section of dialogue where the voice actor elects to do a second take of the same line resulting in her character breaking the fourth wall. The new skin is gorgeous in places, but can’t really hide the immense number of physics issues and collision problems that existed then and still do now.
But maybe it doesn’t matter. While Oblivion was subject to its share of controversy back in 2006 (including some well-earned hate over the infamous “Horse Armor” debacle), those same bugs are now regarded almost endearingly. Whenever an NPC ragdolls in a certain way, or does a weird expression when I’m locked into one of Bethesda’s weirdly intimate face-to-face conversations, I just find myself smiling. I mean, it’s almost 20 years old, pre-dating all four of my children, and despite the bugs offers one of the most complete and compelling open world RPG experiences ever made.
Partly this is down to its sense of place. Like Skyrim, Cyrodiil is often stunning to simply exist in, heaving with places to find like caves, mines, ruins, and dungeons. It’s also peppered with settlements where you can trade, pick up side quests, or join one or more of the many playable factions. It rarely locks you out of anything in response to your choices, which makes for a truly versatile adventure. Virtuous have done a superb job bringing the visuals up-to-date while maintaining the essential atmosphere of the world.
There are some issues (besides the bugs) that I really wish they had just remade entirely, like the weird enemy scaling and the dreary samey-ness of the Oblivion realms, which are ostensibly procedural but all feel more or less identical every time you go through a portal. The combat also just doesn’t feel very precise or impactful, and really could have done with tightening up.
That said, a lot has been tidied. An improved UI makes navigating menus easier, while a more modern HUD makes a major difference to the overall feel of the world. Skill trees, while not different, are easier to understand and advance in, and some of the voice lines have been completely re-recorded to add a little more realism to the affair.
If you’ve never played this game and have access to Game Pass, I’d implore you give it a shot. The much-improved graphics can’t hide all the jank, but it really doesn’t matter – even on PS5 where I’m playing it’s a ridiculously deep and vast RPG with dozens to hundreds of hours to get lost in. Multiple longform side quests feel as intriguing as some full-length games I’ve played (the Dark Brotherhood quest-line alone is worth the price of admission), and the music, voice acting, and intricate class system are the icing on the cake.
But you have to go into The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered with the right level of expectation – especially if you’re a newcomer. Some of this game still feels pretty wonky, and although it looks absolutely lovely, the clumsiness is what many of us returning fans love the most. New players may not feel the same. Either way, it’s an absolute ton of fun, with loads to see, do, and find, and well worth jumping into whether you’ve played it before or not.
