Oblvion Remastered

The 1st of May, 2025

Dawn’s Beauty, Morning Star’s Sun
Fills ancient marble with heat.
Sharp smells and strange tales linger in these imperial streets.
From markets full, to arcane school,
to Arena where duels are done.
A place of cheap thrills, and brutal kills
A place where battles are won.
The gold from such things,
Are ill gotten gains
That as a monger I shun,
Don’t be apprehensive,
My selections extensive,
From the mundane to the obscene.
But lock yourself in,
for once night begins.
The color of blood, Sanguine.

Cyrodiil Reborn

At the time of writing this, it’s been a week since Oblivion Remastered has graced our computers, and I’ve put 63 hours into the game in that one week; I’ve just been glued to my computer playing this game I’d already done everything in twice over by 2011.

This is an interesting kind of remaster, where it’s the full OG game running with Unreal simply rendering it. I can’t imagine how much trouble that kind of thing is to set up, but the final result is something that can please new players and fans of the old game both. Because it’s still the full old game, everything beloved is still there, just with incredible graphics and presentation now. Because of the game industry’s focus on more realistic-looking cinematic experiences and the general move away from in-depth game worlds and various other complexities, Oblivion, though it’s a 20-year vintage, feels newer than even the actually new games on the market with this fresh coat of paint. The first true next-generation title, and it’s 20 years old!

They’ve also improved some of the base game stuff too. The biggest change players of the old game will notice is that they’ve reworked how the leveling system works. Perks for mastery of skills and the entire level-up system are different and less obtuse now. There are other changes to the gameplay that may seem minor but have a large effect on modernizing it as well. A good example of this would be that you regain health over time now when out of combat; this seems like a very small change, but it alters the game drastically for the better. Another change for the better is that you can walk, albeit very slowly, while over-encumbered, just like in Skyrim! All of these changes come with other delightful elements of modernity, such as achievements, an FOV slider, Steam trading cards, and native controller support! Finally!

One of the complaints about OG Oblivion many had was how few voice actors were in the game. They heard everyone’s complaints, and now thousands of lines of dialogue have been recorded by new actors. There’s a lot of attention paid to the audio in this remaster. Another example is that now there is reverb applied to sounds like dialog or combat in dungeons or caves. Another complaint was how bad the faces and the rigging for their speech looked in OG Oblivion because of the technical limitations of the time. This too has been completely redone, and it’s basically flawless now with all new faces and animations for every character in the game.

Combat has also been improved. While the feel is mostly the same as the OG game, there are new animations and things that make the best combat in the series somehow feel even better. They’ve also done some work on how their systems function on the backend. In the late-mid to early-late game, enemies no longer become HP sponges. For reference, I’m level 22 at the time of writing this, and the combat is generally just much faster paced than it was in the OG game around that level. It’s even possible to do stealth one-hit kills now as a level 22!

Cyrodiil is a place I spent many hours of my youth. Its rolling green hills and clear summer skies are the backdrop for many precious memories. Oblivion is a unique kind of game in that it presents the player with an entire world to live in as well as play in. Bethesda seems to be the only game company that is capable of doing this kind of thing in an AAA format even 20 years later. The improvements to the world make this even more effective. Obviously, the graphics, but also the lovely environmental sounds and various other improvements that make the world feel even more real and lived in. All of the plugin player houses being included naturally into the remaster is a nice touch too! (I’m living in Battlehorn Castle.)

I highly recommend that you play this game. It comes as my all-time highest recommendation for anything ever. It’s simply the best game ever made. Presented here in a way that highlights all its strengths and minimizes all its flaws.