Video games have a rich history of cult classics and masterpieces, and with bloated development timelines for modern AAA games, the medium of late has leaned towards replaying the greatest hits. This has been done primarily through two avenues — the ambitious remake and the modest remaster. While the two approaches share a common goal of resurrecting older titles and giving them a fresh coat of paint to suit modern audiences, they are distinct in terms of the effort required, the results achieved, and most importantly, the rationale driving the project.
A remake is considered a fundamental reconceptualisation of the original, complemented by in-game assets that have been rebuilt from the ground up, gameplay mechanics updated to suit the modern gamer’s needs, and often, an expansion of the original narrative with new elements and more stories to tell. All of this can potentially breathe new life into a game that is a decade old, or perhaps even two. A remake — when done well — allows a new generation of gamers to experience the essence of the original and brings a fresh perspective that can resonate with veterans and long-time fans, too.
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is a fresh take on the 2006 classic
Photo Credit: Bethesda
A remaster, on the other hand, primarily focuses on putting out the game again with a graphical polish, incorporating higher resolutions, improved textures, and other technical upgrades, but without altering the core storyline or the experience. The re-release can especially feel unnecessary if it involves a not-so-old game that’s already in decent shape. Thus, in the grand remaster versus remake debate, the former can feel like a superfluous exercise — like gilding a digital lily.
This holds true for most remastered games that have come out in recent times. Sony is the biggest culprit; The Last of Us Part II Remastered and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered were brought up to modern standards, somewhat unnecessarily. However, Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, which was shadow dropped last month, has a slightly different story to tell.
Originally launched in 2006, the game holds a hallowed place in the chronicles of RPGs and remains not only a classic of the genre, but also one of the most influential releases in the medium. Fast forward 19 years and Bethesda has decided to revisit the sweeping landscapes of Cyrodiil with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.
While the premise of a beloved classic that we played in our formative years now rendered in modern fidelity sounds enticing, it isn’t just about what’s new. Do these enhancements build upon the original’s visual prowess and make it an experience to behold, or do they merely shine a light on the game’s underlying oldness and signal the futility of a remaster in the first place? These are, among many others, questions that we try to answer in our review of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.
Being a remaster, the narrative of the game is almost identical to its predecessor. You emerge from an imperial prison cell only to find Emperor Uriel Septim VII and his sons slaughtered by cultist assassins, leading the world to the brink of collapse. With no heir to the throne left, an ancient pact is broken, opening the gates of Oblivion. As Tamriel is invaded by ancient, immortal creatures known as Daedra, the game’s journey leads players to long-kept secrets and a discovery that may save the world from Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagon’s encroaching forces from the plane of Oblivion. This conflict forms the backbone of the game, guiding players through the main questline, epic confrontations and memorable set-piece moments.
The game’s narrative remains unchanged compared to the original
Photo Credit: Bethesda/ Screenshot – Shaurya Tomer
That, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. While the main questline of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is the heart of the game, a myriad of faction questlines and numerous side quests also contribute to its charms, delivering a sense of depth and personality to Cyrodiil and its people.
For instance, The Dark Brotherhood guild offers a series of assassination missions which, while being incredibly engaging courtesy of dark humour and loads of twists, are also morally ambiguous. The Thieves Guild offers a satisfying sense of progression, too, as you make your way from petty larceny to master thievery. Other factions such as the Mages Guild and the Fighters Guild also offer expansive content, with diverse narratives and testing tasks rich in character and lore. While changes compared to the original game are few and far between, everything is presented with a cleaner aesthetic with meaningful quality-of-life improvements.
Notably, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered includes all previously released DLCs. This includes the lauded Shivering Isles expansion which brings a new realm, storyline, and interesting Knights of the Nine content.
A Familiar Sword
At its core, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is the same first-person RPG experience as the beloved original from 2006. It follows Bethesda’s signature format for an Elder Scrolls game: a mix of real-time melee combat, endless exploration, and magic-filled spellcasting. Players navigate the vast and varied regions of Cyrodiil, explore ancient ruins of the Ayleid landscape, and venture into the fiery abyss of Oblivion gates to obtain a Sigil Stone.
Building upon the visual prowess of the original game, Cyrodiil is presented as one of the highlights of the remaster. It is a landscape diverse in nature; from dense forests and snow-capped mountains to bustling cities and damp caverns — all of which are now rendered in higher resolution, improved textures, and better draw distances. The visual changes make for stunning vistas when you’re standing atop a mountain cliff or gazing across a sprawling countryside.
Other areas, such as Ayleid and Oblivion gates, have received similar visual improvements, too. There are noticeably sharper textures and environmental details all across, which not only make character models crisper, but also the world around them more vivid, and ultimately a class above the original. The visual improvements also impact the character creation system. While it still allows for deep customisation of the character, the nuances of the chosen race and their facial features, such as Imperial, Breton, and Wood Elf, are now more apparent.
Character customisation remains the same but the remaster brings improved facial features
Photo Credit: Bethesda/ Screenshot – Shaurya Tomer
That said, the visual improvements, sadly, do not translate into a better gameplay experience. Combat encounters, especially melee, still feel funnily clunky in comparison with modern RPGs and successful hits lack satisfying feedback. It seemed as if I was merely swinging a weapon through the air that neutralised enemies by touch rather than delivering a heavy blow to a tangible foe. Despite enhancements in details of character models and weapons, animations appear still and dated, as if they were directly ported from the 2006 version of the game. While these dated systems retain the charm of the original, they also prevent the remaster from feeling modern.
Then there’s the infamous level-scaling system which bumps up the level of enemies, loot containers, and other features with your character’s prowess, making progression feel less rewarding and enemies overtly tough. On more than one instance, I found myself battling extremely tough foes even though I just levelled up and gathered a powerful weapon with a new loot.
Character progression in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered borrows the same “learn as you go” formula from the original game. Your character’s skills improve with each use, with players earning specialisations in Blade, Blunt, Restoration, or Sneak. This encourages diverse playstyles instead of heavily leaning on one skill. Further, you also have access to an array of offensive and defensive spells which help you survive and traverse through the enhanced world of Oblivion Remastered. You can create custom enchantments to boost certain skills and brew potions at alchemy labs and altars to get temporary benefits like invisibility, as well.
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered still has clunky animations, especially in combat encounters
Photo Credit: Bethesda/ Screenshot – Shaurya Tomer
In comparison to streamlined user interfaces found in today’s AAA titles, the navigation and inventory management in the remastered version remains somewhat identical to the original game, despite receiving a minor polish with crisper menus and legible text. The central pillar of the gameplay experience remains the never-ending loop of accepting new quests, tracking down objective markers, engaging in dialogue and in combat more often than not, and making game-impacting choices.
Apart from its vast and rich open-world, the once-groundbreaking Radiant AI system was one of Oblivion’s defining features. That has made its way to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, as well. It not only functions as the governing body for daily routines of NPCs but also delivers thought-provoking and occasionally hilarious interactions. It also opens up opportunities for amusing situations, where NPCs often behave in a quirky manner or… simply get stuck. Despite this, the Radiant AI system adds immersion to the game, and I found myself simply following NPCs around as they went about their daily routines more times than I should — an experience which I only previously had with Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2.
A Smooth Ride on Modern Hardware
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered runs well on contemporary PC hardware, even with its enhanced visuals. I played the game on an MSI GP66 Leopard laptop equipped with an Intel Core i7 11th gen processor, 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia RTX 3060 laptop GPU, and the overall experience was consistently smooth during the 35-ish hours of my playtime. It comfortably ran on medium to high graphics settings without any significant frame drops, helped by DLSS frame generation and upscaling. The framerate only dipped noticeably when I was exploring densely populated locations such as the Imperial City or was locked in intense combat with multiple enemies.
The game supports Nvidia’s DLSS frame generation and other visual enhancement technologies
Photo Credit: Bethesda/ Screenshot – Shaurya Tomer
Oblivion Remastered isn’t the absolute cutting-edge in graphical fidelity by any means — and that’s understandable — but if you’re a veteran who played it nearly two decades ago or are hopping onto the game just after wrapping up Skyrim, you’ll enjoy the visual upgrades. A simple side by side comparison with the original highlights the expanded scope of the remaster. The enhanced version of the game has clearly gone above and beyond a fresh coat of paint.
Verdict
At its core, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is a little more than a gentle nudge towards nostalgia. For those who have never ventured into the beautiful landscapes of Cyrodiil, the game is the definitive package that bundles all post-release DLC content and runs smoothly on modern hardware. It still offers players a sense of discovery with its rich lore and endless opportunities for adventure — the core strength of the original. However, to those who poured in dozens of hours into the original game, Oblivion Remastered might not feel like a complete reinvention but more of an iterative upgrade, still packing the jankiness of the beloved classic.
The “remastered” label of the game does oversell its impact a bit, but amidst a wave of remasters that merely come with a layer of varnish on an already good-looking game, along with a shiny new price tag, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered certainly stands out. Ultimately, Oblivion was already a great game, made only slightly better with the visual overhaul of the remaster. Perhaps that’s a reminder that remasters of games, which were already visually ahead of their time, can only go so far.