The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, originally released in 2006, is considered by many to be one of the pillars of the Western RPG genre. With its vast open world, epic narrative and deep mechanics, the game marked an era. Now, Oblivion Remastered seeks to revitalize this masterpiece through technical improvements and modern tweaks. However, does it succeed in elevating the experience or does it fall into repetition without substance? Below we analyze its strengths and weaknesses.
Oblivion Remastered: A Proper Remaster or Merely Aesthetic?
Gameplay: A Balance between Tradition and Modernity
The gameplay of Oblivion Remastered maintains its classic essence, but introduces adjustments that facilitate immersion. The dynamic level system, although simplified from the original, allows enemies and rewards to adapt to the player’s progress, avoiding the “soft-lock” (insufficient level lock) that affected the 2006 version. Or at least that was the intention, since the system was implemented in such a way that unique mission rewards become useless if you got them too early.
In addition to the above, significant limitations persist:
- Combat: While fluid by the standards of the time, melee combat lacks precision compared to current titles. Charged shots in archery are still slow, and magic, while visually impressive, can feel untactical and very limited without custom mods.
- Interface (UI): The interface has been reorganized to be less intrusive, but still lacks advanced customization options, such as a scalable interactive map or a dynamic marker system.
- AI of NPCs: Artificial intelligences exhibit repetitive behaviors, especially in cities, where characters perform basic routines without complex interactions.
For nostalgics, these elements are part of the charm; for new players, they may represent a barrier to entry in Oblivion Remastered.
Difficulty: Be a Hit Sponge or Die of 2 Hits
One point we can’t avoid mentioning when talking about gameplay is the difficulty and how tremendously unbalanced the progression is in Oblivion Remastered. We have Beginner and Apprentice, where you are basically a sponge of dates, axes, swords and everything that an enemy throws at you; while you go for a walk through the countryside without worrying about anything knocking down whatever comes in front of you without difficulty. Adept is the default difficulty, here we can consider that the damage you do and you do is balanced, but for most players this still does not represent a challenge and only have to take care of certain very specific enemies.
The problem comes when we talk about the following difficulties. Specialist is next on the list and according to numbers that the community has calculated, we could conclude that here you get x3.5 damage while your only do an absurd x0.286 damage to the enemy; Challenging to a large extent and the jump is felt immediately, but we would not say it is a problem for players who enjoy a good fight although noticeably unbalanced. (If you do not want to use mods to modify the difficulty, this is the one we personally recommend).
Finally, we have the last difficulty called Eminence, here the difficulty in Oblivion Remastered simply breaks. With a multiplier of x6 to the damage enemies do to you and a x0.167 to the damage you can inflict, everything will be able to kill you in a matter of seconds. Are you expecting to be a stealth assassin who kills everything with an arrow or a dagger to the neck? Works well, but only for rats; a Berserker who throws himself into the field with a healing spell in one hand and an axe in the other? Just plain suicide.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that the latter difficulty makes Oblivion Remastered impossible, I played my first 14 hours on Eminence difficulty myself, but it definitely requires a significant amount of time to advance very little and limits the play style, as you’ll have to prioritize always dodging and taking on 3 or more enemies at once is assured suicide.
History: Dark Mythology and Political Complexity
The strongest point of the game is always this. Oblivion’s main plot revolves around the threat of Mehrunes Dagon, the daedric prince of destruction, whose invasion through dimensional portals endangers all of Tamriel. This epic narrative combines elements of Shakespearean tragedy (the death of Emperor Uriel Septim VII in the prologue is memorable) with existential themes of fate and mortality.
The main quests, led by the heretical Mythic Dawn sect, are designed to keep the player constantly on their toes: from infiltrating dark temples to confronting grotesque creatures on the plane of Oblivion. Outside of the central plot, the secondary factions offer subplots rich in decisions, rewards and where every action has lasting consequences. There are missions that connect with previous decisions you have made, and in general, they invite you to immerse yourself into their world, being able to find characters and references already seen in other games of the saga.
However, some side arcs (e.g. the Dark Brotherhood missions) may seem linear or predictable nowadays, being mostly mere plot missions with no deep story and implications.
Graphics and Performance: Between Sublime Quality and Limited Resources
With technical enhancement powered by NVIDIA DLSS 4 and support for 8K resolutions, Oblivion Remastered transforms the Cyrodiil landscape into a cinematic canvas:
- Textures and Models: Rock surfaces, armor and vegetation receive custom 4K textures, while creature models such as Dremoras or Black Dragons feature details such as realistic scales or light effects on their wings.
- Dynamic Lighting: Night scenes, such as expeditions to the ruins of Sancre Tor, take advantage of Cmejoradas to generate tension. However, this increases VRAM usage, causing stuttering even on high-end GPUs like the RTX 4080.
- Technical Problems: Despite the advances, graphic errors persist in distant objects (pop-in textures) and collision of characters with the environment. These faults, inherited from the original version, detract from immersion.
On PC platform, performance varies depending on the configuration. A GPU like the RTX 4060ti achieves a stable 60 FPS at 1080p with settings varying between ultra and high as far as we have been able to confirm, but on consoles like PS5 or Xbox Series X, the game prioritizes resolution over speed, resulting in occasional lag spikes during crowded scenes. Nevertheless Oblivion Remastered is too unstable, since at least on PC and in our case, the single action of opening the player menu/inventory makes the frames drop to 12 FPS as soon as you close it and stay there for a few seconds or until you see the floor.
Comparison with the Original Version: What Changed and What Stayed the Same?
Unlike comprehensive remasters like those of other games, Oblivion Remastered focuses on polishing the existing rather than reinventing it:
- Playable Mechanics:
- Sprinting was added and the time burden on gates and area transitions was reduced, but systems such as skill training (e.g., increasing strength after using swords) remain identical.
- Level scalability was adjusted to prevent enemies from being too weak or too strong, but the valance between difficulties is simply non-existent. This generates less organic open worlds: when killing a level 10 bandit, another level 20 bandit quickly appears, breaking the illusion of a living world.
- Additional content already included by default:
- The expansions Knights of the Nine (a religious campaign about the recovery of sacred artifacts) and Shivering Isles (a surreal kingdom ruled by Sheogorath) are included without modification. This is disappointing, given that Shivering Isles could have received an artistic redesign to take advantage of the new visual capabilities.
- Origins of the character:
- In the original version, certain attributes of your character would vary depending on the gender you chose, being able to obtain in certain races a speed bonus in its male version while you would obtain an intelligence bonus in its female counterpart. This has been changed in the Remaster by the place of Origin, being able to choose the place where our character comes from and that consequently will affect the bonuses he receives.
- New Voice lines:
- The game mostly uses the same audio as the original version, but new voice lines have been added to certain characters to give more variety. This is due to the limitations of the time in which the original game was made, where a few voice actors were responsible for giving life to dozens of characters, causing them to be too generic lines.
Final Conclusion: A Nostalgic Journey or an Experience Overcome?
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is an ambivalent project. For fans of the original, it represents an opportunity to revive a classic with improved graphics and some modern conveniences. However, those looking for a comprehensive reformulation – with updated mechanics or new content – will find an incomplete product, plagued by unfulfilled technical promises.
That said, if you’re a fan of traditional RPGs and don’t mind navigating their technical limitations, this remaster is still a unique experience. But in a market saturated with modern titles, Oblivion Remastered works better as a nostalgic homage than a universal recommendation.