For many, doing the main story is very much not the point of an Elder Scrolls game, to the extent that it can almost feel like a distraction from the actual good stuff. If, however, you’re the sort of player that prefers to focus on the critical path before moving on to additional, optional offerings, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered may very well be your dream game. Though its main story isn’t spectacularly beefy, everything around it absolutely is.
There’s a bevy of things to do in Cyrodiil, and even after you have rolled credits on the main story, there’s more than likely still going to be a multitude of things to throw yourself into and keep yourself occupied it for dozens, if not hundreds, more hours. Here, that’s exactly what we’ll be talking about- join us as we go over some of the things you can turn your attention to in Oblivion Remastered after you’ve wrapped up the main questline.
THE DARK BROTHERHOOD
The Dark Brotherhood is obviously an Elder Scrolls staple, and often, the highlight of an Elder Scrolls game. That is very much the case in Oblivion Remastered as well. The guild of assassins can be tricky to find and join, but once you do, it kicks off one of the game’s best arcs and collections of quests. If you’re anything like, oh, I don’t know, literally millions of Oblivion players, you may have already made your way through the Dark Brotherhood questline before finishing the main story (or at the very least made significant progress in it), but if you haven’t it might not be a bad idea to make it your immediate priority.
THIEVES GUILD
The Thieves Guild is another Elder Scrolls staple that, characteristically enough, elevates the Oblivion experience. Whether thanks to your pickpocketing skills, your treks through Imperial City, or something else, chances are that at some point in your Oblivion Remastered playthrough, you are inevitably going to cross paths with the Thieves Guild, which kicks off another of the game’s best questlines. Excellent quest design, a solid narrative arc, and enjoyable thievery-related gameplay mechanics (pickpocketing for days!) ensure that the Thieves Guild questline remains a blast all the way through. If you’re looking for excuses to keep playing the game after hitting credits, this is a really good one.
IMPERIAL CITY ARENA
There’s a lot to do in Imperial City, which makes sense, given that it’s the hub of Cyrodiil (and, in turn, all of Tamriel) in more ways than one. The arena surely commands a high spot on that long list of things to do in the city. It is, of course, pretty much exactly what it sounds like- a gladiatorial arena that throws you into strings of duels as you attempt to climb your way to the very top to be crowned the arena’s champion. Not only do you get solid rewards (including a decent amount of gold) as you make your way through, being crowned champion also earns you the ever-so-iconic (and super creepy) Adoring Fan. If that’s not reason enough to focus on the Arena once you’re done with the main questline, we don’t know what is.
OTHER GUILDS
The Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild may be Oblivion Remastered’s best guild questlines, but the game does of course have others on offer as well. Specifically, there’s the Mages Guild the Fighters Guild, which are also worth seeking out. The Fighters Guild questline is pretty vanilla and straightforward, so you’d be forgiven for putting it on the backburner, but the Mages Guild quests definitely are worth your time, thanks to a pretty engaging storyline and, of course, free access to the Arcana University in Imperial City.
PRISON BREAKS
Oblivion Remastered, much like most (if not all) other Bethesda Game Studios RPGs, crafts an incredibly deep and dynamic sandbox for players to lose themselves in, which, of course, means there’s plenty of ways for you to make your own fun. One of the more entertaining ones, in our book, is getting caught and arrested while committing crimes on purpose, so that you an then get thrown into jail- which you then try and break out of. Obviously, chances are that you will already have seen the inside of a jail cell several times (or at least once) even if you stuck just to the main story- though there are a few rather elaborate and high-security prisons that you can find yourself in that we’d recommend setting as a fun post-game challenge for yourself.
BECOME A VAMPIRE
RPGs that let you inhabit the role of a vampire have a special place in our hearts, and yes, Oblivion Remastered is obviously on that list as well. Given the challenges that turning into a vampire presents in the game – having to constantly avoid sunlight and thus restricting your outdoor activities exclusively to nighttime being chief among them – it might be a good idea to hold off on it until you’ve freely explored other aspects of the game. In the post-game, however, turning into and then living as a vampire can be an absolute blast.
HUNT FOR UNIQUE ITEMS
This is a fairly ordinary one for any RPG, but still always a lot of fun. Scattered throughout Oblivion Remastered’s large and densely packed world are unique and special pieces of weaponry, gear, clothing, accessories, and what have you, each coming with impressive stats and buffs in their own right (and, of course, commanding impressive monetary value, in case you’re looking to sell). Our advice, then, is to go out looking for these items and keep building your collection.
BUY HOUSES
It wouldn’t be an Elder Scrolls game without player housing options, and sure enough, there’s no shortage of those in Oblivion. By the time you’re done with the main story, there’s a good chance that you will have accumulated a fair bit of wealth- which makes purchasing housing somewhere or the other in Cyrodiil quite a good idea. There’s some that are more strongly recommended (like the Benirus Manor in Anvil, which is surprisingly cheap for what it is), but either way, we recommend going out there and buying yourself a home.
KEEP POWERING UP
Like other Elder Scrolls games, Oblivion adopts a core progression loop that rewards you to play the way you want, which is exactly what makes that loop as incredibly addictive as it is. In fact, it is exactly for that reason that simply running around the world and mindlessly engaging in any activity you chance upon is a perfectly valid (and endlessly enjoyable) way to keep putting time into Oblivion long after the credits have rolled. There’s obviously a limit to how much you can do that, but the game can hold the player’s attention for a shockingly long time in this department nonetheless.
EXPLORE, EXPLORE, EXPLORE
Let’s end the feature with one that should really go without saying, but given how integral it is to the Oblivion experience, deserves mentioning nonetheless. Even now, Oblivion Remastered is better at encouraging exploration and then rewarding players for it than most other open world titles that have released since the 2006 original released. On top of there being a plethora of things to do, the game’s emergent and dynamic nature also makes exploration and simply existing in the world that much more rewarding. You wouldn’t be blamed for wanting to stay behind and just keep exploring Cyrodiil after rolling credits- in fact, you’re very much encouraged to do so.
