After all those rumors, leaked screenshots, and that one mention in Microsoft’s documents during its trial with the FTC, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered is finally real, and finally here. Announced by Bethesda during a special livestream, the fantasy action RPG is available now for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Game Pass. But what can you expect from this bombshell shadow drop? How has Cyrodiil evolved, and what can be expected as you delve into the Oblivion Crisis? Here are 15 things to know before playing.
Developed in Unreal Engine 5
Developed on Unreal Engine 5, developer Virtuos says it utilized nearly “every major feature” to push the visuals “to the next level.” It noted that every asset has been redesigned and handcrafted from scratch, and just based on the gameplay alone, the improvements to texture quality, facial features, and more are obvious. Of course, this fidelity manifests in many smaller details, whether you’re swimming through a school of fish underwater, observing butterflies in the air, or taking in the gorgeous weather.
Brand New Character Models
Virtuos also created brand-new character models with extensive attention to detail. Skin texture improvements, more realistic-looking hair and fury – even the scales of the Argonians are intricately detailed. Even the enemies and various creatures look downright phenomenal. That’s not even getting to the environments, which have been stunningly overhauled to look more realistic while sticking to the signature Elder Scrolls aesthetic.
Advanced Real-Time Lighting
If that’s not enough, there’s a new advanced real-time lighting system, resulting in more realistically lit environments and effects. Dynamic shadows also dot the entire world, which means a completely different atmosphere depending on the time of day. Even wandering around a dungeon with a single torch feels absolutely incredible purely due to the lighting and shadows.
New Dialogue
Due to the original adhering to disc storage restrictions, Oblivion couldn’t offer many unique voices for its characters. The remaster addressed this by adding brand new dialogue and voiceovers for each race, thus ensuring they sound unique. Don’t worry, though – the iconic dialogue is still very much intact, so expect to be called criminal scum, told you’re violating the law and much more throughout your journey.
Sprinting, At Last
In the original, sprinting wasn’t a dedicated button. Your character was technically running at all times – it’s just that their base speed was slow and required levelling up Athletics (by, you guessed it, walking and swimming) for faster movement. The remaster finally allows you to sprint, with Virtuos revamping the character locomotion. You can now close the distance more effectively on enemies or just run through the wide world of Cyrodiil with abandon.
New Lip-Sync Technology
Further adding to the immersion when speaking to characters is the new lip-sync technology, which looks more realistic. Because each race has been individually sculpted to adapt to the base mesh, they all sport realistic lip-syncing even with their inherently unique features. The results are astonishing and a massive upgrade over the original.
Leveling System Changes
One of the biggest issues with the original is leveling, since enemies would scale up, resulting in longer, more drawn-out fights. Oblivion Remastered changes this, borrowing elements of Skyrim for the best of both worlds. No more assigning your actual skills as Minor or avoiding sleep for the entire game due to how broken level scaling could be. Speaking of, Xbox Wire notes that the enemy scaling has been improved, though we need to see first-hand how that pans out.
Combat Improvements
While the full extent of combat adjustments still needs to be explored, Virtuos has added a lot to make it more visceral and realistic, like hit reactions and sound effects. There are also visual effects like sparks and yes, blood splatters. Combined with controller feedback, you get an added layer of brutality when going toe-to-toe with enemies.
Improved Combat Animations
The revamped character models aren’t the only thing that makes them feel more realistic. Combat animations also offer much more flourish with greater separation between the upper and lower body of characters. The result is characters appearing more fluid in fights and less stiff.
Crosshair
Some players may prefer a first-person perspective for the immersion, but others opt for third-person to admire their character and get a better peripheral view of the world. The problem with Oblivion is that the latter didn’t even have a crosshair, so good luck if you played as an archery or any kind of ranged build. Rejoice, for a crosshair has now been added, providing greater control and accuracy when slaying foes and/or innocent wildlife.
But that’s not all. Taking a page out of Starfield’s book, Oblivion Remastered offers the same degree of control in third person as first-person. Once again, more testing is required but this should ensure that everything feels as good in first-person as it does in third (and vice versa).
Includes Story Expansions and All Add-Ons
The base edition of Oblivion Remastered retails at $49.99 and includes both story expansions – Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine. However, you also get additional add-ons like Vile Lair, Mehrune’s Razor, Wizard’s Tower, Orrery, The Thieves Den, and Spell Tome Treasures at no additional cost. And yes, the legendarily infamous Horse Pack Armor is included as well. With how long the base game is, this is a complete steal just based on the content alone.
Deluxe Edition and New Content
But what about the Deluxe Edition? Retailing for $59.99, it includes the base game and all its DLC but introduces some new quests for armor sets, Weapons of Order and Cataclysm, and the Order and Cataclysm horse armor sets. You can also access the art book and soundtrack via an app.
PC Requirements
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered looks gorgeous, and thankfully, the system requirements aren’t too hefty (beyond the 125 GB required for installation). Minimum requirements include an AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel Core i7-6800K, 16 GB RAM, and an AMD Radeon RX 5700 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti. As for the recommended requirements, you need a Ryzen 5 3600X or Intel Core i5-10600K, 32 GB RAM and a Radeon RX 6800XT or GeForce RTX 2080.
4K and 60 FPS
With all the visual fidelity and improvements, it wouldn’t be a proper remaster without 4K resolution and 60 FPS performance. Thankfully, both are included, and Xbox players can take advantage of Xbox Play Anywhere to own the same game across consoles, Windows PC, and the cloud, complete with cross-save support.
No “Official” Mod Support
Those hoping to begin modding the remaster are out of luck…sort of. Bethesda Support recently confirmed that mods aren’t supported in Oblivion Remastered, but that’s only on the official front. It may take some time before Virtuos and Bethesda implement the same, but unofficial mods should make their way out sooner or later. Either way, this opportunity to experience the remaster in all its glory before making changes.
