It was almost 20 years ago that Bethesda first introduced us to the land of Cyrodiil and told us to save it from certain doom. Now with “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered,” they are asking old and new players alike to do it all over again.
A remaster of a beloved game can be a scary thing for fans. You only need to look at 2021’s “Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition” to see how poorly a remaster can go if handled incorrectly.
But with “Oblivion Remastered,” Bethesda and Virtuos Studios, who have remastered other games together such as “Batman: Return to Arkham” and the upcoming “Metal Gear Solid 3” remaster, clearly put in time and effort to make sure they did it right.
The game shows players the world of the Cyrodiil as they’ve never seen it before, capable of running at 4K resolution and 60 fps with the right hardware. While the original game was brighter and had more vibrant colors than the remaster, the world feels more vibrant as a whole in “Oblivion Remastered” thanks to improved lighting and shadows and more varied environments.
A shiny new coat of paint is all well and good, but they didn’t just slap new textures on everything and call it done. The most important part is that the game still feels like the “Oblivion” you remember playing on your Xbox in the living room.
The old user interfaces received a much needed upgrade, taking cues from more recent “Elder Scrolls Games” such as “Skyrim” and “Elder Scrolls Online.” The ability to sprint at the expense of fatigue was added, along with new character customization options such as facial hair and all eye colors are now available.
But one change above all shows how careful they were to maintain the experience of the original game while also improving it for new audiences.
In the original “Oblivion” there was one part of the game that served as a constant source of amusement for players: the voice acting. From throwaway lines delivered with all the gravitas of a Shakespeare play to a voice actor asking to try her line again getting left in the game, there was no shortage of moments to make players chuckle.
In “Oblivion Remastered” many voice lines were added and some were even rerecorded all in service of adding depth to the world. But many recordings of the iconic lines that have lived on in fame, or in infamy, since the original were kept in the game as well.
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The story didn’t receive any attention in the remaster, but then it didn’t really need any. Stories have always been where “The Elder Scrolls” games shone the brightest.
Another facet of the game that didn’t receive much attention is the overall gameplay. These games have never been about advanced gameplay mechanics and while gameplay is simply the vehicle through which the player experiences the story, it would have been nice to see some improvements.
While there is a lot to be said about preserving the feel of the original game, the feel of the original game was bad. Things like trying to hit moving targets in combat with imprecise swinging or taking fall damage when just trying to run down a hill absolutely should have been fixed, but at least the new animations make you look cooler while you’re swinging at empty air.
“Rose-colored glasses” or “nostalgia goggles” are commonly used terms referring to how you may view something more favorably due to having good memories of it. When you think back on the original “Oblivion,” you probably only remember how fun it was and those good memories turn old outdated graphics into beautiful 4K.
What Virtuos and Bethesda have done with “Oblivion Remastered” is removed the need for “nostalgia goggles” and made the game look the way you always remembered it looking. Sure there are still some moments that make you squint at the screen in bafflement, but those moments are part of the experience and are what make the game stick in your head.
Whether you’re returning to Tamriel or just now starting your adventure, “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered” has plenty of adventure to go around.
