The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered Review. The Return of the Legend in Its Best Form

The insiders weren't lying. The remaster of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion has indeed been in development all these years, and most importantly, its release occurred right after a full announcement. A true gift for fans of great role-playing games and the original 2006 project. This time, Bethesda didn't just settle for a light touch-up of the outdated visuals, as they did with Skyrim, but allowed Virtuos to modernize the classic and refine its gameplay rough edges. Looking ahead, we can immediately note: from a game design perspective, the game hasn't aged a bit, and the impressions from it are two heads above the recent Avowed. We were delighted to return to the familiar Cyrodiil to see the quality of the remaster firsthand and tell you why you should try Oblivion (if you missed it at release) or play it again from start to finish.

In 2006, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion made a real splash in the industry and captured the minds of not only RPG fans but gamers in general. Bethesda created a cozy and comfortable role-playing game that could be easily played on the Xbox 360, enjoying the vibrant visuals and gamepad-adapted controls. Of course, most of our audience explored Cyrodiil on PC, as consoles were limited to a small number of users at the time, and in addition, they lacked full localization and limitless modding potential.

On one hand, it's a bit strange to review a game in 2025 that every second gamer is familiar with, but on the other hand, judging by the amount of work done by Virtuos, the new version of Oblivion can easily be mistaken for a full remake. Yes, so much has been redone and modernized! From a narrative and overall storytelling perspective, it's still the same 19-year-old game: with non-variable dialogues, fairly linear quests, and loading screens between locations. Therefore, fans can breathe easy and not worry that their favorite game has been «ruined» or «rewritten in a modern way». The main thing is that it's not a remake on the level of Resident Evil 2 by Capcom, nor a remaster in the spirit of The Last of Us: Part 1 by Naughty Dog.

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered gives the modern audience, who grew up on Skyrim, the opportunity to experience one of the most significant role-playing games in the industry with updated visuals and improved gameplay. It can be confidently said that this is the last Bethesda game that featured great side quests, a pleasant atmosphere, and memorable characters. In the future, the studio delved into experiments with content generation and turned subsequent games into a «scavenger simulator» on an RPG foundation.

However, it's not entirely accurate to call The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion a timeless masterpiece. Despite its extensive fan base and relatively high press ratings, «The Fourth Scrolls» have quite a few haters who consider it the worst game in the series. There are actually several reasons for this: dull and repetitive dungeons made from the same assets; the wonky Radiant AI simulation of a living world, which could turn everything into a comedy with a snap of the fingers; an unsuccessful auto-leveling system with overpowered regular enemies in the later stages of the main quest; restricted non-linearity; and a whole host of minor issues that would take several paragraphs to list.

Yet, TES 4 is more often remembered with warmth than negativity. Many of the aforementioned shortcomings have become the game's unique «charm», generating hilarious situations even years later. Just type «funny situation Oblivion» into a search engine. And if you missed the game back then or were deterred by negative reviews from online haters, now is the perfect time to give it a second chance. Bethesda and Virtuos have done a tremendous job of modernizing the classic and refining numerous contentious mechanics, ensuring that today's gamers feel just as comfortable as Xbox 360 owners did in 2006.

The first thing you notice after launching the game is the updated character editor. Oblivion and Fallout 3 are known for their editor, where it was impossible to create a beautiful or at least visually pleasing character. Not only was the tool itself incredibly inconvenient and didn't provide reasonable presets initially, but the finished hero in the game also differed significantly from what was created in the editor. Later, Bethesda added a very flexible character editor to their engine (Fallout 4), but in 2006, you had to play with what you could «mold».

The updated character editor itself is not bad, but it's not as flexible and functional as in Fallout 4. Creating a more or less attractive character is difficult, but possible. The sliders in the parameters now move independently, allowing you to change specific parts of the face without affecting the others. It's clear that the developers from Virtuos paid attention to popular mods and made adjustments to the original based on the requests of the dedicated audience.

The character models in the remaster have been completely reworked and modernized. It's not entirely clear if they are more attractive than in the original, but they are definitely more realistic. The Emperor is no longer a bloated «round face» with drawn-on wrinkles, but a real elderly man. Argonians received a very cool redesign, and Khajiits now have a natural fur coat. According to the developers' statement, these races have been given new species-specific voiceovers.

After creating a character and finding ourselves in the prison cell, Han Solo's phrase from Star Wars immediately came to mind: «Chewie, we're home!» The geometry of locations, the placement of objects, scripted scenes, and dialogues—all remained in their places. The key change was only in the graphics. The environment is now so detailed and realistic that at first, there's a dissonance in your head: the game is, in fact, the same, but the experience is completely different.

Most of the voice acting has been directly transferred from the original game. In fact, this is quite a controversial decision, as Oblivion sometimes sounded too unnatural and overacted. The voice acting in NPC city conversations was especially ridiculous. Or rather, not even conversations, but meaningless phrases that made us think 19 years ago that the game's population consisted entirely of crazy people. On the other hand, without the recognizable voices, the special vibe of the classic Oblivion would be lost. We doubt that Sean Bean would have agreed to voice Martin Septim for the remaster again.

Having finished the prologue and emerged from the sewers, we were able to appreciate the graphical magnificence of the open world. And The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered looks simply stunning. We dare to say: at the moment, it is one of the most beautiful games on Unreal Engine 5. Completely reworked objects, high environmental detail, and amazing lighting transform Cyrodiil beyond recognition. True technological magic has occurred: we are essentially in a 19-year-old game, where Jeremy Soule's amazing music plays, all the key locations on the map remain in place, but the visuals are completely different. Additionally, without the green filter from the original, the game looks more natural, although some fans might miss it, as it was a distinctive feature of the classic Oblivion.

But if you stop examining the environment and focus on the content, the first thing you notice is the outdated open world by modern standards. No matter how beautiful Cyrodiil is, it is absolutely empty in terms of content and the logic of random events. Bethesda in the early 2000s didn't yet know how to fill space with interesting encounters, which will disappoint newcomers who got to know the series during the Skyrim era. Enemies often randomly appear near the player and pursue them until they are killed. Because of this, in most cases, you can't press the wait button or sleep in the open, as the game will constantly remind you that there is an enemy nearby.

Since the remaster is built on a hybrid mix of two engines — Gamebryo and Unreal Engine 5 — all the game logic from the original has been transferred to the remaster in its original form. This applies not only to loading between locations but also to interactions with physical objects. You can still kill an enemy with an activated trap or push a stack of logs onto goblins standing below. Everything related to physics (such as traps, chains, and suspended objects) works just like in the original.

Artificial intelligence, basic mechanics, crowd behavior — all have been transferred to the remaster without improvements. Enemies still «act dumb» during stealth playthroughs, just as they did before. Scripted scenes still break in side quests, just as they used to. NPCs getting stuck in textures and logic failures are common occurrences that likely won't deter the core audience, but newcomers are most likely to run to forums to complain and write negative reviews on Steam. During our time with the game, we encountered a couple of quest bugs, but they were all resolved with a simple reload.

And yet, there have been changes to the core systems. The developers have improved the role-playing system. Now, leveling up gives you more control over how you want to develop your character, allowing you to allocate specific points into attributes. Previously, you could only choose three attributes, and the game would decide how many levels to improve them based on the player's actions. This randomness was a common criticism of the original Oblivion. Now, players have more freedom and can upgrade their character as they see fit. The only caveat is that you can't allocate more than five points to a single attribute, but otherwise, there's complete freedom.

Overall, the role-playing system has been preserved in its original form. You gain experience for any action and eventually level up. The more you move and jump, the faster you level up your athletics. Fight with swords, and you develop your blade skill. And so on.

Auto-leveling hasn't gone anywhere. The developers stated in the announcement that they improved this system, but we didn't notice a significant difference from the original. Perhaps because the last time we played the classic Oblivion was about 10 years ago. In any case, with proper leveling and selected equipment, there should be no problems with the playthrough. Additionally, health regeneration has been introduced, reducing the acute need for the «Healing» spell. However, as we progressed, we started to notice that enemies began to have high-level equipment, which only confirmed our suspicions about the presence of the much-despised auto-leveling system.

The combat system has received minor improvements but fundamentally remains the same as it was 19 years ago. Firstly, it is now more responsive. Animations are smoother and more precise, providing better control over the character. Enemies react better to hits. The hit markers added in the remaster help you understand whether your strike landed on the enemy or not. Additionally, blood remains on the weapon, which gradually disappears from the blade over time.

Archery has become more enjoyable and convenient. A crosshair has been added, making it easier to aim at enemies. With new animations (such as drawing the bowstring), character control is now at a modern level. Now you can comfortably play as an archer and build a stealth-based character. Yes, such luxury was not present in the original.

With the changes listed above, we liked the combat system in the remaster. Undoubtedly, it's far from the level of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and not even Avowed, but «clicking» enemies to death is as fun as in other games of the TES series. The AI doesn't shine with intelligence but can overwhelm you with numbers in the narrow corridors of dungeons. The main thing is that Oblivion retains a sense of progression. We've become accustomed to modern RPG's where, regardless of equipment level, any enemy remains a formidable opponent capable of challenging the player. But TES 4, like a time machine, brought us back to the classic formula where new weapons and spells give a sense of superiority over the opponent, albeit for a short period due to auto-leveling.

The world exploration system now includes the ability to sprint, which consumes stamina. Now you can quickly move between locations without overusing fast travel from one point on the map to another. Especially since the newly recreated Cyrodiil around you is something you want to admire while exploring the map. Additionally, the remaster has introduced Skyrim's encumbrance system, so those who like to carry junk for sale will still have to walk to the nearest merchant.

It's also worth noting the significant changes in the interface. Some elements are now placed in more convenient locations, and the in-game map has finally become user-friendly and informative. The HUD elements have been redesigned to be something between The Elder Scrolls Online and Skyrim. Navigating the space and keeping track of stats has become noticeably easier. We're glad that Virtuos wasn't afraid to discard outdated elements and modernized what was seriously irritating in the original.

Among the less significant changes: movement animations have become more pleasant; there's inertia and a sense of weight for the main character; playing from the third-person perspective is much more enjoyable; enemies have additional movements during battles with smooth transitions between animations; armor and weapons break faster; interactive items are now highlighted; there's a nice animation for gathering plants and mushrooms, and after gathering, they disappear instead of remaining in place as they did in the original. There are plenty of minor gameplay changes, and together they noticeably refresh the gameplay that has become outdated over two decades.

Overall, Oblivion Remastered is a real gift for gamers who dreamed of playing one of Bethesda's best games but were put off by its age and appearance. We're used to laughing at Todd Howard's attempts to resell the same games, but this time he's genuinely offering something hard to refuse. For the sake of impeccable side quests, vibrant characters, the storyline on the Shivering Isles, Jeremy Soule's music, and now stunning graphics with improved gameplay, we are not only ready to accept his offer and spend precious dozens of hours replaying the classic, but we also recommend you do the same.

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered impresses with its visuals. The developers at Virtuos utilized the full toolkit of Unreal Engine 5 to create a truly «vibrant» and picturesque open world. Due to the absence of filters from the original, along with increased sharpness and contrast, the visuals look very realistic. If you didn't know initially that this is an Oblivion remaster, you might mistake the project for any other game on Unreal Engine 5.

With new graphics, enhanced geometry, and textures, the game has gained volume, depth, and scale. For example, the gladiator arena feels larger and more majestic. It's pleasant to be in the cities, and the living spaces don't look like lifeless decorations. Additionally, the remaster has completely reworked water areas. We were pleasantly surprised by the detail of the riverbed and the presence of schools of fish. The visuals of the reworked locations on the Shivering Isles literally gave us goosebumps. Fortunately, all DLCs are included in the remaster from the start, so you don't need to purchase a Deluxe edition for a huge portion of excellent content.

Character models have also been completely reworked. Faces appear more expressive and detailed. The developers have eliminated Oblivion's «signature feature» of smooth faces and oval contours. Now each character looks unique and realistic. It's not necessarily true that NPC's have become more attractive and pleasant, but at the very least, you'll be able to remember them more quickly and find the necessary quest characters on city streets.

The facial expressions of NPC's in the remaster have only been slightly refined. In dialogues, standard animation patterns from 2006 are mostly used. Of course, after Kingdom Come 2 and especially Cyberpunk 2077, it's quite unusual to see early 2000's standard expressions on highly detailed models, but after a couple of hours, you stop noticing this drawback.

The developers took a much more serious approach to reworking in-game animations. If you've recently played the original, you'll immediately notice significant changes. There are now story animations that weren't present before. For example, the emperor's assassination at the very beginning looks spectacular and cinematic. In the original, he was simply cut down with a sword in a routine manner, as if he were just an ordinary NPC, not an important plot character. Players unfamiliar with the original might not even notice this change, as they are accustomed to such things in other games, but fans will be absolutely thrilled.

There's nothing more to add about the musical accompaniment. The soundtrack remains as magnificent as ever. Jeremy Soule is a master of his craft. It's a pity that the composer and Bethesda have parted ways, and he is unlikely to compose music for TES 6.

Regarding optimization, things aren't as great as one would hope. You can't expect a good frame rate with Unreal Engine 5 on average setups. Even on top-tier hardware, the game barely delivers a stable 60 frames per second. DLSS and other upscalers don't help much. With ray tracing enabled based on Lumen, the game looks stunning, but the FPS drops by about half.

Judging by the reviews on Steam, most players experience serious frame drops in the open world, while FPS remains stable in enclosed locations. During testing, we didn't max out all settings and played on high settings with DLSS enabled in DLAA mode. On average, the remaster delivered 60 FPS with drops to 40 in open locations and over a hundred in enclosed spaces. However, with the DLSS preset set to «Quality», we achieved a stable 70 frames, but with Lumen ray tracing turned off.

Of course, there are still bugs and errors. All the technical flaws of the standard Oblivion have carried over into the remaster. It's also worth mentioning that the game can crash to the desktop without reason. Judging by numerous reviews, this issue wasn't exclusive to us.

***

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered is a magnificent re-release of the iconic role-playing game, renowned for its excellent side quests, unique atmosphere, and unforgettable soundtrack. It's not just a graphical update but an opportunity to rediscover one of Bethesda's most heartfelt games. Yes, all the classic issues of the original remain: auto-leveling, random bugs, and amusing AI quirks. But today, these features are already perceived as the signature style of the «Fourth Scrolls».

We got exactly what we expected — the best version of Oblivion with stunning graphics, refined gameplay, and that magical sense of adventure that pulls you in so much that you want to return to Cyrodiil and replay all the forgotten quests. If you missed the original due to outdated graphics or questionable reviews, now is the perfect time to give the game a second chance. Just make sure to check the system requirements so you won't have to write an angry review due to FPS drops.

P.S. Don't forget to say before launching: «Thank you, Todd, for the wonderful gift!» Maybe he'll hear and give us an equally cool remaster of Fallout 3 — rumors say it's already in development.