The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

Bethesda already had a successful shadow drop with Hi-Fi Rush, and Ninja Gaiden 2 Black (Koei Tecmo) also surprised gamers in January 2025. Recently, however, Bethesda had another shadow drop that belonged in the AAA category: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.

A shadow drop that wasn't. Bethesda released The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered on 22 April 2025. Rumours of a remaster had been circulating for some time (as far back as 2023), but when some assets were released early on the Virtuos (main developer of the remaster) website, it was only a matter of time. But then a showcase was announced for the 22 April 2025, depicted with Oblivion assets, it quickly became clear that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered would be featured, and it was released immediately.

The remaster of the 2006 RPG is being developed by Bethesda Game Studios in collaboration with the team at Virtuos, starting in 2021. In total, 19 years after the release of the acclaimed game, it will be re-released in a revamped form.

Graphically, it looks like a remake, but since the gameplay and content are largely untouched, the game has been given the title 'Remastered', probably to emphasise that it cannot compete with current RPGs. Anyway, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is a visually strong game, using Unreal Engine 5 (also with hardware lumen and nanite) for rendering, while the game logic still runs on the original engine (Gamebryo / Creation Engine). Basically, all the visual assets, visual effects and animations have been recreated for the remaster, not to mention how well the new lighting sets the scene for the game world during the dynamic times of day. There are high-resolution textures, much more detailed landscapes with a bit more life, and better character models.

The first- and third-person perspectives have also been reworked, with the latter more reminiscent of Skyrim, and combat feels much more important and intense thanks to new animations, including new hit reactions. The interface has also been modernised and is much clearer thanks to the higher resolution, although it could still do with some search filters. However, the game still suffers from some technical performance issues, such as repeated stuttering when exploring the game world, sloppy frame pacing and high hardware requirements (especially CPU-bound).

"Oblivion is the heart and soul of the Remaster. It's running underneath everything you see, powering all the gameplay and world logic. But to bring the Oblivion experience into 2025, it needed some modernizing, and that came in a few key places." - Virtuos Executive Producer Alex Murphy

Visually, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is a feast for the eyes - and the developers have also made adjustments and improvements to the gameplay system without losing any of the charm and familiarity of the original. New features include sprinting, the foresight spell that shows the way to the next mission objective, more auto-save points, more unique sounds so that each race in sounds unique, and new dialogue has been recorded for this remaster. Speaking of voice-overs, the original German voice-overs are not included. There are only English voices and German text.

The biggest change, however, is the revamped leveling system, which is also more reminiscent of Skyrim. In the original game, only improving the main skills mattered for leveling up. In the remaster, all skill improvements - whether main or secondary - fill the level bar (still through learning by doing), which also leads to a higher maximum level. This also improves the flow of the game and gives better choices for specialisation. The controversial level scaling has also been largely retained from the original. Enemies get stronger as your character gets stronger, but only up to a certain level cap per area. Nevertheless, the feel of the game remains largely the same as intended. Nothing has changed in terms of world design, guilds, dungeon structure or quests. This includes the sometimes idiosyncratic behaviour of NPCs, the persuasion system and lock-picking. It feels like the 2006 Oblivion, including the expansions The Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine, but with a lot of QOL tweaks and modern visuals.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was announced on 22 April 2025 and released shortly after for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. It is also included in Xbox Game Pass. By the end of its launch week, the game had more than four million players across all platforms. Despite being included in Xbox Game Pass, the remaster topped the Steam weekly charts with an impressive 216,784 CCU peak, the fourth highest for a Bethesda game on Steam behind Fallout 4 (472,962), Starfield (330,723) and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (287,411). Only Monster Hunter Wilds (1,384,608), Schedule I (459,075), R.E.P.O. (271,571), Split Fiction (259,003), Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (256,206) and Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced (187,059) had more CCUs this year.

Conclusion

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is a lavish and graphically stunning remastering of a classic RPG that scores high on nostalgia and doesn't deny its roots. Despite a few technical issues, it presents itself in a more contemporary way.