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When The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion came out for the Xbox 360 early in its lifespan, I played the hell out of it. In fact, it was the first game I had 1000/1000 Gamerscore! That’s why I was really hyped up when The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was announced…and stealth released!
After seeing so many The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim releases, I thought that Bethesda Softworks would never release another Elder Scrolls game in my lifetime. Ok, technically, they still haven’t…but at least it’s not another Skyrim release with Ray Tracing or something, right?
…maybe I shouldn’t have said that out loud.
Wouldn’t want to give them any ideas, right?
So, let’s talk about The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered instead.
What is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered?
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is a remaster of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Duh, right? It’s co-developed by Bethesda Softworks and Virtuos and published by Bethesda Softworks. It’s available right now on the PC, as well as the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Our review copy was graciously provided by the kind folks over at Bethesda Softworks! Thanks so much!
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is something from way out of left field. I honestly don’t think anybody was asking for a remaster of Oblivion. Morrowind maybe, because it’s so beloved by many (including me, as it’s my first ever TES game) but Oblivion?
Ain’t nobody wanting that! …Right?
Well, obviously Bethesda Softworks thought otherwise.
Like it or not, this is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered with a major visual overhaul and some quality of life tweaks. I’m down with that. That’s cool.
It’s also cool of Bethesda Softworks to include the game’s expansions free without nickel and diming us. Visiting Sheogorath’s weird ass realm in The Shivering Isles is still as enthralling as ever. Bethesda Softworks’ artists were clearly abusing crack (I assume) when they made that fever dream into a reality.
Everything that made The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion fun is back. The fun quests, the huge world to explore…even Patrick Stewart’s voice over. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion might not be as fun as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was but it does have its moments.
I’ve always felt that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and its main quest ended too soon and replaying it definitely brought back those memories that the game definitely should’ve been longer or more involved, like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was.
Even the extraneous stuff isn’t as in-depth as it was in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Being a vampire isn’t as involved, there’s no way to become a werewolf or build your own house or even have a House Carl follow you around.
There’s a reason that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion isn’t as beloved as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered makes the why abundantly clear. That’s fine in retrospect, as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was the predecessor and a testbed for ideas that would be more fleshed out in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered also strikes gold when it comes to the soundtrack. There’s nothing that comes close to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’s Dragonborn theme but The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered does have really good tunes. Tranquil tunes that’ll make you wistful of bygone days, of long lost pets or loved ones that have left. Playing the game feels like reuniting with a long lost friend at times. Super cool!
It is, however, not cool that the truly new additions (new quests and cosmetic rewards) are locked behind the Deluxe Edition!
Why?
The only feasible reason I can think of is because Bethesda Softworks wanted to screw us all again because they couldn’t charge us for more horse armor without all of us rioting.
That’s right, if you’re too young to remember…this is where all the DLC horror started.
Oblivion was the first major game to charge for extra content. Prior to this, add-ons like extra stages and alternate outfits were all given for free via in-game downloads, or in cases like Splinter Cell, bundled in demo discs that came with certain magazines.
I don’t have anything against the good people at Bethesda, but come on, is that teeny bit of extra money really worth it after we all bought every edition of Skyrim?
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered can’t even claim to be the best version of Oblivion. It’s the best looking one sure, but it’s still as buggy (with all new bugs) as the old game was!
On the Playstation 5, I’ve had multiple bugged out quests.
NPCs missing, quest triggers not activating, freezes, crashes to the Home screen…you name it. The game is unstable as hell and performance gets worse the longer you play it. There are visual glitches that require you to reset the game every few hours.
How did this get through QA? What the hell were Virtuos doing?
I have a sinking feeling that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was rushed to release for some weird reason.
Why? I’ve no idea but the game clearly needs more time to cook!
The upgrade to Unreal Engine 5 looks good but it brings with it performance issues too. The framerate is wildly unstable, with varying degrees of smoothness. You can see the game actually performs better in the dungeons than in the main world.
As you transition from area to area, the game will stutter like you’re watching a slideshow for a few seconds. Every. single. time. Not a one-off, not a random occurrence…but a constant one. Transiting from an interior scene to an outdoor one is even worse, as not only is there stuttering, but the game can literally freeze for seconds at a time.
Worse still, you can literally see the world magically materializing in front of your eyes as the game streams the data from the SSD. It’s nuts! The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind had their technical issues too, but neither were this bad.
This is with me playing on Performance mode! I shudder to think of how the game performs if you choose to prioritize visuals!
Unfortunately, on Performance mode, the game looks soft and unfocused. The textures are nowhere near as good as they should be, and pop-in for foliage is super noticeable as you wander. Characters look fine, but environmental textures (especially in the outdoors) look pretty blurry and bland.
It’s even worse when you consider this is just a remaster, not even a full-on remake! Again, I would like to question how the hell Virtuos let this go without extensive Q&A testing?
The Bottom Line.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is a wreck. It’s plagued by a ton of technical issues that will inevitably affect your enjoyment of the game.
It’s a shame really, because the core gameplay is fun and exploring Cyrodiil is just as rewarding as it was in the original. There’s a lot here to love and experience (or reexperience if this isn’t the first time you’re playing the game) but it’s all hampered by so many technical issues!
The new visuals also impress…at first.
Then you notice the pop-in, the low-resolution textures and you start to question whether the game really needed a visual update. I mean, what’s the point right if it brings in a whole host of new issues?
I suggest holding off on the game until its performance is patched. Or, if you can’t wait, then get the PC version instead. At the very least, user mods can help iron out the issues that plague the Playstation 5 version.
TLDR:
A disappointing remaster with major technical issues on the Playstation 5. Wait for patches before you buy.
The Good:
- A lot of content included.
- Looks great in some areas.
- Fun gameplay.
- Huge open world to explore.
- The Shivering Isles and Sheogorath are still trippy as ever.
- The soundtrack is amazing.
The Bad:
- Pop-in issues.
- Blurry visuals on Performance mode.
- Stuttering.
- Unstable framerate.
- Freezes and other technical problems.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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