Well met, traveller!
Now that Oblivion Remastered is in the wild - yes, we can't really believe it either - we've been right in there, like crazed mud crabs, to see what's new, and what's changed in one of our all-time favourite game worlds.
We've got huge graphical upgrades, combat and traversal changes, new NPCs, all-new dialogue, and a whole lot of other cool stuff to check out, as Bethesda has really gone above and beyond in terms of a remake here. Oblivion Remastered feels like a brand-new RPG in fact, such is the difference we're seeing early doors.
So let's not waste any more time and jump straight into it all, shall we?
Oblivion Remastered: All Changes, Additions, New Content
Gameplay
- You now have the ability to sprint.
- New combat animations make fighting and moving look more natural, especially in 3rd person.
- New character models alongside flashy details and effects, such as clinking weapons, shining surfaces, and a few other bells and whistles during battles make a huge difference to how kinetic they feel.
- 3rd person camera view is much improved, with adjustable FOV and two camera settings. It also just looks way better now thanks to new character models. You also control your character independently of the camera here, so it just works as it should now, and is a totally viable and good way to play through the entire thing.
Graphics & Sound
- Built entirely from the ground-up in Unreal Engine 5, so that's a total shift away from Bethesda's own platform, meaning huge visual changes across every facet of the game world.
- Draw distance improved massively over original, immediately helping create a more impressive world to exist and move around in.
- Magic has been redone with lots of fancy effects.
- Every single item, piece of clothing and texture from the original has been completely redone.
- All character models have been redone, so both your character and all NPCs and enemies look completely changed and modernised.
- Lip-sync has gone through a huge upgrade and dialogue sections are far more impressive as a result.
- Real-time lighting, entirely reworked visuals, shadows, volumetric effects, and all the big-pimpin', modern graphical bells and whistles help bring the world alive like never before. You can see the weather in front of you, the fog hangs low in the mountains, the dust blows up dirt and swirls leaves around you on ancient paths. Sunlight filters through branches and dapples the ground around your feet. All that good stuff. Also, the rust and moss and water all look great. Very important!
- Caves and dungeons look and feel incredible thanks to new lighting and much-improved fire and occlusion techniques. There's a mighty dankness to the subterranea now, that we find hugely intoxicating.
- Tons more insects and bugs!
Quality of Life Changes
- Redesigned levelling system takes the original Oblivion's and melds it into Skyrim's, so even levelling up feels better!
- UI modernised to fall in line with current-gen titles.
- Completely new voice acting, with changes between races in how lines are delivered.
- Compass is improved and now gives more indicators and feedback.
- Items have new lore and text-boxes with details that help bring everything to life that little bit more.
- Finding new locations is better highlighted, so any nearby caves or hidden entrances will make themselves known. Makes things much more fluid and breezy to explore (but we actually turn most of this stuff off because we like to get lost).
New Content
- New quests related to deluxe weapons and armour types (Deluxe Edition only).
- All previously-released DLC (including Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles).