When The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion came out in 2006 on the Xbox 360 (and later on PlayStation 3), it was a landmark title for Western RPGs. Morrowind was already a cult hit, but limitations of the original Xbox made it more of an interesting curiosity than anything that could be a mainstream success. Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss may have done it first in 1992, but Oblivion is the one that got the normies’ attention.
While The Elder Scrolls’ success ballooned with the insane popularity of its sequel, Skyrim, Oblivion will always be the one game that defined the genre. Thanks to a healthy modding community, these games stayed in the cultural zeitgeist. These games weren’t perfect; especially because Oblivion has quirks that have become deeply rooted in its developer’s image.
Out of nowhere, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion got an Unreal Engine 5 remake. What can gamers expect from this overhaul? Does the complete visual revamp remain true to the vision? Does the gameplay hold up? Find out in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered review!
This is a review coupled with a supplemental video review. You can watch the video review or read the full review of the below:
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios, Virtuos Games,
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Platforms: Windows PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S (reviewed)
Release Date: April 22, 2025
Price: $49.99
Big and wide-open sandbox RPGs were not a new concept in 2006, but you could easily mistake Oblivion for being the first.
It has a lot of basic quest design ideas that don’t demand much from the player beyond following the quest marker, talking to a guy, or collecting something and bringing the thingie to the place. Sometimes you fight a guy or two, but there isn’t much in the way of emergent gameplay, as Oblivion is pretty rigid.
Much older RPGs would foster multiple ways for players to complete a quest. You didn’t always have to adhere to what the quest log described, and there were always out-of-the-box solutions for lateral-thinking gamers.
When Patrick Stewart sets the player on his main journey, there isn’t any other way to complete it other than what the designers created. It doesn’t even matter how evil you play; you will become the seventh Champion of Cyrodiil.
For a lot of gamers, this kind of hand-holdy and tightly scripted quest design is fine if you just want to turn off your brain and not think. The main appeal of Oblivion is not its gameplay.
What players love is its atmosphere and freedom to explore. The limp combat and weightless rag-doll physics are amusing, but it never felt good, and it still doesn’t in Unreal 5, but at least the ambiance is as thick as ever.
After making your hideously deformed protagonist with the impressively robust, yet ultimately pointless, avatar creator, gamers are free to choose or create a D&D-style class D&D style.
The customization options are still impressive, and there is a decent opportunity to specialize. Most of the time, these stats don’t come into play except for specific situations. For an overwhelming majority of the game, violence and magical violence solve everything.
The most fun you can have in Oblivion is being a murderous vagrant. The game encourages this because killing an innocent person opens up the Dark Brotherhood quest line, which is still one of the coolest quests designed in a Bethesda RPG.
There is no shortage of quests and things to do in Cyrodiil, but it is spaced out in a way that makes the world feel sparse and empty. There isn’t much going on between the different towns, and each one is probably way smaller than you remember.
Back in 2006, Cyrodiil felt real, but now it isn’t as convincing due to the small scale of towns made up of a few houses and NPCs all voiced by the same five people.
The granular details may not hold up to scrutiny, but the visual presentation does. Oblivion Remastered looks pretty good. It’s exactly what you’d think it would look like as an Unreal 5 game. It’s razor-sharp, crisp, and the world looks convincing with its massive array of materials and post-processing effects.
It still feels like Oblivion, and that’s because under the hood, it is the same game running in the background. It isn’t that much different than when Dead Rising got its remake. Jeremy Soule’s timeless and mesmerizing soundtrack is still here, creating an incredible ambiance with sweeping music fitting a fantasy epic.
Regretfully, the improved graphics end up making the game look worse since it’s still playing basically the same as it did in 2006, which was already a bit of a joke for its time.
The artifice of the remaster’s visuals makes it feel cheap. The original Oblivion may have looked awkward, but it was soulful because some poor devil with a vision worked on it with a deadline looming over him.
The Unreal 5 graphics suspiciously resemble stock assets. Most realistic games today are all made with asset packs since they don’t need to abide by an art style, and Oblivion Remastered is no different.
Oblivion didn’t need a graphical overhaul. The ugliness was a major aspect of its identity. With the gameplay being mostly the same, a graphics update hardly felt worthwhile.
The AI is still really dumb, and seeing realistic characters and enemies behave with the same quirks is unconvincing. All it needed was improved textures, an FPS boost, and more options to customize your experience.
Most gamers will probably eat up the graphical update and will feel it is refreshing to return to with a new coat of paint. The range of items and intractables is the same as ever, making the world feel immersive.
In most RPGs, items always serve a purpose for the player, but in The Elder Scrolls, all the random objects lying around exist to serve the world.
Not everything in Oblivion is meant for the player, which helps make the setting feel more convincing. This is one of the defining aspects of these games, which captivated players. It is streamlined compared to many RPGs that came before it, but it manages to trounce the level of detail seen in the likes of later games like Avowed.
The biggest changes to Oblivion’s gameplay are unobtrusive tweaks. You can sprint now, and level scaling has been modified so it feels more like your character is growing and less like they’re stagnating.
The leveling system is similar to how it was in Skyrim, melding the best aspects of both games together. Some of the old quirks like bunny-hopping to boost athletics still apply, and you’ll always need to take a nap to allocate stat points.
For a while, there were no other options on consoles if you wanted something like Oblivion. It took a while for the game industry to catch up with it and deliver something similar in scope. Games like Dragon’s Dogma, Kingdoms of Amalur, or other Bethesda games were the only other choices. Today, there are more ambitious options to choose from, making Oblivion Remastered feel quaint, and no amount of realistic Unreal 5 graphics can hide that.
There is no mistaking Oblivion for what it truly is: an early PS360 game from 2006 wearing an Unreal 5 skinsuit. If you already love Oblivion, then you will adore Oblivion Remastered since it is a new way to experience a legitimate classic of its era. There are a scant few extra surprises tucked away, but this is the same game you know and love… for better and for worse.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was reviewed on Xbox Series X|S using a code purchased by Niche Gamer. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is now available for PC (via Steam), Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
