Image: Push Square
We’ve played around 25 hours of Oblivion Remastered since it shadow dropped earlier in the week, and we’ve come to one key conclusion: Oblivion is still really good fun.
The original game is almost 20 years old, but the core gameplay loop still holds up extremely well. Seriously, Bethesda’s knack for creating criminally addictive open worlds remains clear to see in Cyrodiil — we’ve found ourselves losing track of time in a way that calls back to our more… youthful endeavours.
Indeed, nostalgia is an undeniable part of this remaster’s appeal. The graphics may have been completely overhauled — more on that in a bit — but this is still Oblivion through and through. Structurally, mechanically, and even tonally.
And that’s an important thing to get right for a release like this. Oblivion’s weirdness, for lack of a better word, is what makes it such a memorable game for so many — and the countless internet memes that have spawned over the years are further proof of that.
Images: Push Square
Stripping those oddities away for Oblivion Remastered would have been all too easy, so we’ve got to give props to developer Virtuos. Remastered walks a surprisingly comforting line between retaining the original title’s magic, and surrounding it with welcome improvements.
The aforementioned graphical overhaul is the obvious place to start. Visually, everything has been remade from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5. Completely new character models and environmental assets make for a significantly improved experience for the eyes, topped off with some lovely dynamic lighting effects.
But of course, not everyone will appreciate the change in art direction — and that’s worth mentioning, because while the tone of old Oblivion is still rife throughout, everything looks so much different.
Fan-favourite characters no longer resemble their previous selves, and it’s easy to conclude that they’ve been downgraded, robbed of the, dare we say, iconic appearance that’s been lodged in your head for the past two decades.
Images: Push Square
It’s a cohesive direction, though, and it reminds us of The Elder Scrolls Online in a lot of ways, making us wonder whether this is simply the standardised Elder Scrolls look going forward. For us, Oblivion Remastered looks pretty much on point — even if some of the new character models are frightful.
Altered art styles will always be subjective, but it’s much harder to argue against Oblivion Remastered’s gameplay improvements. For our gold, this is the best that Oblivion has ever played — barring, perhaps, a heavily modded PC version — boasting a bunch of necessary enhancements across the board.
Animation tweaks make a big difference to the overall feel, especially in combat. Attacks have a much greater weight to them, and new UI elements — like actual health bars for enemies — are more than welcome.
Images: Push Square
The third-person camera might just be the biggest winner of all, though. Virtuos has repositioned it above your hero’s right shoulder, and slapped a crosshair on for good measure. The result is a version of Oblivion that’s fully playable, and possibly even preferable in some situations, from a third-person view. What a time to be alive.
There are countless other, more minor improvements we could drone on about here, like the revamped menus, new accessibility options, and additional voice acting (which actually fits right in with the old stuff) — but we’ll try and save the details for our eventual review.
Speaking of which, there is something that we hope an update or two will address before we attach a score to Oblivion Remastered — and that’s the game’s performance on PS5 and PS5 Pro.
Images: Push Square
Technical woes are sadly nothing new for Bethesda games, and it’s very disappointing to see Oblivion Remastered run so poorly on current-gen hardware. Even when utilising the title’s performance mode, the frame rate rarely sticks to a smooth 60 frames-per-second.
There are hitches, jitters, and sustained drops throughout the game, with the open world in particular struggling to maintain stability. In truth, the crappy frame rate is our only real issue with the release — although it is quite humorous to think that here, 20 years after the original Oblivion ran like sh*t on the PS3, we’re still complaining about dropped frames on PS5.
Images: Push Square
Nostalgia is a powerful tool that Oblivion Remastered takes full advantage of — and we mean that in the best possible way. Outside of its eye-rolling frame rate, this is the welcome return of an open world RPG classic, touched up in almost all of the right places.
Are you playing Oblivion Remastered? What are your thoughts so far? Keep an eye out for our full review in the near future, and tell us all about your adventures in the comments section below.
Are you playing Oblivion Remastered? (1,837 votes)
- Yes, of course I’m playing it36%
- Not yet, but I plan on playing it at some point35%
- Nah, but I am tempted14%
- No, it just isn’t for me15%
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Robert (or Rob if you’re lazy) is an assistant editor of Push Square, and has been a fan of PlayStation since the 90s, when Tekken 2 introduced him to the incredible world of video games. He still takes his fighting games seriously, but RPGs are his true passion. The Witcher, Persona, Dragon Quest, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, Trails, Tales — he’s played ’em all. A little too much, some might say.