Remastered: Forgetfulness of Elder Scroll IV appeared out of nowhere, just as members of the Dawn of Myths leapt out of the secret room and stab the Emperor behind. As one of my favorite RPGSs, it’s no surprise that they’ve already put in a full day’s worth of plays so far. He closed the Dozens of Forgetfulness Gate as Kvatch heroes, and created the Daedric Gods and Faustian Bargains of the great Daedric Gods of the Gods. Version. I recently revisited the original oblivion, so its shortcomings are very clear in my mind, with improvements in the UI, revised audio lines, and especially graphical overhauls, making the classics of nearly 20 years much more playable. That being said, I’ve also seen some unfortunate amounts of yanks, like the weird animations when riding horses, broken quests, and regular framerate hitching. But as someone who is quite immune to the charm of nostalgia alone, I still have a great time returning to this adorable, strange open world adventure.
Not to mention the graphical upgrades are the biggest improvements to Oblivion Remastered. Things definitely don’t look close to today’s normal standards, but putting this version alongside the 2006 doppelganger is impressive to look at. The entire map is clear and depicts the distance my teenage self dreamed of. It’s actually shocking, especially since the lighting, shadows and character lip syncs have been overhauled. That said, like the face of an NPC, the rest strangely didn’t get a note. (To be honest, getting scared of a character’s face might actually be part of a real forgetting experience.) So, not all nodes and mud clubs are all that beautiful to look at just like your typical big budget game in 2025, but it still shines perfectly. That’s one situation where I somehow remember what looked like in 2006.
Perhaps the biggest impact on the gameplay of the remastered Oblivion was the inclusion of the sprint button. If you haven’t played Oblivion for over a decade, yes, there was no sprint – Wild, I know – and if you’ve never played it, understand that you really don’t know this gift given to you by Akatosh himself. I don’t really care about losing stamina in the sprint right now (something that bothers me with the RPG you’re literally running around). It’s worth it, especially if there’s the odd side effect of making the entire map feel smaller, especially when you have the odd side effect of fully exploring cities and dungeons in about half the time. I also cared more about investing in skills that increase stamina and magic buffs with this change. However, there is an extra tweak that can cause it, but it quickly moves through areas you already know, like the back of your hand.
It also has a number of major changes to the UI, skills and leveling system, and there is an entirely new feature called Character Origins, which is likely to change the starting stats further. The UI is modernized with today’s design sensibilities, so there are many appreciation additions that you may not notice. The compass moves to the top of the screen and provides more information. Health, Magica, and Stamina meters are spaced on the screen rather than being pushed together into one corner. The menu is more intuitively positioned, allowing you to switch between spells and character stats faster. Some elements still feel like a rather old timing – as if you reach a new milestone in one and awkwardly interrupt anything you’re doing – as if the quest log pops up in the middle of the screen – but most of these annoying things haven’t bothered me yet. You also need to spend more time with the changed leveling system and skills.
The developer’s quality game led this remaster, but this is still a Bethesda game, and with it many bugs appear. I’ve already seen something strange, but when the gate of oblivion disappeared in front of my eyes, or how the NPCs left, or when my quest goal told me I had to do so, I didn’t let them talk (I managed to move the quest line forward despite the logs not being updated, but otherwise I’m crazy about it). Next is the simple and simple performance issues I saw while playing on Xbox Series X. This is how you lose frames for 1-2 seconds when AutoSave triggers, or if you have too many scamps on dirty rat faces in Kvatch. So far, most of this has been a normal, cocky blunder that generally doesn’t ruin my time, but it’s definitely a shame that 20 years have not been long enough to fix this yanki fantasy world.
That’s all for now, but I’d like to have a full review soon. First, I might go on a rampage across Cyrodil to close the main quest line, visit a trembling island, and hear the Imperial guards give me hundreds more arrest monologues. Understood. that’s it. I’m going to catch a vampire or something now. Goodbye.
