Oblivion Remastered Improves Leveling, Brings DLC And Unreal Engine 5 Beauty
For everyone else, let's talk shop about this Oblivion "Remaster". We put the word in quotes because this really isn't a "remaster," but instead a full-on remake in Unreal Engine 5. At least, that's what it seems to be, although it's not completely clear if the game is running completely in Unreal Engine 5 or if we're seeing an RTX Remix-like wrapper situation, where the Oblivion engine is running underneath Unreal Engine.
The remake was developed by Virtuos, a game-dev-for-hire agency that has assisted many developers (including Bethesda) on AAA projects in the past. The executive producer at Virtuos for this title was Alex Murphy, who explained that "the original Oblivion is still the heart and soul of the remaster, but we used Unreal Engine 5 to achieve all of our visual goals. We think of the Oblivion game engine as the brain, and Unreal Engine 5 as the body. The brain drives all the world logic and gameplay, and the body brings to life the experience that players have loved for 20 years."
Leyawiin has never looked ... muskier.
That doesn't mean that there haven't been any changes to the gameplay, though the launch trailer doesn't really elaborate on what changes were made. Pre-release leaks remarked on changes to combat inspired by the Dark Souls series, including more active defensive options, and there are a couple of bits in the released gameplay footage where the player seems to stagger an enemy by blocking their attack. The developers say that they've improved the third-person perspective in the game, and that they've also "changed the approach to leveling" to a system that pulls elements from Oblivion's successor, Skyrim. Skyrim's sprinting also makes an appearance here.
The Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine expansions are included.
What hasn't been changed are the quirky voice lines that have become memetic, like Sheogorath's wacky "Cheese for everyone!" remark from the Shivering Isles expansion—which is included, by the way, along with Knights of the Nine. Similarly, the lockpicking and conversation minigames are still present just as they were, although both feature improved UI, as does the rest of the game. Also, while iconic lines were kept, the whole game has been re-voiced, with unique voices for each race and sex combination this time around.
Ultimately, Bethesda's Tom Mustaine says that "this is Oblivion in its most complete form," and that the goal of the remaster was to make it "more friendly to gamers with modern hardware." If you're interested, we would advise you to go in expecting a strictly 2006 experience in terms of gameplay—just with a 2025 coat of paint on the visuals and systems. That's not a bad thing, though; Oblivion is remembered as a classic for a reason. You can pick up the TES IV Oblivion Remaster anywhere you buy your games, including Steam, the Windows Xbox app, Xbox consoles, and PlayStation 5—although it's 16% off at GMG right now, for whatever reason.
