Exploring Oblivion Remastered: A Deep Dive into My First Fifteen Hours

Preface: I'm a long time gamer. It started when my parents came home with a Nintendo Entertainment System. Games like Blades of Steel and Super Mario Brothers captivated my brother and me. Since then, I've used games to build simulated worlds, solve problems, or just relax in a fantasy world. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was one of the first Bethesda games I ever played, alongside its predecessor, Morrowind. I have a long relationship with these incredible games. This is a review I wrote on Steam, republished and refined here for your amusement.

The remaster quietly launched the day before my birthday. Happy early b-day to me.

Oblivion is a 19-year-old computer game. When it emerged, computer role-playing games were still very stuck in their isometric design. This was the dawn of a new phase of first and third person action RPGs. Its predecessor Morrowind set a top bar and too many, Oblivion surpassed that bar. 

This remaster is visually stunning. The light refractions, the modern models, the details and the textures. The remaster visually delivers everything a modern game should. Crack open the hood though and you see that this is indeed a 19-year-old game with very few of the modern conveniences that many of us expect. 

The Argonian models look particularly stunning.

You're unable to fight on horseback. You can't even cast magic on horseback. While battling some enemies, you can simply walk right through them as if they were a ghost. And the guard that just greeted me as the Hero of Kvatch, a second later, somehow knows I had stolen goods on me from Anvil? How? Clearly, developers have not adjusted the stealth and thief mechanics to fit modern standards.

The quirks of the original game make it unique. It makes it what it is. The off-putting and awkward NPC dialogues. The occasional janky animations. I don't mind this stuff. It's part of the charm. It still is, even with this new version.

If, however, you expected some sort of modern rehashing of the core game mechanics, you're going to be disappointed. This is the original Oblivion with a beautiful coat of paint on it. And while some mechanics may be a bit more to speed, they feel shallow, and new fans of the game may find it to be off-putting when it comes down to the nitty gritty of actual gameplay. For me this isn't a problem. I bought this game when it first came out and I'm glad to see it getting love to this day. Forewarned is forearmed. Enjoy this great game. I hope it gets modded to add some of these conveniences. Then, it very well could be a masterpiece.