After years of speculation, minor leaks, plus even an acknowledgment within a Microsoft lawsuit at the FTC trial down the road, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered has finally made its way to the real world. Bethesda made the long-awaited announcement during a surprise livestream, confirming that the remaster is now available on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC, and Game Pass.
Given such an iconic old favorite is coming back in modern form, fans are consequently stumping up plenty with questions. What’s changed? What’s improved? More importantly, is this worth buying? This is what you need to know before passing through the gates of Cyrodiil once again.
Things You Need To Know Before You Buy The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
Built in Unreal Engine 5
The remaster is constructed completely in Unreal Engine 5, and the results are evident from the start. Developer Virtuos says he has utilized almost every major feature of the engine to bring visuals up to modern standards. Every asset has been remade from the ground up, including tremendous improvement in texture quality, new environments, and more realism about character models. Small things, such as fish in rivers, butterflies flapping in the forests or light and shadow playing on ancient ruins, will give life to the world as never before.
Massive Upgrade to Character Models and Environments
Character models have seen a huge advancement in particular. From the realistic skin skins and frightened confrontations to woven spawn lofts of hair and being surrounded by beast faces, there are terms of personality and jumping capacity that were not put in the original. Argonians, Khajiit, and even basic bandits look more detailed, more realistic, and more animated. Environments also look very good, all thanks to advanced real-time lighting and shadow. Dungeons are now darker and more oppressive, torches burn with a warm glow, and each region has its own mood depending on the hour of the day.
Audio and Dialogue Improvements
One of the most welcome changes is the game’s audio and dialogue. The original Oblivion was infamous for being held back by disc storage, leading to repeated voice lines and a small pool of voice actors. The remaster now comes with additional voiceovers with separate voices for each race, adding to the world a lot more diversity and presence. Blessedly, memorable lines like “Stop right there, criminal scum!” are still present, ensuring the retro fun the audience enjoyed in the past.
Both movement and animation also have a huge upgrade. Sprinting is now a dedicated ability—something that was very much needed in the first game. No more leveling speed just to feel speed. Virtuos has also revised motion animations and lip sync, turning conversations more realistic and travel more seamless. The combat system has become more responsive with hit reactions, improved sound model, blood effects, and improved controller feedback. Along with re-animated upper and lower body motion, combat looks more brutal and contemporary.
Leveling System Overhaul
Gameplay-wise, one of the biggest improvements is to the leveling system. The remastered version takes a more middle-of-the-road approach, borrowing some of Skyrim to make the upgrade to progression a little bit smoother and not so hard. Enemies still scale to your level but in a more thoughtful and less frustrating manner.
Players that have always been fans of third-person gameplay will be pleased to know that a decent crosshair has finally been added. This tiny but important change makes archery and spellcasting from the behind-the-back view much more useful. As a matter of fact, the third-person perspective now allows for the same level of control as first-person, following in the footsteps of more recent Bethesda titles like Starfield.
Content and Value
As for content, the remaster doesn’t skimp. The Oblivion Remastered costs $49.99 and comes with the full base game and all DLCs and add-ons for no extra charge. That includes notable expansions such as The Vile Lair, Mehrunes’ Razor, Wizard’s Tower, Spell Tome Treasures, and indeed—the infamous Horse Armor Pack. With more than 100 hours of gameplay, it’s quite an attractive deal for both newcomers and veterans.
PC System Requirements
PC players, take note of the system requirements. While it looks extremely impressive, the game is surprisingly easy on modern hardware. You’ll need approximately 125 GB of space, and at the very least, you are going to require the AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel Core i7-6800K along with a GTX 1070 Ti or equivalent. The best out of the remaster, however, is 4K at 60 FPS—this is where you’ll want to consider a bit of a powerful PC with a Ryzen 5 3600X or ignore Core i5 10600K and a Radeon RX 6800 XT or NVidia RTX 2080.
Lack of Mod Support at Launch
Official mod support is notably missing at launch, with Bethesda confirming there will be no native mod tools for now. Nevertheless, the modding community will probably find a way around it, and unofficial mods should start to appear soon. For the time being, this is just a chance to experience the remaster how it was meant to be played originally before the inevitable slew of the tinkerings and sequels are going to arrive.
