Introduction
Basic information
Developer Name: Bethesda Game Studios
Full Name: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
Release Date: March 20, 2025
Released on: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Cross Play: No
Initial thoughts
When my wife expressed interest in playing Oblivion Remastered, I was pleasantly surprised. While I remembered the original fondly, chaotic guards, strange AI. She was new to the world of Cyrodiil. Her excitement was contagious, and once we loaded into the game, we quickly remembered (or discovered) why Oblivion is both brilliant and baffling. Within hours, a character was floating while asleep. Guards are talking through walls. It was exactly the kind of glorious mess we hoped for, and it only made us love the experience more. Even if it is broken.
Story and setting
Plot overview
The game begins with you imprisoned in a cell, only to find yourself in the company of the Emperor, who claims you are destined to change the fate of the realm. Soon, Oblivion gates begin opening across the land, and your journey to stop the Daedric threat unfolds. It’s an epic, high-fantasy plot that manages to feel both intimate and grand. You can follow the main quest or abandon it entirely in favor of joining guilds, becoming a vampire, or exploring forgotten ruins.
World building and immersion
Most of the characters are quirky archetypes, often voiced by the same actor, sometimes even in the same conversation. Yet somehow, that adds to their charm. The narrative arcs in factions like the Dark Brotherhood offer surprisingly deep development. Some companions grow on you, others growl at you, but all leave a mark.
Character development
The game manages to deliver sincere emotion through its story moments, especially in the later main quests. The sacrifice, the desperation of Cyrodiil, and the growing threat of Oblivion blend well. Certain storylines like the Mages Guild betrayal or the Thieves Guild’s redemption arc can genuinely hit hard.
Emotional impact
The remaster improves on Cyrodiil’s diverse regions, from the majestic White Gold Tower in the Imperial City to the misty marshes of Leyawiin. Lore is layered throughout books, ruins, and conversations, giving the world a rich texture. Despite the janky NPC behavior and visual oddities, it’s easy to lose yourself in this living, breathing fantasy realm. The environment, music, and pacing come together to build immersion, bugs and all.
Rating for story and setting
I have visited multiple aspects of the story and after some thought and objective thinking, I rated the story and setting with an 7.5
Gameplay and mechanics
Core gameplay mechanics
Oblivion Remastered retains the open-ended systems of the original, where nearly every skill can be leveled and every role-played lifestyle supported. Want to be a sneaky alchemist who never kills? A battlemage who crafts devastating spells? Go for it. The sandbox is wide, and the exploits are hilarious.
The skill-based progression encourages experimentation, and the stat system allows for fun power-gaming. That said, some skills—like Acrobatics, can be leveled absurdly fast. Lockpicking, for instance, can hit 100 in under a minute with the right rhythm.
Difficulty and balance
Enemy scaling means that the world grows with you, but not always in sensible ways. Bandits in full Daedric armor at level 20? Sure. A wolf nearly killing you at level 1 but being no threat at level 5? Of course. The balance is best described as chaotic-neutral.
Pacing of the game
You can spend hours exploring a single cave or finish the main quest in a day. There’s no pressure, and that freedom allows the pacing to adjust to every playstyle.
Innovation and uniqueness
The spellcrafting system alone is revolutionary, even if broken. You can make absurd combinations of magic effects and cast them in wild succession. It’s freedom like few RPGs have offered since. I do wonder why you can make magic which you should never be able to cast, unless you obliterate magic and use a glitch to have infinite magic.
Controls and user interface
The UI is slightly updated but still clunky by modern standards. Inventory management remains a minor struggle, especially for magic users juggling hundreds of spells. Or what about the annoying soul gems?
Microtransactions
Thankfully, there are none. All content is included in a single package. (No, I am not counting the deluxe upgrade as a microtransaction.)
Rating
After combing through many of the mechanics, the pacing and other factors of this game, I rated the gameplay and mechanics with a 7.
Graphics and art style
Quality of graphics and art direction
The visuals are vastly improved in fidelity but still plagued with absurd bugs. Characters sleep in mid-air, citizens get launched skyward when loading into areas, and sometimes people just spin infinitely. It’s glorious. The environmental upgrades are notable though, and weather effects add new atmosphere.
Textures are higher quality, lighting is more dynamic, and water effects are significantly better. However, facial animations remain unsettling.
Technical performances
While performance is generally better, frequent crashes and strange bugs still occur. One major issue is that the game often refuses to save, even with plenty of system storage.
Environment and design uniqueness
Despite the (many) glitches, Cyrodiil remains a standout fantasy setting, with lush forests, icy mountains, and bustling cities.
Rating
It took me some time to give the graphics and art style an objective rating. There are many things to consider, but ultimately, I rated this section with a 6.5.
Sound and music
Music score and how it contributed to the game
The soundtrack is legendary and perfectly supports both combat and exploration. The audio atmosphere of walking through a quiet meadow with wind in the trees and a faint melody in the background is unbeatable.
Sound effects quality
Sword clashes, spell blasts, and ambient sounds are satisfying, even if a bit dated.
Voice Acting
Infamous for its repetition. Every guard, noble, and beggar might share the same three actors. Yet it becomes part of the game’s personality. Some performances are unintentionally hilarious, adding to the charm.
Rating
After a lot of consideration, I rated the sound and music section with a 7.
Replayability
Game Length and content volume
Replay value is one of the game’s strongest points. Each guild has its own questline, and many quests have different outcomes. The world is littered with caves, shrines, and secrets.
Extra Content
Dozens of hours of side quests, Daedric prince missions, and guild storylines.
Replay value
Extremely high. You can play dozens of characters with unique builds and never get bored.
Rating
After thoughtful consideration, I decided to rate the replayability and game length of Oblivion 4 Remastered with an 8.
Suggestions and comparisons
Suggestions and feedback
Bethesda should address save bugs, optimize performance, and fix critical AI issues. Adding more voice actors would also elevate immersion. Oh, and fix the broken spellcrafting, glitches, exploits… (mumbles on.)
Comparisons
More open-ended than Skyrim, but less polished. More accessible than Morrowind, but less mysterious. It strikes a rare balance of complexity and absurdity.
Personal experiences and anecdotes
One standout moment was a quest where an NPC had to guide my wife to a location. Early in the quest, he was squashed by a trap. Somehow, he stood up, ignored his injuries, and ran off to fight enemies nearby. The quest log claimed he had died, despite us watching him flail in combat. When she clicked “Accept,” he dropped dead instantly. It was surreal, hilarious, and very on-brand for Oblivion.
Rating
Taking in all the personal experiences with Oblivion 4 Remastered, I give it a personal rating of 8
Last words
Pros
- Huge open world
- Legendary soundtrack
- Countless side quests
- Incredible freedom
- Spellcrafting system
- Distinct regions
- Varied guild storylines
- Replayable character builds
- Memorable NPCs
- Deep lore
- Ridiculous but fun bugs
- Hours of exploration
- Rich modding potential
- Hilariously bad voice acting
Cons
- Save bugs
- Game crashes
- Repetitive voice work
- Broken AI behavior
- Spellcrafting imbalance
- Inventory clunkiness
- Visual glitches
- Guard telepathy
- Performance dips
- Awkward UI
Oblivion Remastered is a grand fantasy adventure that invites both awe and laughter. It’s deeply flawed but endlessly entertaining. For every frustrating bug, there’s a hilarious memory or a beautiful landscape waiting to redeem it. It remains a unique and irreplaceable experience in the world of RPGs.
FINAL RATING
7.4
Please let me know what you think of Oblivion 4 remastered in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
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How can a game with so many bugs be this fun?!
It’s the joy of Bethesda—they create games laden with bugs, or, in our eyes, features. XD
Lol, how long did it take you to beat the game?
I said we played it on Xbox, but we actually played it on the PS5.
Bugs and glitches can be very fun!
The beauty in the jank is one thing that makes this game a fun experience.
It is a feature!
You would have thought that a remaster this great would employ more VA but it’s amusing to see that it’s not the case.
I’m also amused by how the level scaling works. Level 20 bandit in daedric armor lol.
It was pretty annoying to keep hearing the same voice actor!
Horse armor DLC not a microtransactions? Heresy! Would be curious though on which you’d recommend now to new players, Skyrim or Olbivion remastered.
It depends on what you want for gaming, Oblivion is fun and smaller, Skyrim is massive and feels a bit updated.
It’s pretty amusing that even with all of the improvements, the game apparently still remains pretty much the same Oblivion as I remember! XD
Thanks for reviewing this game! 🙂
I had a lot of fun watching Simone play it!
They did a good remaster, but should still fix and improve stuff
It is gonna take time!
An Elder Scrolls without bugs wouldn’t be Elder Scrolls! lol
A bit too true…
Glad to hear that “it’s a feature not a bug” is still in the remastered xD
I like the term “visual oddities”. Oblivion reallly had some weird designs and animations. Back then the game had this strange conversation feature to gain respect or trust by interpretating NPC facial expressions. It was horrible espeacilly with orcs and katjits.
Oh, I remember the original.
It still is!
Oblivion was a big part of my gaming years, and you really captured what makes the remaster feel fresh but still familiar.
I am glad you liked the review!
Im positive all old fans are happy that the bugs remain. So easily a 9/10.
A bit too many bugs, even game breaking!
Most of remastered game will be good. So worths to try it.
Indeed worth to try!
Yes this is my genre, thanks for reviewing such games too. My genre but i didnt had luck or whatever to finish all of those TES games but to be honest, back in a day i played them as a much younger person. But again i finished a mass of other crpg to the end, those isometric and 3d too so hard to say why, would have to make analize of this but this topic is not about that 😉
I never liked this inventory user interface in TES, it is wrong and grindy. What more i dont look of this pergaamin, let say you are in dark dungeon and this huge white pergamin is one time after another in your eyes on screen eh 😛 There are also a mass of junk items found, for completionist it is struggle to browse through all of this and if you would left this aspect of game you miss a lot of important things too 😉 Im talking from memory i played those games already many years ago.
“many quests have different outcomes” – Yes this nonlinearity which at best effect in a meaningful way many quests and lines of story and gameplay(!) at once is what make rpg an rpg for me 🙂 But i guess much harder to write such game for developers, every action need to have multi, multiquests conseqences and some newer games are just genereting one different dialog/text or narration like those some newer more lazy games are doing, creating just illusion of real meaningful effect, better then nothing, things can be imagined like in book but it not the same thing. Yes many unique builds always help with replayability and encourage cool experimentations and variety so you wont getting bored 🙂 I guess they didnt wanted to alter too much older engine because it would be a lot of work to do new or fix it a lot and at the end effect could be that most would feel it changed to much or lost charm of the old game so i understand them, it might even generate some new problems. I liked your personal anecdote, i know such similiar absurd histories from gaming 😉 If bugs are not gamebreaking (i mean you can load last save and play through them for example) they are forgivable, complex games tend to have more bugs but that doesnt mean such games are worse but i agree if possible developers should work as long needed, be it even after release, to fix them. Know many crpg games who needed a lot of time to fix but finally they were playable end enjoyable 😉 One example Pathfinder: Kingmaker i played after very long time when they finally fixed almost all bugs but i still i had one imporant bug unfortunatly and had to finish whole game without possibility to use one cool companionion (Gnome, alchemist) because of bug, it was impossible to fix after one zone and not wanted to load to try again so far.
There might be some reason why i not finished it but i still would rate personally, even before playing remaster and basing on a original Oblivion, this game better then your rating 🙂 I mean more basic games had probably better ratings but anyone have other favorite things 🙂 8 or 8+ i think.
Ok lets end this wall of text 😉 Now a video 😉
PS – I will also remember my quest wrong guess when you said about all those bugs in a hint and i overthinked and started to though about other older Elder Scrolls games which was knowns to had even much more of those bugs and also about those mountains hint hmm.. i though BattleSPIRE lol And especially that i couldnt read from screen what title it is, even if i played Oblivion back in a day like all other TES and even games before them which directly inspired TES back in a day 😉 Never finished it, same as Skyrim which after modding lost many textures (i just saw black graphics in thier place) i was using special website soft for modding correctly which was queueing prioirity of mods but still it broke and the way i couldnt fix. The end.
Thank you for taking the time to share such a detailed essay. It is clear you have a long and thoughtful history with CRPG games!
You bring up several important points. The inventory UI in the older TES titles, especially Oblivion was definitely a source of frustration for many. As you described it was an odd design choice that broke immersion at times, and the sheer amount of clutter items could make the experience feel more like a management sim than an adventure.
I completely agree that meaningful nonlinearity is one of the defining traits of a great RPG. There’s a big difference between superficial choice and actual consequence driven design. It’s unfortunate that many newer titles create only the illusion of choice, as you mentioned, through slight dialogue shifts instead of branching quests. I respect developers trying to maintain the soul of the original engine, even if it means living with older quirks—sometimes preserving a game’s identity is worth a few limitations.
Your Pathfinder: Kingmaker story is a good example, these games can be brilliant yet flawed, and when bugs don’t break the core experience, they can often be forgiven, especially if they get patched over time. Still, losing a companion like the gnome alchemist to a permanent bug must have been disappointing!
As for Oblivion, fair enough, personal enjoyment plays a big part in how we all view these games. Even if I rated it a bit lower, I fully understand why it’s an 8+ experience for you. It’s a world that meant a lot to many of us growing up, and nostalgia adds a strong layer of appreciation.
Never played the original but am quite interested in playing the remaster. The bugs don’t bother me too much, it’s sad that all these games come with them, but on the other hand they usually keep fixing them and well… what is a elderscrolls game without some weird npc behaviour? XD
Weird NPC’s are usually fun!
M’aiq tells you this is Elder Scrolls VI: obliVIon.
M’aiq asks himself if the “Schw. Tr. d. Le.en.-W.” Potion still exists…
M’aiq wonders if this is better than the original Oblivion.
M’aiq thank you for the review.
Is that the Khajit that breaks the fourth wall?
I think it is really interesting that they retained the original’s bugs along with the improvements as the bugs themselves have become a part of the series’ identity over the years 🙂
It’s a feature, not a bug!
I love how they kept the bugs/glitches in because the silliness is what really seems to have made the game special! The huge open world and spellcrafting sounds amazing, I would love to play this one!
The spellcrafting is insane, you should try playing this game!
Overall, I like the game and the fact that the charm of the original with its features and bugs has also been preserved. Everything turned out as it should and people tightened up, increased the popularity of the series.)
It should have less game breaking bugs!