The Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion 2

Wyrmrest Accord
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So it has recently been rumored that there is a remake of Oblivion imminent, with some singapore based developer leaking images of some higher-rez Cyrodiil-ish environs

https://imgur.com/a/PB9pLDZ

The most breathless of the rumors suggest that it is secretly releasing tomorrow, which seems a little unlikely (I can’t remember a major release ever stealth-dropping in my lifetime), but I guess it could happen. Either way, it seems like a return to the jankiest Elder Scrolls game is coming.

Tell me your thoughts, dear reader. Have you seen any mudcrabs recently? Did you once play Oblivion nigh on 20 years ago? Did you, like me, painstakingly arrange items on the table of your waterfront shack only to tragically knock them aside in havok-powered disarray upon re-entering?

I for one am intrigued. If any Bethesda game was gonna get a remake Oblivion was probably the best candidate, since it has the goofiest graphics and, unlike Morrowind or Skyrim, doesn’t have the most active modding community still maintaining the original.

I am certainly curious if the dialogue will be overhauled in some way, because fancy new graphics with the same campy voice acting and somewhat unhinged random conversations would be funny.

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My first Elder Scrolls game was definitely Morrowind, and it was very influential in my views on World-Building and non-standard fantasy settings. I remember Mudcrabs being very angry, dirt-brown parasects, Cliff Racers being very determined and annoying dimorphodons, and that one Mage who made those jumping scrolls being the one person I had to save at all costs with every playthru, no matter what.

I liked Oblivion but it was also kinda … jank, but in the good way. Definitely hope that if they’re remaking, they’ll add about 10 more voice actors just for non-essential and background conversations, that alone would make me buy Oblivion: Martin’s Scaly Adventure, but I will admit, not being able to shout my followers out of my way when they inevitably wedge into a narrow doorway or corridor I need to go back up because of their cheese wheel addiction is gonna be tough.

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I’ve been pretty down on Bethesda after the dumpster fire that was Fallout 76’s initial launch and all the things surrounding it. Hearing and seeing all that more or less killed any faith I had in the company; Starfield hasn’t done much to change my disposition, either.

With that said, I’m still curious about the Oblivion remake. Despite my personal misgivings about the trend of literally remaking games that were already proven good/popular, it’s interesting to see how such products differ from the original, besides graphically; seeing how mechanics differ, what got left out or remixed, how authentic the remake is to the original. Oblivion would be the first time I personally get to do so with a game I’ve played and am deeply familiar with as it was my entry into the franchise.

I’m also curious how it would compare to Skyblivion, as I vaguely remember hearing that was close to finally being finished.

Addendum:

I’ll likely find both inferior to the original, as I imagine both will use the same engine as Skyrim; the game where you can’t fight under water, but it still has mobs that only naturally spawn underwater. The radiant A.I Oblivion had, the reason for all those meme-worthy moments that fill the internet these days, will likely also be gone, which I admit can be seen as both good and bad.

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Stares blankly into the middle distance. Faintly the sound of machine gun fire, the whomp whomp whomp of helicopters, and a strong, firm tone bellowing ‘MARINES! WE! ARE! LEAVING!’

I’m not sure what to think of the Oblivion remaster. It’s weird there’s not been a peep out of Bethesda or Microsoft, and I can’t imagine any reason why they’d just shadow launch something like this out of the blue. Can’t imagine any reason for a product they have any confidence in, at any rate.

That having been said - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is special to me. While I got my start with Daggerfall, by the time of Oblivion’s announcement I was a fresh out of College wage slave (As opposed to now being a 41 year old wage slave. Progress!) and the computer I had at the time struggled to play Morrowind at times - so there was no way it would ever handle Oblivion.

So I utilized Layaway (Remember that?) to get myself an Xbox 360 and a copy of Oblivion…which itself was a struggle because I put it on Layaway Day One. And if anyone remembers the controversy there…my copy of Oblivion was Rated T, where they very quickly had to recall the game and bump it up to M because mods let you have huge…tracts of land. So when I got my 360 off Layaway there was some back and forth if I could have the copy of the game since it had been “recalled”. I got the game.

And it is one of a handful of titles I 100% completely. Compare that to Skyrim where it took me nine years to both finishing the main story.

So yeah. If/When the Oblivion Remaster hits, I’ll snag it sight unseen despite my reservations as to why Bethesda is being so quiet about it.

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I sure hope not.

One of my favorite things in Oblivion are things like this occurring:

I love Morrowind, sure loved Oblivion too. I’m certainly looking forward to it being a bit more optimized. Specifically with way less wacky level scaling.

If you ever wanted to RP out what it would be like living in the fictional world of ‘The Birds’, this is the way to go about it.

Not walking two steps around Red Mountain without hearing that incessant screeching.

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I’ve never played Oblivion, but I would if a remake were real. I’ve heard it said that it is a better RPG than Skyrim, the guilds are better, and things are perhaps less railroaded in terms of your decisions in the game. Or maybe I’m mixing up criticisms of Skyrim with Fallout that isn’t made by Obsidian.

I liked Skyrim a lot. I think it is one of the best RPGs of all time (not accounting for mods or even the DLCs. The base game stands the test of time still to this day.) So I’d be interested to play the predecessor with better graphics and more polish. If what we end up getting is akin to the remaster of San Andreas, then I will be disappointed but it’s still a coin toss as to whether I’d buy it. I’m hoping for more.

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I am curious much has been changed for modern audiences. I liked Oblivion alot back in the day, but I am in no rush to replay it. Guess we’ll see.

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https://x.com/bethesda/status/1914341006188712023

So, it appears there will be some sort of announcement tomorrow. Neat!

I wouldn’t say it is better than Skyrim, personally–I think it is sort of a weird middle child between Morrowind and Skyrim. It has some of the more in-depth RPG stat mechanics from Morrowind (e.g., you still have a set of DnD-style attributes and a class, unlike Skyrim’s purely skill/perk character development), but I think its writing is generally the weakest of the three. Unlike MW and Skyrim, which had very well-developed local cultures and neat political side-stories, it is a relatively basic “Demons are attacking this nice bucolic fantasy meadow setting, defeat them!” story.

But it is still a great game, and a lot of its charming jank came from that early 2000s mindset where game devs were really ambitious and willing to try weird ideas. Behind the memorably awkward randomly generated NPC conversations, there were some big ideas about making a game world which was more alive than anything which came before.

Oblivion was sort of a Big Deal in terms of tech at the time, and I too couldn’t run the dang thing when it first released. I watched a friend play it at his house, but as a penniless high schooler I couldn’t get my hands on a decent computer very quickly. Eventually I got a summer job and bought a PC (replacing the failing laptop I had at the time), and Oblivion was one of my first acquisitions. Although I’m sure better WoW performance was a side benefit because around that time I would have been struggling around Shattrath on 3 fps.

It was a different time. My current PC is a few years old but there’s nothing on the horizon that would really prompt me to upgrade, because tech has slowed down so much. But back then if your PC wasn’t brand new you might just not be able to run Todd’s latest creation

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One of the reasons I leveled a Paladin in Kalimdor.

FPS in Theramore was a lot better than in Lagforge.

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If they update/change any voice actors, I will riot.

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Hey it is released now.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2623190/The_Elder_Scrolls_IV_Oblivion_Remastered/

It looks rather pretty. And it seems like it is an in-depth remake, with some tweaked mechanics and stuff rather than just a higher-rez release.

It seems like it is partially re-voiced. Some of the original actors are there (adoring fan is the same), but, for instance, a clip on the reveal showed a Dark Elf speaking with what sounded like the Skyrim Dark Elf voice actor.

Anyway, looks cool, I’m trying it out later today.

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My sole concern watching the announcement/reveal trailer is Argonians look…wrong. Like very “puffy”. Khajiit also look a bit Lion-esque.

Didn’t stop me from snapping up the Deluxe Edition.

I have the next two days off.
It’s supposed to rain.
I’ve already told my wife I love her and that I will be ignoring her the next two days.

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I can’t say I expected this to show up so soon. I’ve picked it up, though after seeing how much space it needs it’ll probably be a while before I actually play it; I just spent all of last weekend downloading Dirt 2.0 and most of yesterday GRID Legends. I wanna take some time to recover before I start devoting time to this.

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I was able to play it a bit tonight! I didn’t get too far beyond the starter dungeon, but it feels pretty good. Once you get past the improved visuals it is still mostly Oblivion under it all, but the visuals are very nice and so are the smallish gameplay tweaks like the sprint button.

Characters look pretty good, and it is almost disconcerting to hear the old Oblivion VAs talking out of realistic looking humans rather than the muppets. Although the elf design leans hard on the Skyrim-like interpretation of elves being goblins with giant brow ridges, which I don’t really love. But hey, we have, like… beards now! For people other than Sheogorath!

The voice acting seems to be a mix of old and new actors, like I thought from the trailer. Mostly returning Skyrim actors, I think. I heard an Orc talking like a Skyrim Orc, in a conversation with another Orc speaking with the Oblivion VA. So the new voices aren’t fully replacing the old actors, but being added for variety.

One disappointment is that Bethesda has stated that mods are not supported. I don’t know if that means they’ll never release an Oblivion CK or what. But it does seem that mods made with oldblivion’s tools still work to a degree. If you dig around in the files you’ll find that the game is still running off of .esps and .esms despite the new engine, and some people have got basic stat-tweaking .esps loading correctly.

Out of curiosity I decided to try and add a complicated old Oblivion mod, “Companion Vilja”, to the game, just to see what would happen. The new engine sort of recognized it, and I got a messagebox notifying me of the new quest.

https://i.imgur.com/W0IltOY.png

Buuuut the game immediately crashed when I attempted to go meet the modded character. So modding with the old tools will be limited at best, I guess. But the fact that esps made for the old game load at all is interesting, and maybe folks will figure out how to port mods fully.

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Currently watching a stream of it and I gotta say, it is kinda weird associating the original Oblivion sounds with the new look. I also find the way characters look during conversation to be a bit weird in general. They seem to have idle animations now and it kinda throws me off.

I also don’t quite like the way the Ayleid wells look, or rather the energy they contain. For some reason it appears to have gone from a thin beam to a cascading column, and I far prefer the original look.

I do so far like the new look in general, though, barring a few other things I’ve briefly seen that I’m a bit iffy about.

Addendum:

I also noticed leveling up is slightly different, wherein you’re just given a sum of points to allocate as you please. Seems like a decent change, at least to me.

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They just couldn’t help themselves.

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The new VAs integrate nicely into the existing roster. I was quite surprised to hear new voices come out of major characters, though (Thoronir).

Kinda disappointed combat has OG Oblivion’s “floatiness” where things don’t feel like they’re connecting.

Some birth signs got tweaked - The Lord no longer gives a weakness to fire, and the Thief got stupid now handing out bonuses to Agility, Luck, and Speed.

I really do enjoy the little background choices we get when creating a character. It’s a small thing, but it’s welcome from a Roleplay standpoint.

Spell Books are no longer consumed upon learning the spell.

This is built in Unreal Engine 5. I don’t think Bethesda can release a Creation Kit even if they wanted to, seeing as how UE5 has to be licensed and I doubt they just want it distributed to the masses.

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I have been having fun with it. Character creation is still the same but the character looks go from good to eldritch horror instead of odd butterface to eldritch horror. I managed to make an Argonian look like a 5E Kobold.

The leveling is much better, all skills count towards leveling up and no spreadsheets are required to get the most stats per level. The actual combat feels weaker than the original but things look nicer and the UI is better in some places like opening map or inventory directly instead of having the whole menu being on one button and having to sort through them every time.

But the quests are the same, with the occasional voice replacement, it serves well as a way to experience Oblivion with a little bit of extra polish, likely aimed more towards new players who started with Skyrim.

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I’m surprised to see that the level scaling system is more or less just as it was in the original. Ebony-clad bandits everywhere now that I’ve hit level ~20! I figured that’d be a prime area for tweaking, but I guess they really want to broadly preserve the old gameplay.

The good news is, I’m not getting killed so badly by those ebony clad bandits. I’m not sure if things have been slightly scaled down so it isn’t so hard (I was not leveling “optimally”, and mostly got here by spamming conjuration and resto spells), or if my teenage self was just worse games than current me.

I’m guessing it is the latter, because it took me an unreasonably long time to figure out basic stuff like “sigil stones can be used to enchant items” back in the day, so my characters were always wildly unoptimized.

The changes to attribute multipliers on level up probably makes things a lot easier too, because getting 12 attribute points would have been a fairly powergamy back in the day (much more likely to get a couple 2s and a 3 or worse unless you were really trying). So that might be why things feel less difficult.

Anyway, I’ve been having fun. I accidentally become a vampire, something I always avoided in the original since it made you so ugly, but in the remaster it doesn’t uglify you so much (at all? maybe I just haven’t gone long enough without drinking), so it is mostly just a boon.

Here is my character, for those wishing to judge Oblivion Drip

https://i.imgur.com/3HfacoI.png

Incidentally, Oblivion Drip is fairly bad. I’m a light armor character! But only the very lowest-ranked items look light. Everything else is chainmail, so I don’t look like the sneaky nightblade-like character I imagined. I forgot that about this game, probably because I mostly played heavy armor characters. Ah well. At least hoods are cool, if statless.

Anyway, on the technical side I have had 1 crash in 10 hours of playtime, but it happened after I was fiddling with the frame gen settings so it might have been a fluke. I also got weirdly bad framerates around Kvatch but for the most part it runs OK.

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I don’t think it is. I’m only Level 12 but I feel like the Scaling has been tweaked subtly. Creatures don’t feel like absolute damage sponges, and I’ve been scouring Forts for Shadowbanish Wine so I’ve noticed how the Marauders have changed through the levels.

Gear is staying more or less consistent, but Marauders specifically are getting a lot of Magical kit. The Warlord of the last fort I took on had three pieces of enchanted gear on him.

Overall, I’m seriously digging the changes. It’s still keeping a challenge, but it’s not feeling grueling.

I also completed the two Remaster Deluxe Edition Quests for the Dagon and Akatosh armors (Including Horse Armor! I had to buy it for the meme alone. Todd Howard you’ve done it again!).

The Dagon quest is actually super flavorful. You end up following a Mythic Dawn recruitment riddle and it ends with you infiltrating a Mythic Dawn base. Super fun and the decision to either continue to play along totally or just merc the base is in your hands.

The Akatosh quest though…that was disappointing. You have to investigate an Alyeid Ruin to figure out why people are disappearing and it culminates in the discovery a Lich has stolen an Elder Scroll (Yes you read that right) in order to use it to travel back in time to prevent himself from becoming a Lich in the first place. It’s a super weird plot thread for some armor and weapon skins, and its especially infuriating because the Dagon armor looks like crap but has a fun quest attached, and the Akatosh armor looks fantastic but has a poo-poo quest attached to it.

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