Oblivion Doesn’t Need A Remake

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is nearly two decades old, but if you’ve played a modern Bethesda game, it’ll still feel familiar. The formula hasn’t changed that much in the 18 years since its launch, and combat is barely any better, either. Where Oblivion shows its age compared to modern Bethesda titles is its potato faces and awkward dialogue, but that’s half the charm.

The game’s lasting legacy is the memes. Weightless corpses flying into the air after you hit them with an inflatable warhammer, the camera aggressively zooming into a guard’s face as they yell, “Stop right there, criminal scum!”, and beggars completely changing their accents mid-dialogue. To this day, real-life Oblivion NPC TikToks go viral, while compilations of “Oblivion being Oblivion” still pop up on my YouTube feed.

Such accidental slapstick is what’s so enduring, and yet there are murmurs of a remake in development. It feels inevitable that a remake of this kind, especially one in Unreal Engine 5, would seek to ‘fix’ Bethesda’s (wonky) attempts at fluid NPC conversations, as well as the notoriously ugly character models and glitchy ragdolls. All in a bid to make it more serious and in line with the tone of Morrowind and Skyrim. But that would strip away so much of the game’s personality.

If Bethesda is intent on a TES remake, it needs to look further back.

Morrowind Is Impenetrable, And Far More Deserving

I love Morrowind, but it’s not an approachable game by any stretch. The obtuse, invisible dice rolls mask an incredibly complex combat system where one wrong level can make the early game a nightmare to navigate.

Its open world and NPC questlines are far more akin to Elden Ring than future Elder Scrolls titles, with vague directions rather than quest markers, but Morrowind is pitched as a structured RPG rather than a conveyor belt of bosses. So, getting lost can be tedious for those unfamiliar with Vvardenfell, as it completely hinders progression.

Yet it has one of the best main stories in the series, some incredible factions (like House Telvanni and the Imperial Cult), and a truly unique fantasy aesthetic. I wouldn’t recommend it to a modern TES fan unless they had the patience of Vivec, but I wish more people could experience this game for themselves firsthand.

Oblivion is incredibly approachable as is, and could easily be brought up to date by simply porting it to modern consoles. Morrowind, on the other hand, would greatly benefit from a fully-fledged remake, letting newer fans see a side of Tamriel that is far less familiar.

The Skyblivion Elephant In The Room

I’ve talked to the Skyblivion team in the past, and have been following the project since its very first teaser eight years ago. If you haven’t heard of it, fans are remaking the entirety of Oblivion in Skyrim, and I’m unbelievably excited to finally dig into it after nearly ten years of watching its steady, impressive progress. That might sound hypocritical since I’ve just written 500 words about how pointless a remake of Oblivion is, but there’s far more to Skyblivion than merely updating a classic game.

It has brought the community together on a massive scale and shone an unprecedented spotlight on the efforts of the modding scene. It’s a creative endeavour driven solely by the passion of one of gaming’s most dedicated fanbases, and that can be felt in every live stream, every blog update, and every Discord post. Skyblivion has brought fans closer to the series than ever before, and it’s moving to see them finally approach the finish line.

An Unreal Engine 5 remake developed by an external studio will never come close to capturing that feeling. Like stripping away the charm of Oblivion by ironing out its jagged edges, it will lack the community’s unwavering passion, and that’s why Skyblivion is so endearing to begin with.

I don’t think Skyblivion will come close to Oblivion either, and for much the same reason — it’s an attempt to make the game flow more cohesively with Skyrim. I love Oblivion because it’s Oblivion, and its flaws are a big part of that. But seeing so many people of different backgrounds come together to become part of the history of a series they adore so much is heartwarming, and their excitement is infectious.

If the official Oblivion remake is still happening (as leaked in FTC documents), I can’t imagine it being much more than a shallow tie-over until The Elder Scrolls 6, lacking the heart and charm that made the original game so unique.

Set in Cyrodiil, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is an open-world action RPG that sees you attempt to stop the Mythic Dawn cult from opening a portal to the aforementioned Oblivion. Critically acclaimed, it was expanded upon in Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles.