When Bethesda lastly revealed Oblivion Remastered earlier this week, I might hardly consider my eyes. In some way 2006’s journey to Tamriel, identified for its bizarre, potato-faced characters and smeary stretches of low-res verdant grasslands, is now the best-looking Elder Scrolls sport ever made. An extended historical past of HD overhauls has conditioned me to count on underwhelming outcomes from remasters – Mass Impact Legendary Version and Darkish Souls Remastered are barely indistinguishable from their Xbox 360 dad and mom, as an example – and so to see the Imperial Metropolis that I explored almost 20 years in the past rendered in Unreal Engine 5 with ray tracing was momentarily unbelievable. Not solely that, however the sport has been enhanced with upgrades to fight, RPG techniques, and a mess of different particulars. All that thought-about, I puzzled if Bethesda and the mission’s developer, Virtuos, had obtained the title unsuitable. Certainly that is Oblivion Remake, not remastered?
It seems I wasn’t alone in that considering. Quite a few followers have declared it a remake, and even Bruce Nesmith, the senior sport designer on the unique Oblivion mission, has mentioned “I’m unsure [the word] remaster truly does it justice.” However whereas I doubted Bethesda and Virtuos’ remaster declare at first, after taking part in a number of hours it’s truly fairly clear – Oblivion Remastered might seem like a remake but it surely performs like a remaster.
There are many the explanation why Oblivion appears to be like like a remake and they are often simply summed up: Virtuos has performed an enormous quantity of labor, with “each single asset redesigned from scratch.” When it comes to what you bodily see on display screen, it’s all model new. Each tree, each sword, each crumbling fort. This implies Oblivion lives as much as trendy graphical expectations. Not solely is it superbly textured, it additionally has attractive lighting and a complete new physics system that ensures each arrow and weapon strike impacts the world realistically. And whereas all who you meet within the sport are recognisably the identical of us you crossed paths with again in 2006, each single NPC mannequin is a model new creation. It’s a vastly spectacular overhaul that rejects the concept of creating one thing that “appears to be like such as you bear in mind” and as an alternative goals for one thing that’s nice by 2025 requirements. It’s the most effective a Bethesda Recreation Studios RPG has ever appeared, and if I had seen it earlier than the remaster rumours started I’d in all probability have believed that it was The Elder Scrolls 6.
It’s not simply visuals, although. Fight has been overhauled, and so swinging a longsword now not looks like fencing with a balloon. The third individual digicam is now truly purposeful because of the addition of a reticule. Each menu, from the hunt journal to dialogue to the lockpicking and persuasion minigames, have all had refreshed interfaces. The unique, horrific levelling system has been changed with a way more logical hybrid of Oblivion and Skyrim’s approaches. And lastly you’ll be able to dash. With so many visible and gameplay upgrades, absolutely we’re firmly in remake territory?
The large concern right here will not be a lot one in every of expertise, sport modifications, or mission scope, however semantics. There aren’t any industry-defined parameters for remakes and remasters, and publishers recklessly throw the phrases round. Rockstar’s “Definitive Version” remasters of the Grand Theft Auto trilogy are unmistakably blocky PlayStation 2-era video games with upscaled textures and trendy lighting results. However the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, additionally branded a remaster, sports activities all-new graphical property and appears like a sport from the trendy period. Issues are even muddier after we get to remakes: Bluepoint’s Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls each rebuild their respective video games from the bottom up, however are trustworthy, 1:1 recreations of the unique experiences. Resident Evil 2, in the meantime, sticks more-or-less to the unique blueprint by way of construction, however fully redesigns the best way you work together with the survival horror icon. After which we have now Closing Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth, which radically overhaul the design, script, and even story beats of the unique video games. All 5 of those examples are thought-about remakes, however there’s little or no shared philosophy between them.
At one cut-off date, the final consensus gave the impression to be that if the sport had been rebuilt from scratch in a contemporary engine, it was thought-about a remake. Remasters, in the meantime, have been extra restricted upgrades carried out inside the scope of the sport’s authentic expertise. Such a definition is clearly turning into quick outdated, although. Immediately, it appears extra becoming to say {that a} remaster is a graphical overhaul that preserves the design of the unique sport (bar just a few high quality of life gameplay upgrades), whereas a remake redesigns a sport from scratch. Such a definition would “downgrade” Demon’s Souls and the upcoming Steel Gear Strong: Delta to remasters, and make sure the remake time period solely applies to video games that genuinely really feel like new takes on previous concepts.
So if we settle for these proposed definitions, is that this new model of Oblivion a remake or a remaster? As anybody who’s performed even simply an hour of it will possibly plainly see, Oblivion Remastered completely has the proper title. Sure, these new property and Unreal Engine 5 ray tracing results make it look model new, however beneath that glowing pores and skin is a set of 20-year-old bones, organs, and muscle mass, all roughly stapled and taped collectively in that unmistakably Bethesda approach. Because the studio defined, “We checked out each half and punctiliously upgraded it. However most of all, we by no means wished to alter the core. It’s nonetheless a sport from a earlier period and will really feel like one.”
The hallmarks of that earlier period are in all places. It is within the loading screens that cover behind nearly each single door. It’s within the baffling persuasion minigame that also, regardless of the interface improve, barely is smart and feels totally disconnected to your conversations. It’s within the design of the cities, which have the simplistic design of theatre stage units relatively than the advanced, knotty preparations of genuine inhabitants centres. It’s within the NPCs, who wander like awkward automatons and speak with all of the grace of an AI educated on a “easy methods to be society” handbook. It’s within the fight, which even after a big improve nonetheless feels indifferent and unwieldy. And it is within the lengthy record of bugs and glitches that also stay, reverently preserved within the title of upkeeping the unique’s quirky attraction.
Simply a few months in the past we have been handled to Obsidian’s Avowed, which provided a imaginative and prescient of the long run for a few of The Elder Scrolls’ key constructing blocks. Its kinetic fight is virtually space-age in comparison with Oblivion Remastered’s, whereas its method to rewarding exploration makes the rolling hills and grotty caves of Cyrodiil really feel very a lot a relic of yesteryear. Such trendy techniques assist put Oblivion Remastered into context. That’s to not say that this revised basic has nothing to supply in 2025 – removed from it. The magic of its world nonetheless sparkles brightly, its Rohan-like open fields full of dozens of mysteries and oddities. A lot of its ambition stays intact even two generations later, such because the dynamic goblin wars that wage between its NPC clans, or the narratively-satisfying questing construction that is still head-and-shoulders above Skyrim’s many “go to a draugr-filled dungeon” missions. A lot of its old-school concepts round participant freedom really feel refreshing in an age the place we now reject the hand-holding nature of video games from the 2010s. However the granular particulars of Oblivion are clearly gray and lengthy within the tooth. There’s no finesse in its dialogue, nor magnificence in the best way its techniques interconnect. And the extent design, be it cave, fort, or the cursed lands of Oblivion itself, feels positively historical. A remake’s job could be to replace all these concepts, however this mission is all about reliving the previous. As such: Oblivion Remastered.
Video video games have traditionally leant on terminology from different mediums. On the planet of flicks, remakes are model new productions with recent casts, crews, scripts, and units. Remasters are present movies which can be enhanced so far as potential to match trendy image high quality requirements. However an previous movie remains to be an previous movie; the 4K restorations of Jaws and The Godfather look unimaginable, however they’re clearly merchandise of the Nineteen Seventies. You possibly can see it within the course, the supply, the consequences work. It’s within the texture of the movie grain. Oblivion is like these blu-ray restorations of basic movies. It pushes visible high quality so far as it presumably can, which because of the extra malleable medium of video video games means recreating the mission’s “exterior” in a model new engine. However beneath that shell, Oblivion is unmistakably a product of the 2000s. Alex Murphy, govt producer at Virtuos, had the right analogy throughout the reveal stream: “We consider the Oblivion sport engine because the mind and Unreal 5 because the physique. The mind drives all of the world logic and gameplay and the physique brings to life the expertise that gamers have cherished for nearly 20 years.”
Oblivion Remastered is precisely what it says it’s, and that shouldn’t be seen as downplaying its achievements. As an alternative of insisting that it is a remake, we should always truly be utilizing it as the standard bar by which we choose remasters from different titan-scale AAA corporations. That is what Mass Impact Legendary Version ought to have been, relatively than a cleaned-up re-release. That is what Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy ought to have been relatively than an extremely cynical-feeling money seize. As a result of there’s nothing cynical about Oblivion Remastered. It appears to be like like a remake crafted by passionate palms however performs like a remaster preserved by loving followers, and that’s precisely the way it ought to be.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Options Editor.
