Oblivion Remastered should follow

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered came out of nowhere and stormed its way to the Steam bestseller list and gathered millions of players across all platforms. Nearly 20 years since it first appeared on our screens, it was a real treat to see Oblivion remastered, with updated visuals, gameplay and more.

The problem with a shadow launch however, and especially for one attached to the remaster of such a beloved RPG, is that the hype can serve as a bit of an eyesore for the quality of the game under all the excitement. Nearly two weeks after the release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, it seems that the hype was justified.

While not a perfect game, Virtuos’ re-release certainly feels like a near-perfect idea of what a remaster can be. Immediately, in the first trailers, while Bethesda assured us this was just a remaster, thoughts of a remake came to mind. It seemed like such a huge change in both visuals and gameplay that many developers and publishers would have attached the remake title to it. The use of remaster instead of remake may have been just to assure fans that the core of Oblivion was still there, but I can’t help but feel that this also shows that the labels remaster and remake have been overplayed in recent years. Also that we have had far too many games that did too little and were released too recently and call themselves remasters.

Looking at you, The Last of Us. Much of the success and goodwill of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered comes from timing. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say, and while The Elder Scrolls has not been absent from our lives thanks to the endless Skyrim re-releases and ESO, it would be unfair to say that fans are not hungry for a new single-player release in the franchise. Oblivion is not new, far from it, but because it is so old, that means there are plenty of people for whom it is new, and even older fans probably haven’t played it for years, thanks to the fact that it is incredibly dated.

This time, this absence, makes it feel less like a money grab and more like a gift to fans. Now, as with most decisions in the game industry these days, money was probably at the heart of this remaster, but if you’re smart, you can make people happy with a decision that makes people or a studio money. Waiting 20 years for a remaster is not something every studio can do. Not every studio has the IP and time, but especially with more modern games, it’s hard to see exactly how graphics were redefined as they were before the Oblivion remaster. For example, compare the Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster of the recent past with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and you’ll see how much difference the latter offers. Is it nice that the world looks a little more defined in Horizon’s first adventure? Sure, but it doesn’t feel like a revolutionary overhaul like Oblivion did.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered shows just how effective a remaster can feel when it truly brings something from the past to modern times, and how much we’ve been taken for granted by other remasters that actually add just a little more fidelity to a game we all played a few years ago. Retaining so much of the core of the original Oblivion also helped the remaster immensely. Oblivion has a unique charm, and losing that would have been detrimental to the game’s release. Flubbed lines, zoom-ins for dialogue and all that classic Bethesda goodness remind us of the times we had nothing to worry about but beating the next quest, while the visuals offer a glimpse of what the future of Tamriel might look like.

Speaking of the future of Tamriel, if Bethesda is going to learn anything from the release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, it should be that people need The Elder Scrolls more. The Elder Scrolls Online is fun and all, but nothing brings people together like talking about the stupid things they do in the single-player RPGs Bethesda releases. And while Bethesda may spend decades working on its next RPGs, the re-release of Oblivion should inform the studio that not everything has to be Starfield-scale. People expect complicated systems, but the fact that what is essentially a 2006 classic, with a new coat of paint and a few other tweaks, is doing so well should tell Bethesda everything it needs to know. Don’t throw away the book, don’t try to re-imagine what The Elder Scrolls could be. If anything, take it back to its roots, because The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered informs people how much Skyrim has lost in terms of mechanics.

So, what can we take away from this mess? First of all, remasters need to be more ambitious and take more time to ensure that fans feel amazed when they see their childhood classics brought to modern standards. We also need more proper definitions of what a remake versus a remaster is. People shouldn’t be scratching their heads if the work on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered looks more substantial than any other major remaster in recent memory, but still doesn’t deserve the title of remake. Finally, Bethesda could honestly take a chill pill when it comes to making sure every new RPG is so huge and breathtaking that we can’t think of another one for another ten years. People love the older games because of their adventures, their charms and the complexity and details they offered without necessarily providing a huge space for you to be in.