Oblivion is the first RPG I ever played — and this new remaster is more than I could have hoped for

You know that “Ratatouille” meme where the sour-faced food critic takes a bite of Remy’s carefully prepared meal and is instantly transported back to their childhood? That was me the first time I booted up The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, and the iconic theme music began to play.

I vividly remember first diving into the fantasy world of Cyrodiil as a fresh-faced 11-year-old when I got my beloved Xbox 360 back in 2006. It was the first RPG I’d ever played and in many ways a formative gaming experience. It showed me that video games could not only tell grand stories in a rich fictional world but also react to player actions in surprising ways.

So, the chance to revisit Oblivion, but with a fresh visual coat of paint, via the recently shadowdropped Remastered release was simply too good to pass up. My 2025 backlog is already piling up, but I had to drop everything this week to take a nostalgia trip back to my childhood. And The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion really never has looked, or played, this good.

Oblivion remains a landmark RPG

For those being introduced to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion via this remaster, it’s quite difficult to explain just how important of an RPG the original was back in 2006. It set a genre standard that many attempted to match in the following years, and a foundation still being built upon today.

This Remastered version retains everything. This isn’t a remake in the vein of, say Resident Evil 2 or Silent Hill 2, it’s instead a graphical overhaul built in Unreal Engine 5, but with the original bones intact. And, speaking for (probably) all Elder Scrolls fans, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Set in the land of Cyrodiil, Oblivion’s high fantasy setting may be more cookie-cutter than its predecessor (Morrowind), and it doesn’t have the cozy vibe of its juggernaut successor, Skyrim, but it’s a world that begs to be explored, and from the moment your let lose after it’s prison-set prologue, you can head off in any direction and unearth a trove of adventures.

Skyrim made a lot of improvements over Oblivion, but the one area where it couldn’t quite measure up is in the quest writing department. Oblivion packs some of the most engaging RPG quests ever created. We’re talking about quests that have stayed with me for almost 20 years.

From the brilliance of “An Unexpected Voyage,” which sees you unexpectedly stranded at sea on a hijacked galleon, to the iconic “Whodunit?” where you’re locked in a push manor and tasked with slowly turning the other guests at a party against each other. Even convincing them to murder each other to save you the job.

Around every corner, you’ll find interesting characters and memorable moments. And that’s what shines in Oblivion, even all these years later.

Remastered but not fully reworked

As mentioned, this is a remaster, not a remake, and while those terms are used somewhat interchangeably in modern gaming, the Remastered tag feels highly appropriate here.

I mean the above very much as a compliment. The visuals have been brought up to a near-modern standard. While it’s not as pretty as 2025 RPG releases like Assassin’s Creed: Shadows or Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, it’s a night-and-day difference from the 2006 original.

In many ways, Oblivion: Remastered looks like how I remember the game looking through the thick lens of nostalgia. This is Cyrodiil, not how it was, but how you remember it.

The development team at Virtous (with support original devs at Bethesda) has struck the perfect balance between modernizing some of Oblivion’s more cryptic systems — like the punishing enemy scaling and the convoluted way you leveled your character — and retaining the core components. So, yes, the maddeningly tricky lockpicking is unchanged, and the intricate spell crafting suite is just as novel as ever.

Virtous has also retained some of Oblivion’s fan-favorite jank. Within just a few minutes of starting out, I sliced up a Goblin foe, and his corpse clipped into the wall and hung in place. In other games that might scream a lack of polish, but this comical moment felt quintessentially Oblivion. Anybody who has played the original will know exactly what I mean. The Remaster even retains the infamous examples of voice actors flubbing their lines.

Although, while much of the jank feels intentional, or a least preserved to present a faithful Oblivion experience, there are technical hiccups that feel less welcome. On the PS5 Pro, I’ve encountered regular framerate hitches, and textures take several moments to load in after fast traveling. These rougher edges are certainly less welcome in a major 2025 release.

Because this is a better-looking version of a 2006 game, but still the 2006 experience at heart, you will also find it feels less expansive than modern RPGs. The likes of Baldur’s Gate 3 offer richer, more reactive, worlds, and Oblivion feels relatively quaint in comparison. I can admit that much of my extreme fondness for this Remaster is wrapped up in my nostalgia.

Oblivion Remastered has all of my attention

I’ve got a pretty full plate of games to play at present, and that’s before I’ve even started on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Which also released this week to stellar reviews, including from our own Martin Shore). And yet, currently, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is literally all I want to play.

I’ve put a trim five hours into the experience so far, which any RPG fan will know, amounts to little more than leaving the prologue in a sizable role-playing game, but it’s already provided moments of intense delight (and youthful recollection) that have made me whoop with joy.

Oblivion may look better than ever, but this Remaster is an exercise in the power of nostalgia. Every time I boot it up, I’m flooded with childhood memories, which makes it one of the most emotionally powerful games I’ve played in recent years.

Now, I just need to somehow find as much free time to play as I was fortunate enough to have as an 11-year-old.

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