Bethesda remaster the predecessor to Skyrim, turning an almost two decade old role-player into one of the most talked about games of 2025.
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion was originally released 19 years ago (as an Xbox 360 console exclusive) to almost universal acclaim, and in spite of the copious bugs and jank that Bethesda fans had, by that point, learned to expect. It sold nearly 10 million copies, and while that was later eclipsed by the 40 million sales of sequel Skyrim, Oblivion remains a much loved and highly influential action role-playing game.
Ironically, this remaster was supposed to be a surprise, being announced and released on the same day, and yet thanks to endless leaks and rumours it ended up being the most widely anticipated launch of the year. Despite a major graphical upgrade to Unreal Engine 5, Bethesda are at pains to describe it as a remaster and not a remake, as they’ve attempted to ensure the ‘original game was there as you remember playing it.’
For those who fully immersed themselves in the original, there’s much that’s been smoothed and reworked in this new version. If you haven’t played it before though the game is, naturally, very reminiscent of Skyrim, except with more varied biomes and less dragons. At the time there was really nothing else like it, with predecessor Morrowind being little more than a cult hit, but Oblivion is the game that put The Elder Scrolls on the map.
All of the game’s visual assets have been recreated from the ground up and a huge number of the voices have been re-recorded. Where the 2005 version had to get by with a few exceptionally hard-working voice artists, each of whom played multiple characters, this time many more actors were involved, giving Cyrodiil’s population a more variegated feel.
It’s still unmistakably old school though. Characters’ faces are higher resolution, but most still look either hilarious or mildly disturbing, with eyes far too close together and cartoonishly massive jawlines. They also retain the endearing habit of introducing themselves to you with first and last names, even when you’re unlikely ever to see or speak to them again.
The HUD’s compass has been moved to the top of the screen and now presents you with considerably more information about points of interest in your vicinity. Health and magicka bars are larger and clearer, and it’s easy to forget that Oblivion didn’t have a sprint button, forcing you to explore its colossal landmass at walking pace. That’s now changed, giving you further incentive to upgrade your stamina so you can run for longer.
Despite its upgraded visuals, you would never mistake its landscapes for sophisticated modern open worlds like Assassin’s Creed Shadows or Dragon’s Dogma 2. Its trees and foliage might look sparse by today’s standards, but it remains a great place to explore, its undulating hills punctuated by frequent dungeons – each of which has its own character, enemies, and backstory.
It’s perhaps Oblivion’s greatest strength that the best way to play it is to ignore your starter quest, to deliver Emperor Septim’s sacred amulet to his last surviving heir, and simply head off into the wilds to seek your fortune. The benefit of slightly fewer trees, and hills that are rarely as steep as Skyrim’s, is that traversal is easy. You can see something interesting in the distance and investigate or just follow the road and see where it takes you.
The serendipity of finding a door in a hillside, that leads you into a vast series of underground chambers and corridors, many of which contain enemies and loot, never seems to get old. As you enter you have no idea what you’re going to find. Will it be a few interconnected rooms or an apparently endless labyrinth? Will you be fighting bandits, necromancers, or vampires?
By the time Bethesda made Skyrim, they’d learned to make dungeons effectively circular, so the final room would often lead back to the entrance via a previously locked one-way door. In Oblivion you still normally find yourself retracing your steps past a mob of recently looted corpses to get back out into the fresh air.
There remains an inspiring variety of things to do in Oblivion. You can join the Mages, Fighters, and Thieves Guilds; you can tray and find the Dark Brotherhood; or you can get involved in the business of the region’s towns and cities. Plenty of these need your help getting rid of Oblivion gates: hellish portals to a fiery netherworld that spew out monsters until you seal them by finding and removing their sigil stones. The remaster also includes previously paid-for expansions, Knights Of The Nine and Shivering Isles, so there’s an abundance of quite varied stories to play through.
You’ll still find plenty of the quirks you’d expect in a Bethesda role-player though. Along with the catalogue of boss-eyed freaks that comprise its townsfolk, you’ll discover that horse riding can produce some fairly outlandish moments of in-game physics. You’ll also still be spending a large amount of your time fiddling about with menus and inventory management. It’s a reminder that this is a role-playing game, which traditionally used to require pencils, paper, and a lot of looking things up in large hardback rulebooks.
Whether or not its idiosyncrasies trigger nostalgia for you, Oblivion is still a powerfully involving game. Its system of levelling up may have been rationalised, scrapping the limitations and peculiar complexity of the original, but there are still dozens of skills to improve as you play, along with your character’s base stats to upgrade as you gain levels; while specialisation in alchemy and spell creation can still create character builds that are awesomely powerful.
It may be fairly clunky by today’s standards and, although improved, its first person melee combat remains primitive, but the sense of scale and immersion are just as spectacular in the modern era. It’s a massive living world to explore and while it most certainly is a remaster, not a full remake, its simplicity in some areas can definitely been seen as a positive.
Despite its importance on release Oblivion has been largely forgotten in recent years but this remaster proves that The Elder Scrolls is more than just Skyrim.
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered review summary
In Short: An excellent remaster that preserves the original’s eccentricities and old school character, while instituting a complete graphical overhaul and adding a suite of modern conveniences.
Pros: The same joyous sense of exploration and discovery as the original and impressive upgrade in visuals, sound, and combat. Contains both pieces of previously paid-for DLC and almost no bugs.
Cons: Characters’ faces are still deeply odd looking. Controls and menu management are clumsy by modern standards, and not everyone will appreciate the resolutely old school approach.
Score: 8/10
Formats: Xbox Series X/S* (reviewed), PlayStation 5, and PC*
Price: £49.99
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Virtuos and Bethesda Game Studios
Release Date: 22nd April 2025
Age Rating: 18
*available on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass from day one
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