Summary
- Oblivion Remastered offers a deeper class system with more customization options for character builds.
- The leveling system in Oblivion is more immersive, with every action contributing to character progression.
- Oblivion's NPCs look better, and monsters are more terrifying, enhancing the overall game experience.
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion was released for the Xbox 360 in 2006, and it quickly became one of the console’s best early RPGs. It had a robust open world, tons of quests and classes, and so much more. Then, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim came out in 2011 and blew away fan expectations.
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Skyrim has also been re-released several times, including a remaster in 2016 and a further enhancement in 2021. Yet, nothing compares to how much time and effort went into The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered when compared to any of Skyrim’s ports. Both games, to be clear, are great, but let's analyze what makes this latest remaster good and why the core Oblivion experience has been better than Skyrim's for years.
6 The Class System
Go Beyond Dragonborn
When players start their campaign in Skyrim, they are given a good assortment of races and character customization options. That didn’t change in the various remasters, as players started as one generic warrior and could branch out from there. Oblivion Remastered, on the other hand, now gives players a lot more customization options for their characters.
There are three categories of classes: Combat, Magic, and Stealth, each with seven sub-categories. Magic users could go for a Battlemage or a Sorcerer, for example. There are also Birthsigns to consider in Oblivion, which can dictate character growth. It could be argued that this is a bit too much choice, as it can be daunting, but some players love having deeper options, a style that harkens back to older Dungeons & Dragons setups; the ultimate RPG experience.
5 A Deeper Leveling System
Everything You Do Matters
In Skyrim, players have to hack and slash away at enemies to earn EXP and level up traditionally. Using some techniques on repeat would level them up individually, too, like magic. Oblivion is almost like a SaGa game from Square Enix, as every action matters more than in Skyrim.
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Running, swimming, blocking attacks, using magic, and everything else help level up their character in Oblivion. When enough random stats increase, the overall level for a character bumps up. When this happens, players must sleep to increase their core stats—again, similar to older Dungeons & Dragons setups—and while tedious, it also adds to the immersion.
4 NPCs Look Better
Good-Bye Monster Creator
To reiterate, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered as a total package looks better than any of the Skyrim remasters. The original releases of both games feature character models that are laughably weird by today’s standards. Their faces looked like melted wax sculptures, and their movements were robotic.
When characters talk in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, it looks more believable, and that is clear right from the get-go if players compare what Emperor Septim looked like in the original game to his animation in the remaster. Of course, players can still make their own hero look monstrous for fun. It’s by no means the best character creator in an RPG visually, but it is a vast improvement.
3 Monsters And Lighting
You’ve Never Been So Afraid Of A Goblin Before
The graphics in Oblivion Remastered have also improved the monsters found within. For example, goblins are one of the most common creatures found in an RPG. They’re easy to model and simple to defeat in combat as they are typically early canon fodder.
In The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, they’re still easy to take down, but they are more frightening to encounter, which is an accomplishment. Goblins have never looked so terrifying in a game before. If one sneaks up on players in a dimly lit cave, it can legitimately produce some screams. Thankfully, they aren’t dripping with gore to make them look more horrifying, like they might in a Resident Evil game.
2 The Guild Quests
And The Quest System Overall
Skyrim was marketed as one of the biggest open-world games at the time. Everyone remembers Todd Howard talking about seeing mountains and being able to climb them, which created some fun memes. It was mesmerizing, but the game also touted nearly endless quests, as there was a quest generation system built within.
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Compared to the original, Oblivion Remastered changes much of the visuals and gameplay – but these differences don't sacrifice the game's soul.
A game with endless quests sounds amazing from a value-for-money point of view but for Skyrim, that didn’t mean the quests were good. Oblivion, on the other hand, offers fewer quests, but they were more memorable because they were made from scratch and often went beyond generic fetch quest RPG fodder. Of the many quest types in the game, fans often think the various Guild quests stand out as some of the best in the series.
1 It’s Not Just Snow
Behold The Oblivion Portals
Skyrim has a very direct influence on its world based on Nordic living. It’s a cozy game to play in the winter because most of the areas in the game are covered in snow, from the fields to the mountains. It was, and still is, unlike most other open-world games out there because of this, and that’s great.
However, those who don’t like snow will have a better time in Oblivion. There’s more diversity in the open-world areas, and this includes the game’s big gimmick around the otherworldly Oblivion gates. If players have visited one, they have visited them all, as they have a generic quality that can get old quickly. Gates aside, Oblivion’s world has a richer appeal and a wider variety of environments that won’t get old any time soon.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 82 /100 Critics Rec: 87%
- Released
- April 22, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Publisher(s)
- Bethesda
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Genre(s)
- Action, RPG, Open-World, Adventure
