A hero in new armor: Why Oblivion Remastered inspires – and frustrates at times

The remaster: a classic reimagined with a new look

On April 22, 2025, the time had finally come: around 19 years after the release of the original game, Bethesda, in collaboration with Paris-based developer Virtuos, unleashed a long-awaited remaster of the beloved RPG on a new generation of players. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered stays true to its roots – and that’s very much a good thing. The core elements of the original remain intact, while the visuals and quality-of-life features have been updated to meet modern standards.

The story remains entirely unchanged – with new lines of dialogue and additional voice actors bringing a touch of freshness, all while maintaining the spirit of the original. Worth noting: All original DLCs are included in the remaster – a generous move by Bethesda. Most notably, the two major expansions, Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine, are fully integrated.

The remaster now uses Unreal Engine 5, combined with components of the original Gamebryo engine for physics and core gameplay systems. Technical improvements include the following features:

• DLSS and Frame Generation
• Ray Tracing, dynamic lighting and volumetric fog
• 4K resolution and unlimited FPS

Compared to the original, the remaster offers significantly more detail, richer environments and a much more polished visual presentation. What stood out during our playthrough were the redesigned character models, enhanced facial animations and a noticeably more impactful combat system.

Gameplay changes – what’s new?

While the classic Oblivion feel remains intact, the remaster introduces a range of thoughtful modern improvements. For example, the leveling system has been reworked and is now far more intuitive: players can freely allocate twelve attribute points with each level-up. In the original game, leveling up required increasing specific major skills, a process many players found clunky and unintuitive.

The new sprint function is a welcome addition, allowing players to move much faster through the vast plains and dense forests of Cyrodiil – a true blessing for the impatient. This makes exploration less tedious and gives the game a faster pace overall. The developers have also improved the third-person perspective with updated HUD elements. In the original, the over-the-shoulder camera felt more like a gimmick. Now, the entire game can be played from this view without any gameplay disadvantages.

Combat system: More dynamic and demanding

The combat system has seen major changes: it feels much more modern now, while still retaining its nostalgic charm. The remaster adds a new layer of depth with an active stamina system and improved blocking. Well-timed blocks can stagger enemies and now reduce incoming damage even more effectively. Combat is a bit more challenging, but also noticeably more rewarding. Smashing a Dremora in the face with a war hammer never gets old.

Archery and sneaking have been noticeably improved

Archery and sneaking have also received some upgrades. Bow shots now feel much more satisfying and impactful. In addition to revamped arrow physics that make hits feel more realistic, the remaster also features new hit animations and improved sound feedback. Shooting an arrow into the back of an unsuspecting bandit is simply a joy, especially when it lands from afar with a satisfying thud.

We also found the new stealth mechanics to be a smart and effective upgrade. In the original, sneaking could often be frustrating, as enemies either reacted far too late or in ways that made no sense at all. Now, reactions to both sight and sound are much more consistent and a new sneak indicator provides clear feedback on whether you’ve been detected.

User interface – elegant but hard to navigate

The user interface has been completely redesigned and now looks far more modern. However, we would have liked Bethesda to make it a little more user-friendly. For example, when looting an enemy, you can either press the R key to take all items or click on each one individually with the mouse. It would be more convenient if you could scroll through the enemy’s inventory using a single button. Unfortunately, this can’t be adjusted. In fact, the UI button assignments can't be customized at all, which leaves definite room for improvement here.

The remaster keeps the old flaws intact

As already mentioned, the developers have successfully preserved the spirit of the original – including some of its shortcomings. Old limitations like frequent loading screens and simplistic dungeon design are still present. Enemy level scaling also remains an issue: since enemies level up alongside the player, character progression often feels less rewarding.

The difficulty levels also feel unbalanced. While "Adept" posed little to no challenge, "Expert" quickly became frustrating – and not in a good way. This is because the difference between the modes is purely in damage. At higher difficulty levels, you take more damage while dealing less yourself.

Beautiful, but demanding on hardware

Visually, the remaster is a quantum leap over the original – but it comes with significantly higher system requirements. For our test, we used a system with an RTX 4080 Super, Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 64 GB of RAM, with all graphics settings maxed out. While dungeons ran smoothly, we encountered performance fluctuations during our exploration of the open world, which were primarily noticeable as brief stutters. On average, the frame rate in the open world was around 90 FPS. Without DLSS and Frame Generation, however, the FPS dropped significantly.

Anyone planning to explore the polished version of Tamriel should bring a suitably powerful system – or be prepared to lower the graphics settings significantly. However, bugs are still to be expected. While reports of issues have been circulating on Reddit, our test run was mostly affected by a few crashes and endless loading screens.