Key Details About the Remake
- Development Studio: Virtuos is developing the remake. Known for supporting major titles like Horizon Forbidden West and more.
- Engine and Technology: The game will use a hybrid engine approach combining Unreal Engine 5 with Bethesda’s original Creation Engine, promising modern enhancements while preserving gameplay mechanics.
- Platforms: Expected on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Likely to be included in Xbox Game Pass at launch due to Microsoft’s ownership of Bethesda.
Relation to Other Projects
- Separate from Skyblivion, a fan-project recreating Oblivion within the Skyrim engine. The lead developer of Skyblivion will continue working on this project regardless of an official remake.
- Multiple insiders have corroborated these rumours, suggesting a significant shift in plans after initial hints during Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
How do you think The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion holds up to other games in the series?
Remakes are a cheaper way to make AAA games but how good it will be depends on whether it aims to remaster the old game or be an actual remake as a modern game.
RPG has moved on a lot since 2006, and Bethesda’s Starfield shows that they haven’t really learnt the lessons. Switcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldurs Gate 3 have all taken RPG forward particularly in a narrative sense. Starfield felt like.old hat and focused on a big empty world.
While I’m sure some people will enjoy an Oblivion remake, it’d really need to push things forward to be worth playing. The Witcher 1 is being remade and they seem to be approaching it as an attempt to bring it up to be more on par with the Witcher 3. That is the kind of approach that would make an Oblivion remake interesting. Not just a port and asset update. So we will need to know the actual details to judge.
But ultimately people just want the next Elder Scrolls game. I just hope they learn the lessons from Starfield.
The problem with Starfield is that it lacks the core essence of what made Bethesda games great. It was a huge open world sandbox in a way, very simulation heavy with NPCs having their own daily schedules & routines, lots of player choices on how to approach things. But they streamlined and got simpler and simpler. Starfield NPCs do the same thing 24/7, some may walk between two spots but most don’t even have a home where they COULD go to after whatever they work at. Dialogs are 90% pointless fluff and got more and more childish and less serious with each game. Speaking of which, the games generally got way more child friendly and less serious. It feels like Star Wars going from the odd humor here and there to one joke to another, which just ruins the whole experience.
CP2077 is a terrible example btw. That game was hot garbage on release and especially the story issues or the lifeless empty world obviously are still there.
At this point I think the greater issue is that fans didn’t learn from Starfield (or FO76, arguably FO4/Skyrim too at least enough for a trend line if you care about the RPG aspect of it). Why would Bethesda ever change course if they continue raking in money? It really seems like people aren’t even waiting for reviews.
I was going to say that it’d be a coin flip on if this actually has the same re-occurring bugs that the UOP fixed, though I see that it’s going to be 3rd-party so that may change the odds a bit.