The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remasteredis undoubtedly a better game than the original. It offers not only vast visual improvements, but gameplay ones too. From sprinting to actual sound effects in battle, there are a lot of minor and major tweaks that have been made to improve the overall experience and make it more palatable for a modern audience. In every sense of the word,Oblivion Remasteredis a AAA modern RPG that fits right in alongside the likes ofAvowedandDragon Age: The Veilguard- it is better than the latter.
However, for all its strengths - most of which have madeOblivion Remasteredone of themost successful remakesin a long time - there is a major flaw with it that I can’t seem to overlook.Oblivion Remastered’senhanced visuals are the main talking point of this remaster, enough to make players believe it is a full-blown remake. However, as much as I do agree that they look phenomenal,Oblivion Remastered’svisuals actually ruin a lot of what made the original experience look and feel so incredible in the first place.
Oblivion Remastered Overhauls The Original’s Visuals
It Has Been Remade In Unreal Engine 5
Oblivion Remasteredis considered a remaster, but it doesn’t look like one.Every single asset from the original game was rebuilt from the ground up in the ever photorealistic Unreal Engine 5, with the developers boasting that each object is packed with polygons, allowing them to be more detailed and realistic than ever. It is absolutely a night and day difference, with fans not even needing a side-by-side to tell just how farOblivion Remasteredhas taken the visual upgrade. Even if Bethesda won’t call it one,Oblivion Remasteredis a remake, or, at the very least, looks like one.
In many ways, this visual upgrade doesn’t get in the way ofThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’sstyle. That game, while it has certainly aged poorly, had a certain ethereal, surreal, and whimsical look, and, at least in certain aspects,Oblivion Remasteredrespects that. This can be seen the best inOblivion Remastered’smost bizarre feature, its character models.Rather than changingOblivion’smemeable character designs toSkyrim’smore traditional look, Virtuos and Bethesda kept the look intactwhile increasing the amount of detail and making it slightly more aesthetically pleasing.
I had hoped that the same could be said about the rest ofOblivion Remastered’svisuals, but I’m not convinced that is the case. While the developers did a phenomenal job at retaining a lot ofOblivion’soriginal quirks, the things that made it such an iconic experience in the first place, they almost went too far with the visuals, and made it look too good. As a result,Oblivion Remastered, at least in my opinion, looks significantly worse than the originalElder Scrolls IV: Oblivionas it is entirely lacking in style.
Oblivion Remastered’s Visuals Are Inferior To The Original’s
They’re Significantly More Generic
Oblivion Remastered’sbiggest changeis its visuals, and, as such, I had hoped that they wouldn’t get in the way of my enjoyment. However, rather than simply upgrading what was already there, like with the character models, the use of Unreal Engine 5 makes everything look painfully generic.All of the vibrant colors and lush forests that made Cyrodiil such a beautiful world to explore - and helped to better contrast against the harsh Oblivion worlds - have been washed outin favor of muted colors and bland environmental design.
The ethereal bloom that gave the original game its high-fantasy aesthetic has gone completely in favor of a greater draw distance that only serves to illustrate just how generic much of Cyrodiil appears now. This is certainly lessened when players enter cities or dungeons, with every interior looking incredible and just as I remember it from the original. Cities look great too, with a greater density of detail, making them feel far more lived-in and impressive as a result. Unfortunately,as soon as you return to the open world, it feels completely barren.
I can only hope that this is something that can be fixed withfutureOblivion Remasteredmod support, although it seems unlikely that players will mod the game to look worse. It is hard to identify what makesOblivion Remastered’sinterpretation of Cyrodiil look so bad - beyond the aforementioned switch in color palette - but I think it is the absence of whimsy.Oblivion Remasteredisn’t lacking assets from the original game, nor has it misplaced any.It just doesn’t have the same atmosphere, tone, and vibeas a result of this visual change.
There’s something deeply wrong about this clean, highly detailed, and photorealistic version of Cyrodiil.
I think for newcomers, this change will look appealing, certainly more so than the original. But for someone like me, who has sunk hundreds, if not thousands, of hours intoOblivion,there’s something deeply wrong about this clean, highly detailed, and photorealistic version of Cyrodiil. It reminds me of whenpeople modSkyrimto be full of trees and grass and look hyperrealistic, thus completely missing the point of why Skyrim is full of such barren, cold, and harsh landscapes in the first place. Sure, it looks graphically better, but it misunderstands the original intent.
Bethesda Shouldn’t Use UE5 For The Elder Scrolls 6
It Doesn’t Suit This Universe
It is easy to look atOblivion Remasteredand think thatThe Elder Scrolls VIshould look the same, or even better. It doesn’t feel like visuals as good asOblivion Remastered’sare currently achievable in Bethesda’s extremely outdated Creation Engine. So, one might assume they’ll switch to Unreal Engine 5, just likeHalo Studios has donefor its next game. However, this would absolutely be a mistake, if only for the fact that it completely robsTES6of any potential identity it may have.
Unreal Engine 5 games definitely look good - although they consistently perform horribly - but they, more often than not, look the same. That’s not to say there aren’t stylish UE5 games; in fact, the opposite is true. However,a lot of AAA developers use Unreal Engine 5 to achieve a more realistic effect, and, in doing so, end up with similar-looking games. Without a sense of identity, UE5 games tend to merge together as dark, often muted, photorealistic experiences. That can’t be the case withThe Elder Scrolls 6.
As great as it would be to haveTES6be Bethesda’s best-looking game, I’d much rather it looked like the originalOblivionthanOblivion Remastered. If Bethesda does end up utilizing UE5, even for a bit ofTES6’sdesign, then it should go more in the direction of games likeAvowed, which, while still skewing more towards the generic fantasy side, has managed to breathe a unique creativity into its world. Bethesda has an opportunity to do something special withTES6, so I hope it doesn’t mess it up and make it look as generic asOblivion Remastered.
