In an unsurprising yet welcome turn of events, Bethesda has revealed to the fans the new Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remake. Now the secrets are not secrets anymore, as the live reveal of the Oblivion Remake clarified all the doubts about what the game will be like. Putting the best news forward, the game is now up for sale- all of a sudden? Yeah, I know, but who’s complaining? If you’re excited, then you can grab the game now, but before you do that, here are some things we’ve learned about what players can expect from the game.
Visual and Character Overhaul
As stated in our previous article on the rumours surrounding the Oblivion remake, we had posed several questions about what the remake will be like and how they will tackle the problems of old. Firstly, when it comes to the overall graphics, it was made pretty evident from the leaks that the game has received a major lift. What we can say for sure now is that to make this possible, the Unreal Engine 5 was used to make this happen.
However, a new engine does not mean a completely different game, as Alex Murphy from Virtuos stated in the video that “they’re (trying) to preserve the magic of the original experience”. This statement seems to be one of the most important philosophies behind the remake, as we will come to see.
Finding a Middle Ground
One of the biggest questions in our minds was how they would translate the characters of Oblivion into the new remake. Well, it seems like Bethesda and Virtuos chose the middle ground between keeping things the same and or evolve on the formula that Elder Scrolls Skyrim had set. The characters in the remake look to carry the design philosophy of its predecessor while providing valuable overhauls that make the races more realistic. The best example of this would be the Argonians, who were in Oblivion and had a flamboyant aesthetic to them and were overall difficult to be called a reptilian race.
The remake seems to have taken notes from Skyrim and turned them into more grounded and less vibrant dragon-esque creatures, which makes them more realistic than before. The same can be said for the other races, who also receive a more realistic design, keeping their Oblivion design philosophy intact and doing justice to them.
Combat and Animation Overhaul
The combat has received a small upgrade, as have the animations. The reason I say “small upgrade” is due to the remake retaining the same flow of combat that was seen before, only now, it has turned more immersive with added combat sounds like clashing of swords against shields, smoother combat animations, and most of all, the enemies react to being hit. The movement animations have had their awkward movements replaced by smoother ones and have even been added to dialogues while speaking with other NPCs, who provide impressive reactions to the player’s dialogues.
Speaking of dialogues, the developers have made the right decision to retain the old voiceovers, which I have to say are very iconic. They have, however, tinkered with new dialogues and voice effects for the separate races, giving each of them their unique ways.
DLCs and Other Small Upgrades
The other things that have to be mentioned are, first, all the expansions of Oblivion will be available for the remake, like the Shimmering Isles DLC. Sprinting, too has been included in the game as a nice quality of life feature, though if you were to ask me, the animations for it seem very weird. The minigames, such as lockpicking and the persuasion mini-game, are also making a nice comeback. Overall, the remake seems to do justice to its older counterpart and seems to find the middle ground between helping old fans relive their nostalgia while encouraging new players to give an old but classic game a try.
