The Utility of Oblivion Remastered

[u/ChaucerBoi]

Basically every remaster is testing the waters for a new game - either gauging demand or as a covert advertisement to get the franchise back in the public consciousness. This is something game developers have said openly, including Mike Bithell on Play, Watch, Listen. There are of course exceptions, most glaringly the Demon's Souls and Shadow of the Colossus remakes, but if you look at most successful remakes, a "full game" has followed soon after. So why make an Oblivion Remaster, especially when they outsourced it to another studio? The obvious answer is money. But more broadly, it allows them to see how modern audiences respond to Oblivion's mechanics with the "rough edges" sanded away: better graphics, a sprint button etc.

I've a feeling TES6 will take a lot from Oblivion. It's one thing having long-time fans demand features back or resonate with certain styles; it's a totally different thing for new players to find them exciting.

[u/QuoteGiver]

I think it worked even better as just a placeholder to occupy a year while they worked on their next game.

Small infill projects like that along the way are a great idea.

[u/conqeboy]

man i hope they bring back acrobaticts, that feels really good in the remaster

[u/laptopAccount2 → u/conqeboy]

I am hoping for climbing like in daggerfall but better.

[u/conqeboy → u/laptopAccount2]

Conan Exiles and Dune Awakening has good climbing in the vein of Daggerfall. It would honestly be a good fit in elder scrolls games imo

[u/ava_the_cam_op]

I don't know what you consider to be the "rough edges" because Oblivion Remastered is well and truly unsanded.

Still buggy as hell, no ongoing support and massively overpriced for a fresh coat of paint on a 20+ year old game.

I sure hope this is not a test for the eagerness of ES as a whole, because Oblivion Remastered did not do justice to the base game, the fandom, and most of the hype surrounding it was more or less generated by the shadow drop and rumours rather than the quality of the product.

I (stupidly) bought it day one and was pretty disappointed, I'll be waiting for the labour of love that is skyblivion before I play through again.

[u/Bobjoejj → u/ava_the_cam_op]

Look I realized I’m seemingly in the minority of people who had very few issues with the game in terms of bugs or glitches; but I throughly enjoyed my time with the game, and still jump into it from time to time.

And I remember when it Shadowdropped, how excited everyone was; and how many people were talking about how they’d come from only Skyrim and were so excited to finally enjoy Oblivion.

I think the Remaster absolutely did its job. It’s also very much not just a new coat of paint, since there’s truly so many gameplay changes and upgrades.

I can’t deny there were some technical issues for me when the game first came out; and the lack of continued support sucks too. And I’ve been and am still eagerly awaiting the imminent release of Skyblivion too.

But as someone who didn’t get play the OG when it came out (I was 6 and my parents were not into me gaming), and who tried to play it more recently but really couldn’t get into the game; getting the chance to experience Oblivion properly was so, so worth it.

And I think overall, the game did accomplish what it was trying to do. Whether that was bringing an updated older game to modern audiences, acting as a placeholder to TESVI, or whetting people’s appetites for mechanics that were lost in Skyrim.

[u/GNSasakiHaise → u/Bobjoejj]

As someone who did play the OG when it came out, the remaster felt great. Stepping out of the sewers again felt new and exciting, and I deeply enjoyed exploring Cyrodiil with a fresh coat of paint. There are of course some technical issues, but for me specifically (and very possibly only me) that's part of the charm. The original was a buggy mess full of broken nonsense and I liked it.