The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is Bethesda’s 2025 return to the 2006 classic, rebuilding its world in Unreal Engine 5 while keeping the old game intact underneath. The result is the same Cyrodiil as ever, only rendered with modern lighting, richer detail and a welcome sprint.
The overhaul is the headline achievement, and the praise is effusive for how good the weapons, armour and landscapes now look. The recurring visual gripe is the volumetric fog, which remains the biggest complaint across the whole run.
Sprinting, reworked combat animations and the sight of NPCs actually running make the old world feel livelier and far more urgent in its big battles. Ghosting fixes and a host of small details are singled out as genuine improvements to the foundations.
The remaster brings its own fresh problems, with crashes that track performance dips and at least one frightening save scare along the way. A broken statue fight in the Thieves Guild finale sees a quest ruined by animations that never play.
The breadth is enormous, with 250 quests spanning every guild, both expansions and all fifteen Daedric shrines. The downside is the formulaic Oblivion gates, which are admitted to be pure padding once the first has been seen.
The main quest delivers the epic set-pieces, from the great gate battle at Bruma to the finale in the burning Imperial City. Shivering Isles is the pick of the content, though its side quests sink into fetch and collection chores.
Overall, the remaster dresses a beloved 2006 game in a phenomenal coat of paint, and the run was an absolute blast from start to finish. The fog, the crashes and the repetitive gates hold it back, but what a game this remains.