The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Review Summary

Stunning Visuals and Graphics: The game is widely praised for its gorgeous and visually stunning graphics. Players appreciate the detailed environments, breathtaking visuals, and overall graphical improvements that make the game almost perfect.

Improved Mechanics and Gameplay: The remaster includes significant improvements in mechanics, combat, and animations. Players note the smoother performance, enhanced lighting, and updated animations that contribute to a better gameplay experience.

Engaging Story and Quests: The game features an amazing and compelling storyline with interesting stories and excellent narrative. Players enjoy the engaging quests and side stories, particularly those involving the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild.

Faithful to the Original: The remaster retains the charm, atmosphere, and mechanics of the original game. Players appreciate that it feels like the world they know and love but with modern updates.

Improved Leveling System: The new leveling system is highlighted as a significant improvement, making grinding less of a headache and overall more enjoyable. Players appreciate the overhauls and improvements to the leveling mechanics.

Frequent crashes: The game experiences frequent crashes, including black screen crashes, crashes during load, and crashes to desktop. These crashes occur frequently and can happen within minutes of gameplay.

Numerous bugs: The game is plagued by a variety of bugs, including game-breaking bugs, old bugs that remain unpatched, and new bugs introduced in updates. These bugs can cause significant issues and frustrations during gameplay.

Severe performance issues: The game suffers from significant performance problems, including extreme stuttering, poor frame rates, and terrible optimization. Players report that the game runs horribly and fails to run smoothly, making it unplayable for some.

Lack of mod support: The game lacks official mod support, making it difficult for players to mod the game for optimal gameplay. This lack of support can limit the game's playability and stability.

NPC behavior issues: NPCs in the game often act oddly, with issues including freezing, not following scripts, and repetitive dialogue. These behaviors can detract from the overall gameplay experience.

Open world gameplay emphasized: The game features an expansive open world with various locations, characters, and dungeons. Players appreciate the freedom and quest-driven gameplay.

Graphical improvements in remaster: The remastered version includes updated visuals and graphical improvements, enhancing the overall visual style of the game.

Balanced and rewarding progression: The progression system is seen as balanced and rewarding, though there are mentions of it feeling dumbed-down. Players feel that character progression is earned.

Content-rich quests and storylines: The game offers captivating main storylines and quests, along with engaging side stories that provide a lot of content for players.

Combat mechanics improvements needed: The combat system is a focal point, with mentions of both improvements and criticisms. Players note the importance of spacing and momentum but also describe it as outdated.

Frequent crashes reported: Players report frequent crashes during gameplay, including black screen crashes and GPU crash errors. This issue is widespread and affects various configurations.

Performance issues on various hardware: The game experiences performance issues across different hardware setups, including modest and lower-end PCs. This suggests a lack of optimization for a range of hardware specifications.

Terrible optimization: Players express dissatisfaction with the game's optimization, describing it as terrible even on the lowest settings. This indicates significant performance problems regardless of hardware capabilities.

Stuttering and low FPS: Frequent stuttering and low FPS are common issues reported by players. These problems contribute to a poor gaming experience and suggest performance optimization is needed.

Graphical and display issues: Players encounter various graphical problems, including visual glitches and refresh rate issues. These display issues affect the overall visual quality and gameplay experience.

Recommended for Skyrim and RPG fans: This game is highly recommended for fans of Skyrim and the RPG genre. Players who enjoyed Skyrim and other open-world RPGs are likely to appreciate this game as well.

Ideal for RPG enthusiasts: This game is highly recommended for those who enjoy the RPG genre. It is suggested for both newcomers to RPGs and those looking for a different RPG experience.

Suitable for new and veteran players: The game is recommended for both new players and veterans. It is seen as a good gift for those who haven't played before as well as for experienced players.

Consider playing Oblivion instead: Some players suggest that it might be better to play the original Oblivion or wait for a mod like Skyblivion. The original game is still considered great after all these years.

Worth purchasing on sale: The game is recommended if it is on sale. Players suggest waiting for a sale to make the purchase more worthwhile.

Community fair range: $20.00 - $40.00.

Game completion: 93.0h.

Session length: 2.0h.

The game initially presents challenges and friction points, particularly with combat and progression systems, but becomes more enjoyable once players adapt and overcome these early obstacles. However, repetitive quests and combat can lead to tedium over time.

Reported time to anchor: 2h.

Friction: Combat mechanics initially challenging; Early game progression issues; Repetitive quests and combat.

Unlock drivers: Smart tweaks to reduce early game friction; Changes to progression systems.

Critical Veteran: Critical and comparative, focusing on performance and value for money. Motivation: To experience a well-optimized and improved version of a classic game. Stance: no buy.

Newcomer Explorer: Exploratory and forgiving, focusing on the positive aspects of the game. Motivation: To experience a classic game with modern improvements. Stance: sale.

Nostalgic Veteran: Nostalgic and appreciative, focusing on the faithfulness to the original game. Motivation: To relive the nostalgia and experience the classic game with improved graphics. Stance: buy.

Performance varies significantly across hardware cohorts, with higher-end systems generally reporting better experiences but still facing notable issues. Lower-end hardware struggles with stability and frame rates, often requiring compromises in graphical settings.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: negative. Users report frequent crashes, stutters, and instability, even with high-end configurations.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: negative. Performance issues dominate, with many users experiencing crashes and low frame rates.

Windows <8GB VRAM / 16-31GB RAM: negative. Struggles with low frame rates and frequent crashes, making the game often unplayable.

Steam Deck: The game suffers from significant performance and stability issues, particularly on the Steam Deck. Users report frequent crashes, poor optimization, and issues with cloud saves. The game's Steam Deck verification is questioned, and many users find it necessary to use mods or tweaks to improve performance. Graphical issues are also noted, with users often needing to rely on upscaling technologies like DLSS or FSR.

Linux and Proton: The game generally runs well on Linux with positive feedback from many users. However, there are notable issues with save file compatibility between Windows and Linux, and some users report significant performance and stability problems. Overall, the game is playable on Linux with some minor tweaks and considerations.

Monetization: The analysis of user reviews for the game reveals significant dissatisfaction with the pricing strategy, both for the base game and additional DLC content. Many users feel that the remaster is overpriced, especially considering it is a 20-year-old game. The Horse Armor DLC is particularly mentioned as overpriced and not offering sufficient value. Additionally, there is a strong perception of greed and a 'cash grab' mentality from the developers, which is tied to both the high pricing and the perceived lack of effort in the remaster. Technical issues and lack of updates further exacerbate these concerns.

Mod reliance: The analysis of user feedback reveals significant reliance on community fixes and mods to address performance issues, bugs, and overall playability of the game. While some users mention mandatory mods, many of these are preferences rather than necessities. The consensus indicates that the game has notable performance and bug issues that require community patches, but it does not reach the level of being unplayable without mods.

External guides: The user feedback highlights several critical issues impacting the overall experience. The most severe problems include progression-halting bugs, significant performance and optimization issues, and crashes related to alt-tabbing. Additionally, users have reported complex mechanics that require external resources to understand, and technical issues with multi-monitor setups. These issues collectively contribute to a frustrating and less enjoyable gaming experience.

Detailed hardware specifications: Players appreciate the detailed hardware specifications and settings provided, which help in optimizing the game.

Day one microtransactions: Criticism regarding a $10 microtransaction available on the first day for a remastered single-player game.

Chinese localization issues: The Chinese localization has some rough translations, which may affect the gaming experience for Chinese-speaking players.

Convenient inventory sorting: Players find the inventory sorting by pinyin convenient, enhancing the user experience.

Rewards for 2025 nomination: Players are discussing or anticipating rewards related to a nomination in 2025.