Fans have been waiting for a long time for Elder Scrolls VI, but Bethesda decided to knock everyone’s socks off with their release of the remastered Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.
The game had come out back in 2006, and though I personally didn’t get to check that out when I was a kid, I think that it could be the game that finally gets me to try out Elder Scrolls.
Oblivion to Skyrim
For many people, Oblivion was actually their first foray into open-world fantasy adventures, and it was the positive reception of Oblivion that built up so much hype for the release of Skyrim when it was announced. I mean, I never even played Oblivion, but you can feel the excitement of everyone online that the release of Elder Scrolls V was a big deal.
That being said, even when Skyrim finally released, I just never really got into it. Sure, my friends would all gush about the different races and builds they were able to come up with, but I was more of a simple narrative enjoyer like with the Arkham games and The Last of Us.
Lord Knows I Tried
If anything, it felt like there was a lot of pressure to really get into Skyrim, and I started a game multiple times just trying to get into it. Probably the most I’ve gotten immersed with the world is through Unarmed Badass Viking Commentary videos by Youtuber Robbaz:
But enjoying the game forever eluded me, and I pretty much boiled it down to myself not being a fan of open-world games. I mean, I already spend most of my time just trying to get my own life together, and this massive fantasy world is demanding that I take the responsibility of being the Dragonborn? No thanks, I have laundry to fold.
Can The Remaster be a Good Entry Point?
Since then I have always kept Elder Scrolls at an arm’s length, but it wasn’t any mystery to me that the franchise was huge, and when Elder Scrolls VI was announced, I did find myself excited alongside everyone else who was getting hyped for the game.
While I waited for more updates though, Bethesda decided to pull the rug from everyone else and shadow-drop their remake of Oblivion. Just looking at the graphical comparisons, the upgrade with Unreal Engine looks phenomenal, and with modern remasters, you know that the developers over at Virtuos had to add a few more tweaks to the gameplay and UI just to bring Oblivion here to modern times.
So far, a lot of the reactions have been overwhelmingly leaning on nostalgia; and you can honestly get emotionally swept up in the developer reveal as the crew members of Bethesda talk about how important the game was to them and how it fueled their passion for game design.
With that in mind, maybe Oblivion could be the right time to try and get into Elder Scrolls (again). Each Elder Scrolls title is designed to be a jumping off point for newcomers, and the continent of Tamriel is large enough to get yourself lost in adventures in just one location.
Since the Remaster includes all the expansions that were added to Oblivion since it released, some analyze that the $49.99 price tag is promising over 500 hours of playable content—not something that could be said for several modern games that are coming out soon.
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Remastered is now available for Xbox Series X|S, PC, and PS5.