Oblivion Remake 1

Look, we're sick of writing about the rumours and you're probably sick of reading about them, but with the seemingly inevitable announcement incoming, we wanted to take a step back and ask: what it is that we actually want from the Oblivion remake?

Originally released for the Xbox 360 and PC all the way back in 2006 — and ported to the PS3 in 2007 — The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion was a landmark title at the time, ushering in an entirely new standard for fantastical open world adventures.

However, time has not been especially kind to Bethesda's trendsetter. Almost 20 years later, and it's an incredibly janky, utterly unbalanced adventure that's very hard to properly appreciate without a sense of nostalgia at your back.

But we suppose that's the appeal of this supposed remake. Certain elements of Oblivion have definitely retained their charm — it still has moments of brilliance that are worth experiencing — but the surrounding package makes for a hard sell.

And so our first port of call is...

The Obvious Graphical Overhaul

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Better visuals form the basis of every remake, and Oblivion could certainly do with a facelift. Again, graphics were an area where the 2006 release impressed; the open world setting of Cyrodiil captured imaginations with its rolling green hills and rugged mountains, further enhanced by a lush day and night cycle, alongside a dynamic weather system.

Granted, the rubbery character models were questionable even back then, but there was a magic to Oblivion's portrayal of high fantasy — especially when it came to the cities and the countryside that they nestled within.

Going by the rumours, this remake's been built from the ground up using Unreal Engine 5, so we're expecting a massive leap forwards in terms of graphical fidelity. We would assume that it'll repurpose the original's topography all across the map — it's just that the new landscapes will be sculpted using totally fresh, current-gen assets.

On top of that, lighting engines and weather systems have come a long, long way in the last two decades, and so the remake won't have to rely on an intoxicating amount of bloom to bring some level of depth to its visuals.

Overall, though, it's difficult to predict just how good the remake will look — it really all depends on how far it strays from the original with regards to art direction. A ground-up rebuild doesn't necessarily mean that it's been remade under a new creative vision.

The Gameplay Conundrum

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As alluded, Oblivion is a seriously unbalanced, weirdly structured RPG when it comes to progression — and so we can't help but think that the remake needs to perform some significant surgery on the game's underlying mechanics.

Dotted around the web, we've seen calls for a similar levelling system to Skyrim — and honestly, that doesn't seem like a bad idea. While Skyrim's character progression isn't without issue, Bethesda struck gold in the sense that the whole system is immediately accessible; anyone can play Skyrim and understand how it all fits together.

What we're getting at here is that we don't think the Oblivion remake can coast on providing a graphical overhaul alone. Yes, Oblivion's wonky, borderline broken systems can be entertaining in their own right — remember the acrobatics skill? — but they need to be left in the past if this remake's going to stand on its own two feet.

And that logic applies to combat as well — perhaps even more so. Fights in Oblivion largely boil down to spamming attacks (that get faster and faster based on your skill levels) and occasionally chugging a healing potion. You could argue Skyrim isn't much better, but at least it feels like you're actually swinging a weapon in that one.

Gameplay adjustments are where remakes can really sh*t the bed, so we do feel as though caution is paramount when considering any drastic changes. But at the same time, it's tough to imagine Oblivion's action being readily accepted here in 2025.

The Frankly Iconic Voice Acting

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Over recent years, Oblivion has enjoyed something of a resurgence through the power of internet memes, and a lot of its funniest, most bizarre moments are derived from the game's now iconic voice acting.

Infamously, the vast majority of Oblivion's NPCs are voiced by about eight people, while two key story roles were handed to Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean. Generally speaking, it's rough by today's voice acting standards, but there's also no denying the charm of certain characters — like the perfectly cheesy Dark Brotherhood assassin, Lucien Lachance.

The question, then, is whether the original voice lines should be preserved. There's a lot of dialogue to rerecord if we're going down that route, and would Oblivion really be Oblivion without the cast members that contributed so much to the adventure's unmistakable atmosphere? We're surprisingly torn on this particular topic.

Once again, this decision's going to hinge on the overarching scope of the remake.

Now that we've gotten our own ponderings out of the way, we want you to share your thoughts (and potential concerns) on the rumoured Oblivion remake. Have your say in our polls, and then explain yourself in the comments section below.

What do you want most from the Oblivion remake?
Would you keep the original voice acting in the Oblivion remake?
Would you be satisfied if the Oblivion remake is basically just Skyrim, mechanically speaking?