Now that the remaster is officially here, I thought I'd take some time to revisit my original Oblivion review while I wait for it to download.

Oblivion is my personal favorite game of all time, and the first game in the Elder Scrolls series that I actually sank ridiculous amounts of time into; I have a disc copy that I played before I got the Steam version and I'd estimate I put well over 800 hours into it on that version.


This game is, in my honest opinion, the most beautiful fantasy world ever created. They departed from the alienish landscape present in Morrowind for a more traditional western fantasy setting (at least in the base game). While some may complain about that, I personally loved it. Cyrodiil felt like a paradise on the brink of destruction, which is kind of the premise of the story: in what is arguably the golden age of the Third Empire of Tamriel, the entire empire is threatened when the Emperor and all of his known heirs are assassinated. The world is thrown to the brink of chaos as hordes of chaotic daedra invade, sowing destruction in their wake. The player is tasked with finding an unknown and illegitimate son of the Emperor to restoring him to the throne, for only a sire of the Septim bloodline can relight the Dragonfires and seal off the invasion from Oblivion.

Graphically, despite the game releasing two decades ago, it holds up remarkably well even by today's standards (provided you ignore the potato faces). One of the first games to utilize lighting the way it did, the high levels of bloom and vibrant colors were undoubtedly the aspect that made this game shine (pun intended). If you don't have a problem modding your game, I recommend downloading a mod to upscale the normal maps; avoid outright texture replacements, because the vanilla textures themselves are very stylish and beautiful. You could also grab a water shader mod such as Skyrimized Waters if you want to improve those visuals as well.


Outside of the stunning visuals, this game takes what made Morrowind great, refines those mechanics, and re-adds some aspects that were lost after Daggerfall. The combat is the most noticeable refinement: gone are the dice-rolling attacks that you saw in Morrowind and before. Additionally, the spells aren't a separated form. In other words, you can cast spells without lowering your weapon. The level scaling, however, does have some jank to it that makes it really rough to play the higher your level gets, especially if you're not frequently upgrading your gear.

With the exception of the Fighter's Guild, Oblivion has the best faction quests in any TES game, bar none. The Mage's Guild and Thieves' Guild quests are so insanely memorable, but without a doubt, the Dark Brotherhood story in this game is definitely the best faction quest in any of the TES games, if not the best in any game containing assassin factions. It could have been an entire game in itself, honestly.

Additionally, questing in Oblivion is remarkably memorable thanks to the then-revolutionary RadiantAI system, where NPCs have proper schedules that they follow throughout their day. The stories of all the quests are incredibly well-written and hand-detailed, you'll never forget the majority of the stories in this game! It also doesn't hurt that because of the beauty and storylines, exploring Cyrodiil is a genuine pleasure. I can't really say how many hours I've spent walking the entire way to a quest destination, just so I could take in the sights. The only real caveat is that dungeon design in Oblivion is hit-or-miss. While the visuals of the Ayleid ruins are hauntingly beautiful, Skyrim absolutely has the best dungeon design in the entire series.

Finally, Oblivion has the best post-launch content. From the surreal and rewarding The Shivering Isles to the epic and grandiose Knights of the Nine to the more mundane house DLCs, the amount of content and stories on offer here is genuinely staggering. Shivering Isles could have easily been a standalone expansion if Bethesda so chose, and Knights of the Nine is longer than the majority of the biggest RPG expansions you see today.


Oblivion may not be as refined as Skyrim, as deep as Morrowind or as ambitious as Daggerfall, but it has still captured me significantly more than any of the other Elder Scrolls games have, which is saying a lot. I'll never forget the memories I made of this game and I am beyond thrilled to return to Cyrodiil with the remaster. If your system can't handle the remaster, or if you just don't want to spend $50-$60, the original is still fully worth a purchase. Even if you have the remaster and can run it, buying the original is still worth it since you'll have access to two decades' worth of fantastic mods.

It may not be everyone's perfect game, but to me, it is the epitome of what I love in video games and I wouldn't trade it for anything!