Summary
- A former Bethesda developer praised the leveling changes made in Oblivion Remastered.
- The dev stated that the 'world scale' feature was a mistake, though this was fixed in Skyrim.
- Oblivion Remastered surpassed four million players in its first three days.
An original Bethesda developer recently commented on the changes made in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, paying particular attention to the alterations made to leveling. The title was shadow dropped less than one week ago, and Oblivion Remastered players have also taken to social media to share their appreciation for the many improvements made to the legendary RPG.
Only three days after its sudden launch, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion surpassed four million players, showing the incredible staying power of Bethesda's flagship RPG franchise. Nostalgia has been a driving factor in the revamped game's success, but the countless improvements made to the nearly 20-year-old release have prompted many players to call the Virtuos-developed title one of the greatest remasters ever made, citing its graphical improvements and gameplay alterations. Fans aren't the only ones shouting the game's praises, with original developers also offering their thoughts on the shadow drop and the contributing factors attributing to its instant success.
Oblivion Remastered Players Are Creating Baldur's Gate 3 Companions in the Game
Talented Oblivion Remastered players online are using the game's character creator to bring Baldur's Gate 3's companions to life.
In a chat with VideoGamer, former Bethesda game developer Bruch Nesmith spoke about the remaster, specifically focusing on the changes made to the game's leveling system. In the original Oblivion, players would be tasked with leveling up their major skills a specific number of times before resting, resulting in a level boost and increasing their attributes. In the same vein as Skyrim, Oblivion Remastered now gives players XP for all skill lines. Unfortunately, the original's "world scale" feature still exists in the remaster, something Nesmith isn't happy about. "I think the world levelling with you was a mistake and that’s proven by the fact it did not happen the same way in Skryim," he said, stating that this may have had a negative impact on the player experience. In Skyrim, Nesmith said, the team came up with a better way to provide a suitable challenge without making players feel like "it doesn’t matter that I went up in levels, the dungeon went up in levels with me."
Original Oblivion Dev Applauds Changes Made to Leveling in the Remaster
While the strength of the enemies in the remaster still scale with the player's level, some members of the community have already developed a fix. Within the first day of its release, Oblivion Remastered had over 200 mods available for download on NexusMods, including one that adds consistent level caps to all NPCs, offering a much-needed solution to the game's scaling problem. Other popular mods improve the game's stability and frame rate on PC, while one useful download unlocks all map markers from the start of the game, allowing for instant fast travel anywhere.
Following the release of Oblivion Remastered, other Elder Scrolls titles have seen player count boosts, with many fans returning to both Morrowind and Skyrim. The community remains hopeful, yet skeptical, that an Elder Scrolls 6 update could come sometime in 2025, though the game will likely not be released until sometime after 2026.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 82 /100 Critics Rec: 87%
- Released
- April 22, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Publisher(s)
- Bethesda
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Genre(s)
- Action, RPG, Open-World, Adventure
