Summary
- Oblivion Remastered improves dungeons with the new Clairvoyance spell for easier navigation.
- Clairvoyance provides a faster way out of Dungeons by guiding players to quest locations efficiently.
- The new spell is optional, doesn't provide an advantage, and enhances gameplay without altering the original experience.
Possibly one of the worst-kept secrets of the gaming industry in recent years, this week Bethesda announced and immediately released Oblivion Remastered on the same day. The game is currently considered one of the best cases of remasters in the modern landscape for video games, as it does a massive facelift for the graphics and fluidity of gameplay thanks to Unreal Engine 5, but everything that made Oblivion great is still there. This even includes the jank Oblivion is famous for, such as the additional take for one voiceline and all the memes that made it iconic over time. Yet, one new feature that wasn't in the original makes Oblivion Remastered much less annoying in Dungeons.
Dungeons have become a huge part of The Elder Scrolls games over the years, from being a crucial part of The Elder Scrolls Online to still being a fan-favorite addition in Skyrim. The original Oblivion made them very interesting thanks to large environments and mazes for players to get lost in rather than straightforward areas, but it had a major problem that many other games in the series don't. This is luckily addressed in Oblivion Remastered, but not exactly in the way players may have expected it to.
Oblivion Remastered is Already Available at a Discount
Gamers online can already find The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered at a discount, just days after its release.
Oblivion Remastered's Dungeons Are Dramatically Improved With One New Spell
The Elder Scrolls games before Oblivion did have a way to let players teleport outside a Dungeon after it was completed, but be it for a design decision or other possible concerns, this feature was lacking in the fourth installment of the series. Oblivion Remastered doesn't really feature a way for players to teleport outside Dungeons, but it does address this longtime concern indirectly with the new Clairvoyance spell. This can be used anywhere in the game to guide players to a certain point where their current quest is tracked, but it can also be used as a "trick" to rapidly get out of Dungeons.
By tracking any quest outside the Dungeon, players can then use Oblivion Remastered's new Clairvoyance spell and follow the trail to the tracker, only for it to take them out of the Dungeon on the fastest path available. This is a major improvement over the original because it can be quite time-consuming to backtrack to the entrance of a given area or constantly open the local map, which is not as easily accessible either. As such, Clairvoyance comes in handy not necessarily for its quest-tracking capabilities per se, but because this can effectively be a game-changer for when players just want to go back to the open.
In many games, including Skyrim, Dungeons can often be "looped," in the sense that they end in a spot that can then easily get players back to the start in order to ease progression and make gameplay smoother. Oblivion Remastered takes after the original in this regard, and instead follows the principle of spacious full-fledged areas that sometimes even have their own loading screens between sections. There are some looped Dungeons in Oblivion Remastered, like the original, but they are the minority overall.
Why Clairvoyance is One of Oblivion Remastered's Best Tools
As such, Clairvoyance offers an interesting tool for players to mindlessly get out of Dungeons rather than having to find their way back to the entrance, which is still possible for purists who want to only use things that were available in the original game. Clairvoyance is new, but considering it is entirely optional and only has a small part in the new tutorial section in the sewers, players are in no way forced to use it, nor does it provide any sort of advantage. Oblivion Remastered's quests can still be completed like in the original without ever using Clairvoyance, but this spell does have its uses.
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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
