Summary
- Greater dungeon variety is needed, as well as more mindfully crafted dungeons
- An overhaul of the leveling system would prevent min-maxing and tedious attribute increase farming
- Fans want no more overpowered bandits, and so enemy level scaling adjustments would be needed
With the recent leaks of the Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion remake and its release date reportedly falling around June 2025, Elder Scrolls fans are holding their breath for a return to one of the divisive games in the legendary open-world fantasy sandbox series. Rather than a remaster, the Oblivion remake is being rebuilt from the ground up in the Unreal engine, and will likely carry forth significant changes.
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The leak has ostensibly revealed a few details of the expected changes, but after almost two decades of discussion on Oblivion's triumphs and failures, there is wide consensus about what should be kept in an Oblivion remake and what should be reworked.
Greater Dungeon Variety
Delving Beyond Just Caves, Mines, Forts, And Ayleid Ruins
Dungeon-delving is one of Oblivion's central game loops. In other words, stumbling upon an underground gauntlet and raiding it for its treasure is something that players should find themselves doing fairly often.
Unfortunately, there are only around four types in Oblivion, with only a few unique exceptions: mines, caves, Ayleid ruins, and abandoned fort dungeons, and their layouts, too, can seem quite copy-pasted. More variety and mindfully hand-crafted dungeons would be a big improvement.
The Leveling And Progression System
Saving Players From Themselves
When the player levels their character up in Oblivion, their attribute increase is linked to the skills they trained during their journey. Paired with Oblivion's level scaling, this can create a situation where the player is at a high level but has sub-par skills. Many players end up obsessively performing actions that lead to the "perfect" +5 attribute increase or purposely design builds that place favored skills in the minor skill category, rather than major.
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For this, many consider Oblivion's leveling system to be the worst in the series. An easy fix would involve directly tying skill improvement to attribute increases. Levels could be staggered between a certain number of attribute increases, and to the player a reason to use inns and beds, rest could provide a skill leveling bonus (or perhaps regular rest could be a prerequired to level skills in the first place).
Enemy Level Scaling
No More Super-Rich Ebony-Armored Bandits
A classic complaint that has been leveled at Oblivion (but not at Skyrim, which shares this mechanic) is that its leveling system makes the game extremely difficult and immersion-breaking at high levels. After hitting a certain level, the player will start to notice run-of-the-mill bandits strutting around with a crazy amount of hit points and glass or ebony equipment that could set them up for life, if only they had the foresight to pawn it all in.
These bandits start appearing everywhere, even in places the player had visited. The Oblivion remake should take a leaf out of Skyrim's book and level certain enemies and areas selectively, although, unlike Skyrim, dungeons (especially those that have been cleared) should have a chance of repopulating with new, scaled (up or down) enemies.
The Feel Of Combat, Weapons, & HP Sponges
Soaking Up All The Enjoyment
At the time of its release, Oblivion's combat felt visceral, especially compared to that of Morrowind's dice-and-chanced-based implementation. Today, the lack of reaction its NPCs display, floaty melee attacks, and rigid bow draw animations make its combat feel out of date. New technology and animation techniques could easily make animations look and feel lifelike in the Oblivion remake, including those seen during combat. Those weapons that were mysteriously absent (crossbows, melee staves, spears, and throwing weapons) could also make a triumphant return.
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Leaks have suggested that Virtuos will be reworking archery (in both first and third person). The Oblivion remake should also address the fact that increasing difficulty largely came down to increasing an enemy's hit point pool, making them "HP sponges." At the very least, their hit points should be capped. Better still, the difficulty could be scaled in a more nuanced way or expressed through progressively smarter combat AI.
The Persuasion Mini Game
Leaving A Better Impression During Negotiations
Oblivion's attempt at gamifying persuasion very much feels like a first draft and is a blunt reminder to the player that they are playing a video game. Besides ruining immersion, it is completely invalidated by the charm spell, which requires a single button press and has zero consequences for use.
The answer is not to remove the speechcraft skill or a means to improve disposition with NPCs but to replace it with a minigame or system that makes more sense. An abstract representation of player-NPC small talk could still work, but something in line with Starfield's persuasion system would be better, although it would require a lot of new writing and voice acting.
A Lore-Accurate Cyrodiil & Imperial City
Jungle Cyrodiil, The East-West Divide, And The City Of A Thousand Cults
Fans of Morrowind familiar with the lore of the Imperial City and Cyrodiil were confused and disappointed to find that the once-jungled and wild Seat of Sundered Kings had been transformed into a generic imitation of Lord of The Rings' Middle-earth. This major Elder Scrolls retcon will be remembered by very few fans today, and such a wild divergence from the source material is unlikely. However, the possibility of a lore-accurate Cyrodiil is too compelling not to mention. At the very least, the remake could officially restore the missing city, Sutch.
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Radically re-replacing the stereotypical European fantasy landscape with swamps, rainforests, an east-west geo-cultural divide (Colovia and Nibonay), and a bejeweled, thousand-islanded Imperial City brimming with cults and religious diversity, as originally conceived by the Pocket Guide to the Empire, 1st Edition, would be a headline-grabbing and change that would go down in game development history as legendary development. Virtuos, the studio behind the remake, could draw upon their experience remaking Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, as that game also takes place in a jungle.
Large-Scale Battles Should Be Large-Scale
Tamriel's Last Stand Against Otherworldly Demons Should Be More Than A Skirmish
The Elder Scrolls series has always been centered around a lone adventurer, who is occasionally accompanied by faithful companions, and their exploration of the world. Large-scale battles are not what the series is known for. However, there are moments in Oblivion that really call for a conflict of epic proportions.
The Defence of Bruma against the Great Oblivion Gate (or any coordinated confrontation with an Oblivion Gate for that matter) is depicted as fights between a few Daedra and a handful of city guards. With today's technology, a more impressive display is certainly possible, even if that would mean perspective trickery of billboarding.
NPC AI And Presentation
The Meme-Worthy NPCs Will Always Live In The Original
For many fans, the ultimate appeal of The Elder Scrolls 4 lies in the janky, potato-faced NPCs of Cyrodiil's towns, cities, and settlements. Their odd radiant AI, jerky ragdoll physics, and unintentionally hilarious dialogue (delivered between a cast of four or five voice actors) make Oblivion what it is. Perhaps worst of all is the lack of beards on male NPCs.
While it is a buzz-kill to admit, any attempt to remake Oblivion and capture this very specific jank would end in failure. A clean break from the memes and creepy expressions would benefit the remake, and there is no reason that they would have to lose their original bright personality and charm. The original release will always exist (unless Bethesda decides to pull the digital plug), and nothing can take these memories of these glitchy, uncanny actors away from fans.
Inventory UI/UX For Mouse And Keyboard
Or At Least Separate Implementations Between PC And Consoles
As clean and unobtrusive as the UI overlay outside of menus is, the inventory and alchemy crafting UI in Oblivion was obviously designed around consoles, and as such, is a pain to navigate for PC users.
While the "ye olde" style of the UI could remain, with its charming, medievalesque portraits and icons, the navigating of spell and item lists should ideally differ between PC and console, or could at least allow players to customize the layout.
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion remake is reportedly in development and set to release in 2025.
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