Summary
- Lifelong Skyrim players are finally realising how good Oblivion is because of Oblivion Remastered.
- People experiencing Oblivion for the first time are surprised by how alive Cyrodiil feels.
- Oblivion Remastered is a subversion of modern gaming trends, and it works in its favour.
The Elder Scrolls has always been a series without a clear ‘best’ game. Although Skyrim is undoubtedly the most commercially successful of the lot, there has always been a large cohort of fans who insist Oblivion, Morrowind, or even Daggerfall are the best the series has to offer.
None of these people are wrong, either. Besides the obvious fact that taste is subjective, each instalment of The Elder Scrolls has enough compelling strengths and unique flavour that you can make a case that any one of them is the series’ best game. Except Adventures: Redguard. Nobody likes Adventures: Redguard, Todd.
With the sudden release of Oblivion Remastered, the fourth instalment of the series is once again in the spotlight. As someone who grew up playing Oblivion, I always preferred the semi-intentional quirkiness of Oblivion, especially compared to the more serious tone struck by Skyrim. As it turns out, a lot of other fans feel this way, too.
The Weird and Wacky World of Cyrodiil
In a Reddit thread by Successful_Risk1, the poster makes a lighthearted joke about people finally realising that Oblivion has been better than Skyrim this whole time. Naturally, the comments are full of people expressing why they feel Oblivion is a better game than Skyrim.
“I walked into the first tavern you get to after the Elven ruins and all of the NPCs were right in each other’s faces speaking simultaneously, and it was just so wonderful,” writes Desertterminator.
Oblivion’s non-player characters may be famous for their strange behaviour, but nobody can deny they bring an energy to Cyrodiil that’s hard to find in modern RPGs. Their imperfections are part of what makes Oblivion so interesting to play.
This is one of the reasons why Oblivion Remastered is palatable to modern players, who are accustomed to polished experiences and more realistic characters. Oblivion Remastered is a clever subversion of modern game design with fantastic visuals, the perfect recipe to re-ignite the feeling that we Oblivion players felt nineteen years ago.
“That’s the one and only thing that truly lowers Skyrim from Oblivion in my opinion. We can argue all day about game design and the quest writing and locations and so on, but Oblivion felt alive because of NPC interactions and schedules, which were nerfed in Skyrim,” comments ADackOnJaniels.
There’s no doubt that Skyrim is a fantastic game, but it warms my heart to see Oblivion back in the limelight once more.