Summary
- Players only have one complaint about Oblivion Remastered: the goofy sprinting animation.
- While some people don’t like it, others think a weird run adds to the whimsy of Oblivion.
- The game’s main critique being a strange sprinting animation is a good sign.
After months (arguably years) of speculation and leaks, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered was suddenly released during a reveal stream from Bethesda.
Naturally, players immediately flocked to Cyrodill to relive the moments they experienced nineteen years ago, or perhaps to see what all the fuss was about. The remaster has had the second-biggest launch this year of single-player games on Steam, peaking at over 180,000 concurrent players on the platform.
The reception to Oblivion Remastered has been largely positive. Players have praised the new visuals and character models, among other aspects of the game. Virtuos has tweaked several features of Oblivion Remastered, such as character locomotion and certain user interface elements. The former includes a new input for sprinting, which isn’t present in the original game.
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If you play exclusively in first-person, you won’t notice anything is amiss as your character moves faster with the associated motion blur you’d expect from a contemporary sprint animation. However, if you switch to third-person and observe the sprinting animation, you may be surprised by how goofy it looks. The character leans forward and throws their hands back with every stride like they’re Usain Bolt trying to break a world record.
“Everything is awesome, except for this sprinting animation. Goofiest animation I have ever seen in my life,” writes Kotor3please in a Reddit thread. “It’s so derpy that I don’t even use it in third-person, I just can’t take it seriously at all,” writes doomedgaming, in a different thread on the subject.
Not everyone disapproves of the animation, even though it’s objectively quite strange: “Bro, I love it. Looks like you’re trying to haul ass,” comments ChapterOne9778. The animation has drawn comparisons to the sprinting animation in Dragon’s Dogma 2, which has a similar sort of intense dash animation.
Oblivion is a game full of whimsy and general jank, so a strange running animation doesn’t feel out of place, even though it’s jarring to look at. Oblivion has never had realistic animations. Take jumping, for instance. Your character can effortlessly shift their momentum in midair several times, an impossible feat for most, but the Hero of Kvatch can manage it at level one acrobatics.
The fact that an erratic sprinting animation is the biggest complaint is a very good sign for Oblivion Remastered, which appears to have captured the hearts and minds of players once more, nineteen years after the original release.
Oblivion Remastered is available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC.