All Oblivion Remastered Changes Compared to OG 2006 Oblivion

Elder Scrolls Oblivion IV: Remastered is the same game fans remember from 2006, but a few drastic changes set it apart from the original.

Bethesda took a massive gamble by shadow dropping The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, but the bet paid off. The player count reached an all-time peak of 182,298 on Steam within 12 hours of launching.

That wasn’t the only risk, as Bethesda also entrusted Virtuous to co-develop the game and put a fresh coat of paint on the 18-year-old classic. This included building from the ground up on Unreal Engine 5 and making other changes to make the experience feel more modern without losing the wonky quirkiness fans know and love. Let’s jump right into what design decisions were made.

Every Change Between Oblivion Remastered and OG 2006 Oblivion

Longtime Elder Scrolls series veterans compiled a list on Reddit of every change, including new content, general mechanics, movement, combat, UI, quality-of-life, and visual improvements.

Here is a combination of the list created on Reddit, along with a few other additions mentioned in the official extended look blog.

New Content:

• New voice actors for races that reused voice actors before.
• New quests in the Deluxe edition.
• Clairvoyance spell from Skyrim.

General Mechanics:

• Gender differences in attributes have now moved into a new origin property in character creation.
• Over-encumbrance still allows you to walk, just not run or sprint.
• Leveling: You get experience from minor skills.
• Leveling: You can freely assign skill points on a level up; there is no longer a need to min and max.
• The grab mechanic is now accessible through a single button. It’s a long press of the “take item” button. Also, you no longer grab the item by where you pointed, and the item is now stuck to the cursor instead of being physically forced with inertia.
• Autosaves on any loading screen, not just exterior-interior cell switch.
• Several add-on quests no longer trigger at the start of the game or as soon as you exit the sewers.
• Plants now have a 100% chance to be harvested.
• The Lord sign got completely reworked: You no longer get the unique Blood of the North lesser power and permanent 25% weakness to fire. Instead, you get 15% armor rating and 15% magic resist with no drawbacks.

Movement & Controls:

• You can sprint.
• Updated third-person controls and camera.
• Different player physics: For example, you move slower when going uphill and do not instantly immerse yourself in water.

Combat:

• Combat now includes sound effects, visual effects, and hit reactions.
• Fatigue no longer affects melee damage.
• HP regens when not in combat based on endurance.
• Stagger is not random anymore; you only drop to the ground when blocking with zero stamina.
• Can’t cast spells while blocking.
• Optional auto-aim.
• Sheathing a bound weapon no longer dispels it.
• Difficulty is no longer adjustable and has been replaced with five presets.
• Opening a loot menu while having a bow with an arrow ready to shoot hides the arrow back in the quiver.

UI & HUD:

• Empty containers now feature an empty indicator, similar to Skyrim’s.
• You can now filter locations on the map, choosing specific types (or none at all) to be displayed.
• Improved stealth indication shows you not just whether you are visible now, but also your detection status, slowly opening the eye as you approach being detected.
• There’s an outline around objects you can pick up when you hover over them, showing which one you’re going to pick up.
• Some tutorial messages that used to be pop-ups are now displayed in the corner, not disrupting gameplay.
• In the persuasion minigame, after going through one round (and finding out what that particular NPC prefers), color is used to display the disposition change from doing that action.

QoL:

• Smaller plant pickups have activator volumes, meaning you don’t need to have your pointer directly over the visible 3D geometry of the object. This makes picking ingredients much easier now!
• The compass indicates the distance to the nearest marker.

Visual:

• Overhauled landscapes.
• More detailed character models with improved lip syncing.
• An advanced real-time lighting system simulates how the light interacts with the environment. For example, you can see the light come through the tops of trees accurately.
• Animated plant pickups.
• Players and NPCs can now have beards and mustaches.
• Every eye type is now available for all races in character creation.

Bugfixes:

• The scroll dupe glitch is fixed.
• Paint brushes now have gravity.
• The bug where Mystic Emporium in the Market District became locked during the day if you had the Fighter’s Stronghold add-on has been patched.
• Spell tomes no longer make the sound of the spell when you learn it.

For more information on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, check if the game is coming to Nintendo Switch 2, if it is PS5 Pro Enhanced, and take a look at the complete trophy list.