Summary
Unsurprisingly,Oblivion Remasteredis a massive commercial success for Bethesda and Virtuos. The remaster is a step above what most people expected during the protracted cycle of leaks and rumours surrounding the game’s eventual release date.
The use of Unreal Engine 5 pasted over Bethesda’s Creation Engine allowed Virtuos to visually upgrade Oblivion, whilekeeping all the beloved quirks of the original. The wondrously unpredictable physics and well-known bugs remain, much to the delight of those revisiting the game after over a decade away.
However, according to players, despite how great Oblivion Remastered is, Virtuos has made a couple of missteps. Although the new levelling system is welcome, players are baffled by the newsprinting animation, as well as the decision tomaintain levelled loot, a feature that was unpopular even in the original.
Hail Sithis
Another change in the remaster that has been attracting ire is the redesign of the Black Door to the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary in Cheydinhal. A user namedAlvaro-Eliteraised this in a Reddit thread, where they compared the aesthetic of the Black Door in the original to the remaster’s iteration.
I, like the original poster, vividly remember descending to the depths of the Abandoned House, navigating the winding hallway and stumbling upon the glowing red door. In the original, the hallway is poorly lit, casting the immediate area around the door in a soft red glow. A terrifying, guttural breathing noise emanates from the door, as if Sithis himself is breathing down my neck, willing me to step forward. “What is the colour of night?” the door breathes, “Sanguine, my brother,” my stifled reply.
Unfortunately, in the remaster, much of this terrifying aura is lost. The reworked lighting system has changed the once-terrifying hallway into a well-lit meander, and the red glow from the door has been removed. The breathing sound is also absent, though it’s unclear why.
“In the remaster, it looks like a meme,” writes Alvaro-Elite. “The area is much brighter, it doesn’t have a sound. It doesn’t have the aura, it has nothing. They’ve ruined what was probably one of the darkest and most terrifying areas ever in an Elder Scrolls game. I’m really disappointed with this, to be honest.”
As highlighted in the comments, there’s also an error in the new door texture. The old door shows the Night Mother sacrificing her five children, a myth proven true by the book The Night Mother’s Truth. The motif of five children runs through the Dark Brotherhood’s mythos. For instance, the Black Hand is made up of five speakers and a listener. The statue of the Lucky Old Lady in Bravil is surrounded by five children, and beneath the statue in the Night Mother’s tomb, there are five child-sized skeletal remains. However, in the new texture, the Night Mother is threatening seven children.
It’s probably an oversight; after all, the original texture isn’t the most elegant. However, the lore-breaking implication of the erroneous texture has irked fans. There’s every chance that Virtuos could adjust this area in the remaster after hearing feedback, but for now, we have four listeners, one speaker and two Gogron gro-Bolmogs.
