Summary
For better or for worse,Oblivion Remasteredhas everyone experiencing the sometimes strange idiosyncrasies of the fourth Elder Scrolls instalment.
One of the peculiar aspects of Oblivion is the sheer commitment to level scaling. Everything in Oblivion scales with the player’s level: loot, the equipment of enemies and the enemies themselves. Everything is trivial for a level one character, but the game ramps up as you level up. It’s not an inherently bad system, but Oblivion and, consequently, Oblivion Remastered occasionally overdoes it.
One example is the quest The Killing Field, wherewe’ve seen reportsof Oblivion Remastered players struggling against unending, unstoppable hordes of goblins. Those Odiil boys never stood a chance, did they?
The Massacre at Kvatch
Another quest that becomes ridiculously difficult as you scale is Breaking the Siege of Kvatch. At levels one to seven, you’re mostly fighting scamps with the occasional clannfear runt thrown in there. This is manageable for the would-be Hero of Kvatch and his merry team of Kvatch and Imperial guardsmen. You romp through Castle Kvatch, dodging fireballs and feeding your weapon delicious scamp flesh.
However, if one were to arrive at Kvatch over level ten or, Talos forbid, level fifteen, then the so-called Siege of Kvatch is a completely different tale. Sweet_Hold5332 gave their account of the battle in arecent Reddit thread, describing a bitter struggle against armies of daedroth, atronachs and full-sized clannfear.
“I did it at level 15 and it was f**cking miserable,” they write. “There are at least 8 daedroths, 2 flame atronachs, a few scamps and a mountain of clannfears. I drank at least 20-30 healing potions during this. Every piece of equipped armour broke, as well as most of the spares. All my enchanted weapons ran out of charge.”
They also describe how useless the Imperial Guards are, who tend to die in just a couple of hits from enemies this powerful. Playing this quest on an easier difficulty and keeping everyone alive creates a real sense of camaraderie, a real feeling that you’ve won an epic battle against a great evil.
However, above level ten, the whole thing becomes a brutal war of attrition with countless dead guardsmen and even more slain deadra. I can’t bare to repeat the things I saw in that castle, but they didn’t make me feel like a hero. I am merely the Survivor of Kvatch.
