When I was a kid, I woke up one Christmas morning to unwrap my very first PS3. It was an exciting step towards games I could have only ever dreamed of, now sitting in the palm of my hands. The console would go on to give me fond memories in LittleBigPlanet’s hand-crafted universe, Skate’s San Vanelona and Port Carverton, and Just Cause 2’s Panau, among many, many others.

But that Christmas morning, I particularly remember The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. I’d never played any of Bethesda’s games before, and had no idea what an ‘Elder Scroll’ even was, but I dove straight in regardless. The classic opening, where you step out of the Imperial sewers and into a vast green expanse, was not only a significant moment in my adventure, but a significant moment for me and my relationship with video games as a whole.

Now, I’m 27 years old, and Oblivion Remastered just gave me that moment all over again.

An Oblivion Gateway Into Fantasy

I’ve been waiting and wishing for an Oblivion remaster or remake for over a decade now, and with each time Skyrim saw the fresh light of day, that desire deepened. I love Skyrim, but there’s something so special about Oblivion, so to see it slip further into the past would always leave me feeling a little sad.

This was also my first true fantasy game. Sure, I’d played games like Harry Potter on the PS1 and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on PS2, but Oblivion let me live out an adventure that was entirely my own. I wasn’t a preset character, there was no concrete way to play or progress, and something especially unique about Oblivion is that we’re not made to be ‘the chosen one’ - we’re tasked with helping the chosen one, instead.

Am I the Dragonborn? No, I’m his bodyguard.

Coming back to Oblivion Remastered, after all these years, is refreshing: almost every game will have you play the role of an important character, and it makes sense - we’re the protagonist, we’re usually the one who will save the world or harness some kind of ancient power. But that only ensures Oblivion remains as special as it’s ever been; we’re entirely unimportant, and any greatness will have to be achieved in a world much bigger than us.

Oblivion Remastered Takes Me Back To The Way I Used To Play Games

Aside from seeing the beauty of Cyrodiil in a stunning new light, I’m also finding myself falling back into the pattern of playing games in the same way I did all those years ago. As a kid - and one entirely new to this scale of video game - I didn’t understand the concept of reloading my save when something went wrong; anything that happened, happened, and there’s a beauty in that I wish I could bring myself to replicate nowadays.

Instead, I all too often reload saves to get the result I want, and I’ve realised how much that can actually change the experience of a game. But back when I first played Oblivion, that wasn’t the case.

Seriously, I feel like I’m going to wake up and Oblivion Remastered was just a dream.

When I was a kid, my horse in Oblivion died somewhere in the northern mountains. I don’t remember how, but it was devastating. However, reloading an earlier save wasn’t something that even crossed my mind. Instead, I grabbed some cloth from my inventory to lay on the horse, and placed lit torches on either side of it, creating a sort of funeral for my trusty steed before I pressed on through the harsh weather on foot.

I always kept this innocent memory in my mind, and it’s one of the first things I think about when I recall my experience with Oblivion. As my new adventure through Oblivion Remastered began, now that I have almost 20 years of life between then and now, this memory was at the forefront of my mind. To that end, I’m staying true to that mindset - what happens, happens, and I want to let Cyrodiil once again engross me in its fantasy, through the good and the bad.

As the portals to Oblivion opened, so did a doorway to a deeper love for fantasy - and almost 20 years later, they’ve opened once again, and I’ve stepped through with zero hesitation.

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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

Action RPG Open-World Adventure Systems 19 8.5/10 Released April 22, 2025 ESRB Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Violence Developer(s) Virtuos, Bethesda Publisher(s) Bethesda
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