Looking for a list of everything new and all changes in Oblivion Remastered? In this Oblivion Remastered guide, we're going to document all of the adjustments that developer Virtuos has made to the classic RPG, ranging from graphical overhauls to gameplay reworks.
We'll be updating this guide as often as we can, based on our own progress through Oblivion Remastered. So be sure to check back for updates!
Oblivion Remastered: Everything New and All Changes

The original Oblivion is almost 20 years old, and so for Oblivion Remastered, a lot of effort has been put into modernising the experience.
While Remastered is still Oblivion at its core — with the same open world, story, characters, quests, etc. — numerous changes have been made to ensure that it both looks and plays better than the original 2006 release.
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Graphics
These are all of the graphical changes in Oblivion Remastered.
- A total graphical overhaul, built on Unreal Engine 5
- Completely new character models
- Each race is more clearly defined in terms of physical appearance
- New NPC animations during certain story moments
- New enemy models
- New environmental assets, both out in the open world and in dungeons
- New equipment models based on the old designs
- A new, dynamic lighting system
- New and much improved weather effects, like rain and snow
- New magic spell animations
- Enchanted weapons are now coated in specific visual effects depending on the enchantment
- Completely new intro screen
- Recreated CG opening when starting a new game
- Completely new load screen art
Gameplay
These are all of the gameplay-related changes in Oblivion Remastered.
- Completely new movement animations, whether walking, running, jumping, sneaking, or swimming
- Much improved third-person camera, centered over-the-shoulder
- Much improved third-person controls; the player character now moves independent of your camera's direction
- There are now three predetermined perspective options that are cycled through by clicking R3 during gameplay: first-person, over-the-shoulder third-person, and a more zoomed-out third-person
- You can now sprint by clicking L3
- New combat animations for swinging weapons, blocking, and shooting your bow
- New on-hit animations to give combat more impact, as enemies react to your blows
- Improved aiming with bows
- Enemy movement speed seems to have been reduced to give combat a more weighted feel
- The compass now shows the distance to your current objective marker
- There is now an auto aim toggle in the options menu
Character Progression
These are all of the changes that have been made to how your character grows stronger in Oblivion Remastered.
- New character creator with completely new models
- Character creator now offers a wide range of eye colours, skin colours, and hair colours
- You can now choose an 'origin' for your character, based on your race, which seems to have a slight impact on your base stats
- Character creation sliders now have numerical values so you can tweak with more accuracy
- Overhauled levelling system that now sees you increase your core stats with 12 'Virtue' points upon each level up
- Levelling up a major skill gives you a lot of experience towards the next character level
- Levelling up a minor skill gets you a small amount of experience towards the next character level
- Various skill perks have been adjusted; many are now unlocked at lower skill levels than before, while others have been rebalanced or completely reworked
- Enemy scaling has been toned down, but not removed
Audio
These are all of the audio-based changes in Oblivion Remastered.
- New voicework across the game, in addition to a lot of the old voicework
- Some characters have been recast, while most others keep their original voices
- Higher quality soundtrack
- New combat sound effects
- New environmental sound effects (birdsong, weather, etc.)
- NPC voices and other sound effects are now muffled by walls, doors, etc.
- NPC voices now have echo applied to them inside of large buildings, like chapels
User Interface
These are all of the changes tied to menus and the broader user interface in Oblivion Remastered.
- New, overhauled menus with better visibility
- New user interface in gameplay
- Enemies now have fully visible health bars that appear at the top of the screen, under the compass
- New crosshairs indicate when your attacks hit an enemy
- Menu shortcuts are assigned to the d-pad (up for character stats, left for magic, right for inventory, down for map — and these shortcuts can be customised in the options menu)
- The world map's clarity has been improved, with more noticeable icons
- The dialogue minigame still functions in the same way, but the wheel is easier to understand visually, and repeated attempts at persuasion result in coloured indications of the character's preferences
Other

These are all of the more miscellaneous changes that have been made to Oblivion Remastered.
- New accessibility features, like text size
- There is no difficulty slider like in the original game — difficulty is now split between five distinct settings, ranging from very easy to very hard
- Console players can choose between two graphical modes: Quality and Performance
- Console players can adjust the FoV (Field of View) in both first and third-person, either zooming the camera out or zooming the camera in
- Oblivion's classic zoom-in dialogue camera can now be toggled; when disabled, the camera is zoomed out from the NPC you're talking to
- Additional autosaves
- Autosaves can be toggled on changing location, resting, and waiting
- Full Trophy support on PS5 (the original Oblivion on PS3 didn't have them)
This guide is currently under construction as we play through Oblivion Remastered ourselves. Be sure to check back for updates, more information, and screenshots.
Have you found this guide on everything new and all changes in Oblivion Remastered helpful? Let your nostalgia for this open world RPG run wild in the comments section below.





Comments 72
As the article says, this is very much a work in progress as we play through the game ourselves.
If you come across anything you think should be added, let us know in a comment!
Looks great but I'm going wait till I see how it plays before I buy it just to let people know the standard edition comes with the shivering Isles and other expansions
Have you had a review copy for long, @ShogunRok? Or are you starting today like the rest of us...?
@Dan12836666 We'll have a Hands On preview as soon as we possibly can if that helps.
We'll cover stuff like initial gameplay impressions and how it runs on PS5.
@ShogunRok ok thanks
@Fiendish-Beaver We're starting today just like everyone else. As far as we know, there were no review copies sent out at all — total shadow drop.
Understood, @ShogunRok. Thank you. I'm always curious as to how a reviewer plays a game they are reviewing; do they play it as they would if they were playing the game for their own enjoyment at home, or do they rush through it and potentially miss much that a game has to offer...?
@Fiendish-Beaver I can't speak for everyone but it can often heavily depend on when we get review code and how long we have until the review embargo.
I've had to review big games in the past where I've only had a week or less to get through them, and it can be a nightmare. You obviously try your hardest to give the game a fair shake as if you were playing with no pressure, but it can be difficult.
In ideal cases, we get review code weeks ahead of launch and we have plenty of time to play them as we usually would any game in our free time.
There’s something suitably intriguing about delving into a remake we know little about, fresh discoveries and horrors await!
Co worrying the original thrived off its glitches, as long as this generally functions it will at least live up to the original
Thank you, @ShogunRok. Do you continue playing the game (and thus review them) at home, or is it strictly a workplace thing? Or, does that also depend on how much you are enjoying the game? And, can you claim overtime if you continue working on your review by playing a game at home? 😂
It's really good. I'm still in the sewers but omg I had insane expectations and they're already exceeded. I officially forgive BGS for Fallout 76 AND Starfield just for letting this happen.
New levelling system and new voice work make this a day 1 buy. Plus it's Pro Enhanced!
These guys will have my eternal gratitude if they would announce VR support at some point. I never played Skyrim until Skyrim VR dropped in late 2018, and it propelled a game i didn't even bother with on a flatscreen to the most epic gaming experience i ever had. Period. Btw, couldn't get into Oblivion at all when i owned it on PS3, chances are that VR actually will get me engaged and eventually hooked, just like kinda similar stuff for VR like the previously mentioned follow-up and No Man's Sky
Seems like a pretty substantial glow-up. I hope it gives BGS pause with regard to how TES6 is shaping up.
That said, I wonder how people will receive the world design of a nearly two decade old game. For example, will people be upset that the capital of the entire empire is the size of a city block?
@ShogunRok Any word at all on if this is getting a physical release at some point?
@ButterySmooth30FPS yeah the levelling system overhaul has really tempted me with this too.
@wildcat_kickz As much as I wanted the original game to stay intact. I was kind of hoping for expanded cities. Especially the capital.
Has anyone bought the deluxe edition? Can you download the soundtrack to USB or is it only playable in the app?
Any word on mouse and keyboard support for PS5?
I posted on the other website as well and just wanted to relay that I wish this was Morrowind, which is more in need of modernization and was overall my favorite Elder Scroll
Any other details on the music? I love the music in Oblivion but its very short and repetitive today compared to Skyrim's sheer number of tunes and even the variety of music that plays as the sun is setting or rising too. Are there any new additional pieces of music at all or is it just the exact same amount of music as the original?
@ShogunRok
Appreciate that a shadow drop is difficult for you guys. In your hands on preview / first impressions article, any opinions on performance on Pro (& base), as well as general image quality, would be much appreciated.
@Trousersnake dude, can't blame you for the PS3 Oblivion rejection - it was, by far, the worst platform to play it on. Ran like dogsh**. I also tried to get into it, but alas, the performance, or lack thereof, did me in.
This one looks promising. Your point about the phenomenal potential for PSVR2 of this game is well made.
Although, seeing how Sony practically PSVita-ed psvr2, it seems unlikely we'll see Bethesda invest any resources for psvr support. Although, one never knows... maybe when they decide to get some extra 30-40 eddies for a psvr upgrade in a year or two
Maybe I have an unnatural tolerance for jank, but I had no real complaints about how Oblivion or Skyrim ran on the PS3. This new remaster looks gorgeous from the clips, so as long as the performance isn't somehow worse than the PS3, I'll buy it. When it goes on sale.
@Trousersnake I created an account here just to agree with you about Skrim psvr. I played Skyrim twice on ps3 before I played it in VR. I've been gaming for nearly 40 years and have never had an experience like it. I would play for hours without taking the headset off(even with rough graphics), pounding headache be damned. That game single handedly gave me my VR sea legs lol. I would buy the psvr2 if they made this in VR. Maybe even buy a good enough PC if that was the only option. 🍻
Currently deciding if I should name my khajiit 'Khajiit Nelson' or 'Cat Benatar'...
@ShogunRok appreciate that you guys are only just starting and a full review will take time, but would it be possible to get an overview of the general level of performance at for the game?
Seen a fe comments that its struggles once you leave the starting sewers and would be interesting to hear what the experts think.
@Lorcansface
I vote for Cat Benatar if that helps.
Seems better in every way so far after what I’ve played loving it all over again. Not encounter 1 bug so far. Seems very polished
Only got to the outside but you can really see the overhaul of the game that's been done. Really enjoying this already
Any news on the Ps5 performance/ graphics settings details?
Sounds like it's questionable on pc. Concerned it's pretty downgraded on console.
@Fiendish-Beaver We have a main office but we're dotted all over the place, so we work from home.
And we usually review games in and out of work hours — just depends on the scope of the coverage and that kind of thing. I personally don't mind reviewing a game in my free time at all if I'm enjoying it — I'd probably be playing something anyway!
@hel105 I haven't seen any confirmation, unfortunately. The leaked marketing materials did suggest that a physical release was going to happen, but there's nothing official yet.
It's possible that it'll launch a little later.
@andrewsqual Looks like the soundtrack is identical, just slightly enhanced in terms of quality.
@Ilyn We'll try to get something up as soon as we can. If not in the Hands On article, it'll be in its own separate article.
@KundaliniRising333 I've heard it's not perfect performance wise with stuttering and the frame rate us up and down
@reddevilcat Not sure yet, but I'll keep an eye out!
@Dan12836666 So sound like the usual UE5 problems
@ShogunRok Damn. Some beta or rare additions would have been awesome.
@AverageGamer was about to say the same thing. Ps5 pro or high end pcs can probably brute force the ue5 issues away but for base ps5 and the Xbox pair I expect some frame rate issues in the open world segments and maybe the capitol
I hope at least the 'dungeons' have been improved. The caves and ruins of the original were pretty tedious and uninspired.
For those who dont like fps drops / stuttering, I would definitely put this in the "Wait for Review" category.
I am reading quite a few bad reports on things like reddit of performance across PS5, Pro, and PC.
No idea on how accurate they are in this case, but in the past when I have read comments like this and other comments saying there isn't an issue, there is usually a problem (and its just that some can't see fps drops as clearly yet still positively comment).
Hopefully PS / DF can shed some light on this soon.
Played for a couple of hours and was super-impressed with what Virtuous have done here, in the same calibre as Bluepoints remasters of SotC and Demon’s Souls
Won't be getting it till next week but it sounds like a big upgrade. Do we know what the Pro enhancements are?
So checking out early thoughts and yikes it seems like a mess and more proof Unreal 5 is a plague on this gen. The Pro version on performance mode going by what i've read stays around the 40's most of the time but can and will drop far lower then that. Someone called it a "powerpoint presentation" at times.
@ShogunRok super cool of you guys to stay on top of the questions man. I really appreciate that kind of thing. Thanks.
It's installed. Yay
It didn't take a brainac to see that this would become a cash cow for Bethesda - even if all they did was preciding over their IP in meetings with Virtous.
All games receive substantial support and patches during their lifetime and as issues are removed or mitigated the price only comes down.
If a VR mode for PSVR2 comes along then I will have to buy this game.
@KundaliniRising333 the performance is all over the place by all accounts. I've been eagerly awaiting this release but I'm not impressed with the slightly improved graphics etc especially for the asking price. I love oblivion and it's installed on my laptop at the moment but I think I'll wait for a decent reduction in a sale.
Thought id take a punt on it as i got a £50 voucher from shopto.net for £45 and had £5 in vouchers so it only cost me £40. Performance defenately seemes the way to go as i could tell the difference when flicking between the 2, despite my LG C1 stating both were hitting 59fps 🤔. I still dont get the levelling system as im still lvl1 after about 3 hours of play, killing plent of enemy, discovering locations and doing a few quests. Im guessing its not like skyrim where you get XP for stuff like that. So far it seems ok. Defenately not as vibrant as i remember.
@Northern_munkey I think it’s a bit unfair to criticise 3 reviews without naming the names, and to say it’s a ‘slight’ upgrade in visuals from the original is very much a stretch. Have you seen the original? Argonian’s heads are just a blob vaguely molded into an anvil shape.
I do agree sometimes it feels like we don’t get the full picture, there was little mention of the severe drop in quality in BG3 Act 3 at launch, but I’m also sure the staff here do put in as much time as they possibly can into games.
But it’s a fine line between getting an in-depth review, and getting a review out in time, a lot of people will complain if a review isn’t out around launch. So I think you are being rather harsh.
@Hyena_socks you can't single people out specifically (they don't like it) and yes I have seen it..I just said I'm playing it at the moment on my laptop..
The original Oblivion didn’t have number values on the character creation sliders and when you adjusted one slider the others would move too.
The sliders in Remastered are completely independent from each other and have number values. As someone who started over with the same character a lot in the original (thanks Wyre Bash for making this easy on PC at least), this is a minor change I really appreciate. Even on console I can recreate him perfectly if I want to start over.
"Enemy scaling has been toned down."
Very good. Hopefully that means if you go off-piste from the main quest and level up for a bit, you aren't facing hordes of storm atronachs instead of imps.
@shogunRok not sure if mentioned in the comments already, but I believe the race origins actually do slightly impact your character stats. As I created an imperial and the right origin option gave me an increase in Willpower, whilst the other gave something else (can't remember what it was though). So not sure if it's a big difference but definitely does impact it in some way.
Did they say anything about a physical release?
@KundaliniRising333 cheers buddy 👍
It's very cool tech what they have done used the original game and engine so to speak and then used Unreal Engine 5 to do some sort of wrapper around to make it more modern then added some tweaks and QOL improvements
@Supern0va Oh the nightmares are coming back arrrrrrr
wait wait wait! That over-the-shoulder camera is optional, doesn't it?
@Cry_Zero Not yet.
@JonnyAces Since you can play any character any way you wish, it really only matters at the beginning since you can easily make up deficiencies eventually. Like you can make an Orc mage or a Khajiit warrior or a Nord thief. That sort of thing.
I've been playing the game today and just want to say the original Oblivion is one of my favorite games of all time.
Though I can't help to notice a couple things I hope they patch in soon, things that the original had with no problem.
One is the lack of local maps of the area that you're currently in, ie cave maps or city maps. I don't know if they're literally taking hints from Bethesda because in starfield when the game first came out there were no area maps either in that one til later. But I'm actually seriously surprised no one has mentioned this yet, the original Oblivion out the gate had cave maps and area maps in it, the remaster doesn't, and another thing that I hope they patch in, I don't get why didn't allow us to do this but our weapons when a enemy character is dead don't impact the body of the character at all like our weapons just go through their dead body when in the original Oblivion they actually hit the body still even though they were dead I know that's not really something that is required but it adds to the magic and charm of the original to be able to just for immersion purposes whale on a corpse and see their body react to the blow of your weapon, and the fact that they took that away or didn't implement that it's a huge bummer, like you can literally punch walls in this game and attack walls with weapons and it leaves crack marks, But I can't have my weapon connect with my enemy's corpse like it did in the original? Like I said the fact that you could do that added to the magic and charm of the original and showed how impressive the ragdoll physics were. And another thing is with the player character movement, In the original depending on how much you push the joystick forward it determines your character's speed and they can go from a slow walk to a brisk walk to a light jog then to a full run but in this remaster When using a controller when pushing the joystick forward The character literally goes from walking to running no in between like in the original Oblivion, and that also kind of irks me. The walking to a player could be too slow for them so they might want to go a little bit faster but not too fast where it's a full-on run.
Again the original had movement transition that went from slow walk to a brisk walk to a light jog then to a full run depending on how far you push the control stick forward, the remaster is just slow walk to full run. No matter what angle you have the control stick it's either slow walk or full-on run.
By having it like that the movement going forward feels limited
I hope that they make a patch that address these issues. Especially the map issue. Cuz I no joke got lost in a dungeon twice now.
Other than that and some graphical pop in issues the remaster is amazing.
Playing this on Xbox series s by the way
I feel like major and minor skills work the same (major gives a lot of XP, minor gives less, but maybe I'm remembering wrong).
What I do feel is that it takes way longer to level up said skills.
@SRB-GAMER
There's city maps if you zoom enough, I too didn't realize that for a while.
Not sure about the caves, I jumped to Clair Obscur so I haven't gone back yet.
I’m really tempted as this game was my first RPG. I remember going into Virgin Megastore and seeing it with a sticker that said “If any game is worth the high price of the PS3, this is it”
Really enjoyed it even with the constant save/reloads I had to go through.
This article is really making me go and get it, just wish there’s a physical copy??
@SRB-GAMER , the local area maps are a bit weird, if you press R2 on the overworld map to zoom in, at some point it goes into a local area map, the slider on the right of the map shows you. It’s not very intuitive and took me a while! I’d prefer another control to go straight to a local area map (and the ability to remap to touch pad). Still loving it though, I really clicked with it today. Edit: Yeah what @Lup said!😂
@themightyant You must be joking right? Same calibre as a Bluepoint game? Which Bluepoint game has ever dropped frames to sub 20fps? Or had the number of bugs this game has.
You clearly havent played it beyond pottering around in the opening dungeon where it can maintain frame rate.
I like it, I accept the jank as unlike Bluepoint (who maticulously program every line of code in their remasters) its the same underlying 20 year old code it always was with a new graphics wrapper, many of the same bugs in the original are all here, and its introduced several new ones.
The suggestion this is on a level with a bluepoint remaster is quite cearly based on ignorance of the facts.
Meantime I'll play and enjoy it further once they improve frame rates, but I cant pretend its a remake rather than a remaster, and the studios themselves have made it quite clear its not a remake as it runs on the very same game code it always did.
@Titntin you are right I only did play the first few hours till just after the sewers. You are also right that performance was a little iffy, but I didn’t notice it plunging to 20fps or anything like that. Perhaps VRR was smoothing out the dips in the bit I played or perhaps I’ve been so conditioned to Oblivion running like ass on console that it felt like a huge step up even with dips. Either way I haven’t seen any performance reviews yet, I take it you are saying it’s bad later?
That’s a shame, i was super impressed with the level of upgrade of what I did play, that felt like a Bluepoint Remaster in terms of graphical update, and doing things like updating the voice lines etc. felt like a labour of love.
Hopefully they can fix the performance before I return.
@ButterySmooth30FPS
New character levelling but, disastrously, enemy scaling still remains completely broken. Went from day 1 to a never pay.
@ShogunRok slight correction.
Levelups don’t give 15 skill points, the give 12 skill points.
@darkswabber Thanks for pointing this out, fixed!
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