Summary
In an instant, it’s been a month sinceOblivion Remasteredwas released, and this reimagining of Cyrodiil has made many players look back atSkyrimdifferently. For some,Oblivion Remasteredwas the first time they had playedThe Elder Scrolls 4, having grown up withTES 5as their first taste of this strange and fantastical universe. Many who are used toSkyrim’s systems have had to get to grips withOblivion’s way of doing things, finding a lot of pleasant surprises in the previous title as they explore many fan-favorite quests like ‘Whodunit?’ almost 20 years later.
But there are only so many of thesequests to do inOblivion Remastered, and only so many hours can be spent wandering Cyrodiil, and so, some players are diving back intoSkyrimto find a once-familiar land that feels different again. On the surface, the games are both ARPGs in a fantasy world. They shouldn’t feel so different, yet,Skyrimhas this pull to it that goes beyond simple nostalgia.Skyrim’s immersion is legendary, and has been one of the core aspects of the game that has kept it so relevant after 14 years without a sequel, and afterOblivion Remastered,Skyrim’s unique style of immersion feels fresh once again.
Oblivion Remastered Shines a New Light on Skyrim’s Immersion
Skyrimis not a realistic game. Beyond the obvious things like Dragons, necromancers, and placing buckets on peoples’ heads to avoid detection, it is not built to directly simulate real life. Combat is simple, health pools are large, a player can become a millionaire by just picking up money found in caves, and somehow,the Bards Collegeis considered a legitimate faction.
But jokes aside,TES 5has never tried to be a realistic game that accurately imitates real life. Rather, its immersion comes from being true to itself. The landscape feels organic, with the creatures that roam it reflecting their local biomes. NPCs live out routines, each with individual stories and personal problems, providing an unreliable narrator that doesn’t feel like it spews information about the world, but rather, contextualizes what the writers want to say in a way that feels authentic. Thetreatment of Dark Elves in Windhelmis one such example. Bigotry is rife in the city, and everywhere the Dragonborn goes, there will be examples of Nords making life difficult for the Dunmer, allowing the player to make a judgement based on context clues.
The Dragonborn’s race will affect what dialogue other characters have with them, particularly if they are a beast race.
How Oblivion’s Immersive Features Differ
Oblivionis similarly good at creating a world that feels true to itself, but in different ways. In many respects,Oblivion’s characters feel just as true to life, but more than a few are quite zany. Memes have givenObliviona reputation for being unintentionally funny, and while that is impossible to deny, it feels like Bethesda designed some of the goofiness from the start.Paranoia is a greatOblivionquestthat shows this very well, with Glarthir’s deranged antics making for quite a fun and silly investigation into the lives of NPCs, but it isn’t the only case.Oblivion’s radiant dialogue system can yield some very humorous results, and many players have probably heard about the population’s trouble with mudcrabs a thousand times already.
In many ways,Obliviongives players more freedom of choicethanSkyrimdoes. More quests have alternate ways of solving them, and players are not destined to become a hero of legend like the Dragonborn. In general, a player has more tools to work with inTES 4, able to persuade NPCs to bypass quest steps, craft spells that let them express magic exactly how they want, and feel like they’re a real part of a guild thanks to the rank system. It’s different toSkyrim’s ethos, which handles player interactivity in a very different way.
Skyrim’s Landscape is Intimately Familiar, and for Good Reason
Cyrodiil’s landscape is beautiful, and the remaster has helped to render it in a way that Bethesda could have only dreamed of doing back in 2006. The lush forests of Chorrol, the swamps of the Blackwood, and Anvil’s Gold Coast are equally gorgeous in their own right. But as much as the remaster puts a new skin over these places, there’s still something about Cyrodiil inTES 4that makes the world feel safer by comparison. It could be down to the more limited technology of the time, but eachregion of Cyrodiilis roughly the same as the last, and the rolling hills and woods can blend into one, even when there’s an added covering of snow.
Oblivionwas developed in the Gamebryo Engine, whereasSkyrimused a modernized version called the Creation Engine.
Skyrim’s rugged landscape stands in stark opposition to the smoothed-out world of its predecessor. Lush hillsides make way for jagged peaks, crashing waterfalls spray foam over hot springs, and rivers meander from the autumnal Rift to the icy Sea of Ghosts. It isn’t just a world of distinct biomes, either;Skyrimfeels immersivebecause the land feels alive. It’s funny to think that bothSkyrimandOblivionwere released on the same console generation, and yet they feel so different, but it shows how five years can make the technology that much more powerful.
Skyrim Does Quiet Moments Like No Other
As players traverse the mountains and valleys ofSkyrim, buffeted by all weathers, there is this unmatched sensation of belonging. Even with all the quest markers and damage-sponge Bandit Chiefs, the trials and tribulations of crossing one corner of the province to the next give players a feeling for the place, and there are few moments as good as cresting that mountain and seeing the sunrise poking above the horizon. Thesequiet moments have defined Skyrimfor so long, and paired with its quaint soundtrack, it has stopped many in their paths. There are too many anecdotes to count of players sharing moments where everything lined up for them to enjoy that quiet moment, reflecting on everything they’ve done.
The player has a direct relationship with the landscape in a way that makes it feel alive and active.Oblivion’s landscape is pretty, but it is mostly static, a canvas for the player to experience its stories on. It makes for some excellent screenshots, and there are hundreds of thousands ofincredible screenshots ofOblivion Remasteredout there, but it doesn’t always manage to feel larger than those screenshots. It’s hard to say why exactly, butSkyrim’s random events do a lot of heavy lifting to make the world feel reactive. A screenshot of Falkreath might show a quiet, peaceful landscape, but in the seconds after it was taken, a Dragon could show up out of nowhere, giving it the impression that this is not a static world, but one of chaos and change.
Skyrim’s Nordic Aesthetic Brings Back Some of Morrowind’s Weirdness
Something often brought up in discussions aboutOblivionis how it moved the franchise away fromMorrowind’s distinctly weird style of fantasy,instead emulatingThe Lord of the Rings. Cyrodiil inOblivioncertainly bears a lot of similarities to Peter Jackson’sLotRfilms, and the original concepts forTES 4show that it could have been a very different-looking place.Oblivionstill has plenty of its own unique stuff to offer, but its aesthetic can be broadly quite homogenous, similar to a lot of other fantasy worlds. The setting is vaguely European-inspired, with skeletons, zombies, and ghosts roaming the many dungeons, and joinable guilds such as the Mages Guild and Fighters Guild have little distinct flavor to them.
Skyrim Also Watered Down the Source Material, but Added Some New Touches
This is not to sayOblivionhas done things badly; it is just how Bethesda chose to make its world.Skyrimhasn’t escaped the shadow ofMorrowind’s world building either, as fans ofTES 3will often point to the Nords’ reverence of the Nine Divines as watering down the traditional Nordic pantheon. ButSkyrimstill acknowledges its past: whereOblivionretconned jungle Cyrodiil,Skyrimtried to show how the Nords had become Imperialized, and the old stuff was in replacingOblivion’s dungeons of skeletons with ancient barrows full of draugr, for example.
During the events ofOblivion, set 200 years beforeSkyrim, many Nords seem to worship the old Nordic pantheon, and not the Nine Divines
The main cities are also quite distinct, which sadly wasn’t carried over to the minor ones, but the fact that Markarth is an entirely Dwemer city inhabited by modern-day people, and the Reach is a place teeming withDaedra-worshipping, savage Forsworn, brings back some of thatMorrowindweirdness that so many fans loved. Traversing the icy wilds of Solstheim, the ancient Temple of Miraak cuts a striking silhouette against the ashen clouds of Red Mountain. It is just one of many sights that is uniquelySkyrim, and yet, by itself, does not completely define the game’s entire aesthetic, something that arguably, the Ayleid ruins don’t do quite as well.
Oblivion Remasteredis truly a great game, and millions of players have been loving it for the past month. But as some players finish their playthroughs, it’s interesting seeing them go back toSkyrim, experiencing that game in a whole new context. While there are all sorts of thingsSkyrimcould have taken fromOblivionthat could have arguably improved its gameplay, it can also be argued that its approach to the world and immersion is a step up. The fact that content creators have built careers offroleplaying inSkyrimshould say as much. Returning toSkyrimfeels like returning home, and while that could be nostalgia talking, it shows just how enduringTES 5has been after all these years.
