Bruce Nesmith, a former Bethesda designer who was part of the team that created the original The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, has shared his positive impressions of the recently released version. He stated that the term “remaster” doesn`t adequately describe the extensive work done, suggesting it feels more like Oblivion 2.0.
I spent many years working on that game. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into it, both from me and the team. I knew every scene intimately. And they looked stunning. <…> I thought they would just update the textures, and I wouldn`t have been surprised by that. I couldn`t imagine they planned a complete rework. But they redid the animations and their system, switched to Unreal Engine, changed the leveling system, updated the interface — this affects literally every aspect of the game. It`s a colossal amount of work. Honestly, something like this needs a different term — the word `remaster` doesn`t convey the whole meaning.
Nesmith remarked that he is proud of the work they did on the original game. He believes there are not many games that can still capture the interest of players nearly 20 years after their release.
Pride is what I feel first and foremost. A game I worked on is still generating interest 20 years later; that was worth all the effort. And Bethesda invested a lot of time and resources into this. There are very few people in our industry who can say they were a part of something like this.
The new version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was released on April 22. The standard edition is priced at $35, while the Deluxe version costs $40.
Finley Holt