‘A Staggering Amount of Work’: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remaster Impresses Original Game’s Designer

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion remaster from Bethesda Game Studios and Virtuos Studios, which came out like a bolt from the blue yesterday, impressed not only Steam users, but also the developer of the original game.

Image source: Bethesda

Former Bethesda Game Studios design director and Oblivion quest designer Bruce Nesmith admitted in an interview with VideoGamer that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered exceeded his expectations.

Nesmith says he heard about Bethesda’s plans for an Oblivion remaster a week before release and assumed “it would be a texture update, not the total overhaul they announced.”

The remaster is based on Unreal Engine 5, while the original Gamebryo engine is responsible for gameplay and physics.

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How exactly to categorize the new version, Nesmith isn’t sure. It’s more than a remaster, but not quite a remake: “The closest I can come up with would be Oblivion 2.0.”

«”First of all, I feel proud. A game I worked on can still be interesting 20 years after its release. Very few people in our industry can say they were a part of something like that,” Nesmith noted.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was released on April 22 on PC (Steam, Microsoft Store), PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and Game Pass. On Steam, the remaster has reached 182,000 concurrent players and is receiving “very positive” reviews.