Platform: Steamdeck
Release Year: 2025
Oblivion was THE launch window game for the Xbox 360. Maybe the commercials for Halo 3, Dead Rising, or Gears of War got you intrigued, but if you got that original 20 GB Xbox 360, this was the game to show off the "next gen." I remember a roommate of mine telling me I was wasting time playing the game and I looked them in the eye and said, "Why would I go outside, when this world looks and feels better than the real world?"
Oblivion Remastered hit a lot of the nostalgia bits... almost all of them to be honest... which was exactly the point. Buy the people making Elder Scrolls 6 a little more time before they have to start showing the game.
I was starting to scratch my skin again, thinking I needed a Bethesda fix. Would I start my sixth game of Skyrim? Maybe start and abandon Fallout 3 for the third time in a decade? And then we got Oblivion remastered to satiate the masses. Worst kept secret, somehow still felt shadow dropped.
There was also a lot of reminders of game design of the time. The amount of fetch quests for instance. Just about every random quest you picked up in town lead to a fetch quest.
Even many of the main story relies on fetch quests. Go get this armor for the hero. Go deliver this amulet. I know it's sort of the joke at this point, you don't play Bethesda games for the main story. You play them for the guild stories. Oblivion is probably the peak example of that.
For instance, "Allies for Bruma" is maybe one of the most naked padding quests in any game. Go to each of the major cities, close an oblivion gate. Oblivion Gates are maybe the most boring part of Oblivion. Confusing hell-like maps, made annoying by high HP enemies, tangled pathways, and valuable but very heavy loot. Once you do one or two, you don't want to do anymore.
Luckily, this wasn't my first rodeo. I know not to do the "Battle of Kvatch" as soon as you get it. Then you have to deal with Oblivion gates popping up everywhere. So I got to the "Battle of Kvatch" and basically did every side quest available until I was level 30 and able to blast through Oblivion gates with little issue.
I played Oblivion Remastered on a Steamdeck as it was verified and I don't have gaming PC at the moment. It did OK.
The load times were a little long which made you very aware at how many doorways you go through in this game. I'd get memory dump errors sometimes where I unfortunately could not access the "Send to developer" button. (So I hope you are aware QA, lot of Steamdeck users seeing issues like this)
Sure there were some of the fun Bethesda issues. Like the mage that I killed with a mace in a cave who as far as I know is bouncing around like a ragdoll on every wall of the room to this day.
It really fell apart during climatic scenes. The last main quest mission where (Spoilers) the giant Mehrunes Dagon runs rampant on the city while dozens of NPCs and enemies duke it out. I had to find the optimal route using all five frames a second to the end door so that the Steamdeck wouldn't crash from too much action.
And the Shivering Ilses and the battle with Sheogorath. An annoying fight, one that I had the pleasure of doing about a dozen times, because it kept crashing after beating him. I finally got the last achievement to pop, right as the game crashed again. Still have not seen the true ending of Shivering Ilses in the remaster.
It sounds like I hated this game, I know, but I don't. I have these criticisms because I love this game so much and have played it so many times that I know how it should respond.
The thieves guild is one of the coolest side stories in any game. Do normal thieves jobs while trying to remove the head of the guard all culminating in you stealing an Elder Scroll and becoming Grey Fox.
The Dark Brotherhood, also a highlight. They spend all of their time building up this team of assassins only to find out there's a traitor in your midst. The handler you can trust gets setup and murdered by the brotherhood. And then the Nightmother charges you with cleaning house.
Even the Fighter's Guild, usually a pretty standard, go beat up these rats, get paid, rinse, repeat storyline has intrigue with the rival Blackwater Company.
And then there's Shivering Isles. A throwback to the aesthetics of Morrowind, completely changing up the look, NPCs, dynamics of the game. Sheogorath being one of the favorite Daedric entities just kills with hilarity.
I would still strongly recommend someone play in this sandbox, even today. Especially if they didn't play Oblivion in the 360 era.
No comments:
Post a Comment