- The senior game designer for the original The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is impressed by Bethesda and Virtuos’ remaster
- Bruce Nesmith thought the game was going to be a texture update and doesn’t think calling it a “remaster” doesn’t do it justice
- Nesmith would categorise the game as “Oblivion 2.0”
Bruce Nesmith, the senior game designer for the original The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, has shared his thoughts on Bethesda and Virtuos’ new remaster and doesn’t think the term “actually does it justice”.
In a recent interview with VideoGamer, Nesmith said that he spent years working on the original game and that “A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into it”, but revealed he hadn’t heard about the remaster until the game leaked online ahead of its official announcement.
“I intimately knew every single scene that they were showing. And they looked amazing,” he said.
The game has been rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5 and features all-new character models, a new lighting system, environment improvements, and a rework of the game mechanics.
The enhancements are so significant that Nesmith doesn’t think calling it a remaster is doing the game justice.
“I was assuming this was going to be a texture update,” he explained. “I didn’t really think it was going to be the complete overhaul that they’ve announced it to be… I would not have batted an eye at that.
“But to completely redo the animations, the animation system, put in the Unreal Engine, change the leveling system, change the user interface. I mean, that’s, you’re touching every part of the game. That’s a staggering amount of remastering. It almost needs its own word, quite frankly. I’m not sure remaster actually does it justice.”
Bethesda shadow dropped The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered the day it was revealed, and the game quickly garnered over 190,000 concurrent players on Steam.
Seeing the reception to the 2006 remaster, Nesmith said the number one thing he feels is “pride”.
“A game that I worked on has the longevity to still generate interest 20 years later and to be worth the effort—it sounds like considerable effort—and time that Bethesda put into remastering it,” he said.
Since Nesmith thinks that the term “remaster” doesn’t do the game justice, he thinks “The closest that could come [to categorizing it] is Oblivion 2.0.”
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered is now available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Game Pass for $49.99 / £49.99 and $59.99 / £59.99 for the Deluxe Edition.
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