Original Oblivion developer admits that adding the world-scale leveling system was a mistake. Read on to learn more about his thoughts on the changes made to the game and its overwhelming success since launch.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Changes Applauded by Former Dev
World-Scale Leveling Remains in Oblivion Remastered
A former Oblivion developer admits that the inclusion of the world-scale leveling was a mistake, despite the feature returning to the remaster. In a recent interview with VideoGamer, original Oblivion Designer Bruce Nesmith shared his thoughts about the game’s leveling systems.
Other than the original Oblivion, Nesmith has designed quests and systems for games such as Fallout 3, Skyrim, and Starfield. He said that Oblivion Remastered’s tweaks on its leveling system made it more playable to modern players.
In the original game, players needed to level up their major skills multiple times, then rest to level them up and increase their attributes. This was changed to something similar to Skyrim, where players gain XP for all their skill lines. Nesmith applauded Bethesda for their decision and considers it a "brave" thing to do.
However, he had a different outlook on the returning world-scale feature. The world-scale leveling system makes the enemies in the game level up with the player, which Nesmith said made players feel like "oh, it doesn’t matter that I went up in levels, the dungeon went up in levels with me."
He explained, "I think the world levelling with you was a mistake and that’s proven out by the fact it did not happen the same way in Skyrim." Fans have raised this concern since the game was first released in 2006. This pushed them to create mods to address this, and with Oblivion Remastered inheriting this feature, fans again made the effort to fix the world-scale leveling system.
Oblivion Remastered is More Than Just a Remaster
Many have heard of the rumblings of Oblivion being remastered, but everyone was surprised at how much effort the team has made to recreate the Elder Scrolls classic. This includes Nesmith, who assumed that the rumored Oblivion game would only have texture updates similar to Skyrim: Special Edition.
In a separate interview with VideoGamer, he praised the entire team for how far they went with the remaster. He said, "[It’s] a staggering amount of remastering. It almost needs its own word, quite frankly. I’m not sure remaster actually does it justice."
Indeed, Bethesda has given so much for this remaster, going all out and rebuilding Tamriel using Unreal Engine 5. This allowed the developers to surpass the previous restrictions the original had, thus receiving praise from the community for how high-quality the game turned out to be. Here at Game8, we gave Oblivion Remastered a 90 out of 100 for its heartfelt tribute to Cyrodiil itself, lovingly reforged with modern-day sorcery. For more of our thoughts on the game, check out our article below!
4 Million Players 3 Days After Launch
Bethesda announced on Twitter (X) on April 26 that Oblivion Remastered has reached over 4 million players, just 3 days after its launch. According to SteamDB, the game has reached an all-time peak of over 210,000 concurrent players.
Support from the fans has been staggering, and despite the developers announcing that Oblivion Remastered will not have official mod support, this did not stop players from creating them either way. As of writing, there are over 1,000 user-created mods for the game posted on the popular modding site NexusMods.
With its continued success and support from its community, Oblivion Remastered looks to stay atop for months and possibly years to come. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S (available on Xbox Game Pass), and PC. To stay up to date with the latest information about the game, check out our article below!
Source:
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’s levelling system was a "mistake", admits designer, but it still haunts the remaster
Bethesda Twitter (X) post on Oblivion Remastered Reaching 4 Million Players
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion SteamDB Charts
Original Elder Scrolls Oblivion designer was floored by Bethesda’s new release – "I’m not sure ‘remaster’ does it justice"
Oblivion Remastered NexusMods
