The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

The base release includes Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine, the Deluxe Upgrade adds two gear quests, an artbook and a soundtrack, and the 2006 build is still sold separately. Here is which one you are actually buying.

What a remaster means here

This is the 2006 game again with new art and a gameplay pass over the top of it, and the original's handcrafted detail was recreated rather than replaced. The design underneath is the one Oblivion players know: you create any character you can imagine, from the noble warrior to the sinister assassin to the wizened sorcerer, and you unravel the main quest at your own pace or wander Cyrodiil and find your own challenges.

Oblivion Remastered revisits the game originally released in 2006. The older Game of the Year Edition is a separate package of that original release.

What that means is that this is the same world and the same quests with a new presentation. Treat it as the version of Oblivion that still receives updates rather than a different game wearing the same name.

What is in the box

The remaster ships with the previously released story expansions Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine, alongside the additional downloadable content that used to arrive in pieces. That changes how a run is sequenced, because the Knights of the Nine questline and the Shivering Isles are open to you inside the same install rather than being separate purchases to hunt down later.

The Deluxe Upgrade is the only version decision on top of the base game. It takes the digital base game to the Deluxe Edition and adds new quests for the Akatosh and Mehrunes Dagon armour, weapon and horse armour sets, plus a digital artbook and a soundtrack app. Those are quests rather than a costume drop, so the upgrade does add things to do even though nothing in it rewrites the campaign. If you want the campaign itself, the base game already has it.

The 2006 build is still sold

On the Steam storefront the older game is still listed as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition, with Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles included, and the storefront also carries an Oblivion Game of the Year Deluxe package that adds Fighter's Stronghold, Spell Tome Treasures, Vile Lair and Mehrune's Razor on top. The Deluxe package is the one carrying the note that it is playable only in English, and its page also carries a publisher note identifying it as the edition released in 2009 rather than as a current release. Scope that comparison to this storefront: it is the listing you are looking at, not a statement about every platform the game has appeared on.

So the comparison is not a visual prize fight. One is a fixed release from the 2006 era, and the other is a later release that has been patched since, including a difficulty pass that changed how the game can be tuned. If you want to play Oblivion, the remaster is the version that still gets updates.

Two difficulty dials

Update 1.2 split difficulty into Player Combat Damage and Enemy Combat Damage, each selectable as Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Journeyman, Expert or Master, and it added Journeyman specifically to sit between Adept and Expert as a better bridge between the two.

That gives you two dials where the original gave you one. You can keep enemies dangerous while raising your own damage, or run the opposite way, which is a useful thing to have in a game whose levelling can leave you ahead of or behind the curve. It is the setting to check before concluding the world has outgrown you.

Update 1.1 came before it with quest fixes, blocker fixes, quality-of-life fixes, crash fixes, two new HUD console commands, and a fix for missing text after installing the Deluxe Upgrade. The PC release carries both updates, so a fresh install does not need any of that history unpicked by hand, and the Switch 2 version is patched separately with its own Patch 1.0 and Patch 1.1.

Where it lives now

The remaster is available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox, and it is available on Nintendo Switch 2 as well, where the publisher's news feed carries a Patch 1.0 and a Patch 1.1 for that version. A physical edition is also listed for anyone who wants a box.

The Deluxe Upgrade is sold as an add-on to the base game, so the split is the same wherever you buy it: the base game is the game, and the Deluxe tier is the two gear quests, the soundtrack and the artbook on top.

Should you play it

Yes, if you want the 2006 role-playing game with a modern presentation and difficulty dials that let you correct for its level curve instead of living with it. The remaster is the version to buy: the expansions are inside it, it is still being patched, and the Deluxe Upgrade is optional in the ordinary sense of the word.

Go in knowing what it is. This is Cyrodiil with the same quests and the same open structure, so the reason to return is to play it again with better art and a better hand on the difficulty, rather than to find a different game underneath.