According to one of the designers of the original 2006 RPG, Virtuos (who are also working on Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater) could not have come up with anything better.

Virtuos was the development team for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, not Bethesda Game Studios (BGS), as Todd Howard and his team are working on The Elder Scrolls VI and may be working on a second DLC for Starfield (rumored to be called Starborn). The remaster has been the subject of a lawsuit between the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Microsoft.

The remaster was unveiled and released earlier this week. Afterwards, many were surprised at what Virtuos had put together. Among them was the design director of the original The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Bruce Nesmith, who went on to become the lead designer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and then worked at Starfield before leaving Bethesda in September 2021 to pursue a career in book publishing. He told Videogamer that this is not a simple remaster, but rather an Oblivion 2.0:

“I spent a lot of years working on this game. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into it, along with everyone else on the team. And I knew every single scene that they showed. And they looked amazing. I assumed it was going to be a texture update. I didn’t really think it was going to be the complete overhaul that they announced… I wouldn’t have blinked 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, you’re touching every part of the game. It’s an amazing amount of remastering. It almost needs its own word, frankly. I’m not sure “remaster” really does it justice. The closest you could get to categorizing it is Oblivion 2.0,” Nesmith said.

If he’s that complimentary, it’s not a bad accomplishment…

Source: WCCFTech, Videogamer