Oblivion Remastered is a month old and still broken

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I’m continuing to make steady progress in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, and instead of rushing through the main storyline, I opted to delve into the DLC quests that I barely touched before. It feels like a delightful mix of nostalgia and newness as I struggle to recall if I’ve been through these areas in past playthroughs or if I’m merely reminiscing about an old save file from a couple days back. I’m putting forth great effort to savor Oblivion Remastered, but it seems the game is giving me a bit of a hard time.

One issue I face is that I’m using a PS5. At the moment, PS5 gamers are lagging behind Xbox consoles, as they didn’t receive an improvement in performance while traversing the open world until recently. Even on the expensive PS5 Pro with its VRR screen and Performance mode, achieving a smooth frame rate while exploring seems like an unrealistic expectation. However, I can tolerate performance problems, especially when they occur where there’s minimal action. What truly disappoints me is everything else about the game.

On the Shivering Isles, the skeletal adversaries frequently lunge towards me first, then freeze in place, known as T-posing, unable to attack except for glaring at me and recoiling when my blows connect. Occasionally, other enemies will approach and simply stand there, making eye contact until their health diminishes. These inconveniences completely shatter the immersive experience, but it gets worse.

Initially, my game seemed to crash at unpredictable moments, but since it often autosaved regularly, I didn’t feel too frustrated by these mishaps. However, when I encountered three consecutive crashes as I neared Frostcrag Tower in Oblivion Remastered on PS5, I started to suspect that there was a more significant issue at play.

You don’t have to rely solely on my opinion. I may not be an expert in technology, merely a regular internet user, but the Digital Foundry team are tech-savvy individuals, almost like tech-magicians. They examined Oblivion Remastered on PS5 and uncovered a variety of issues that I might not have noticed. The list includes problems related to crashes and overall open-world performance, as well as an interesting finding: the game’s performance can degrade after prolonged play, with normal activities like moving between locations, fighting enemies, and even the height of your camera while riding a horse increasing unexpectedly.

In a fresh release with early access tags, minor oversights could be expected. But when it comes to remastering a game almost two decades old? That’s downright preposterous! This becomes even more striking given the memory leak issues that were prevalent in the original PlayStation version. If I were using Game Pass, I might let it slide, but PS5 users paid full price for a game that still has lingering problems, unaddressed over a month after its launch.

I understand and empathize with the developers, given the massive task they’ve undertaken with this remaster. They’ve made efforts to preserve the original Oblivion experience, even incorporating beloved glitches, while also modernizing it. However, releasing a game in its current state is still unacceptable, despite recurring instances of this happening.

I’m quite fond of Oblivion Remastered, but I have reservations about recommending it for purchase just yet. While it does an impressive job modernizing and smoothing out an RPG that can seem a bit cumbersome otherwise in 2025, there are issues with the game’s performance and stability that need addressing. You shouldn’t have to experience frequent performance degradation or unexpected crashes during extended gaming sessions, which is unfortunately what happens when playing Oblivion Remastered at launch. This should be the bare minimum a game strives for upon release, and in this case, it falls significantly short.

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2025-05-20 18:46