Summary
Possibly one of the worst-kept secrets of the gaming industry in recent years, this week Bethesda announced and immediately releasedOblivion Remasteredon the same day. The game is currently considered one of the best cases of remasters in the modern landscape for video games, as it does a massive facelift for the graphics and fluidity of gameplay thanks to Unreal Engine 5, but everything that madeObliviongreat is still there. This even includes thejankOblivionis famous for, such as the additional take for one voiceline and all the memes that made it iconic over time. Yet, one new feature that wasn’t in the original makesOblivion Remasteredmuch less annoying in Dungeons.
Dungeons have become a huge part ofThe Elder Scrollsgames over the years, from being a crucial part ofThe Elder Scrolls Onlineto still being a fan-favorite addition inSkyrim. The originalOblivionmade them very interesting thanks to large environments and mazes for players to get lost in rather than straightforward areas, but it had a major problem that many other games in the series don’t. This is luckily addressed inOblivion Remastered, but not exactly in the way players may have expected it to.
Oblivion Remastered’s Dungeons Are Dramatically Improved With One New Spell
The Elder ScrollsgamesbeforeObliviondid have a way to let players teleport outside a Dungeon after it was completed, but be it for a design decision or other possible concerns, this feature was lacking in the fourth installment of the series.Oblivion Remastereddoesn’t really feature a way for players to teleport outside Dungeons, but it does address this longtime concern indirectly with the new Clairvoyance spell. This can be used anywhere in the game to guide players to a certain point where their current quest is tracked, but it can also be used as a “trick” to rapidly get out of Dungeons.
By tracking any quest outside the Dungeon, players can then useOblivion Remastered’s new Clairvoyance spelland follow the trail to the tracker, only for it to take them out of the Dungeon on the fastest path available. This is a major improvement over the original because it can be quite time-consuming to backtrack to the entrance of a given area or constantly open the local map, which is not as easily accessible either. As such, Clairvoyance comes in handy not necessarily for its quest-tracking capabilities per se, but because this can effectively be a game-changer for when players just want to go back to the open.
In many games, includingSkyrim, Dungeons can often be “looped,” in the sense that they end in a spot that can then easily get players back to the start to ease progression and make gameplay smoother.Oblivion Remasteredtakes after the original in this regard, and instead follows the principle of spacious full-fledged areas that sometimes even have their own loading screens between sections. There are some loopedDungeons inOblivion Remastered, like the original, but they are the minority overall.
Why Clairvoyance is One of Oblivion Remastered’s Best Tools
As such, Clairvoyance offers an interesting tool for players to mindlessly get out of Dungeons rather than having to find their way back to the entrance, which is still possible for purists who want to only use things that were available in the original game. Clairvoyance is new, but considering it is entirely optional and only has a small part in the new tutorial section in the sewers, players are in no way forced to use it, nor does it provide any sort of advantage.Oblivion Remastered’s questscan still be completed like in the original without ever using Clairvoyance, but this spell does have its uses.
