The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remasteredis obviously more graphically advanced than the original game, but some of its changes come with big caveats. While I’m skeptical of the whole affair, which overwrites some of the most interesting atmospheric elements of the original style, most of the game does look reasonably good in its own right. When it comes to character models, however, the graphical upgrade has some especially big caveats that I’d rather not see return in any future Bethesda remasters.
The current rumor mill suggests that thenext Bethesda remaster, if one is indeed in the pipeline, will beFallout 3.It’s a logical next step fromOblivion, andcompleting the work onFallout 3would also make a theoreticalFallout: New Vegasremaster relatively easy. The uptick in detail that Unreal Engine 5 provides might actually suitFalloutbetter than the ethereal world of Cyrodiil overall, but making the same approach used inOblivion Remasteredwork forFalloutNPCs could take a lot of additional labor.
Oblivion Remastered Upgrades NPCs At A Cost
Hackdirt Has A Secret Spa Day
I don’t want to paint an overly rosy picture of the originalOblivion. Graphically, it hasn’t aged much better than its 4.6 GB file size on Steam would suggest, and the NPCs often get the short end of the stick.On an HD screen,Oblivionfaces can have an unfortunately waxy, potato-like quality, and the craggy faces that appeared on the Nords ofSkyrimfive years later were generally a big improvement.
These faces do have character, though, something thatOblivion Remastered’s NPCssometimes lack.Punching up the detail results in sharp features that look identical across many NPCs, suggesting that Cyrodiil’s previously vague gene pool is actually quite slim. For some characters, this can work very well, but other glow-ups are undeniably out of place.
The best example lies in the citizens of Hackdirt, which features in a complaint raised on Reddit bySuperBreadBox. Hackdirt is not a pleasant place, to say the least, and the original game’s character models reflected this. InOblivion Remastered, the only thing that really makes anyone bedraggled is disease, andHackdirt NPCs end up looking like they’re fresh out of the salon.
Fallout Remasters Can’t Clean Up Their NPCs
The Wasteland Is A Rough Place
I’m already not a fan of this inOblivionRemastered, but it’s only rarely as egregious a distraction as it is in Hackdirt.InFallout, however, being rough-and-tumble is more the normthan the exception. From raiders to feral ghouls, plenty of NPCs spend their time wandering a harsh wasteland, and even most who live in more stable settlements eke out scrappy existences. Freshening them up likeOblivionRemasteredNPCs would result in a world of out-of-place mannequins, damaging the lived-in sensibility that definesFallout 3andNew Vegas.
I’d like to hope that Bethesda andOblivion Remasteredco-developer Virtuos would pay more attention to this in aFallout 3remaster, asFallout’sheightened discrepency would be a lot harder to ignore in development. Even so, it’s an odd thing to have overlooked in the generally ambitiousOblivionremaster. Touching up a few NPCs here and there to fit their context better couldn’t have been that demanding, and it makes it feel like the bulk of NPC design was spent on building an adequate template and system for conversion rather than worrying about individuals.
By all appearances, key NPCs received special individual attention, although the end result of characters like Uriel Septim is still a bit doll-like for my taste.
I have other concerns about aFallout 3remaster— I’m apprehensive about how it will handle (or ignore) thecontroversial green tint, for example — and at the end of the day, I’m probably not the real target audience for the remasters. Ensuring that the NPCs fit the world goes well beyond style preferences, however, and I think most potential players would feel more immersed if the citizens of the Wasteland don’t spruce themselves up too much.Oblivion Remastered’s NPC overhauls don’t make or break the experience, but inFalloutremasters, they very well could.Source:SuperBreadBox/Reddit
