Following the release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered earlier this year, the long in-development fan remake Skyblivion is almost here. Remaking the fourth Elder Scrolls game in Skyrim’s engine, the team has been working for over a decade on its expanded take on Bethesda’s classic.
Following the fan remake’s lengthy development, the team behind the Skyblivion project has released a 15-minute gameplay showcase of its opening tutorial, and it goes even further than the official remaster.
Shown on YouTube, the gameplay showcase doesn’t have the same Unreal Engine 5 fidelity as Bethesda’s official release, but there’s a lot of changes to the original compared to the recently released version.
For example, Skyblivion changes gameplay elements of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to be closer to Skyrim with overhauled combat while still maintaining what I adore about the fourth game. The team has even created a brand-new lockpicking mini-game that’s a clever mix of the original with elements from The Elder Scrolls Online.
But most impressive is just how handcrafted everything is now as Oblivion’s dungeons—the most criticised part of the game—have been significantly overhauled. In the game’s opening sewer tutorial, the huge crack in the cave’s ceiling now shows the region of Cyrodil above it with region-specific wildlife flying overhead.
“We’ve worked to make Skyblivion grounded,” the team explained. “Our dungeons are now representative of the regions in which they’re located.”
Caves with goblin presences are also littered with goblin cave paintings of their specific tribes. This is to facilitate the returning Goblin Tribes mechanic, a mostly-removed part of Bethesda’s original release that allows you to set up wars between different goblin armies.
The tutorial doesn’t show off some of the most interesting additions to the Elder Scrolls remake such as the huge overworld changes. In Skyblivion, players will be able to experience expanded locations based on their original concept art as well as places entirely cut from the original release.
However, as small as it is, the most exciting part of the remake for me is the brand-new loading screens. In the Oblivion remake, the loading screens have been filled with gorgeous layered artwork that can be swayed from left-to-right as you read up on game hints. They look sublime, and so do other UI elements such as the new Birthsign and Class menus.
All-in-all, Skyblivion looks sublime, and the game is still set to be released later this year. Of course, the project will only be playable on PC, but Steam Deck users will likely get a kick out of the remake.
