The Oblivion remake probably doesn’t need much of a procession to get sales, since the Elder Scrolls IP is one of the biggest in gaming and people have been waiting for a new title since what feels like the dawn of time. Still, Bethesda hasn’t got the best reputation right now, famed for being slow and producing disappointing mediocrity after Starfield, so some good press with an impressive remake would help matters, but players haven’t seen anything from this remake. Its use of Unreal Engine 5 could prove a problem too, and bring some uncomfortable questions for Bethesda.
Unreal Engine 5 Could Make Oblivion Look Better Than TES6
Unreal Engine 5 Has Impressed More Than The Creation Engine 2
The Oblivion remake will apparently use Unreal Engine 5, an engine famous for its incredibly impressive visuals, as seen in Black Myth: Wukong and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, despite Bethesda having a proprietary engine, the Creation Engine 2. The Creation Engine 2 hasn’t seen much use, only being used for Starfield. Many have critiqued the first Creation Engine for its age and inability to keep up with modern gaming standards, and while Bethesda made a new engine to keep up, it hasn’t impressed many thus far with its visuals. An Unreal Engine 5 project will likely look better.
Remove Ads
Elden Ring uses FromSoftware’s proprietary engine, code-named Dantelion.
The Demon’s Souls remake still looks incredible, being developed by Bluepoint Games, and has better graphical fidelity than Elden Ring, but Elden Ring has strong art design and a massive, near-unparalleled open world, which allowed these differences to be ignored shortly after the game released. ES6 might not get this luxury due to the criticism Bethesda has been under for years. If the Oblivion remake ends up looking better than ES6 (from a graphical fidelity point of view), while having modern gameplay, it only serves to make Bethesda look worse, especially given Virtuos’ alleged involvement with the remake.
UE5 Will Still Allow Oblivion’s Modding Community To Thrive
Hogwarts Legacy Provides A Great Example
Remove Ads
One of the biggest concerns regarding an engine switch is the negative effect it could have on the modding community. Bethesda titles have the best modding communities, especially Skyrim, which I have modded and played to absurdity for almost fourteen years. The modding community is what makes Bethesda games immortal if said community latches onto the title, but there are concerns that this unique aspect, credited to the Creation Engine and how easily fans have been able to manipulate it, will be lost should the developer switch to Unreal Engine 5.
Each Bethesda game using the Creation Engine 1 and 2 comes with a free Creation Kit to help with the modding process.
Although some of the versatility could be lost, Unreal Engine games have benefited from strong modding communities. This is the best seen in Hogwarts Legacy and its mod support. It doesn’t compare to Skyrim‘s and uses Unreal Engine 4, but with Unreal Engine being available to everyone, putting assets into a UE5 game should be relatively easy, especially if mod toolkits are made for it. Hopefully, the Oblivion remake will benefit from this, with a versatile Unreal Engine modding toolkit that allows players to replicate at least a portion of what Skyrim modders have managed to accomplish.
Hogwarts Legacy‘s modding community is quite impressive, and likely the most expansive for an Unreal Engine title, with its most endorsed mod, Ascendo 3, having over 800 thousand downloads on Nexus Mods. This could provide an insight into how modding for the Oblivion in Unreal Engine 5 will work. Hopefully, with UE5’s graphics, mods won’t be needed for visuals and will find more use in making content. Implementing a script extender, which exists for practically all Bethesda titles, might be trickier with an UE5; however, and could put up some barriers, although an Unreal Engine game hasn’t been taken that far where extreme mods are concerned.
Creation Engine 2 Is A Problem For Elder Scrolls 6
It Hasn’t Impressed With Starfield
No matter how people feel about Starfield, it is hard to defend the game’s lackluster visuals. It isn’t the prettiest game, which has never been Bethesda’s specialty, although the visuals looked dated despite using a new engine. It isn’t clear whether the dated visuals are entirely attributed to the engine, but Starfield wasn’t the best showing for the Creation Engine 2 and there have been concerns ever since. Some didn’t even realize the game was using a new engine, and ever since Unreal Engine 5 started to become prominent, a subsection of Bethesda fans have been calling for its use.
The subsection in opposition has stated that moving to Unreal Engine 5 could remove a lot of what makes Bethesda games unique, and this could be true, although Unreal is proving moderately capable with its modding communities. It should also be noted that Creation Engine 2 hasn’t been given a fair shot yet, being used for only one game, but if the Oblivion remake looks better, has fewer bugs, and keeps most of the modding capabilities, it won’t look good for Creation Engine 2. Still, there is proof that Bethesda’s new engine hasn’t shown off everything it can do yet.
Given that it is new and that Starfield was made under strange circumstances (during the Microsoft take-over), perhaps Creation Engine 2 is more impressive than many give it credit for. Modders haven’t latched onto the game as heavily as others to explore the limitations of the engine, but the average player might not care. If The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion‘s remake looks better with Unreal Engine 5, cuts down on bugs, and still has decent modding support, it could put Bethesda between a rock and a hard place with The Elder Scrolls 6, especially if it fails to meet expectations.
