Skyblivion lead confirms the fan-made remake eliminates some of Oblivion’s unique charm due to the “streamlined” Skyrim engine’s surprise lack of jank 

All of Bethesda’s open-world RPGs have a great deal of jank associated with them, but none have more jank than The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. By the grace of God, or Todd, the unique bizarreness of the original game was beautifully retained in Bethesda and Virtuos’ official remake of the game earlier this year, but the long-in-development fan remake Skyblivion will not. 

In a recent interview, Skyblivion Project Lead Rebelzize explained that the more “streamlined” Skyrim engine immediately eliminates a lot of the original Oblivion’s kooky behaviour, but that doesn’t mean the fan remake is completely lacking the original’s charm. 

Skyblivion is a very different form of Oblivion 

Speaking in the interview, Rebelzize explained that the Creation Engine powering Skyrim simply doesn’t behave in the same way that Oblivion’s Gamebryo engine does. While many have (wrongfully) claimed that the engines are the same because they share common issues, the tools behind Skyrim are significantly more advanced. 

One of Oblivion’s biggest issues, which has become its biggest strength for the sake of funsies, is its handling of AI. Characters will talk over each other, get lost in their own walk cycles and behave in wild ways that simply don’t happen in Skyrim’s tools. 

“Just the way Skyrim’s engine is a lot more streamlined, those bugs often don’t survive the transition,” the project lead said. “If it’s purely interesting dialog or delivery of lives, that stuff will still be goofy. I think in a lot of cases, the quests themselves are just really well written, or written in a way that it’s maybe not supposed to be funny, but the way it plays out is funny. Stuff like that, to an extent, will still happen, but I think it’s a much more mature experience.”

While I’m glad that the official Oblivion Remastered project kept the bizarre technical mess that is The Elder Scrolls IV alive and well under its shiny new hood, Skyblivion is a different beast. It’s a full remake with expanded quests, overhauled locations to match the game’s original concept art, there’s brand-new content and actual working Goblin Tribes. 

Bethesda has described The Elder Scrolls games as one potential take on a legendary story, and Skyblivion is just that, another take. The official version of Oblivion may be some drunkard’s tale of the Hero of Kvatch’s journey in a dirty old tavern somewhere in Cyrodil as he speaks over himself and takes quick vomit breaks. Skyblivion is another storyteller with a different style and, considering it’s still built on Creation Engine, may also be slightly tipsy. 

Skyblivion is a more mature take on the adventure 

While the official Oblivion does have some pretty grim elements, Rebelzize explains that the team’s goal is to make the game “more mature” overall. While the fan project still retains the fun of the original, it’s also aiming to be something more. 

“I’m looking right now at a corpse that I’ve placed very specifically in an area where the player can miss it of a burned person and their child, they’re cradled together,” Rebelzize explained in the interview. “There’s a lot more fleshed out and more mature designs in the game that I hope really sell [the idea] that the world that these people live in is literally aflame, and it’s death everywhere you look. There’s a lot more urgency because this is what’s going to happen all over the place.”

Skyblivion finally launches later this year after more than a decade in development. Launching Day One on GOG’s new easy-install One Click Mod program, the massive fan project is almost here. After seeing dozens of huge fan projects like Fallout Neuvo Mexico crumble while Skyblivion has been slow-cooking to perfection, it’s exciting to see the project actually release.