Once in a while, I get the itch to play an Elder Scrolls game, specifically Morrowind, Oblivion, or Skyrim. I have sunk hundreds of hours into this franchise, and no matter how many times I put these games down, Todd Howard keeps calling me back, and I’m out adventuring in Tamriel again.

The type of open-world sandbox RPG games that Bethesda makes is unlike anything I’ve played before, they have a unique identity and design philosophy that sets them apart from other RPG games. Having all buildings have an interior you can visit, along with NPCs having a day and night cycle where they wake up, go to work, and go to bed, is incredible for immersion. I also love the way items work in Bethesda’s engine, where every inventory item could be placed into the world, picked up, and moved around. I hope Bethesda never abandons their creation engine because of this feature, their games won’t be the same without it.

Morrowind is a bizarre and alien environment where people ride giant bugs, live inside a dead crab, and wizards fly up to live in big mushroom towers. It’s a wacky setting, but the worldbuilding is detailed enough to keep the world grounded and interesting. Morrowind does not have quest markers; instead, you have to pay attention to NPC dialogue and directions to get a sense of where to go. Morrowind does not have fast travel either, unless you pay for a guy to take you to nearby cities on a giant insect, and I would often have to calculate the most economical route between two cities if the distance was great enough. The lack of fast travel or quest markers, coupled with the rich worldbuilding and incredible art direction, makes exploring the alien land of Morrowind thrilling and rewarding.

Skyrim is a game that is very important to me. While the game is a downgrade from previous Elder Scrolls games in terms of RPG elements, quests, and writing, what Skyrim nails is atmosphere and dungeons. Every Elder Scrolls game has an incredible soundtrack, but the Skyrim soundtrack is one of my favourite soundtracks of all time. During the quiet moments of exploration, the Skyrim soundtrack is very peaceful and meditative. I have spent hours walking through the snow and forests of Skyrim with the ambient soundtrack playing in very transformative years of my life, and the soundtrack still gives me chills every time I listen to it. The dungeons in Skyrim are spectacular, showcasing the rich history of the country with the remnants of advanced ancient civilizations deep underground. Some of the dungeons in Skyrim look marvelous and are a big step up from the caverns and mazes of previous Elder Scrolls games.

Oblivion’s setting of Cyrodiil doesn’t appear to be as interesting as Morrowind or Skyrim. On the surface, it looks like a fairly generic European high fantasy. However, Cyrodiil makes up for this by being a whimsical, goofy, and unhinged place. The people in this game are insane, and so many of the quests are hilarious because of this. The side quests are much more memorable than Skyrim, where most quests send you dungeon-crawling. The Shivering Isles DLC for Oblivion is also fantastic, it takes Oblivion’s insanity and whimsy even further by being centered on the daedric prince of madness and is easily one of my favourite video game expansions of all time.

When I initially heard about the leaks for Oblivion Remastered, I was skeptical. I did not have too much faith in a remaster, and assumed that the game would lose all of its charm and become dull. However, when I watched the livestream where the game was unveiled, I was blown away. The remaster overhauled visuals and created new assets for environments, characters, weapons, and armour. They also tweaked gameplay by changing the leveling system, making combat animations have more weight, and adding sprint to the game. The remaster looks incredible, is faithful to the original, and the changes made are impactful. It was also reasonably priced, costing 50 USD (67 CAD) for the game and all of its original DLC.

Bethesda is working on the 6th entry in the Elder Scrolls series at the moment. Many people, including me, have grown pessimistic about this release after the release of Starfield, which was painfully mediocre. Bethesda’s writing and quest design have fallen off, and remastering Oblivion has highlighted this, as new audiences can experience a different era of Bethesda on modern platforms. One hope I have with The Elder Scrolls 6 is that, unlike Starfield, it won’t be plagued with forgettable procedurally generated slop, and the world design will be detailed and crafted. I’m still worried about the writing, but I hope that Bethesda pulls through. The Elder Scrolls series means a lot to me, and I want to see the next installment be another memorable and grand adventure in Tamriel.