The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remasteredtook everyone by surprise when it was first announced - well, aside from those constantly online - especially considering it was shadow dropped. However, that didn’t stop it from reaching number one in the charts and having a staggeringly high player count for any game, let alone a single-player title. You would expect, then, of the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people playingOblivion Remastered, that at least the majority of them would have beaten the game’s campaign. Right?
Well, as it happens, not that many people have actually beatenOblivion Remastered, something that shocks us all. This is despiteOblivion Remastered’smany changesblowing many away, especially those who had played it all the way back in 2006. It is also despite the fact that a lot of people who have never played it before likely picked it up for the first time. While certainly interesting,I believe there is a very good reason, or two, behind why no one has beatenOblivion Remastered, and frankly, it doesn’t bode well for a potentialFallout 3remaster.
Only 7% Of People Have Finished Oblivion Remastered
So Few Have Beaten The Campaign
Earlier this week, it transpired that a measly 3% of people had completedThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, despite it being one of themost successful remastersof all time. That’s a very disappointing figure for a number of reasons, but largely becauseit means either no one has bothered to actually beat the campaign because they’re too busy exploring, or they’ve just dropped the game entirely. Either way, it doesn’t speak to the quality ofOblivion Remastered’snarrative or storytelling chops.
That figure has increased since those initial reports, with, as of the time of writing,TrueAchievementsstating that7% of players have completed the Champion of Cyrodiil achievement, which you get for beating the main story. Even so, what makes this figure surprising, at least in my opinion, is thatOblivion Remasteredisn’t hardin the slightest. Completing the main story should only take players around 16 hours, according toHow Long To Beat, and can be done even quicker in my experience. Even with getting distracted by the open world, finishing the main story shouldn’t take long.
Of course, by all accounts,Oblivion Remasteredis a masterpiece, with many praising its numerous improvements and the great qualities it still holds, even nearly two decades later. So,there must be another reason why no one has bothered to complete the main story. I doubt it’s the narrative’s quality, as while it may not be the most inspired story of all time, at the very least,Elder Scrollsfans will get a kick out of it, and newcomers will have never experienced it before. I think there is far more to this low completion rate than meets the eye.
Oblivion Remastered Being On Game Pass May Have Hurt It
People Just Try When They Don’t Buy
One of the most obvious reasons for the lack of people completingOblivion Remastered’smain story is the Xbox Game Pass effect. Much like any streaming service,it is very easy to start playing a game on Xbox Game Pass and never finish it. That’s because, unlike buying a boxed or digital product at full price, you have no financial incentive or motivation to continue it. You’ve also likely got choice paralysis thanks to the overwhelming number ofgreat Xbox Game Pass gamescoming to the service every month.
So, when it comes to a game likeOblivion Remastered, which is huge and filled with a variety of content,it isn’t hard to imagine people trying it for a few hours before stopping and playing something else, potentially with the intention of coming back to it later. It doesn’t help thatClair Obscur: Expedition 33launched practically alongside it on Game Pass, and that had generated perhaps evenmore buzz thanOblivion Remasteredonce the novelty of the shadow drop wore off. Two other RPGs,AtomfallandAvowed, had also been added to the service in the months prior.
However, beyond the Xbox Game Pass effect,I believeOblivion Remastered’slow completion rate also has to do with the fact that, much like other remasters, the novelty wears off quickly.Oblivion Remastered’smajor flawis that, while certainly tweaking minor aspects of the gameplay, it does little to add substantially to the experience. That’s fine, especially considering it isn’t a remake, but it does mean that a lot of people will have picked up the game to see how much has changed, and once they get a taste for it, they drop it in favor of something new.
It is hard to sustain interest in something you’ve played hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Replaying a game can be a lot of fun, especially when it has shiny new visuals, but unless you’ve got nothing else to do and you’re 100% committed to that experience, there is little incentive to do so to completion. That won’t be true of everyone, of course, and some people may not have completed the story yet because Oblivion really is that massive, butI do think a general lack of interest in an experience you’ve played repeatedly years before doesn’t really help.
Oblivion Remastered’s Completion Rate Could Hurt A Fallout 3 Remaster
People May Feel Like The Novelty Has Worn Off
It is this latter point that has me worried about thepotentialFallout 3remasteron the horizon. While not a guarantee, especially ifOblivion Remastered’soverall sales - excluding player counts on Game Pass - do badly, it is likely that Bethesda will look to remaster its vast back catalog as it has done withSkyrimfor over a decade by this point. However,I wonder if a general lack of enthusiasm forOblivion’smain story could lead to people realizing that fancy visuals and minor gameplay tweaks aren’t enoughto warrant paying $60 for a game they’ve played to death.
That’s not to say that aFallout 3remaster won’t be as incredible asOblivion Remastered, but rather that people may not be as enthused a second time now that the novelty of seeing an old Bethesda game in Unreal Engine 5 has worn off. I realized almost immediately after buyingOblivion Remasteredon day one that shiny new visuals could never account for my familiarity with the core, unchanged experience. It may just be me, buteven despite my love forFallout 3being as great as my love forOblivion, I’m doubtful I’ll make the same mistake twice.
There is value in remasters as they both help preserve an old game on modern hardware while also introducing a new wave of people to the core experience. However,Oblivion Remasterednever felt like just a remaster, and, as a result, was more expensive as a result. ShouldFallout 3also cost $60 or even $80, thanks to being made from the ground up in UE5, that could pose a problem. I’m certain that theFallout 3remaster will be incredible. I just suspect it may perform worse financially on account of so few people bothering to finishOblivion Remastered.
