The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has been a favorite of mine since its launch in 2006, in fact, I take that back, it is my favorite game. I, along with many other fans have been eagerly anticipating the release of a specific overhaul ‘mod’ that re-builds Oblivion in Skyrim’s much more advanced engine. The “Skyblivion” project has been in development solely by volunteers of the Elder Scrolls Renewal Project for around 12 years now. So it’s safe to say that it’s been slow going, but we recently got a quest walkthrough video of two popular quests in the game, and the gameplay looks stunning.
The project is led by Rebelzize and has a team size of over 50 volunteers. According to the Press page on the official website for Skyblivion, the port took 4 years, to port Oblivion into the Skyrim engine, and the full remaster commenced in 2016. As far as we know, the release date is still on track for 2025.
Skyblivion gameplay walkthrough shows off two quests
The walkthrough follows two quests, Fingers of the Mountain parts 1 and 2, and Killing Fields. It was strange to watch these quests unfold, as I was filled with a resounding sense of familiarity, but everything looked so much better. It looked like a very heavily modded Oblivion but ran as smoothly as Skyrim.
I won’t ruin the quests for you but note that they are a fantastic showcase of the progress that the team has made already. The game feels overhauled but still feels true to its roots which I feel is incredibly important for a remaster like this.
I can say from personal experience that Oblivion does not play nicely when modding heavily, the game engine was not made to support modding to such a great extent. I have sometimes spent upward of 40 hours modding a fresh Oblivion install just have ruined it on the last mod. So I have an incredible appreciation for what all these volunteers are doing.
If you think you have the skills to help out, the Skyblivion Development team is always looking for more volunteers, you can visit their volunteer page.
This is a personal interest for me, I could write for days about how much I love Oblivion and how much it changed the face of RPGs forever, but I’ll save that for another article. What I will say is that out of all the games that are set to release in 2025, this is the thing I’m most excited about.
