Oblivion Remastered Scrapped An Old Mechanic, But Fans Spotted It In A Trailer

Bethesda recently released a heartwarming video about the development of Oblivion and Oblivion Remastered. The studio gathered everyone still at Bethesda who worked on the original Oblivion, and had them watch the old “Making of Oblivion” documentary that shipped with the game’s collector’s edition.

It’s quite inspiring to see the same developers who worked on Oblivion still at the company almost 20 years later, a feat that’s becoming quite rare in the modern gaming industry, which has been hit with a constant barrage of layoffs and employee attrition over the past few years.

Atop my Paint Horse

Although the video is primarily just a heartening watch, eagle-eyed fans have spotted what appears to be a scrapped mechanic in the video’s last minute. There’s a shot of a player charging across a bridge outfitted in a suit of white armour, riding an armoured horse. This shot was in the reveal trailer, so nothing new there. However, the shot right before shows this same player from a first-person perspective while on horseback.

For those who haven’t played Oblivion Remastered yet, you can’t actually ride horses in first-person. This feature was available in the original Oblivion, but Oblivion Remastered forces you into third-person on horseback, much like Skyrim.

This was spotted by Skyhimonkey on Reddit, who writes “Getting forcefully pulled into third person for kill-cams, horse riding, or werewolf/vampire transformations was one of my least favourite changes with Skyrim. I want to be that character, and at no point want to get yanked to an over-the-shoulder view.”

The commenters are pointing out that, with Oblivion Remastered’s new sprinting mechanic, there is little reason to use a horse anymore. A horse can still be advantageous for those hoarders who are always over-encumbered. “I’ve just avoided horses to be honest, they feel way worse than I remember,” comments Stebsy1234.

In all likelihood, Virtuos intended to allow permanent first-person even on horseback. There was probably just an issue the studio couldn’t address by the launch date. There’s every chance this will be patched back in, in the near future.