Five Games to Play Once You've Finished 'Oblivion: Remastered'

The surprise release of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered on April 22 shocked the gaming world, but what’s even more surprising is how many people lined up to play a 20-year-old RPG. It's been more than a month now, and both the new generation of RPG heads and nostalgic oldsters are wrapping up their return to Cyrodiil. It’s a deep game, but it’s not bottomless—so here are five more RPGs to check out if you're a fan of Oblivion.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)

The sequel to Oblivion is the most obvious choice for a follow-up to Oblivion. While Skyrim is a marginally more polished, focused, and serious RPG than Oblivion, the lore, style, and gameplay of these two games are very close. The main missing element in Skyrim is the spellcrafting system, but in place of customizing your own magic, Skyrim has dragon-shouts and dragons, so it's ultimately a wash. If Oblivion was your intro to The Elder Scrolls universe, you will really like Skyrim, I promise. Fus Ro Dah! You can play The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on Xbox systems, PlayStation systems, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2018)

The makers of Kingdom Come: Deliverance (and its sequel, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II) were clearly influenced by the Elder Scrolls game. They are first-person, action role-playing games with open world settings that allows players to develop whatever kind of character they want based on archetypes like warrior, bard, and thief. "Mage" or "wizard" aren't included, because the Kingdom Come games have no magic. They're meant to be historically realistic depictions of life in central Europe in the 15th century. But if you like intricate little systems that manage things like weapon wear and hunger, you'll love Kingdom Come. You can play Kingdom Come: Deliverance on PC, Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt (2015)

One of the few RPGs regarded as on par with Skyrim and Oblivion in terms of scope and quality, The Witcher III is a swords-and-magic RPG with a massive open world to explore and a deep universe and fully drawn world that seems alive. But it's more plot focused than Oblivion. You can only play as main character Geralt of Rivia instead of rolling your own, and Geralt has definite goals, so there's less of a focus on finding your own reason to exist. Still, in terms of ambition and attention to detail, The Witcher III is a match for Oblivion. You can play The Witcher III on PlayStation systems, Xbox systems, the Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992)

If you're curious about where the Elder Scrolls games came from, and you can deal with old-school controls and graphics, check out prehistoric RPG Ultima VII: The Black Gate, a landmark release that heavily influenced the Elder Scrolls games and every other RPG that followed it. Like Oblivion, U7 features a real-time open world with tons of NPCs and objects to interact with, and deep lore and story. U7 encouraged players to wander the world just checking things out and progressing at their own pace, too; it's just not in first-person. Ultima 7 shares a similar mix of ambition and goofiness with Oblivion as well. Just look the video posted above of the game's opening, in which the fourth wall is fully destroyed. Charming! You can play a port of Ultimate 7 on PC through Good Old Games.

Elden Ring (2022)

If Ultima VII represents past RPGs that inspired Oblivion, Elden Ring is the future of the genre. It's an immersive, addictive open world game that's heavy on exploration like Oblivion, but there are no quest-givers or books that explain the world. The lore is just as deep, but Elden Ring shows instead of tells, leaning on sandbox style play instead quest style. Then there's the combat. Oblivion improved on the "press A to swing sword" style of older RPGs, but Elden Ring turns it up to 11 by featuring intense fighting and magic mechanics that take real skill to master. You can play Elden Ring on Xbox systems, PlayStation systems, and PC.