Now, if I can inject my own opinion in here for a moment, I’m really struggling with Oblivion at the moment. In terms of visuals, characters look great while environments boast remarkable detail, but it’s when you look at things at a distance that it all starts to fall apart.
Draw distance in Oblivion is pretty dire, and I found that multiple assets would pop in and out of view when moving across the environment – big ones too, like massive trees. Similarly, the game utilises variable animation LOD for characters and creatures in the distance. So you might spot a deer in the forest, but it’s practically flickering across the screen at a fraction of the usual frame rate.
With performance in general, poor frame pacing means that you’ll often see the camera judder and jump at random intervals during overworld traversal. Even static interiors struggle too: the upper floor of the Tiber Septim Hotel in the Imperial City ran horrendously to the point where I just left without bothering to use the bed.
So I’m keen to hear what you folks think. What review score would you give Oblivion on Switch 2? Don’t worry if you haven’t played enough of it yet to form a complete opinion; go with your gut instinct for now and you can always come back and change it later if need be.
I’m very curious to see what the general consensus is, though. Does Skyrim‘s disastrous launch on Switch 2 (which, credit due, has since been fixed) make Oblivion’s look good by comparison? Does its proper physical release make you more tolerant of its technical drawbacks?
