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Every year at Creation Mod Con, a showcase for the Skyrim modding community, the Skyblivion team gets to show off their remake of Oblivion in the Skyrim engine. This year it’s a real treat: the tutorial dungeon that takes you from an insulting dark elf, through your meeting with Emperor Sir Patrick Stewart, battles with the cultists of the Mythic Dawn, into the sewers, and then out into the bright light of day.
Skyblivion’s philosophy is that of a remake rather than a remaster, so unlike Oblivion Remastered it’ll have redesigned dungeons that, as with Skyrim’s underground death mazes, climax with a shortcut leading out to freedom or back to the beginning. The tutorial dungeon doesn’t need one, of course, and has been deliberately left fairly vanilla so as not to shock your delicate sensibilities too much. But it’ll be interesting to see how much has changed in Cyrodiil beyond the sewer.
“For many fans, stepping out of the tutorial dungeon and into the open world is the defining Elder Scrolls moment,” says Skyblivion project lead Kyle (AKA Rebelzize). “To see that recreated in Skyblivion, with all the artistry and passion our team as poured in, from the emperor’s face, new custom menus, the dungeon design itself and the quest systems needed to get it to function, is a surreal reminder of how far the project has came over the past 10 years. It represents a culmination of years of dedication marking the start of the players’ journey and offers a glimpse of the world we have all built together. There are many different departments and individuals who have contributed to bring this opening segment to life and it’s truly a celebration of all of their talents and contributions to the project.”
Plenty of things have changed, like the lockpicking—a new system inspired in part by the lockpicking in The Elder Scrolls Online, as well as Oblivion’s original hateful minigame—and there’s a definite Skyrim-ness to the animations. The Emperor even does that thing where he goes to fold his arms then immediately changes his mind, a familiar Skyrim motion. One tiny thing that’s the same as it was in Oblivion is that the final rat in the sewer is friendly and can be walked past without combat, which was a nice touch to spot.
If you’d like to see more, you can hop into the livestream at the point the tutorial dungeon finished and see a little extra footage, including the first area of an Ayleid ruin, some open world roaming, and the settlements of Cheydinhaal and Anvil, which looks lovely at night.
Work on Skyblivion continues apace, but if you’d like to help it across the finish line the team is still looking for volunteers.
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