Oblivion stands as a bit of an odd game in the Elder Scrolls universe. Widely criticized for not being Morrowind when it came out, it’s now the golden child of everyone who has problems with Skyrim. If you want to experience the game at its best, though, you’ll want to seek out a few mods that help bring it up to date. Below are just a few of the Best Oblivion mods out there, ranging from those that fix lingering tech issues to those that help make the game much more playable (and enjoyable) on modern machines.
Unofficial Oblivion Patch
Oblivion was a great game. Very nearly generation-defining, in fact. It was, however, also a game made by Bethesda which means that it was full of bugs from the beginning. While a great deal of work was done to improve this during the game’s active development, there was still a lot of work to be done after it was finished. The Unofficial Oblivion Patch stepped in to continue the work done by Bethesda, fixing a fair number of the bugs that were leftover. This is a less a good mod to have and more of a mod that’s necessary for steady play.
Oblivion Character Overhaul v. 2
As lovely as it is to play through Oblivion, one must admit that the game looks a bit dated. While it was a stunning masterpiece at its release, even then everyone thought that the faces looked awful. A fairly consistent problem across the developer’s game, one of the most anticipated mods to any Bethesda game is the mod that fixes the faces. While this mod may not make the characters look perfect, it makes them look far better than they did on release day. This mod is a nice quality of life improvement for any player.
Midas’ Magic Spells of Aurum
Who doesn’t want more magic in Oblivion? While the magic system was fine in the game, it was definitely lacking that special something that was present in Morrowind. Midas’ Magic Spells might not go back to the old system, but it definitely brings a ton of fun into the game with hundreds of new spells. While some of them are quite silly, a few of the spells definitely take up the top tier in the game’s magical arsenal. A must-play for anyone who has a magic-focused character.
Light There Be Darkness
This mod is great, but only for a very specific subset of players. Do you enjoy using the various illumination or dark-vision spells in the game? If so, do you often find yourself frustrated because of all the ambient lighting in the dungeons? If so, this is the mod for you. It adds a little more strategy and depth to the underground areas in Oblivion for those players who want to use their entire spellbook. As a bonus, it also adds a great deal of tension back to these spaces for the unprepared. Definitely one of the best Oblivion mods for immersion.
Better Dungeons
The dungeons in Oblivion were a little repetitive once you got used to them. While this is a forgivable offense in a game with a world of this size, it doesn’t make them any more fun to play through. If you want to get a little more mileage out of the random dungeons you encounter. While there’s only so much that this mod can do with the existing game, you’ll enjoy not seeing the exact same layout every three dungeons. Definitely another mod for those who want to play for lengthy stretches at a time.
Realistic Leveling
Oblivion did many things right. One thing it arguably did wrong, though, was its leveling system. The system is so despised that it was radically overhauled in the next game and that many mods have tried to fix it since it was implemented. One of the better mods for fixing this process is Realistic Leveling, which takes a great deal of the math out of the game and arguably provides the kind of experience the developers were trying to implement in the first place.
DarNified UI
Oblivion’s UI was a mess. It’s what happens when a UI is optimized for a console but released on PC in the same state. This is another type of mod that’s very popular, but DarNified definitely pulls off the transition the best. It’s not going to radically change the game itself, but it will make the game much easier to look at. Consider this one of the better tools for improving the game on the PC and one that you’ll want to install the moment you begin to feel that the default UI just wasn’t put together for your monitor.