A fantasy adventure is nothing without some dungeons to explore, whether it be a simple cave on the roadside or a portal to another dimension. Oblivion - and by extension, Oblivion Remastered - includes both, with hundreds of delves to embark on as you wander the wild forests and mountains of Cyrodiil.

However, creating this many unique locations would be quite the undertaking, though one likely made easier with the rise of more advanced environmental design tools and procedural generation, which can provide impressive foundations without delivering as much repetition as they once did.

But way back in the olden days of 2006, game development was a different beast, and Oblivion’s scale was considered immense. Somehow, despite all that, the way these dungeons were designed allowed the game to still hold up now, in 2025.

“It’s A Lot Like A Lego Set In A Way, Except Far More Complex And Detailed.”

This quote from Todd Broadwater, a dungeon designer on The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, captures exactly what was so exciting about the prospect of this development almost 20 years ago.

To most efficiently create the number of dungeons in Oblivion, the environments were designed in segments, so they could be snapped together on a grid-based system.

As a result, the dungeons of Oblivion are simple and repetitive, especially by today’s standards, but in a sort of… believable way? I’m sure that, in real life, I’d probably feel like caves are pretty same-y if I were to delve in 17 consecutively, and after a few Aylied ruins, I’m going to be somewhat familiar with their culture’s architectural habits - but they don’t need to be more than that. I know what to expect with these dungeons, but I’ll get lost in each and every layout as I comb through them.

But what adds to this, especially when compared to Skyrim, is just how easy it is to get lost. Skyrim’s caves and dungeons tend to be designed with a path in mind, usually with visual elements to lead you through, and a shortcut back to the start. Oblivion’s dungeons are intended to deliver the simple joys of fighting enemies and picking up some loot, with no discernible definitive path through most of them.

When you come to a fork in the cavern corridors, going either left or right will lead you down a maze of even more enemies and even more loot – the choice you make isn’t as important as the experience. It’s almost impossible to find your way out of a dungeon once you’ve gone in, and I love that. Thank the Nine for Clairvoyance.

And Then We Have The Realm Of Oblivion Itself

I would be remiss to talk about dungeons in Oblivion and not mention the actual Daedric dimension in question. In every Oblivion playthrough, there are 60 Oblivion gates you can enter and explore, with the goal of shutting down each one. Ten of these are tied to the story, but the remaining 50 will be dotted around the world, moving from location to location, and won’t have set interiors.

You might walk a road you’ve been down countless times, only now to find that an Oblivion gate has decimated a section of forest. Heading in, the game will pull from a pool of pre-created Oblivion maps, never letting you be sure which one you’ll get. Sure, if you tackle all 50 gates, you’ll see duplicates as the pool isn’t that big, but it just takes the game further in its love for giving us adventure through dungeons.

Oblivion gives me that sense of adventure like no other game, and even now, in 2025, I hold a lot of appreciation for the way it delivers dungeons. They’re maze-like, they’re pointless, and they’re simple - but that’s exactly what makes them brilliant.

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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

Action RPG Open-World Adventure Systems 19 8.5/10 Released April 22, 2025 ESRB Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Violence Developer(s) Virtuos, Bethesda Publisher(s) Bethesda
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