The developers of the Skyblivion remake mod for Skyrim have just released their first major development update since the surprise release of Oblivion Remastered, and they seemed keen to prove how their project stands apart as a more full-on remake of the 2006 RPG.
And boy, did they come out of the gate swinging with the reveal of an ambitious dungeon complex based on Sutch, a planned eighth full city that was cut from the original game and replaced with a single dinky fort.
As recorded by the indispensable UESP, evidence of Sutch the town remains in Oblivion thanks to journal entries that were never updated, an early version of Oblivion’s credits background, and the suspiciously flat terrain around the fort, space aplenty for one of Oblivion’s walled cities that makes it look like the investors fled the project after the contractors already laid the foundation.
Skyblivion will expand Fort Sutch into an entire city ruin inhabited by bandits, while it will presumably also remain the site of a Dark Brotherhood quest and unmarked side quest centering on Imperial Legion troops trying to contain an Oblivion gate.
This is just the kind of change, inspired by a deep love and knowledge of Oblivion, that gets me excited to jump right back into Cyrodiil even after 55 hours and counting in Oblivion Remastered.
The expansions don’t stop there: Skyblivion will also dramatically reconfigure the gorgeous coastal town of Anvil into a horseshoe shape hugging a more prominent harbor.
The team is also working to apply unique models and even special attacks to Oblivion’s many unique weapons. The new hilt of legendary bad boy blade Umbra, for example, now has a gnarly assemblage of skulls practically bubbling out of the metal, or maybe latched onto it like barnacles.
Perhaps an even bigger change than Sutch is the addition of a second biome for the game’s Oblivion gate dungeons. All the lava and brimstone, while iconic, could get a little old after a while. Skyblivion will add a stormy, acidic swamp environment to the rotation, inspired by “The Sever” introduced in The Elder Scrolls Online.
We still don’t have a release date, but the team sounds committed to getting Skyblivion out before the end of the year. Meanwhile, the next dev diary finally promises to reveal what Skyblivion has planned for the Imperial City, one of my favorite urban environments in any RPG.
