Despite the fresh coat of paint and subtle improvements, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered is still the same game I've spent nearly two decades playing. For that reason, I came into the remaster intent on making it really feel fresh, which meant abandoning the comfortable routine I've settled into across my many playthroughs. This has taken a few changes in direction – no more rushing to become Grand Champion, for starters – but more importantly, I've slowed things right down.
It's an approach I'm calling Tourist Mode, which is essentially just Adept difficulty with a few caveats. Fast travel is relegated to emergency use only (see: egregious cases of backtracking), my character needs to sleep in a bed every night, and – this one's a little vaguer – I'm trying to avoid bouncing from one quest objective to the next, which encourages a more freewheeling style of adventuring.
As part of this, I've taken to loitering in Cyrodiil's cities to get the most out of visiting them. Sometimes that turns up a fun side quest to pass the day before staying at an inn for the night, but having something to complete isn't mandatory – yesterday, for example, I hiked along Anvil's coastline because one resident told me the views were nice. They are!
But the real backbone of Tourist Mode has been tackling the Dark Brotherhood questline whilst trying to join the Mages Guild. While the Dark Brotherhood's targets are scattered all over Cyrodiil, the latter of which requires getting a recommendation from a guild branch in each of the game's major cities. It's sort of like a travelling salesman trying to earn a degree while out on the road, except the travelling salesman is a bloodthirsty assassin and the degree is actually a license to cast spells that make rats invisible. It's also, conveniently, an excuse to see Cyrodiil through fresh eyes for the first time in 19 years.
Take a picture
At 7am, I leave my room in Imperial City's Tiber Septim Hotel and pass through the city's gates. I'm on my way to Skingrad, and although the road from Imperial City rises over hills and past goblin-infested caves, I make good time and get into the city by lunch. I pop in and out of shops to sell baubles I've picked up along the way, dawdling to admire the city's winding medieval architecture.
Skingrad isn't my favorite city in Cyrodiil – it's a little too clean and grey for my liking – but after spending a good chunk of 2025 in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, I've got a newfound appreciation for its practical design. From the way its castle sits above the town, protected by gates and narrow bridges, you can see Skingrad was designed not as a hub for the player's convenience, but as a real medieval city would have been; ready to withstand wholly theoretical battles and sieges. This is, I'm only realizing while typing this out, around the point where my tourism meter hit peak Dad On Holiday.
When I finally get around to business, it's evening and a thunderstorm has rolled in. My favorite quest in Oblivion – Whodunit? – takes place at Skingrad's Summitmist Manor, where five party guests have gathered for a treasure hunting lock-in. As the sixth guest – and more crucially, a Dark Brotherhood assassin – it's the player's job to kill everyone inside, with a bonus on offer if you can do that without ever being suspected as the murderer. I'll spare you the exact details (in the hopes that you're yet to experience it for the first time) but by the time I leave Summitmist Manor to find an inn, it's dead of night and Skingrad has five fewer citizens.
The next morning, I stay in Skingrad to earn a recommendation from the city's Mages Guild chapter. The associated quest takes me in and out of the city to rescue a wayward wizard from a cave, but it's a straightforward job and it's not long before I'm on the road back to the Dark Brotherhood's sanctuary in Cheydinhal. The trip bagged me a completed Dark Brotherhood contract, another recommendation closer to stepping foot in the Arcane University, and – best of all – a renewed fondness for Skingrad.
I've stuck to this slow, savoring playstyle for a little over 20 hours by this point, and every city has a similar experience – kill someone in the area, get in good with the local mages, and spend a little time doing nothing. Rejecting intention has made Cyrodiil feel fresh and new in a way that goes beyond even the remaster's fancy visuals, and to get the most out of Oblivion I'd encourage everyone to try Tourist Mode (patent pending).
When it comes to classics, I think we have a tendency to beeline toward the known quantities, the best bits (I'm certainly guilty of that with Whodunit?). But over time, that reduces an entire world to scenery through a train window. Instead of rushing to relive those fond memories, join me in making some new ones. Take a hike along Anvil's coast, clear a few dungeons if the mood takes you, then spend the night in definitely-not-haunted Benirus Manor. Book a room in Cheydinhal Bridge Inn, and stick around to find a missing artist or dealing with a corrupt guard. Or do none of that – it's your holiday!
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