Oblivion Remastered players flock to mod that restores "the colors and light of the original," and even The Witcher 4's narrative director needs those "intense greens that I had been missing"

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered doesn't officially support mods, but as we predicted, that hasn't stopped PC players from making their own, and one of the most popular so far aims to retouch the game's color palette to be more similar to the original 2006 RPG.

The Ayleid Reshade, available via Nexus Mods and created by Logriff, "is a reshade preset made to experience glorious visuals by reclaiming the colors and light of the original The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion while pushing the unreal engine 5 to show what it's made of!"

There haven't been too many criticisms of Oblivion Remastered in the 48 hours or so since its release, but one fairly prevalent critique is that its colors are muted in comparison to the original game – with more earthy tones and fewer vibrant colors. The Ayleid Reshade was seemingly designed specifically to address those complaints, and it's a big hit with PC players.

At the time of writing, the mod has almost 15,000 unique downloads, almost 100,000 views, and 148 endorsements from players.

Even The Witcher 4 narrative director Philipp Weber has endorsed the mod, with a tweet comparing the vanilla remaster's visuals with the mod's. And indeed, the green tones in the forest backdrop definitely pop a lot more compared to the base game, and there's a lot more color contrast. I think both versions look great, so it's really just up to personal preference.

"I'm really loving the Oblivion Remaster so far! The nostalgia hits hard," Weber said. "And as mandated by the gaming gods, I obviously had to mod it as well, getting back that vibrant look full of intense greens that I had been missing."

It's not surprising that Oblivion Remastered has been so well-received; it's essentially the same game from 2006 – complete with all of its glorious 2006-era jank – but prettier and packed with modern quality of life improvements.

And yes, despite looking like a brand new Elder Scrolls game, Bethesda has made it clear that it's definitely a remaster and not a remake.

My first 3 hours in Oblivion Remastered were crammed with 2006 weirdness, making it the perfect reimagining of my favorite RPG.