As soon as The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remaster was announced, I downloaded it through Xbox Game Pass, but once I saw it was Steam Deck Verified, my excitement hit fever pitch, and I instantly dropped $50 on the Steam version with high hopes to play the game on my handheld.
Unfortunately, this was yet another harsh lesson about the limitations of the Steam Deck Verified program. Verified doesn’t mean “good to play,” and it absolutely should.
Fortunately, I realised my mistake very early on and managed to refund it before two hours of playtime were up, and I'm not the only one unhappy with the misleading 'verified' badge here.
Verified but buyer beware
Current state of Oblivion Remastered (and many other "verified" games) on Deck from r/SteamDeck
To be clear, my experience with the remaster on Steam Deck wasn’t a complete disaster. The game is technically playable. During the opening dungeon sequence, it held a stable 30 FPS, and combat with the assassins was smooth enough. But the real issues began as soon as I stepped outside.
As soon as my eyes were met with foliage, my Steam Deck started to sound like it was going to take off into space. Honestly, I've used quieter hotel room hairdryers (sorry if this analogy is too specific, it's a pet hate of mine).
The frames would dip as low as 15 frames if I went too near a building or tried to sprint, and while I could play like this for short spurts, I wouldn't call it a nice experience. This is with pretty much all graphical settings turned down to low too, so it doesn't really feel and look like a remaster anymore, I might as well play the original game.
Once I saw how beautiful the game was on Xbox, I knew I was doing it a disservice by trying to play it on the Deck. I'd also been chatting to my colleague Zachary Boddy, who was playing it on the ROG Ally X, which looks great and hits 50 FPS with ease.
After trying and failing with different settings, I decided to refund before I further committed to it.
Just play the original Oblivion if you want to play on the Steam Deck
Many others have shared their experience of trying the Oblivion Remaster on the Steam Deck, and the consensus right now is that if you want the best possible experience of the game on your Deck, then simply playing the original version with mods is the way to do it. It's also only around 7GB of space compared to the chunky 120GB the remaster demands.
I'm not a dab hand with mods myself, but our sister site PC Gamer has a fantastic article with some comparison shots between the original with mods and the remaster, with the former easily reaching 60 FPS and much less of a draw on your battery life.
How to mod Oblivion on Steam Deck with controller support
This is a tried and tested method that should take up to an hour to set up, but once done, you're in for the best experience of Oblivion on the Steam Deck, and it's also a hell of a lot cheaper than the Remaster.
Instructions from u/halycon8 on Reddit:
- Install Oblivion through the Deck's gaming mode.
- Run the game through Steam at least once.
- Switch to Desktop mode and Download xOBSE from Nexus Mods.
- Open the xOBSE .zip and copy obse_1_2_416.dll, obse_editor_1_2.dll, obse_steam_loader.dll, Data folder, and obse_loader.exe TO YOUR DESKTOP (or anything BESIDES the Oblivion directory.) Extracting these files directly to the game folder breaks the install somehow.
- Rename "OblivionLauncher.exe" in your game directory to something else like "originalOblivionLauncher.exe"
- Move the 3 .dlls, Data folder, and .exe from your desktop into the game directory
- Rename obse_loader.exe to "OblivionLauncher.exe"
- OBSE should be properly installed now - test by switching back to game mode and opening Oblivion through Steam, it shouldn't boot the original launcher anymore and you'll see a command window (black screen, white text) for a brief moment - make sure you actually load into the game world.
- You're almost done - Oblivion handles BSAs poorly so you need something called SkyBSA from Nexus Mods to get most mods to work.
- Download SkyBSA and extract the OBSE folder to your desktop like before - then move that folder into the Data folder of your Oblivion install directory. This should merge with an already existing OBSE folder.
- You should be ready to mod! Now download some proper controller support, head to NorthernUI on Nexus Mods. You can opt for a Skyrim style UI (the main file) or download the Vanilla Style to keep things looking like Oblivion.
- Again, extract the 4 folders to your desktop or wherever else you've been extracting to (not the install directory!!) - then from there, move the 4 folders into Oblivion's Data folder. Some people have issues copying these files if the game is installed on an SD card, if you run into this just recreate the folder structure within the Data folder and copy individual files over, not the whole folder. (For example, if the "menus" folder won't copy, create a "menus" folder within Oblivion's Data folder, and copy all the files/folders in the mod's "menus" folder into the Data "menus" folder)
- Congrats, Oblivion now has full controller support and is ready to be modded further if you wish. u/Halycon8 recommends the unofficial patches.
Additionally, you can also go so far as to install Mod Organizer 2 through this Reddit guide, which makes some mod installs easier.
The Steam Deck Verified program is borderline false advertising
I've completely accepted the limitations of my Steam Deck. I play many games on it, like Balatro, Blue Print, Vampire Survivors, and I'm perfectly happy with the device. I'm totally fine with it not playing the latest greatest titles, so the Steam Deck itself, or even not being able to run the Oblivion Remaster to an enjoyable standard, is not the issue here. The problem is with the Steam Deck Verified badge and how Valve is all too generous with the accolade.
The "Verified" badge itself indicates to me as a customer that this game will run well on my Steam Deck, and that's why I spent $50 without hesitation. Therein lies the issue that it's a sales tactic.
The Verified status implies that a game should perform well on the Steam Deck. However, the program's criteria don't mean the game will hit consistent performance benchmarks, such as maintaining a steady 30 frames per second.
This lack of quality control has led to situations where games like Remnant 2 and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 were initially marked as Verified despite performance issues, only to be later downgraded after user feedback highlighted issues.
The Steam Deck Verified program might benefit from more rigorous testing criteria. Rather than checking that games simply launch, but also that they perform consistently. That or add a new tier, 'GOD' (great-on-deck).
Should I play The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remaster on Steam Deck?
If you want the best experience with the remaster, I'd advise no. That isn't to say that you can't play it on the Deck, simply that for $50 it's a lot of money to play a remaster that will look like you're playing it through a screen smeared with vaseline (it's not pretty).
If the game had cloud save via Xbox accounts, like Avowed and Indiana Jones did, I would have kept my copy for short spurts on the move while playing the majority of the game on Xbox. However, it does not have Xbox save support on Steam.
For now, I am playing on console, and perhaps the Steam Deck edition will get some better optimization in the future. If it does, I'll grab it again when it's on sale!
