Last year, I celebrated The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’s anniversary by listing my favourite mods. While this year does not mark another anniversary, I figured why not create another mod list! The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is still my favourite game in the series, despite how dated it is. So, if you’re having a hard time enjoying this classic game, never fear! Chuck on these 7 Must have Mods for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and you’ll be fully immersed in no time!
Kvatch Rebuilt
Anyone who has played through the main quest in Oblivion knows how annoying it is that Kvatch is somehow still on fire even years later. It’s also a shame that you never really get to experience Kvatch as a city. Well, this mod fixes that, and immersively too! Over a series of quests, you can rebuild the city, complete with NPCs and even a fully working arena. The city honestly looks amazing once fully rebuilt. It’s almost unbelievable to think this is a user created mod and not just part of the vanilla game. If it bothers you too that an entire city on the map is unplayable due to the main quest, then this mod will fix that right up for you!
Oblivion Character Overhaul
While Oblivion is a great game, the character models leave a lot to be desired. Let’s be honest… they all basically look like potatoes. If you are a bit of a lazy modder like me, this overhaul is perfect! It adds better skin tones, eye colours and textures to character models. And this isn’t just for one race or one gender, it’s all of them! This even includes Khajiits and Argonians which can sometimes be hard to mod well. While I did have to fight with my game to actually get this mod to install, it’s well worth the trouble! It also overhauls all the NPC’s faces automatically too, so you’ll never have to see any of the terrifying potato people again!
Elven Map Redux
To be honest, I don’t really mind the default map in Oblivion. That being said, I do think it could do with a little more magic. Cyrodiil has such a stunning, bright vista that it’s a shame the map is so bland. That’s why this map overhaul is my personal favourite! This mod still feels like an old school map, all the while adding in a sprinkle of colour and magic. It also overhauls the location markers for places, which is so helpful! The colours make it far easier to see what place is what. It’s just such a useful quality of life mod, that adds just enough to spice things up, without losing the traditional map feel.
Ground Cover for No Grass Textures
Despite my love for this game… it is old. That means certain things are lacking, and one of those is in the environment. Sadly, a lot of the “grassy” areas are left pretty barren, merely just adding grass textures to the flat ground instead of 3-dimensional grass. Now I know you’re saying, “it’s just grass, who cares!” But there is nothing more immersive than the gentle swaying of fully 3D-rendered grass. When you’re exploring the beautiful wilderness of Cyrodiil, the lack of grass can really take you out of things. So, this mod adds just a nice amount of subtle grass into these sparse areas to fill them up, and looks perfect!
Better Cities
If you can only install one mod to your Oblivion, this is it! Words can’t describe how incredible this mod is. Not only does it overhaul every single major city in the game, but it does it so well you almost think you’re in a different game entirely! The Imperial City in particular feels so much more alive, with an array of brand-new stores, some of which also pop up in other cities too. It also incorporates a number of other mods, including introducing a bank, a courier service, and adding in a number of new books. If you are playing your Oblivion without this mod, you are doing it wrong!
Ren’s Beauty Pack
This is solely due to the fact that the vanilla hairs make me want to cry! This pack comes with around 18 new hairs, including hairs with bandanas if you are going for a more bandit style run. Additionally, it also comes with a new race called the “Mystic Elf.” This race is more of a traditional looking elf with softer features, unlike the High Elves or Wood Elves. This is such a simple pack with a few nice ways to customize your character. If you’re a lazy modder like me and don’t like sifting through page after page of hair mods, then this is a very useful pack.
Better Benirus Manor
If you’re anything like me, you always end up buying Benirus Manor in Anvil. Anvil is one of my favourite cities, and the Manor is not a bad investment once you get past all the ghosts, and the evil wizard dude in the basement. Problem is, even once it’s cleaned up, it doesn’t feel like a manor. It’s all a bit drab and kinda useless, especially the basement which is vastly underused. This mod overhauls in the entire house, making it much more elegant looking like a manor should. Additionally, it adds a stunning library area to the basement, as well as overhauling the Evil Wizard lair. On top of this, it comes with a few characters to live with you including a cute little cat named Phoebe and a handy butler ghost named Wilbur. There is also an additional live-in housemaid you can hire named Rosalind, who is fully voice acted. But you can turn these guys off in the settings too (or not install them at all) if you prefer to live alone.
So, there are my 7 Must have Mods for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion!
These have been staples in my game for a long time now, so I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. All of these are available to download for free from Nexus Mods! If you have any other mod recommendation for this game, feel free to post them in the comments below!
While you’re still here, check out my list for the 7 Must have Mods for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Or, jump over to our YouTube channel to check out more content from us!
