Oblivion Remasteredfinally got a performance patch, which was released to address many of the performance issues that have been plaguing it. The patch was a long time coming, and even fixed the lore discrepancy on the Dark Brotherhood’s door. Despite the patch,Oblivion Remasteredstill has some persistent glitches that make some quests a nightmare and could even completely break questlines.
One of themost popular guilds inOblivion Remasteredis the Thieves Guild, which enjoys its high regard thanks to its compelling storyline that culminates in the heist of the era, an emotional ending, and getting some great loot in the process. Unfortunately, the Thieves Guild also falls victim to some pretty annoying bugs that plague the rest of the game, with two of the worst coming together to cause mayhem in"The Boots of Springheel Jak."
Stealing the Boots of Springheel Jak
The task is simple from the outside. The Hero of Kvatch is tasked by the Gray Fox tosteal the Boots of Springheel Jak, who was once a legendary thief. The Boots are enchanted with Fortify Acrobatics 50, but the Gray Fox doesn’t tell the Hero why he needs the Boots at this point.
To find the Boots, the Hero needs to go to the house of Jakben, Earl of Imbel. To progress with the quest, the player needs to speak to Jakben, but a bug prevents him from spawning. Solving the bug requires waiting for hours, or waiting until 6 PM when he leaves his home or the catacombs that lie under his house.
Another issue with “The Boots of Springheel Jak” is that it involves a confrontation with a nest of vampires. Vampires are particularly tricky to fight as they pose a risk of the HerocontractingOblivion’s Porphyric Hemophilia, the disease that develops into vampirism.
Porphyric Hemophilia takes three days to turn the infected individual into a full vampire, but it can be difficult to spot because of a bug that prevents the notification that the player has contracted the disease.
Instead, when fighting vampires, players have to spam the menu effects menu to see if the disease has been contracted. To cure it, the player needs to visit a chapel, cast Cure Disease, or bring potions of Cure Disease with them to the Catacombs under Jakben’s mansion.
A Fight with Oblivion’s Vampires
“The Boots of Springheel Jak” includes the perfect combination of glitches that could potentially break the game or need to be worked around. Many players have accidentally contracted vampirism without realizing it because the UI doesn’t trigger the warning. While playing a vampire has advantages, some would rather not deal with the weakness to the sun and fire damage.
The quest to cure vampirism can be tedious and, while it can be cured through DLC content, many would rather not go through the hassle at all. It’s safer to visit a chapel, cast Cure Disease, ordrink a Cure Disease potionafter every hostile encounter with vampires.
There are also many quests where important NPCs don’t spawn, and it can be difficult to tell if an NPC not appearing is intentional, if they died unintentionally, thereby breaking the quest, or if there’s a glitch preventing them from showing up. This happens a lot because ofOblivion’s AI system, which is also responsible for a lot of its charm. Thankfully, missing NPCs can often be summoned by waiting 24 hours or exiting and reentering a room.
While there are oftenfixes forOblivion’s bugs, this is a problem with Bethesda’s games that players have been dealing with for years. TheUnofficial Oblivion Patchaddresses more of these bugs than the official patches, which is problematic. If anotherOblivionpatch is in the works, it needs to address some of these questline-breaking bugs that bring down the experience for everyone.
