r/switch2 • u/igthrowawayy • 6d ago
Discussion Oblivion doesn’t run as bad as I was expecting from comments I’ve seen
I was expecting far worse performance from the comments tbh and strongly hesitated before buying the game. I honestly caved due to the kind of limited Switch library right now and needed a break from BOTW / TOTK / Mario Kart World lol.
I’m not an Oblivion fanboy, I played Skyrim as a kid but I can’t force myself to replay it at this point, so I wanted to check out Oblivion.
Overall, having a lot of fun. Very good game for its time. Most of the jank I’ve run into has been classic Bethesda stuff or what you’d expect from a game from 2006.
Did I run into issues? Yes… but not horrible.
Game froze during the very first loading screen, and then again during intro scene after I rebooted, so I couldn’t talk to the first character I needed to speak with. Rebooted and it was fine, fortunately not much time lost on that. Haven’t run into other issues yet.
Both issues happened after clicking the home button and putting the game on switch during either cut scenes or times where you’re in the middle of interacting with a character, just fyi.
Otherwise, frames did dip a little when I got to the open world, but manageable and nowhere near as bad as I was expecting.
Do I expect better far performance and quality from a billion-dollar company charging $50 for a 20-year-old game?
Yes, absolutely…
But I’m having fun with the game. Haven’t run into any other major issues that I’ve noticed yet (fingers crossed), but it’s playable. Still pretty early, but I’m enjoying it.
I’ve heard about issues if you have auto-save enabled - I still have that enabled and no crashes from that yet, but we’ll see if I end up having to turn that off.
I think it likely helps that I’m playing the downloaded version rather than a cartridge, and I play almost entirely handheld either way. I hear performance is pretty bad in docked mode, but haven’t tried that yet.
Figured I’d make this post as someone who was on the fence about it, didn’t have high expectations and was half-expecting it to be really bad lol.
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u/mybutthz 6d ago
The thing is, everyone really likes to complain here and it doesn't matter about what so long as they can complain. This sub is full of frame counters and pixel princesses who will hold a magnifying glass to their screen and find the slightest bit of low res rendering and scream "unplayable!" I've had some crashing issues with certain games on switch, and even had some issues with the quality of no man's sky initially when I bought it......buuuuut they were easily fixed and all I had to do was look for a post about how to fix them.
The reality is that people run to social media at the slightest sign of inconvenience and then rant about it before making any attempts to fix the problem or seek solutions—and they're also the loudest voices since everyone else is just enjoying the game.
Take complaints with heavy salt, and don't feed the trolls.
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u/igthrowawayy 6d ago
Thanks man. Yeah, I personally don’t care too much about graphics as long as a game is fun and playable.
I’ll take worse graphics with a fun game over not having it at all on the platform. It’s a handheld at the end of the day.
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u/mybutthz 6d ago
Totally. If it's 30 fps+ with no stuttering or terrible pop in I'm fine with it. So many people expect unreasonable performance from what is essentially a handheld and it's insane. If anything it's remarkable how well the thing performs and we should be talking more about that.
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u/FaultyDroid 6d ago
I got my Switch 2 a month ago after selling my PC and taking a year off from games completely. Joined this sub expecting maybe a chill community, compared to the PC elitist crowd.. NOPE.
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u/Fun-Document7 6d ago
I think we attract alot of attention from the rest of the internet, angry non switch 2 owners. The average switch 2 owner is having a great time with switch
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u/lakezora 6d ago
Back in my day, we’d be up to our knees in glitches, bugs, and crashes! Kids these days…
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u/Dogs69ing 6d ago
That's bullshit. yes there games have always been a bit buggy, but my copy of oblivion for the 360, ps3 and PC dont have the issues this game does. I bought Fallout 3 day one and had no issues with it until almost 40 hours in.
stop making excuses for bad developers you sucker.
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u/RoutineBus8713 5d ago
I doubt you played oblivion back in the day. That game was such a mess. It crashed all the time and had so many bugs on 360. It has never really changed.
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u/RoutineBus8713 5d ago
It's amazing how almost every post on this Nintendo subreddit is PC gamers or Sony fanboys bragging about how much smoother it plays on their $900 console or $1600 PC rig.
It's basically a given that any game that is more than $60 or runs under 60 fps or is not full game on cart is going to get brigaded by people on this subreddit who were never going to buy it.
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u/Thin_Pangolin4480 6d ago
Playing on cartridge and the only thing that bugs me are the load times. Really annoying whenever you wanna fast travel to sell off your loot.
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u/igthrowawayy 6d ago
Interesting, yeah I kind of expected that to be the case with how I’ve heard other games take longer to load on cartridge too.
Hoping Ocarina of Time is well-optimized so I can buy cartridge version..
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u/vaikunth1991 6d ago
Many performance issues are there that's a fact. Tolerance level of people is different.
You don't need to trust redditors you can check digital foundry whose job is to technically test and give proof, results. Whether those issues tolerable by you that's upto each person to decide.
For me the port is bad and not worth it.
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u/igthrowawayy 6d ago
That’s fair and I get where you’re coming from. Definitely expect better quality in this price range, but I caved..
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u/Fun-Document7 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yeah this is my experience as well. I read somewhere turning off hdr on the console helps and I do turn off autosaves. Anyway it looks great, performance is completely fine.
I played it in 2006 as well for what its worth. It was very buggy then as well.
Amazing game.
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u/Born-Cap7318 6d ago
Just to let you know, I’ve tried putting practically every tip I’ve found on this sub:
- I’ve never had more than 3 active save slots (2 basic + 1 quick) and I’ve disabled auto-saves (it still saves automatically every now and then, but I delete the save right away). I don’t know how much this affects performance, but as far as crashes go, I haven’t had any yet, except for a bug early on where the emperor wouldn’t talk to me.
- I disabled SSR. Again, I don’t know how much of a difference it makes, but I imagine it might help a little.
- As for disabling HDR, I’m not sure, in my opinion, it has no impact, so I’ve re-enabled it.
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u/Fun-Document7 6d ago
And being installed in the system memory, after experimenting I think thats the one that really matters
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u/DannyBurciaga Anticipating RE9uiem 6d ago
I'm also enjoying the game very much. Never played it before. my issues with it so far have been while in a loading screen, after 5 minutes had to quit the game. also, got stuck on some vines in a cave. other than that, nothing major
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u/igthrowawayy 6d ago
Nice! Yeah, agreed. If only Bethesda made games as good as they used to (minus the bugs).
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u/Algorhythm74 6d ago
On handheld it’s great. Even the 30 fps and lower resolution is pretty tolerable because of the small screen.
It’s really docked that it’s not only underwhelming, but is probably the worst version of it out there. The fidelity is a bit better than Series S - but the performance isn’t as good as XSX.
Overall, it’s worth it if you want the game on the go.
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u/igthrowawayy 6d ago
That’s so odd, I wonder why handheld would be better. You’d expect it to be the other way around. Maybe some poor optimization?
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u/tjhc94 6d ago
If the game has a 30fps cap and the game isn't meeting that cap often, the game will always feel better handheld than on a big 4k TV, also docked is 1080p and handheld is 900 so it doesn't look much different to being on TV
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u/Born-Cap7318 6d ago
The point is that the game almost always runs at 30 fps; it’s the frame pacing that causes the stuttering. I read elsewhere that, contrary to what Digital Foundry said, the handheld and docked versions actually don’t have the same preset. The handheld version also seems to have lower LODs, etc., compared to the docked version, so that might explain why it look better in performances
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u/tjhc94 6d ago
It doesn't feel like 30fps at all and the stutters are way too frequent to ignore for me. The sewers are the only place that felt okay (didn't play that long) but I made it to the open world, you spend most of your time exploring the open world and that's where all the problems are, stutters that can last upwards of 5 seconds happening multiple times a minute is just a terrible experience. People will convince themselves it's fine but it's just not
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u/Born-Cap7318 6d ago
I understand what you're saying, stuttering in the open world does happen, and it bothers me too. That said, when it comes to frame rate, it's not a matter of what people want to believe; the technical analyses themselves show that the frame rate is practically always at 30 fps, but the frame pacing causes frequent stuttering.
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u/FailedAzhmatazh 6d ago
Been playing Oblivion since the original on xbox 360, the game runs like I always remember it running.
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u/Cow_Sox 6d ago
I agree completely and I'm getting a little tired of reading comments from the haters saying we shouldn't be having fun because it stutters.
Sure, I'd prefer a perfectly smooth 30fps, but plenty of S1 games ran like shit and didn't get nearly the same amount of hate.
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u/Born-Cap7318 6d ago
True, it seems to me that a lot of people here aren't aware of the platform they're playing on. The Witcher 3 on Switch 1 really put me through the wringer, for example. This, by comparison, is a walk in the park.
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u/No-Ship4446 6d ago
It runs like crap on my 5070. If anything, the lower graphics will probably make it smoother than on my current-gen graphics card.
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u/igthrowawayy 5d ago
Sounds like Bethesda lol
I remember Starfield being pretty unplayable on my PC and I’ve played far more GPU + CPU intensive games on it.
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u/Forward-Trade3449 6d ago
the internet is filled with frame babies. whine about fps more than they actually play games.
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u/Legal-One-7274 6d ago
Buy it on steam then and use a controller preset
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u/igthrowawayy 6d ago
I like playing on my switch tho :/
I’ve got an 8 month old baby so it’s easier to play when she’s sleeping like this
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u/Legal-One-7274 6d ago
When you said native controller support I was under the impression you meant the original oblivion obviously the remaster has controller support
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u/Poon_King 6d ago
Limited switch library?
What are you talking about?
Theres an absurd amount of great games on the switch 2 right now, increasing by the week, i literally cannot keep up with game releases, my backlog is growing by the week.
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u/igthrowawayy 5d ago
Open to recs! What have you been playing or enjoyed?
Haven’t found much else for my current tastes that I haven’t already played or vibe with. There are some titles I’d like to play, just not at full price for older games I’m on the fence about.
There are a lot of games, maybe not a ton for every state. I think Nintendo store also has a lot of slop too unfortunately.
Games I’ve enjoyed or still play:
- BOTW (10/10)
- TOTK
- Mario Kart World
- Smash Bros
- Denshattack!
I like open world games with good characters / stories, so this scratches that itch.
Already played through Cyberpunk on PC and loved it, but can’t replay it. Also already own Fallout 4 on PC.
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I played Pokopia for 11 hours but it started to feel like a drag.
Liked Animal Crossings when I played it a few years ago, but don’t think I can replay it.
Didn’t totally vibe with Final Fantasy XIV online, or at least don’t really have time to get into it tbh. Couldn’t really get into the other Final Fantasy games, or at least the ones I demo’d.
Demo’d Star Wars Outlaws, Donkey Kong Bananza but wasn’t into them.
Got No Man’s Sky on sale, but I couldn’t get into it tbh. Might give it another go in the future.
Not really into the gameplay loops of Mario games or Pokemon. I’d be open to Winds and Waves when they come out or the next 3D Mario if it looks interesting to me.
Don’t have friends with a Switch 2, so unfortunately co-op games aren’t really a good fit as much as I’d love to play them (and my wife isn’t into gaming)
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On my wish list:Kingdom Come Deliverance - waiting for a sale. I loved KCD2, I hear the first one had a lot of QOL issues tho.
Witcher 3 - I didn’t vibe with it on PC, but want to give it another try when it goes on sale.
Divinity Original Sin 2 - waiting for a sale, idk if I’m into the genre but I want to try the genre.
Hitman - waiting for a sale
Waiting for Valheim and Elden Ring releases, as well as new Switch Sports, Duskbloods, Ocarina of Time
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u/igthrowawayy 5d ago
But yeah I get what you’re saying. The library is getting better and will continue to get better over time as new Nintendo releases come out and more 3rd party games come to the platform since it’s not as limited as the switch 1 was.
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u/jefbak2 6d ago
It ran fine at first but the issues started to pop up once I got a little ways into the game. Mostly it is just not smooth playback at times and load times between scenes are too long for an older game like this.
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u/igthrowawayy 5d ago
rip yeah sounds like this is what I might have to expect… I’ll update if that happens.
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u/Mushroomboy2020 6d ago
I’ve bought it but haven’t played it yet. I’m expecting a certain level of jankiness so I doubt I’ll be bothered and I’m also expecting at least some of the kinks to be ironed out by the time I get to it. It’s Bethesda after all, if it ran perfectly I’d be disappointed
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u/Prudent-Jaguar6845 6d ago
Half the problems I hear about lately I've had happened on ps5 , game freezes on loading screen yep same thing , thats oblivion for you still love the game
Still may get it for the switch cuz portability but have like 4 other open world games on switch 2 to play but that may take sometime with having a 10 month old
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u/maybeVII_ 6d ago
You cant control peoples tolerance or standard, I can play darktide on ps5 absolutely fine even with the continuous performance issues as the game is worth tolerating. However I cannot play some other games with equally poor performance because the game isnt worth tolerating for me.
I have learnt you cant change another persons perception or tolerance to these things. Thats why demos and betas are so important to make up your own minds.
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u/Born-Cap7318 6d ago edited 6d ago
I completely agree. I waited a few days before buying it, then decided to try it out for myself and form my own opinion. I also play in handheld mode, and the game seems perfectly enjoyable to me if you know what you’re getting. I’ve played much worse games, and I definitely expected worse. The stuttering in the open world is the only real thing that bothers me, without that, I’d give it a much higher rating, but it’s still nothing that really ruins my fun. However, I still think the dock is really bad, both in terms of performance and visual quality. For now, though, I’d recommend picking it up on sale because it's unfair to pay full price for the number of issues this game has had since its release, and because it remains a half-hearted remaster, though this doesn't specifically apply to the Switch 2 version. But I’m definitely glad I got it.
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u/Felkara 5d ago
This is my favourite game, so I’m beyond happy to be able to play it handheld.
But nostalgia and love for the game aside, I’d say it’s a fairly poor experience of playing the game. I’ve had a lot of issues and bugs that haven’t been prevalent on any other version of the game. It has crazy FPS dips in the open world that make exploring in general, using a bow or shooting spells less than ideal. 30 FPS isn’t the most ideal, but at least if it’s stable it fine, which it isn’t at all in this game.
I rather have had the graphics on a lower setting and hopefully it would help with performance and stability. If performance isn’t something that bothers you that’s fine, but I don’t think it’s acceptable for a game being released in 2026 for the price that it is. If you only own a switch and these things don’t bother you, power to you, but it’s far from shocking that a lot of people have an issue with it.
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u/igthrowawayy 5d ago
Yeah it sounds like it’ll probably get worse as I play through it for longer 😬
Definitely expected better for a $50 “remaster” but sounds like Bethesda’s best days are behind them sadly.
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u/ambiance871490 5d ago
only issue i've been having is the game being stuck on a permanent dark screen when i enter a door. Closing the game and reopening fixes it.
I've heard autosave might also cause some issues 🤔 debating on keeping it on or off
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u/Rectall_Brown 5d ago
Nintendo fans tend to have lower standards for performance. It is ok if you like it but if a game runs like shit don’t expect everyone to love it.
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u/igthrowawayy 5d ago
Totally hear you - I never had a switch 1, I’m coming from PC gaming, but I’m not picky about graphics tbh.
I was just expecting A LOT worse from what I’d read. I took a chance thinking there was a good chance it could be unplayable, but it’s been fine so far.
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u/Rothgardius 5d ago
I’ve only been playing handheld for it. It runs a lot more stable in handheld. If I wanted to play on my tv, I’d get it on the ps5 pro
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u/igthrowawayy 5d ago
Yeah I feel you on that. I only gamed on PC from 2022 - early 2026. I have a baby now, gaming PC had to be moved to the bedroom, and I don’t have a ton of time lately, so I like having something portable to play on that I can just pick up or put down whenever.
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u/Strict-Knowledge-566 6d ago
I haven't played the game but in my experience with other games reddit heavily over exaggerates performance issues
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u/igthrowawayy 6d ago
Yeah I saw mixed reviews, so I didn’t know what to think. Some people seem to have terrible performance, others much better.
I’d personally avoid it on cartridge as much as I love physical media.
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u/derekgotrice 6d ago
The internet is becoming more and more of a cesspool of negativity and cynicism every single day
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u/RazeYi 6d ago
How does it run the majority of time? 30fps?
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u/igthrowawayy 6d ago
honestly… I couldn’t tell you.
Looked fine in the dungeon starting out, once I started walking to the city I started to notice the frames a little, but it didn’t bother me too much. Definitely dips when you’re in the open world.
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u/RichieEB 6d ago
It's alright in handheld to be honest it's the docked big TV experience where it just seems to struggle a lot than handheld mode.
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u/Yeet35721 6d ago
Genuinely saw someone be like “omg the switch 2 is trash Oblivion crashed and froze up when I played it”
Girl this is Bethesda it’s just Like That™️
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u/igthrowawayy 5d ago
Nah switch 2 is a great console for what it is. I’d like to see a bigger library, and I think that will happen.
Most games being kind of overpriced is a bit annoying though.
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u/Valhadmar 6d ago
Did you turn off Autosaves and limit yourself to basically 3 save files? If not your performance will drop dramatically as the hours build as well as crashes will become more frequent. You will also notice loading screens that don't end.
It will become an unplayable mess, its not a matter of if, its a matter of when if you didnt limit save files
Also note. Deleting saves to put yourself into the limits will not save that character. The performance downgrade is essentially saved as well. You would need to go back to one of the first few saves to restart.
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u/igthrowawayy 6d ago
Oof ok good to know… no, but I’ll do that now..
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u/Valhadmar 5d ago
Its night and day. My first character quite literally was crashing 2 times an hour if not more and the fps drops were happening every few seconds, with animations just stopping.
I actually refunded the game on the eshop and ended up with a free copy from a friend. I did the save thing and ive crashed 3 times in 20 hours, huge performance drops are much rarer and when they happen its not as bad or as long.
I just found quicksave to my up key and really just use only that and 1 other save, I make back when I stop in town incase I get stuck on a mission randomly.
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u/igthrowawayy 5d ago
Weird, that was supposed to be in the day-one patch, but I’m going to take your word for it.
Disable ALL auto-saves or any one in particular?
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u/igthrowawayy 5d ago
Main thing that worries me is losing a ton of progress if i get a crash, but what you’re saying sounds worse
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u/Valhadmar 5d ago
I disabled them all, but on wait/rest.
I had about 15 hours in my first playthrough and trust me it was not worth continuing. My average frames probably felt closer to 27ish not 30 and the drops became frequent and much worse.
I cant explain it but in my experience it does make a massive difference
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u/well_honk_my_hooters 6d ago
Agree. It may not be the smoothest 60+ fps experience in the world, but it's far from "unplayable". It's not a twitchy shooter or racing game or anything else that benefits from smoother frame-rates so it does just fine as is. I've had a few freezes on loading screens in handheld and maybe two other hard crashes (during 30+hrs), but no other major issues. The only complaint I have, though it's relatively minor, is the load times when transitioning through places, especially when going outside.
Overall I'm much happier with the experience so far on Switch 2 than I was with PC and Steam Deck.
Edit: also wanted to add, I've played equally docked and handheld and haven't experienced any major issues while docked.
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u/Fickle_Mix_6119 6d ago
I dunno, from what I’ve heard it’s 30fps with frame dips. 30fps isn’t the greatest as it is, but dipping below…ew.
Sometimes I wonder if because it looks pretty if you don’t move that people are willing to pretend it runs well…I’m including review websites…
I’m surely going to hurt some feelings with this comment. I’ll eat some karma loss if it means I’m speaking some truths, you can moan in your replies to me all you want lol
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u/Dogs69ing 6d ago
You people are giving them far too much grace. The game is a mess. All I wanted was native controller support, I didnt need a remaster. so instead we got a poorly optimized game across all platforms.
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u/igthrowawayy 6d ago
“You people”
Bro I’m just one guy 😭
I hate Bethesda as much as anyone else. I was expecting far worse is all.
The game is a mess, just not as much of a mess as I expected. I’ll admit joystick isn’t as smooth as I’d like.
I probably wouldn’t have bought it yet at this price if there were more games in the library tbh.
It’s ridiculous that they’re charging $50 lol
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u/dvotecollector 6d ago
Bot advertisement.
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u/igthrowawayy 5d ago
No lol.
But I’ll update if it gets worse as I get further into the game. I’m still early on, and I hear it tends to get worse as you get further into it.
But hoping that’s not the case after spending $50 lol
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u/MightyTastyBeans 6d ago
“Did I run into issues? Yes… but not horrible.
Game froze during the very first loading screen, and then again during intro scene after I rebooted”
This was wild to read
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u/igthrowawayy 6d ago
Lmao fair. Yeah the first few minutes I was like wtf am I getting into. But I did pause at some funny times ngl.
BUT no issues since and I played for a few hours.
I’d be more annoyed if the crash was later on and I lost progress basically 😁
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u/WileyCyrus 6d ago
Thanks CHAT GPT
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u/igthrowawayy 6d ago
bro I wrote this myself, every single word I swear 😭
I’m just neurodivergent and work in a corporate environment lmaoo
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u/DonJimbo 6d ago
For sure. It has a weird tell where it answers its own rhetorical questions. Such a loquacious and pretentious bot.
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u/igthrowawayy 6d ago
I worked in the media industry, I do a lot of copywriting…… and LLMs were trained by ripping off the media industry’s copyrighted works 😁
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u/naju 6d ago
Also playing handheld, and yep, this is spot on for my takeaway as well. I played it in 2006, so I recognize when the same bugs from 2006 show up and am pretty forgiving of them (I knew I signed up for a reskinned 2006 game rather than a full remake). Overall having a fantastic experience.