It took us embarrassingly long to realize that Oblivion Remastered still has a local map for when you get lost in dungeons

Oblivion imperial woman in blue dress with imposing Nord in regal fur coat looming behind her intimidatingly. — (Image credit: Bethesda)

As the sportswriter Jon Bois once said regarding Jimmy Dean Frozen Scrambled Egg Cups, "Perhaps some humiliations are private affairs." So it was for me with Oblivion Remastered's local map, at least until PC Gamer news writer Joshua Wolens broke the silence on this issue in our work chat: "Did it take anyone else longer than they care to admit to find the local map in Newblivion?"

If you've yet to discover the Remaster's best-kept secret: On the world map screen, you can just keep scrolling in with your mouse wheel and it will eventually transform into a map of the cell you're currently in. There's also a little UI button at the top of the scrollbar to the right of the world map, and you can just click on that to pop straight into the local map.

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World map of Oblivion Remastered showing where to click to access the local map — (Image credit: Bethesda)

Honestly, it's a fairly elegant bit of UI design, and likely meant to accommodate the Remaster's consolidated settings/character menu pause screen. In the original version of Oblivion, the local and world maps each have their own tabs in the character menu.

But if (un)trained professionals like Josh and I, who have tangoed with the likes of Multi-user dungeons and Psycho Patrol R, were stumped, I have to figure there are more confused gamers out there who haven't discovered this little feature.

If I've got one gripe with the consolidated world/local map, it's that being tied to the scroll wheel means you can't zoom out on the local map at all⁠—it just has one zoom level, and trying to pull back sends you out into the world map. But that's a fairly small complaint, and the local map remains a handy tool in exploring Oblivion's many Ayleid ruins again.

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Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.

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