If you’ve been looking forward to new Bethesda games, the past few years have arguably been pretty rough. *Starfield *proved underwhelming, at least for a lot of RPG fans, and *The Elder Scrolls 6 *still hasn’t provided even a peek at gameplay. Gone are the days when games like Oblivion, Fallout 3, and *Skyrim *were coming out in relatively short succession, and Bethesda’s golden age might be over for good.

If you’re looking for the best parts of the Bethesda experience in any form, however, 2025 has actually delivered a lot. The most obvious credit is Oblivion Remastered, which brings back an incredible RPG in a shiny (but more generic) package. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, as the best Bethesda-style games have come from outside the studio itself.

Other Studios Picked Up Bethesda’s Slack In 2025

Obsidian Is Doing Some Heavy Lifting

In most regards, classic Bethesda RPGs feel like a lost art. As Bethesda’s interest has shifted toward concepts like base-building, tightened gunplay, and, in Starfield’s case, the vast reaches of space, the strengths the studio used to possess have been fading away. Plenty of games can deliver fun FPS action, but few can provide the experience that chatting with random inhabitants of *Morrowind *could.

2025’s most glaring exception is Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which I’ve come to believe is the actual heir to classic Bethesda games. While* *the Kingdom Come games lack the fantastical elements of The Elder Scrolls or the intense power scaling that turns protagonists into godlike heroes, it nails the sense of a living, breathing RPG world. Full of tasks that demand individual attention and NPCs that feel like more than window dressing, *Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 *scratches the *Oblivion *itch better than *Starfield *ever could.

What if the fantasy setting is what draws you into Bethesda games, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s focus on the mundane feels dull? In that case, there’s Obsidian’s Avowed, set in the absolutely fascinating world of Eora. It’s a lot more streamlined than classical Bethesda games, but it still feels more imaginative than the studio’s recent work, and the story eventually builds to some truly memorable stakes.

*Avowed *wasn’t Obsidian’s only release this year, and **The Outer Worlds 2 does an even better job of scratching the Bethesda itch. *The Outer Worlds *games are more or less Obsidian’s spiritual successors to Fallout: New Vegas, and the second one builds on the first’s foundation to get closer to that ideal. Odd factions and deranged companions tap into the lead-in-the-water feel of older Bethesda games, and expanded options for combat and roleplaying provide more to sink your teeth into than in Avowed.

Bespoke Design Makes Kingdom Come & Obsidian Games Great

Personality Matters Most

It feels a bit reductive to bill Obsidian games as Bethesda replacements, and they’re more tapped into the classic Obsidian spirit than anything. The studio more or less descends from Black Isle, which worked on *Fallout *before Bethesda ever did. Even so, the first-person perspective of Obsidian’s modern games definitely traces back to Bethesda’s reworking of Fallout, proving that the influence generally goes both ways.

None of these games captures the exact feeling that *Skyrim *did, but **they all get a lot closer than ***Starfield. *Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Avowed, and *The Outer Worlds 2 *are all packed to the brim with bespoke elements, which can be few and far between in the procedurally generated wastes of Starfield. While they’re still expansive, the quality of the content largely takes precedence over the quantity.

Uninteresting art style aside, *Oblivion Remastered might still offer the most fun of any Bethesda-style RPG this year, serving as a great reminder of how genuinely intriguing Oblivion’s possibilities have always been. Whether you’re struggling with vampirism or running from law enforcement after getting inducted into the Dark Brotherhood, the world of Cyrodiil feels like it’s constantly writing up new stories for every player. In recent years, isometric RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 *and *Pillars of Eternity *(by Obsidian, once again) have probably fulfilled that fantasy better than any new first-person games.

Bethesda Isn’t The Best Source For Bethesda RPGs Anymore

That Ship May Have Sailed

Custom Image by: Katarina Cimbaljevic

Regardless, you’ve got an unusually strong array of options this year. I’d take* Morrowind* over any of them, but I’d take any of them over Starfield, and quite possibly over The Elder Scrolls 6 as well. Bethesda still makes ambitious games, but the studio’s goals are totally different from what they were a couple of decades ago. While I’m sure that *The Elder Scrolls 6 *will be impressive in some regards, I’ve lost faith that Bethesda will ever return to what I loved so much to begin with.

For me, I think it’s time to stop worrying about the Bethesda name and focus on the classic Bethesda ethos. If that’s showing up in games from other studios, then I’ll look for it there. 2025 might not have a new game with Bethesda’s name on it, but some of the RPGs devised by other studios are probably better options anyway.