Oblivion is a WordPress theme built for gaming review sites, game portfolios and online communities, sold on ThemeForest for $52 by the developer Skywarrior. It combines a drag-and-drop page builder, a star rating system, gallery and slider tools, and optional integrations with WooCommerce, BuddyPress and bbPress so a single install can handle reviews, a shop and a forum. It suits site owners who want a dark, media-heavy gaming look without commissioning custom development, and it is a poor fit for anyone who needs a theme that is actively maintained today.
The phrase “Oblivion technology” in this context refers to the stack the theme is built on rather than a separate product: Bootstrap for layout, HTML5 and CSS3 for styling and animation, Isotope for filterable galleries, and the Theme Barracks options panel for global settings. Understanding that stack tells you most of what you need to know about how the theme behaves in practice.
What Oblivion Actually Lets You Build
The core of the theme is a drag-and-drop page builder with a library of pre-made blocks. You assemble pages by dropping blocks onto a canvas rather than writing shortcodes or touching template files. For a review site this matters because a typical game review page mixes a score, screenshots, a video, a specification table and a purchase link — and you can lay all of that out visually without a developer.
The rating system is the feature most buyers will care about. It ships with a widget, so scores can appear in sidebars as well as on posts, and the theme supports an overall rating value. If you are running a review publication where every article ends in a number out of ten, this saves you from installing and styling a separate plugin.
Media handling is unusually broad for a theme at this price point. LayerSlider is bundled, which the vendor values at $15, and it supports parallax effects. Isotope is also included, valued at $14, and gives you a filterable grid — useful for a game library where visitors want to sort by genre, platform or release year. On top of that there are dedicated parallax blocks, video blocks, and animated images and icons.
Community features are where the theme goes beyond a simple blog. BuddyPress support turns the site into a social network with member profiles and activity streams. bbPress support adds traditional forums, and the theme includes a forum sidebar option that requires both plugins to be active. A Wise Chat plugin replaced the older WP Wall for on-site chat, and Super Socializer handles social login. If your goal is a site where players discuss games rather than just read about them, these pieces are already wired together.
Commerce is covered through WooCommerce, with theme-specific templates and lightbox support. Translation is handled through WPML compatibility plus included .po files, and right-to-left support was added in a 2015 update. Global control sits in the Theme Barracks panel, where you set typography, unlimited colour schemes, background uploads, blog behaviour, SEO options, footer layout and social media links. A jQuery page slider can be toggled on or off, and there is a one-click demo importer plus an XML dummy content file.
Who This Theme Fits, and Where It Does Not
Oblivion makes most sense for a solo reviewer or small editorial team launching a game criticism site. The combination of a rating widget, screenshot galleries, video embeds and a dark presentation layer means you can publish a polished review on day one without designing anything from scratch.
It also fits a game studio or indie developer who needs a portfolio with a shop attached. You can present titles in a filterable Isotope grid, link each one to a WooCommerce product, and let the blog handle patch notes or dev diaries.
A third good fit is a community hub. If you want member profiles, forums and chat in one place, the BuddyPress and bbPress integrations give you that without stitching three unrelated plugins together yourself.
Where it is the wrong choice: any project that needs modern block editing, current accessibility standards, or long-term security guarantees. The theme’s last vendor update was July 2018, so it has not received maintenance for years. If you are building for a client who expects ongoing support, or if your host runs a recent PHP version that the theme has not been tested against, you should look at an actively maintained alternative. It is also a poor fit for a general-purpose business site — the visual language is unmistakably gaming, and fighting that with custom CSS is wasted effort.
Technical Details
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Marketplace | ThemeForest |
| Author | Skywarrior |
| Price | $52 |
| Current version | 4.1 |
| Last vendor update | 6 July 2018 |
| Framework | Bootstrap |
| Markup and styling | HTML5 and CSS3 |
| Options panel | Theme Barracks |
| Bundled premium assets | LayerSlider, Isotope |
| eCommerce | WooCommerce templates included |
| Community plugins | BuddyPress, bbPress, Wise Chat, Super Socializer |
| Translation | WPML ready, .po files included, RTL support |
| Included files | XML dummy content, documentation, one-click importer |
| Layout | Fully responsive, cross-browser compatible |
The vendor does not state a minimum PHP or WordPress version in the listing, and no browser support matrix is published beyond a general cross-browser claim.
Strengths and Limitations
Strengths
- The rating system and widget are built in, which removes a common dependency for review sites.
- LayerSlider and Isotope are bundled rather than sold separately, so the effective value sits above the $52 price.
- Community tooling is genuinely integrated — BuddyPress, bbPress, chat and social login are all accounted for in the theme’s templates.
- Global styling through Theme Barracks covers typography, unlimited colours and background uploads in one place.
- Translation is taken seriously: WPML compatibility, .po files and RTL support are all present.
- A long update history shows the developer responded to bug reports consistently while the theme was active.
- 1,948 sales give you a reasonable pool of existing users and forum threads to search when something breaks.
Limitations
- The last update was in July 2018. That is the single biggest issue: no security patches, no compatibility work for newer WordPress releases, and no testing against current PHP versions.
- Support runs through the developer’s own forum, and the listing states clearly that questions in the ThemeForest comments will not be answered. If that forum is no longer monitored, you have no support channel at all.
- Preview images are not included in the download, so the demo you admire is not the package you receive. You supply your own artwork.
- The theme predates the WordPress block editor. Page building happens through its own drag-and-drop system, which means content you create is tied to the theme — switching themes later will not carry your layouts across.
- Bundled plugins are distributed as part of the theme rather than as separately updatable installs, which makes keeping LayerSlider and Isotope current more awkward.
- Several features depend on third-party plugins staying compatible. BuddyPress and bbPress have both changed substantially since 2018, and the theme’s integration code has not followed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Oblivion compatible with the latest version of WordPress?
The vendor does not confirm compatibility with current WordPress releases. The final update shipped in July 2018, and the changelog stops there, so the theme has not been tested against anything released since. It may still function, but you should assume you are installing unmaintained code and test thoroughly on a staging site before using it on a live project.
Does Oblivion include the LayerSlider and Isotope plugins?
Yes, both are bundled with the theme. The vendor values LayerSlider at $15 and Isotope at $14, which together account for more than half the $52 purchase price. They arrive as part of the theme package rather than as standalone plugin licences, so updates come through the theme rather than directly from those plugin authors.
Can I build a game review site with scores using this theme?
Yes, that is precisely what it was designed for. It includes a rating system with a widget, supports an overall rating value, and provides the media blocks — galleries, video and parallax — that a review page typically needs. You can lay out a scored review without installing a separate rating plugin.
What happens to my content if I switch away from Oblivion?
Your posts, pages and media live in WordPress and will survive a theme change. Page layouts built with the drag-and-drop builder will not, because they are stored as theme-specific structures. Expect to rebuild page designs manually if you move to a different theme, particularly on heavily customised pages.
The Verdict
Buy Oblivion if you are launching a gaming review site, portfolio or community hub on a tight budget and you accept that you are working with a theme frozen in 2018. The bundled slider and gallery, the built-in rating system and the BuddyPress and bbPress integrations together deliver a lot for $52, and 1,948 previous buyers mean the theme has been exercised in the real world.
Do not buy it if the site matters commercially over the long term, if your host runs a recent PHP version, or if you need a support channel you can rely on. In those cases the money is better spent on a maintained alternative, even at several times the price.
If you are still weighing it up, view the live demo and full feature list on the ThemeForest page and check the support forum’s recent activity before you commit.
