Why we remember Morrowind as the best

[InAComaDial999]

I am impressed with Skyrim, the world "feels" more like Morrowind it feels huge and lived in. There are a lot of things I am not happy with, but I feel Skyrim is the only TES game worthy of being Morrowinds decedent thus far.

 

Came here to say exactly that. Oblivion was pretty fun because it was a great modding engine - stuff like The Lost Spires, Arthmoor's villages, Werewolf - Legends, etc, kept me interested in it and gave me way more replay value than any of the game's own content ever did. It was a reasonably good generic medieval/fantasy setting, but it wasn't a good Elder Scrolls game, and now that Skyrim is here I look back on Oblivion and just can't take it seriously at all.

 

What Skyrim does right is to feel like Morrowind did, it looks and feels and sounds like the same world. Where it can't compete with Morrowind is in terms of sheer scale. Morrowind had huge questlines for all the guilds, religions, Houses, etc. There were large and interesting communities, like the Imperials, the Houses, the Ashlanders; each region of Vvardenfell was completely distinct in geography and culture. There was much more variety in what to wear, how to fight, what to create, etc. There were three separate vampire clans with their own quest lines. The list goes on.

 

Skyrim does feel like it's in the same universe, but a lot of what made Morrowind great seems to appear as easter eggs or vignettes rather than fully fleshed-out parts of the world. It's still a great game, but it's never going to have the same replay value or be as memorable because it just isn't as rich and multidimensional.

[pantherfern]

You know what, I never liked Morrowind. I spent more time wandering blind, killing guards for new armor, than actually questing.

This was actually one of the things I loved about Morrowind: I could run around for hours just trying to find something and killing guards or ashlanders or whatever.

 

I find Skyrim the best out of the 3. The idea of a random dragon attacking you, is simply too much awesomeness than the god damn puzzle of a gameplay Morrowind was.

I actually find the whole dragon factor of skyrim detracts more than it adds. I'm trying to find this cave and end up having to deal with the stupid dragon who isn't hard but drags me away from where I was nonetheless. I like puzzles. Puzzles are fun. Looking above the well-marked "button" to see if it should be wolf, fish, or bear is not a puzzle btw.

 

 

I don't understand why the Morrowind lovers can't keep their comments out of this forum and get back to morrowind?

It's the nr.1 complains, beside exploiters calling the game easy, these days. "amagad morrowind had better X and Y! Bethesda is getting worse now!" /facepalm

 

For me personally, it's not a matter of complaining as in "omg skyrim sux morrowind ftw" as it is that I've seen what they can do in terms of story, character option, dialogue, architecture/world design, and having an s-ton of options in armor, spells, enchants, potions, and so on. I would like to see them continue all of that with the new technology added in. In other words, yes, npcs were ridiculously easy to exploit because they wouldn't move or follow you. So they changed that but now they all say the same thing over and over and over and instead of getting 4-7 dialogue options you usually get, what? 2? Or more insulting, 1. Why? Why sacrifice the good parts of what they had created in Morrowind (of which there were many) to fix the bad parts (of which there also were many?)

 

P.S. People who started playing Oblivion says Oblivion is best. People who started playing in daggerfall says it is the best. Proudly wearing 'dem rose tinted glasses is a trend today!

I played Oblivion as well but not nearly as much as Morrowind. Apart from a few characters and scenarios to be honest, I don't really remember a whole lot about it. In fact, I think if I remember right, I went back to playing Morrowind, got depressed by the graphics and combat, then moved on to something else.

[spazcomania]

Morrowind was my first elderscrolls and in my opinion the best because in oblivion and skyrim you can become very powerfu,l but my morrowind character was a GOD!! I could jump across the entire map with my superjump/feather boots, kill entire towns just by walking through them (drain 100 health a sec in 100 ft) I swated deadra away like flies. the only person to rival me was Vivec (an actual god) and the battle was epic!! and when the dust cleaared my character remained ( I think vivec may have respawned but still..) Epic stuff indeed.

[abaris]

 

Morrowind had huge questlines for all the guilds, religions, Houses, etc. There were large and interesting communities, like the Imperials, the Houses, the Ashlanders; each region of Vvardenfell was completely distinct in geography and culture. There was much more variety in what to wear, how to fight, what to create, etc. There were three separate vampire clans with their own quest lines. The list goes on.

 

 

And there were requirements to advance in any guild. You couldn't just drop into the mages college and hope to become arch mage without even casting one spell.

[tubbyknickers]

Personally, I remember Morrowind as the best, because it is the best. I went back and played it last week and ended up playing it a ton throughout the whole week. Skyrim is great! But a an uninspired turd in comparison. Morrowind created a feeling and atmosphere that no other game has come close to since.

[Arkune]

What do you mean with we? I don't remember Morrowind as the best TES. I remember Morrowind as a boring and ugly block text bomber that I couldn't be bothered to sit through.

The only memory of the game that stays with me is entering a cave at the arse-end of the world for some minor quest where I could not get to the upper level to slay the “boss robber” and I used the tool kit in the end to build in some stairs because there where none!

I think I never got past 10 hours of playing it.

 

And I don't like Oblivion either. I think I used about 50 mods on my play through of Oblivion. It was hardly Oblivion anymore but that was the only way I could endure it.

I was so deterred by Morrowind that I got Oblivion much later after release. I think 1 year after GOTY edition or something... and I was right to wait that long because I did not enjoy the vanilla game one bit.

In the end I think I uninstalled Oblivion ticking roughly 30 hours on it completing only the main story.

 

I very much hate the UI of Skyrim, it is complete garbage. The game has some issues and even now I had a dozen mods installed before I slew Alduin. But unlike Oblivion the mods are all cosmetic and the issues are not really deal breakers. Let's say I was able to look past them.

So Skyrim is the best TES for me so far because it is the only TES I played that I don't despise.

So far locked about 90 hours in the game.

[Pineapplerum]

What do you mean with we? I don't remember Morrowind as the best TES. I remember Morrowind as a boring and ugly block text bomber that I couldn't be bothered to sit through.

The only memory of the game that stays with me is entering a cave at the arse-end of the world for some minor quest where I could not get to the upper level to slay the "boss robber" and I used the tool kit in the end to build in some stairs because there where none!

I think I never got past 10 hours of playing it.

 

And I don't like Oblivion either. I think I used about 50 mods on my play through of Oblivion. It was hardly Oblivion anymore but that was the only way I could endure it.

I was so deterred by Morrowind that I got Oblivion much later after release. I think 1 year after GOTY edition or something... and I was right to wait that long because I did not enjoy the vanilla game one bit.

In the end I think I uninstalled Oblivion ticking roughly 30 hours on it completing only the main story.

 

I very much hate the UI of Skyrim, it is complete garbage. The game has some issues and even now I had a dozen mods installed before I slew Alduin. But unlike Oblivion the mods are all cosmetic and the issues are not really deal breakers. Let's say I was able to look past them.

So Skyrim is the best TES for me so far because it is the only TES I played that I don't despise.

So far locked about 90 hours in the game.

 

Lol, maybe the Elder Scrolls just isn't the game for you? You think?

[Pineapplerum]

I don't understand why they took out so much of the good stuff from Morrowind. The game hasn't been dumbed down, it's been butchered. I can't get over Morrowinds graphics, though...after playing ES IV and V.

But the game itself has so much more character and spirit. It's like the people making the game really wanted to make a really good game and they put their passion into it. It doesn't feel like the case for ES IV and V.

Don't get me wrong, I love Oblivion and Skyrim but after revisiting Morrowind...it becomes obvious pretty quickly that the series has lost a lot of it's "guts".

 

And Morrowind was fascinating. Those deep dungeons with those men running around in diapers and clubs with their eyes scooped out of their heads...omg, it was wild. And they'd sit there quietly whispering and worshiping a God that was only using them as pawns. I never played a game that made me feel so sorry for the enemy. I seriously did not want to kill them because I felt sorry for them. I use to try to out run them or avoid them. And it's' funny because when I first encountered them, they use to scare the hell out of me and I'd avoid them for that reason.

 

If they could make another game with Morrowind's guts but with graphics up to date...they'd have the freaking game of the decade....easy.

Edited December 10, 2011 by Pineapplerum

[macole]

A game's greatness is made by what you remember from it..

It was a huge improvement from Daggerfall visually which almost made up from the disappointment of all the items and monsters that were dropped from Daggerfall. I missed the slash left, slash right, chop and thrust mouse controll.

I remember running, running, running, constantly running up a hill and back down again. All that running and I never found the Dwemer. There was a cave along that road I explored that always gave me the jitters.

Can't forget the NPC that fell from the sky and died right at my feet. He was wearing something that gave him extraordinary jump ability but nothing on how to land safely. There was Ahnassi your special friend.

A Khajiit special friend how disappointing for an Altmer mage especially since there was good looking woman at the side of the road lamenting her lost boy friend.

The landscape was strange ranging from a blackish wasteland to brownish scrub land sparsely populated with unique variety of vegetation.

But most of all I remember the end. A need to be of a certain skill level to use the short sword and hammer to kill the god and I had not one point allocated to those skills. I am the Archmage I can level mountains, I can turn your bones to ash and leave your body unharmed, I can melt the flesh off an entire army and use their skeletons to do my bidding. I can do all these things and more such is the greatness of my power but I can't swing a hammer to kill a god. I turned it off and never went back.

 

In it's own way Morrowind is a great game because after all these years I still think of gong back and playing it again.

[Arkune]

Lol, maybe the Elder Scrolls just isn't the game for you? You think?

 

Tell me something new.

I enjoy BioWare RPGs more than Bethesda. (I enjoy character interaction more than an open world)

Though I have to admit they are bit off track atm...

Morrowind was a honest mistake that I made because I never played TES before. At one point or another you have to try something out in order to know whether it suits you or not, you can't figure everything out just by watching some trailers or reading some reviews, especially if they are all more or less positive. I was fooled there, happens from time to time.

Oblivion was a cheap bargain offer and with mods it was bearable. I knew what I was getting into there and aside from ~30 hours of actual gameplay I had additional fun fooling around with mods. I had worse deals than that.

And Skyrim is okay. Of course I could list a book full of issues but all in all I think it is most balanced TES. I mean the character interaction is not as stiff as it was in Oblivion or confusing and boring as Morrowind. The world is more interesting as Oblivion jet not as strange as Morrowind. The overall experience is more streamlined and comprehensive then either of those two.

Yea there are some drawbacks like the useless quest log which makes you rely on the compass a lot or the atrocious UI (though Morrowind and Oblivion UI were s*** too if you ask me), balance issues and what not. As I said I could fill a book with complains and ideas how to change it but I was able to look past them for the most part. Which I can not say about the other two TES I played-

You could say I'm not so much an actually fan of the vanilla games however I like the possibilities Bethesda offers with their tool kits.

If I want or need a vanilla game I mostly enjoy then I'm better of with BioWare.