Bootaaay

calf_exercises said:

"i never got a chance to play morowind but if people say its  better than oblivion and oblivion is one of my favourite games i think i should give it a look or would it be too difficult going back into an older game such as oblivion after playing more modern action RPG's?"

• Combat - this is the most significant change Oblivion made over Morrowind; in Morrowind everything is determined by a dice roll on your stats - this means that if you attack somthing with a weapon you aren't proficient in it will be very hard to do any damage, often your hits won't land at all. This is what you have to expect at the start of the game every enemy will be a challenge for the first couple of levels, but as you start to level up it becomes easier. Also, combat in Morrowind ammounts to little more than clicking and watching your guy swing his sword, you cant do any of the cool charge attacks that are in Oblivion, or block whenever you want (also determined by a dice roll) - it's definetly Morrowinds main flaw, and as such the game isn't really about the combat, it's about everything else.
• Levelled Enemies & Items - in Oblivion all the enemies & items are 'levelled' - this means that the enemies level with you, so the challenge they pose is nearly the same throught the game, also this means you won't find any high-level weapons or items until you reach the level where they become unlocked. In Morrowind there is no levelling, each enemy is at a set level - this means that in certain areas the enemies may be too tough for you, and it also means that the enemies become easier as you level up, this can be frustrating at low levels as you will probably have to do a lot of running away - however, the items are at a set level, so you can potentially find higher level items anywhere.
• Guilds & Quests - Oblivion has comparatively fewer questlines than Morrowind - including the main quest, the Shivering Isles & Knights of the Nine expansions Oblivion has 8 questlines to follow. In comparison Morrowind, including the main quest, the Tribunal & Bloodmoon expansions, has 16 questlines. However, in Morrowind questlines can interfere with each other and sometimes you have tough choices to make about who to betray. Also, there are 3 Great Houses that can be joined, however the player can only join one at a time - the same goes for the Vampire clans. This encourages repeated playthroughs.
• Graphics & Art Style - the graphics in Oblivion are obviousley a HUGE step up - Morrowind is a very murky game, lots of browns and greens. Combine that with some very low-resolution textures, bad framerate and crappy animations, you can see why some people didn't take to Morrowind. However, it's not always about the graphics - the art style in Morrowind is much more varied. In Oblivion you are mostly running through forests and climbing huge never-ending mountains, with quaint little medieval towns, sometimes theres a bit of snow, but eh lets be honest, it mostly looks the same (Shivering Isles is an exception, and in a lot of ways it's very reminicent of Morrowind). In Morrowind theres a huge variety of landscapes and styles - the Great Houses I mentioned above govern most of Morrowind, the Hlallu (an Imperial house) occupy land to the south west which comprises of a combination of swampland, steep hills, craggy coasts and low-lying fertile farmland, their buildings are of the typical Imperial style found in Oblivion - the Redoran (native Dark Elf house) occupy land to the north west which comprises of sparse, wind-swept plains and the poisened ashland deserts, their buildings are a strange style, some made from the shells of dead animals - the Telvani (powerful house of mages) occupy a few isolated islands off the east coast, their buildings are grown by magic, strange mushroom tree structures that require levetation to navigate. Beyond that there are also the ungoverned great plains of the east, craggy isolated islands to the north, a huge mountain spewing ash and blighting the land. And finally, there are the expansion packs - Tribunal provides a massive city to explore and Bloodmoon provides and entire new snow-covered landmass (with Werewolves too :p). Definetly more varied.
• Travel - in Oblivion you have fast travel where you can travel to any destination you've already visited, plus you have map markers telling you exactly where to go - also, you have a compass that tells you exactly where near-by sites are - Morrowind has a totally different approach. Firstly, theres no insta-fast travel - be prepaed to do some walking. You can pay for fast travel services, such as the silt striders, boats or from the mages guild, but these services aren't in every town, so often you have to make a few stops on the way - also, you can set a mark spell and then use a recall spell at any time to teleport back. Finally, there are no map markers - you have to work out where to go by following the instructions given to you, sometimes you'll have to look out for landmarks and sometimes you'll have to do alot of walking to get there

If these things sound like they're going to bother you, i'd say stay away from Morrowind - but if you can stomache the games problems there is a huge world with a lot of replayability to explore while waiting for Elder Scrolls 5  ^_^ 

Oblivion simply did what was needed to make the Elder Scrolls series accessible to a much wider audience - a storyline that didn't require the player to wade through hours of non-main quest gameplay just to attain the level necessary to progress, beautiful and lush graphics, one of the best action combat systems in any RPG, the ability to fast travel and map markers ensuring people always knew where they are going . As much as I love Morrowind, it definitely had it's flaws, but some aspects others might perceive as flaws were the exact reason I loved the game so much. I loved the way the game dropped you into this strange and unique environment with next-to-no guidance and I loved that you had to use your brain to find where you needed to go. I loved being able to explore caves and ruins knowing that venturing inside might glean a totally unique weapon or item, rather than the standard leveled loot found in Oblivion. Most of all, I loved how the story was not only truly epic, but centered entirely around you and your ascent to realising your destiny - in Oblivion I felt like little more than an errand boy, running between one fetch quest and another, all so the NPC characters can have the final showdown. I can fully understand why people prefer Oblivion, why people who never played Morrowind have trouble picking it up for the first time and why more than a few were scared away after just a few short hours in Vvardenfell, but for me Oblivion felt like the antithesis of everything that made Morrowind such a memorable game.