must be because your a monster with no taste!!!!!!!

The big issue with Morrowind is the leveling is much more complex and the game (at least at the start) is much much harder. You really need to plan what you want your character to do then build all your starting choices around supporting that from the get go. Like if you want to be a sword and board in your face melee guy.... you better not pick one of the elven races for your character or you will have a much harder start. Skill choices are also way more important in this game than they are in Skyrim or even Oblivion.

Once you get over the mechanics hump you find yourself in one of the most interesting game worlds, with some of the best npcs, the best TES DLC's save maybe one from Oblivion, and a ton more freedom than later games offer. Like you can actually fly in Morrowind for example, or break the games plot because no NPC is immortal, and you don't require mods or DLC's to do it either.

I think it's pretty fantastic, but yeah, there are some aspects that really don't hold up. I'd recommend using the console to max out every skill. The reason for playing this game is the fantastic world, deep story (best in TES series) and fun side quests. At this point, when we're used to much better systems, the gameplay doesn't really do the game any favors.

I agree, It's probably better to treat Morrowind as a very stylish audiovisual digital novel, give yourself all the important skills and enjoy the story, the world design and get some loot while you're at it.

why did you revive this

Morrowind is the pinnacle of the franchise, and everything after it can be ignored.

Or rather, would've been better as just actionized fantasy games without the Elder Scrolls name on it.

Morrowind aged really poorly... most 3D games do.

Skyrim is a way better game, but even when Oblivion came out I still liked playing Morrowind more. A lot of the characters and animations in Oblivion really turned me off to it.

@apothosMorrowind is my favorite game of all time and I still go back to play it every now and then. But my first time playing it was when it first came out on the OG Xbox. Put well over 300 hours into it.

Morrowind, while being a fantastic game and well deserving of the praise it gets, is not for everyone. If your first dip into the Elder Scrolls pool was Oblivion, or Skyrim, then Morrowind will feel like a relic of a previous culture, seemingly incomprehensible. Some people can go back and appreciate it, but not too many.

That being said, in a twisted sort of way, if you did start with Morrowind (Or hell even Arena or Daggerfall) those games give you an even bigger appreciation of Oblivion and Skyrim's technical advances for the series, while also reinforcing many's views that Morrowind is the best in the series. The thing that makes Morrowind great is it's superb lack of direction. You don't need to do ANYTHING. I know Oblivion and Skyrim claim the same, but you always kinda know what the main quest thread is about, even if you don't follow it. In Morrowind, you could experience 95% of that game without even bothering to know anything past the opening cut scene, as far as main story goes.

It was also brutal hard if you didn't play it right. Some skills could be 100% useless (looking at you most magic) , while others were borderline needed. And the game was unforgiving. Thing's didn't level with you like Oblivion or Skyrim, so a level one character could wander right into a Daedric Ruin and run into a Dremora in the first hour of play, die, and then realize you never saved and start all over.

Also the guild system has never been better then Morrowind. So many guilds to join and each one is really unique. And you could build your own stronghold! Telvanni House is best House!

Morrowind is a weird, weird relic, and technically inferior to those that came after it. But the world has a sense of wonder and charm that I feel was lost in TES 4 and 5. I'd still recommend trying to play it, unless you are completely exhausted by trying to figure it out.

Not sure I really get the "aged badly" thing. I played Thief for the first time about 3 years ago and it was fucking excellent. Once you rebind the controls there is nothing particularly "aged" about it excluding the graphics. People are sooks and if they can't enjoy good games because of it their loss.

I played the shit out of Oblivion on the 360 and slightly touched the 1st two games as a kid. and still play Skyrim frequently, but never actually played Morrowwind, I find myself feeling talked out of it now

The game has aged badly with hit and miss dice rolls and lack of quest tracking but story probably still worth a read.

But do need to enjoy this type of fiction to get most out of the story to be fair.

Nah. It's still wonderful. If you don't find the combat or leveling to your liking you can always install a mod or two and get it right back on track. You could probably argue you shouldn't have to mod to get anything out of the game--and you'd probably be right--but the world and the lore are too good to pass up.

GUIDE TO PLAYING MORROWIND:

1) Enchant a cloak with levitate.

2) Float in the air and just shoot things in the head and shoulders with a daedric bow or spells.

3) Do it 12 years ago so that you only have fond memories for it and have forgotten about the mess.

@locorocker: I don't really agree. I think the mechanics hold up from an RPG standpoint. It definitely doesn't play the same as Oblivion or Skyrim but that doesn't mean the mechanics are inherently bad.

@takayamasama: Biggest holy shit moment for me going from Morrowind to Oblivion was seeing an NPC exit his house. No joke. That was one of my only issues with Morrowind. NPCs were just walking information machines with no lives of their own. (which is still true for a lot of modern RPGs) The whole radiant AI thing needs to be in more games.

But yeah I agree with everything you said. But I would like to add three things I miss from Morrowind which they ditched in later TES games, firstly the ability to enchant armour to do pretty much anything, secondly the ability to kill anyone regardless of their importance to the main quest, and thirdly very few invisble walls. Morrowind felt unhinged, and I loved it.

EDIT: Just realised you made that post over a year ago, still holds true though!

@boozak: The post might be over a year old, but Morrowind's superiority is timeless!