The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition

If you want to play this game, it is probably worth it to check out the engine reimplementation: openmw.org It also runs on Linux and OS X!

I've got this on CD (I think I have it twice on CD) and I only recently (3 days ago) purchased it on another online game delivery service. If I knew this was coming to GOG I'd a baked a cake, no sorry, I would have bought it here. This is in my mind the greatest of the Elder Scrolls games. It is a fantasy RPG in a world that just feels unique. No wizards with pointy hats and generic fantasy tropes here. It is also a game that I keep on coming back to time and time again. The modding community is fantastic and it is amazing how good this can look now with the right mods in place. Give it a go, you won't regret it.

A lot of this game is janky and dated (it looked dated when it released...), and there is an entire spectrum of opinions on whether this game is laughably bad or the best RPG ever made. I say, if you are an RPG or fantasy fan, you MUST try this game. I love it and I could spend hundreds of hours exploring the single island in this game. You honestly might dislike it, but I think the game is worth the price for the amount of effort that went into it. Future Elder Scrolls games simplified things, and we might never see a game comparable to Morrowind ever again.

Yes, it's old. Graphics are dated, you have to read a lot, gameplay is antiquated(I personally don't mind it), and there's balance issues - to name some of the bigger issues people have with it. However, no game before or after offers the depth of gameplay and immerson that Morrowind does. No game has matched the mysterious, eerie tone that this game exudes. From giant mushrooms that people live in, to a city made of of ziggurats emerging from the see - each one a town of its own, this game is amazing. Not to sound like a Todd Howard broken record, but this is truly a game where you can go where you want and do what you want. If you can get over the antiquated veneer of this game, it's an absolute gem of gems.

In 50 years time, Morrowind and Daggerfall will be the 2 games that stand out from the Elder Scrolls series. The lore took tired Eurocentric high fantasy cliches and created an entirely new cosmology, but one that is still close enough so we can recognise pieces from our own history or current events. You could actually forego all the battles and quests and just spend 100s of hours reading all the lore books in Vivec City or talking to the NPCs. The world isn't built for you, so it feels real. Are you the chosen one or not? You decide. Ignore the main quest and use the game as your playground if you like or become the Nerevarine. But NPCs won't treat you like the chosen one and humour your superiority complex like in Oblivion,Skyrim. You have to actually prove that you're worthy. There's also hardly any moral guideline here. Do you want to free slaves or support slavery? Do you want to become a vampire and sneak around at night, drinking blood? Are you pro-Tamrielic Empire or sympathising with Dunmer separatists? Both the world and NPCs will react realistically to your actions. No simple good/evil fairy tale stuff. The world as such is also very beautiful. Unlike Oblivion and Skyrim that abandoned a lot of established lore and are in many ways pandering to fans of classic boring Euro-Middle-Age fantasy, the island of Vvardenfell has an amazingly varied topography, flora and fauna. Monsters look weird. The various Dunmer houses have different architecture, culture, different levels of acceptance of you as an outsider. The game is a classic CRPG through and through, but modern enough so that you can build a character that's basically easy mode. While the graphics are definitely dated now, they were cutting edge when they came out and can be souped up with various mods. The battles are sadly less dynamic than Oblivion, Skyrim, but there's no unrealistic level scaling as in those. There's very few games that I love going back to. This is one of them.