The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition

Some people complain about the combat. It seems, indeed, clunky, if you compare it to modern games, but the fact is that it simply works in a different way. In modern games, your character is good at combat if you, the player, are good. In Morrowind, how effective your character is depends entirely on your charcater skills, not on the player's. If you have low skill at one handed weapons and use one, you will simply miss a lot. The more you use a skill, the more you'll hit. Simple as that. That is one thing that I love about morrowind, but I constantly see people not understanding about this game. Other things that I love and that make this game my favorite are: - No artificial fast travel: you CAN fast travel, but only with built-in systems, such as mage's guild teleportation system, ferries, and so on. In other words, there is a net of public transport you can use, which helps to create immersion. Also Mark and Recall spells allow you to get to one place via teleportation. - No quest markers. When you get a quest, you also get indications to get there. You search on the map and try to find places. - Wiki-styled journal. When you talk with NPCs about a topic (or person or place), every mention of that topic in your journal becomes a link. You click on it and see every info you've gathered about that topic. Simple, yet genius. - True choices. You cannot be proficient with all the weapons. You cannot be in every guid. Choices matter, and each choice will exclude other choices. - The magic system. The lore. The quests. The music. The atmosphere! One caveat: it's old. Best to play it lightly modded. MGXE (Morrowind Graphic Extender XE) and MCP (Morrowind Code Patch) are highly recommended. They are easy to install and work without problems. You can find guides on Youtube: my favourite is the one by helswake called Morrowind Essentials Guide. Have fun!

Obviously all of the younger gamers who grew up on Skyrim don't seem to understand that Morrowind was the first of it's kind. You can't play the vanilla version today and expect it to be some modern marvel! The entire reason this game is so nostalgic for older gamers is that Morrowind is the first of it's kind. Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim, Fallout 4 and others have all followed in its footsteps. There was no Dark Souls or any other open world, RPG adventure game in which you could explore and open up the world, story and quests in whatever order you want. It was the first game where you could steal everything that wasn't nailed down, etc. It was one of the first games that I remember having such a big, beautiful sounding orchestra as its soundtrack. I could go on and on but one of the biggest reasons it was so big was that it was available on Xbox! Most of us couldn't afford gaming PC's back then so we were rarely able to experience these types of games on our consoles. tl;dr - This game isn't perfect and it defintely isn't for everyone but it's a classic for a good reason. I guess it's just too difficult for some people under the age of 30 to understand that a 20 year old game isn't going to play like a AAA game in 2022.

My dad received a copy of this game with some computer thing he bought when I was about nine years old. Unsure what it was about, he passed it off to me, and I henceforth spent probably over a week of cumulative game time exploring the world of Morrowind. Let me be honest. A lot of my opinions on this game are softened by nostalgia. The graphics are awful. The sound design is lacking. There's one voice actor per race/gender combination, and some of them are quite mediocre. The NPCs speak like walking encyclopedias and are never quite as immersive as Oblivion's or Skyrim's, and that's saying something as even those are quite shallow in comparison to Bioware NPCs. Criticism aside, let me say that the world design is phenomenal. There is nothing like Morrowind except Morrowind. Imagine a marriage of Dune and medieval fantasy with some anthropomorphic lizard and cat people thrown in, as well as a beautiful slurry of conflicting mythology, philosophy, surrealism, Roman Imperial influences, and some hands-down fantastic worldbuilding. Unlike Oblivion and Skyrim, which both go to great lengths to protect you from your own stupidity, Morrowind chucks all that and lets you do what you want. Want to charge into a late game area at level one and get slaughtered? Go ahead, nothing will stop you. Nothing scales to your level here. Want to murder a vital main quest NPC? Sure. Never touch the Main Quest? Go ahead. Go on a killing spree and reduce Balmora to a population of one? Hell yeah! The storytelling is fantastic. The dialogue is shit, yeah, but the plot makes up for it. You're presented with a story that allows you to have your own impressions and opinions. Are you the Chosen One? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe you know that you aren't but you're saying you are anyway. You are handed a neatly deconstructed pile of tropes and told to create something for yourself out of them. If you're the kind of nerd who likes reading lots of fictional documents, then welcome home, outlander.

The worst thing about this game is getting it to run nicely. What you should do: Buy this version and invest a day to follow the S.T.E.P. Guide for Morrowind (https://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Morrowind_graphics_guide). And it's crucial to install the Morrowind Code Patch (In the S.T.E.P. Guide), Then run the "exe optimizer"(http://timeslip.users.sourceforge.net/exeopt.html) and optimize the modified exe and finally run the "4GB Patch" over it. (https://ntcore.com/?page_id=371). If you plan to mod this game, do yourself a favor and use Mod Organizer 2, trust me. Once you start the game, it might take a minute or two for the game to actually start up, so don't get impatient. You'll get used to it. Game is old and performance is lackluster. Inconsistent FPS outdoors. There is almost no voiced dialogue in this game. The loading and saving may take forever or happen lightning quick, depending on the "mood" the game is in. When you start out, you get frustrated, because there are no animations to convey the concept of "missing" a swing, so it looks like you connect with your hit but you don't. There is no fast travel, unless you work for it. After 50+ Hours, I am wearing a Cuirass that makes me immune to Fire Damage, Legendary Gauntlets and a Helmet that boost my stats, a skirt - AHEM - I mean a VERY MANLY *KILT* that I enchanted to allow me to fly, and Boots that make you go fast but also make you blind, if I hadn't created an "anti-blind" Spell through Spell-making. Morrowind might not be for everyone, but if you are part of "everyone" you should at least try it. It gives you this profound sense of accomplishment, that I have rarely felt in a video game. I truly feel like I earned all that magical equipment, because I was smart, resourceful and because I didn't give up! Skyrim feels like a trip to Disneyland in comparison.. A fun diversion, sure, but all you really do is ride rollercoasters and shake hands with people in costumes. 4½ Stars

And one of the best RPGs ever made. It's old, it's ugly, I know. But there are mods for that... Just go to the youtube and type: "Easy Guide for Modding MORROWIND with Amazing Graphics in 30 Minutes - Super Simple Modlist for 2021" And that's it, the basic mods are there. 1. Install the game 2. Mod it 3. ??? 4. Criticize the Oblivion and Skyrim even more! It's the best.