The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition

*Before jumping into it, Morrowind is a game that either needs a bit of modding or using OpenMW, a modern-engine for the game, to run smoothly on modern hardware; however you still might find the game a little finicky and laggy (ymmv though, depends on your hardware). Morrowind is a game that falls in this strange transitional period for Bethesda, whilst not as open as say Daggerfall or Arena or as action-centric as Skyrim and ESO, Morrowind attempts to take the best of "classic" Elder Scrolls and "modern" Elder Scrolls to a very mixed success. Combat is.... a bit hard if you are familiar with Skyrim but not too far from Daggerfall, at first you will miss a whole lot till you level your skills and will need to learn how to access all your move-set (slashes, stabbing, etc... are still around) but this is made up for by an extremely broken (in a good way) magic system where you can create your own spells and substantially buff yourself in the process. On the other hand, world-building in Morrowind trumps Daggerfall and Arena whilst setting a clear precedent that Skyrim and following games attempt to capture; what stands out is the interactions between factions and NPCs, for instance suppose you join the mage's guild, one of the three houses might see you as lesser or greater based on your existing factions, even your starting race will play a role in opinions others hold of you and how much you might need to bribe for information. Beyond these world interactions, Morrowind's world itself is built around the principle of "no unused space" with every area either being involved in a quest, capable of giving you unique gear, or building towards the lore with dungeons being (to my knowledge) semi-handcrafted and not entirely randomly generated. Should you play Morrowind today? Totally, though you'll find it won't play the same as newer Elder Scrolls games such as Oblivion or Skyrim nor quite like Daggerfall or Arena; however, Morrowind's world is well-crafted and a joy.

Worldbuilding in Morrowind is unparalleled. I find myself coming back to this game from time to time and favourably it comparing to tens of other games, old and new. The intricate web of relationships between the climate, natural resources, native customs, politics, trade, religions, historical conflicts, human (humanoid) passions and forgotten mysteries is something you can only find in "Lord of the Rings" or "A Song of Ice and Fire". While the combat system for melee/ranged is a bit dated, the spellcasting system is top tier. You can make your own spells out of close to a hundred base effects. Alchemy and enchanting are cool too. GOG release is very nice as well, with all official add-ins. I can honestly give 5 star reviews to 4-5 games out of 200. Morrowind is the best in its class, surpassing every other installment in the TES series.

It's so immersive and left such an impact on my life that I still wake up in a cold sweat after hearing a cliff racer in my dreams

This game is fun; the quests respect the player's intelligence. There are plenty of quests and locations to explore. Sadly or happily depending on how hard you like games, there is no fast travel. This means that you have plenty of time to explore the islands of Vvardenfell and Solstheim. Recommended: Playing with opemMW, makes the game a lot better. If you are on Linux, I suggest downloading the Windows versions for your game launcher, so the time still gets logged on gog. For some reason, launching the Linux version of openMW with heroic gives me no sound. This was my solution.

Man oh man....where to begin....The atmosphere for starters was amazing. The architecture for the native dunmer (dark elves) was/is so unique. And many of the natives would talk to you like you were trash which was strangely awesome at the time. Also the music is top notch. The world is big and the expansions make it bigger. Tribunal is another big city with lots to explore underground with a decent story. Bloodmoon is another wintery island with plenty to do. Both have decent stories and TOUGH bosses that will take you a while even if you're character is overpowered in the main game. You will come out with awesome items. The main game has a really cool boss. But beating him you'll need certain items which are kind of annoying to find. His pseudo philosophical rants are very well written. The main story is this messiahnic-type of deal where you unite factions and tribes and become the savior of the land. It's very well done. You can keep going after you've beaten everything and everyone will appreciate that a hero like you has bothered to stop and say hi to them. Ha. A little buggy but the unofficial patch takes care of what the latest install version does not. Also look for a sweet texture pack! There are TONS of them as well as other various mods to make the game to your liking. For first timers try to avoid mods outside of simple texture packs. I've beaten the main quest 3 times and the expansions twice. In one play-through I put twice the time into morrowind as I do for one play through of oblivion or skyrim (both great games too). One thing to note this game has "dice rolls" even if you visually land a hit. So at first your character will miss a lot and it'll be frustrating. Stick with it though! The stories in this game are fun but the exploration and how stylized the dunmer buildings and ruins were just blew me away. This is my fave elder scrolls game and in my top ten for best games ever. Sorry if I'm geeking out! It's one of those games for me!