The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition

The game world and atmosphere is amazing in this game. I'm giving it 4/5 instead of 5/5 because of the many, many bugs in it. The combat system is rather boring and bare-bones, but that's expected from a Bethesda game. You may want to install a few mods to update the graphics and fix the leveling system - try asking on the reddit forum for morrowind.

Morrowind was my first of many things. Not only was it my first exposure to the Elder Scrolls series, it was also: My first Xbox game My first Western RPG My first FPS (in controls I mean- this game taught me how to use dual analogs) My first 100+ hours experience in a single week My first video game soundtrack that I listened to OUTSIDE of the game. (I'm listening to 'Blessing of Vivec' as I type this.) Lastly, this is my first truly nostalgic experience. I don't remember the story from Super Mario World or Sonic the Hedgehog, but I do remember getting completely lost outside of Seyda Neen, coming across an elf falling from the sky. And how cliff racers killed me more than any other enemy in the game. I remember the little moments that are likely not relevant to the main story. The personal missions that weren't assigned to me from the game. So much freedom... Morrowind is an absolute treat of an experience. I probably invested over 1000 hours almost 20 years ago, but it breaks my heart a little to go back now. It hasn't aged terribly, but it can be difficult to transition back into a game that just throws you in the world and tells you to survive. Oblivion was awesome, and Skyrim was fantastic, but Morrowind will always have the largest piece of my heart.

I really love this game. The graphics have aged, the gameplay mechanics as well but its charm is still the same after 23 years.

The first thing I want to say is this: I've been playing Elder Scrolls games since Arena back in the day (and many, many other RPGs), hours and hours and hours playing them - but Morrowind is the only Elder Scrolls game I actually was drawn into enough to play right through to completion. I've spent an awful lot of time exploring and adventuring in the fantasy lives of the other games, even the Elder Scrolls MMO, but Morrowind is still my idea of the best in the series. I'm not even really sure why I like it so much. There's just this sense of 'atmosphere' that it has that nothing else has matched. With all the plugins enabled that come with the GOTY edition, the coast sound fix plugin really adds life to walking about the landscape. You have to remember when running the launcher for the first time, to select the plugin / data button, so you can activate the official addon files. When I stand in the starting village, by the water, and just listen to the sounds - the wind, the music, the insects, the distant calls of mysterious creatures, there is a sense of atmosphere that I haven't found in any other computer game. I bought the GOG version so I don't have to install and run off discs anymore, and in a break from the Elder Scrolls MMO, I've been playing Morrowind again lately, and it has lost none of its charm. Though I am running it now with the Morrowind Graphics Extender, which allows you to see distant terrain like in Oblivion and Skyrim, adds incredible realism to the water, and adds better shadows than any RPG I've played - if I equip my sword, the rising sun will cast leaf shadows over the blade. The graphics extender casts shadows from and onto everything, making it look really impressive, and everything - people, trees, buildings, rocks, sky, grass, all reflect into the new water. The extender also lets you run the game at 1920 x 1080 or other widescreen resolutions if you use the extender program.

Played most Bethesda games from Daggerfall to Skyrim and New Vegas. This one is their best game ever, and probably will stay that way a long time as things go. The world is large enough to be believable, without the whole monsters 200m from villagers but hey don"t see eachother thing. Real world has empty spaces, as does Morrowind. The main quest is as good as the side quests are, and this is their best attempt at creating a world you can actually believe in, where caves are not endless but linear structures, habitations feel like they could be used IRL... Leveling system is nice, spell also, no time lost in useless crafting but enough customization that your character plays like you want it... I consider this one of the best First Person action RPG