The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition

I struggled with this game at first. I didn't like it. It was easy to get sidetracked, caught up in minutiae of the world (like picking flowers), and didn't seem to have a clear goal. So I put it down. Tried again a year later. Put it down again. Then tried Oblivion, which I enjoyed immensely. Before trying Morrowind again, I read some advice of "it's easy to get stuck when you first start out. Just ignore the town you start in, and immediately head to the first goal. Ignore everything else." That worked wonders for me. The game is deep, immersive and challenging. It is very open as to how you want your character to develop. Later games in the series (Oblivion, Skyrim) started dumbing down character options, and especially for me, lessening magic capabilities. (I was pretty annoyed with Skyrim about how shouts are more powerful than magic spells - thus making a mage character somewhat meaningless). I have now replayed this game fully over 2 dozen times. I love the mechanics (you can even fly everywhere), the storyline, sidequests, and the world itself. It is great in it's vanilla form, or with the myriad of mods that exist. It is older, but if the graphics bother you, then a graphics mod, like https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/36945 works great.

The atmosphere created in this release of Elder Scrolls was the most engaging for me out of all of the games. That is not to say that it hasn't aged or even aged well. I have not played this title in years. However when I did play it the sounds, sights and stories sucked me in like little else has done since Ultima Underworld. I was fully invested in my character. So much so that I remade my character many times after leaving the starting town to get it "just right." I don't think I've cared to that degree about my toon in any other RPG. Once I was satisfying the rest of my many hours in this game we're engrossing. I never felt like my hands were held playing this game but that was in a positive way. I read every book or scroll I found in the game and there were a LOT of them. They were all well-written and interesting. I actually found myself seeking certain thing or areas out in the game just based on the interest piqued by the in-game flavor texts. Over time my character evolved into a sort of rogue conjuror. I kne how to summon all sort of horrible creatures (the more horrible ones being possible only after practicing summoning skeletons over and over. If my monsters and beasts were not enough I could summon whole suits of armor to Don and enchanted weapons. One paralyze spell and me slicing madly with an Eldritch dagger and my crocodile demon going to town were usually more than enough to finish anyone that caught me robbing their house blind.

No generic quests like in Skyrim! Lore and the feeling of your place in the world is just right. Great guild quests. You can be very creative with builds, magic, skills, weapons and armor.

It's really good. Yes, it is, really and i mean it, really, really good. I love role-playing as a charming knight

The gameplay is good (and there are plenty of mods to fix issues), the story is amazing, the characters almost without peer, but the metaphysics -- is divine. Drawing influences from Sumerian myth, Hindu cosmology, Crowley occultism and many other sources, a deep and consistent mystical worldview is built. The Creation Myth is omnipresent, and its reinterpretations from different perspectives serve to give insight into those perspectives. The order/static matter versus chaos/pure change theme plays out from creation to the actions of gods and mortals in the present day - yet it also gives birth to higher-level interplays, such as seeking to stop entropy (succeeded), achieve immortality(that too), godhood(yup), and levels of existence above mere godhood(partial, flawed success). This is always present but hidden throughout the main story, and I never felt it was forced: sure, the gods may preach, but they are also inherently flawed, stricken by guilt at past crimes and mistakes. Vivec, the philosopher-poet-god most involved in the main story, wrote 36 sermons, which present themselves as short books in the game; some of them have been forbidden to the public by the enforcers of the very religion s/he's leading, and can be found only in secret libraries; the contents themselves often serve as revelations, providing new interpretations of past sermons and facts. While the sermons themselves are great, I'd also advise listening to a very good reading of them: https://soundcloud.com/rottendeadite/sets/the-36-lessons-of-vivec