The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition

You know how Morrowind's fans view Oblivion and Skyrim as low points in the series? That's how we remaining Daggerfall fans view Morrowind, lol. Friendly jabs at fellow fans aside: Morrowind 'is' a good, solid RPG. It features an engaging plot, good characterization, and a decent, but sadly watered down (in comparison to Daggerfall's) character creation and levelling system. The one sin that this game committed that I will never forgive, however, is Bethesda's insistence on preventing the player from ever experiencing 80% of the land of Morrowind itself. Instead, you are relegated to two islands (Vvardenfel and Solstheim), and Mournhold, the capitol of Morrowind, The latter two added in the expansion packs. Those of us who came from Daggerfall back then were disheartened at this, and still are to this day. But I digress. Morrowind is considered a classic for a reason, and in this new RPG-starved gaming environment (no, Skykiddies: your shallow, vapid, hollow shell of an open-world hack n slash is not, nor could ever possibly be, a Role Playing Game), real gaming experiences that allow you to fully immerse yourself in a fantastical world are as rare as ancient Falmer artifacts (yeah: 'one') shoved into a ham-fisted, 11th hour DLC.

Simply: the best game ever. + history + storyline + world + character design + gameplay (no markers on the map like in new games is really great and important for me) + just everything

I like Daggerfall, but Morrowind beats it out because of mods and lack of level scaling. The best way to play Morrowind is without walkthroughs or maps. If you play it that way you will see why this game is so magical to many people. You wander into a ruin, find the enemies hand your ass to you, persevere and pick up a weapon that in a modern rpg would be offlimits due to level restrictions or scaling nonsense. I don't see why modern rpgs can't recreat this magic, but they don't.

So much freedom in this good old open world rpg! You can make your own weapons, your own spells, wear different gloves on each hand with crazy enchantments on each of them! You could learn the levitation spell or find some crazy jumping scrolls (wink, wink) and make your way straight to the freaking main antagonist 10 minutes into the game and get your ass handed to you! Or you could be a potion seller, sign up with the local church and make an exhausting pilgrimage through the whole huge world, making offerings to the gods and trying to survive the journey. Or you could be a common thief. Or you could work for one of honorable Houses, or maybe become an assassin and get paid for killing people, or maybe get in the imperial legion and uphold the law or something. Or you could spend a few hours reading some awesome books(!!!) you will find in the game! I could go on for 10 more pages but no one's going to read that much. Also there are so many awesome mods for this game they alone are worth the asking price. So if you don't mind the visuals definitely try it out.

It's not often a game just tosses you out on your own with little instruction and no sense of urgency to do some "super important main quest", at least not in rpgs. Of all the RPG games I've played, this one is hands down the best. Morrowind provides the player with all the tools they need to succeed, and it does so in a subtle and natural way. For example, people often have trouble finding their way around, but if you talk to Sellus Gravius about how to get to Balmora (your first "quest") he tells you to speak with a scout. Once you learn that there are scouts that can tell you where things are, you start to look around for them. In talking to other people, you learn about trainers, but they aren't always called trainers. In some rumors they are referred to as some "guy or gal who knows a lot about something you might want to learn about". Then you start hearing rumors about lost items, strange groups of "pilgrims" in certain regions, and suddenly you find yourself lost in a world full of wonderful little surprises. Morrowind was made with time and hand crafted. The creators showed just how much they loved this project by how many little details they put in. Nothing was randomly generated, even the landscape was hand crafted and textured. It's a game that has been made with care and attention to detail, and it shows. Sure the graphics aren't the best in the eyes of some, and the combat can be difficult to get into if you don't understand it or how it works, but the game itself is full of things to do, places to explore, books to read, and you are encouraged to come up with new and creative ways to play. Make crazy pointless spells, learn all the melee fighting techniques, be a stealthy orc with a massive hammer and a knack for magic! Push the boundaries of the world! Serve gods, or destroy them and all those who love them. The adventure, the main adventure, is yours to make, and yours to have! -Gabe the N'wah