The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition

Similar story to user Mordhar, I remember begging my nan to buy this game for me, which she did hesitantly, i played it on her PC and it ran about 3FPS, but I didn't care. I've never been so immersed in a game like this before. As a child, and i'll admit a little bit to this day, my favourite movies where always a bit bitter sweet, i'd form a bond with the characters, the world, the stories but they always came to and end and i'd end up feeling a bit empty, and you can only re-watch a movie so many times before the VHS burns out ,and i'd always longed for something more longer lasting, more permanent, then came Morrowind. Morrowind scratched that itch for me as a kid, I could play for years and years and still not have the same experience from playthrough to playthrough, the characters i bonded with where always there, the stories i bonded with kept evolving and having new meaning each time i revealed more lore. and even better, I was a part of the world, and not just someone looking in through a TV screen. It was the first game that ever made me go, "hold up, there's more to games than just pretty pixels", i got into the creation kit and started expanding on the world, well before i knew people actually made careers doing this stuff, it was a beginning of a lifetimes passion and career, and i didnt even know it. Fast forward a decade or two, and i do this for a living now. A senior artist at a big AAA studio, making worlds and experiences for other people who are like me, to bond with and be immersed. To the people that worked on Morrowind, and especially the person who decided "might as well just give them our game engine to play with" Thank you so much, I think you have a slight understanding of how many lives you shaped and changed, but i don't think anyone could comprehend just how many you guys and girls truly did.

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 can excuse many flaws in this game, for the experience is really good. An actual RPG, where you can actually play the role you choose. So much freedom, to mess up, to learn, to get things right. It's possible to role play, or not even care about that. It's possible to min-max, but there's no need for that. There's a variety of factions, for a variety of playstyles. The first time I actually play this game, I played it more as an action adventure game. Although that's not really the point of the game, it is possible. I didn't know english at the time so, it was not very possible for me to actually role play. I didn't understand most things that were written. And that is one of the flaws of the game: there's a lot of reading to be done. Everything has to be read. It's a minor flaw, but it has to be pointed out, because there may be issues with those who cannot read. Still, it is possible to play the game, as I already pointed out. Dark Brotherhood assassins out to get you as soon as you're out of the tutorial is also a flaw. Funny thing: I manage to kill some of these guys without them using their dart. And once, that dart actually hit me, and I died. Throwing weapons are great Enchanting is impossible on your own, unless you fortify you inteligence A LOT. But, this is a implementation problem. It could have been fixed. As many other problems the game has, like pickpocketing being impossible, for example. And it is still possible to enchant by paying for enchantments, so that's just a minor problem in the end. It actually gives the player a use for their earned gold, so I'm fine with this. Unfortunately Bethesda didn't had time to spare to fix some of these issues that could make this game better than it is. Still, it's a great experience, and that's what really matter for a game to be considered a 10/10 for me.

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.