The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition

This game in a sense reminds how I have aged. I remember in the late 90s reading about this game in magazines, scouring the internet for all the most up to date details before release, waiting long and hard till it finally came out, on which day I bought it immediately. I finished it years later, thanks in no small part the great mods that were released that enriched the game experience. Since then, Oblivion and Skyrim have come and I have enjoyed, yet 17 years later I have nonetheless decided not only buy the game again and have enjoyed it even more than I did back then... Why? Nostalgia is the least of it. There is an immense amount of replay value in and of itself. An unparalleled amount of freedome exploring the world and discovering parts of the world and details of the plot that you missed the first time. HOWEVER, the modding community in all these 17 years has remained active and have expanded the game into something that was originally promised... Tamriel rebuilt is adding and has already added large parts of the mainland outside of the island of Vvardenfell with amazingly detailed new cities, new quests that tie into the pre-existing guilds. A talented modder (abot) has added rideable guars (mounts, which was originally promised before release), transportation that you can actually experience rather than simply fast travel with (silt riders, gondolas, boats). Indybank adds a banking system to place your gold in and buy houses with.... and there's so much more... the Telvanni mods to increase the House experience... Playing Skyrim now isn't just like playing a game, it's ultimately like taking a holiday in a different world in ways that even Skyrim has not been able to match. If you love timeless RPGs that grow younger with time, Morrowind has to be experienced.

This is worldbuilding, storytelling, immersion and exploration mastered... but not without severe caveats that you'll have to either suffer with or mod out. What begins as a simple journey of you being some apparent random prisoner has you ending with killing a self-proclaimed God and ALL of the emotions in between. The story unfolds nicely at a good pace, the music and world ooze with immersion and invitation and exploration both on the overworld and in dungeons is very rewarding. Good loot, hidden items, locked containers, secret passages... you name it! Every NPC can be talked to, though most of them are pretty much walking encyclopedias, it makes coming across the unique dialogue and lines all the more worth it. Aaaand that brings me to the downsides... some of which are subjective, however. The graphics are obviously outdated, the animations for characters are stock-like, sound effects are basic, not much voice acting and the combat... the combat is the "love it or hate it" side of the game. It performs identically to tabletop where damage and hit chance is determined by dice rolls, so you'll be swinging your hammer at point blank range and hoping that some of those swings eventually hit. Of course, the more proficient you are with said weapon, the higher the hit chance. If you can put up with slow, old school gameplay that doesn't have a cinematic or modern feel to it then you're in for a good story time with great and interesting lore to boot. I also love this game for its player customisation in that you can equip individual gloves and pauldrons for left and right, as well as wear robes over armour over clothes. Not many games allow this so take it for granted.

I envy anyone who starts playing this game for the first time. That's all I have to say.

I agree with all the previous posts.... Morrowind is unique, and possibly the best rpg there is. I have 2 copies of it on cd, and I still have the old xbox-version of it. And I just bought it again here. (Logged more hours in Morrowind than in Oblivion and Skyrim combined.) What Oblivion and Skyrim miss, is the feeling that your actions mather. That the world is alive. Morrowind, with it's faults (no-one ever sleeps, shops are open 24/7,...) and dated graphics and combat have this ; the world feels real and your actions (or inactions) do mather ! There are dozens of factions and not all are friendly to one-another. Joining 1 faction means some other faction will dislike you (hence you will not be able to join that other faction, and never get their quests). The same goes for the guilds (fighter, thieves, mages). You can join all three, but you will not get all the quests from those guilds, since your actions in the two other guilds will always make some questgiver unhappy. Your skills and abilities are simply better than Oblivion or Skyrim. While it is true that your original character choice will dictate what weapons/magic you can use, your character in time can grow in such a way that all weapons and spells can be wielded. The conversations you can have with the npc's is nothing like Oblivion or Skyrim. You can really talk about all locations or quests with all npc's !! For those of you who never played Morrowind : If you can get past the graphics and combat system (using mods can help), you will find an Elder Scrolls game like no other... and you will love it !

For me personally Morrowind is the best pc game of my life. I spent hundreds of hours playing this tittle. And I am still playing it from time to time, sometimes with my oldest character that i have created before more than 10 years (and map has still quite lot of the blank areas). It could give you perfect immersion to the story, lore in morrowind is very detailed, it has multiple ways how to finish the game, it could be done in minutes or in lifetime. It has a lot of options for the character builds. Because the graphical style of the game is very distinctive, it aged quite well even in this area. Soundtrack is wonderful, very decent and very calm, but energizing. It can be modded and modding community is alive and well and still improving Morrowind (even this was not a factor for me, a I like vanilla version more).