The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition

I haven't written many reviews, but sometimes it's warranted. Morrowind is a decent game, I won't lie. But it's not the object of worship many make it out to be. I'll stick to some of the "bad" aspects; any of the other gushing reviews can fill you in on the rest. The game is characterized by so much sameness, everywhere. If you're a casual gamer (buying a title almost 20 years old?), you might not notice or be bothered, much. But if you're a modder, a serious gamer, or even just launch the editor once, the curtain will come down, the world of Morrowind will crumble before your eyes. Everything is static meshes glued to more static meshes. These vast dungeons they speak of are nothing but cookie cutter corridors glued together, often in the very same (or at least very similar) configuration you just saw in a dungeon an hour ago. Buildings, dungeons, boulders--all meshes plunked down on a convex world mesh, over and over and over, it's always the same thing. The art is quite bad. The animation is terrible (you realize this is a Bethesda title). Gameplay balance, you say? What's that? This is honestly the worst aspect of the game. Touted as 'freedom', Morrowind has almost no direction. Yes, there is a plot, and you should follow it. Because if you don't, the game is little more than a solo wander-kill-repeat fest through sameness. The (ab)use of leveled lists is offensive. That you can kill a god within twenty minutes of starting is shameful. That you can craft weapons and armor that permit you to leap across the entire world, become essentially immortal, and stun-hack anything (even a god) to death is laughable, disgraceful, ridiculous, game-ruining. That Bethesda keeps doing it going forward... well, that's a different discussion. There's a lot more to say, but I'll summarize with: if you want to try it out, by all means do so. But wait for a really deep sale. That, or just wait for the next "graphically enhanced" re-installment of the same game from you-know-who.

Really tried to love this game, but I just don't. Why? It's boring, one of the most boring games I have ever played. I tried everything - modded the graphics to perfection (over 100 graphical mods) played most of the guilds, the main quest, read the books etc. The Problem - The quests don't branch. You never feel like you are working towards something, you are just running errands for various groups that don't care about the Nerevarine. Why should you? - The dungeons are tiny, most are terribly small. - The combat is awful - even when you are skilled enough to hit everything - The world is empty, brown/black terrain - The NPCs are shallow Wikipedia guides. The lore is good. The game is not. Just read the books on Imperial Library and you're all set.

Not as good as Oblivion, though. Fight me.

The most captivating part of any Elder Scrolls game, the world, is totally absent in Morrowind. Npc's, assets, dialogue and even geography are all copy/pasted. I gave up after 30hrs at Vivec city once I realized there was no point in talking to every NPC, for an incredibly small fraction of them actually give quests and all of them have the same dialogue responses. This game is just a walking simulator in a copy/pasted open world map. Compared to other hand drawn RPG's like Gothic, I can't recommend anyone purchase this game. Played the unmodded version on my MBP using wineskin and had no performance issues, but the excruciatingly slow iv drip of an introduction only sets you up for far too much walking, that even the non-existent dialogue and RNG gameplay can't relent. This is a walking simulator disguised as an rpg.

Don't listen to everyone who's completely high on their nostalgia. This game did not age well at all. It is filled with horrible design decisions and has little to no redeeming qualities. Just go play a modern sandbox and save your sanity.