Morrowind is an Open-World Fantasy RPG, the third entry in the mainline Elder Scrolls series. Popular and well received on release, going on to sell more than 4 million copies. Nowadays it is often seen as clunky and difficult to get into, but those who put in the work are rewarded with one of the best games of all time.
I love this game, but I didn’t always. Skyrim has been my favorite game since I first played it a decade ago, so of course I wanted to play the previous games in the series. But everything in Morrowind went against my natural instincts. Quests felt confusing, fog is everywhere, and despite being open world you are usually pushed to travel through narrow trenches. There are guards in the main city, who once offended, will NEVER forgive you. What ended up working for me was a full focus on the main quest. Once I’d defeated the evil powers of Dagoth I felt like Vvardenfell was truly mine.
I wouldn’t feel right making a post about TES 3 without mentioning the alienness of everything. Most other Elder Scrolls games are pretty close to the standard fantasy setting. Morrowind is not. Everything is bug or crab like, the palletes are dismal, and the people are strange and just as hostile as the environment. You really feel like you exploring a foreign land. Its something I hope they recapture in the next TES game (if it ever comes out)
What I love about Bethesda RPGs is that they are first person, and focused on completing well written quests. We are starting to see this genre take off, and some good prospects are releasing soon. But the selection is still limited. If you enjoy this style of gameplay its worth learning the jank to experience the wonder.
I really wanted to love that game. I built a computer specifically for it. And I played it a LOT.
But the world seemed so dead.
I started by wandering the wilderness and finding all these little dungeons. But when I went to follow the roads they led to… all the little dungeons.
Once I’d been through an area there was nothing left alive.
And then I had to start modding to enjoy the game more and eventually hit on the concept that I don’t want to play a game that is released incompleted and expected to be completed by the community.
I haven’t built a machine from parts since then.
In retrospect, I can’t argue that it’s an empty world. But during my time with the game as a teen, during its original release period on Xbox, it did not feel empty at all.
I’m wondering how much it had to do with the lower render distance / fog on Xbox, because without that I can imagine a totally different game. I’m also wondering how much had to do with essentially every playthrough of mine being wearing the boots of blinding speed and some magic resist so I could see. The big empty world felt small and populated when traversal doesn’t take as long. Not saying that’s good design, but I can imagine disliking it with the default move speed. Compared to many other similar games I played since then, most of the content felt worthwhile. Oblivion and especially Skyrim fell so short of the bar that Morrowind set for me because so much of the dungeon content felt like worthless filler.