Despite its glitches and some dull points of the gameplay, it's the most immersive game I've ever played, more so than oblivion. It makes you feel like you're really in another world, and you love every minute of it. In my top 3 for sure
Despite its glitches and some dull points of the gameplay, it's the most immersive game I've ever played, more so than oblivion. It makes you feel like you're really in another world, and you love every minute of it. In my top 3 for sure
I didn't feel like I was in another world at all. Incidentally, I played Morrowind right after playing Shenmue II. My thought was "why the hell is everybody just standing around?!" Immersion was right out the window IMO.
On a more concrete note, I felt that a lot (if not most) of the quests in Morrowind were frivolous; the storyline was bland, and the battle system didn't do anything for me. The bugs are kind of inexcusable.
Originally Posted by TheShawn
Those are some ridiculous breasts there, even by western-RPG standards.
I could never really much get into either Morrowind or Oblivion. I put about fifteen hours into each one hoping they would pick up, following the main quest and doing lots of side wandering, but my interest completely fell off by that point. Felt fair too aimless to me, really. Also too damn much bloom in Oblivion.
Though I'm not much a fan of jRPGs either.
I like this game a lot too, but there's so much to do- almost too much. I just recently picked it up off my self, and started playing it again (after about a year and a half). I don't know if I can ever finish it. I wonder what the finish ratio is for all the people who've played it. It can't be that high. Sorry for resurrecting a dead thread...but anyone else currently playing this game? It has really changed the way I think about RPG's, as most seem really small by comparison. I'm not a big fan of Japanese-style, turn-based games... with the exception of the KOTOR series on the XBOX.
I am currently playing Oblivion, so I went back into Morrowind to check out my old save. I beat probably 95% of that game, including the two expansions. No other game has claimed as much time as Morrowind did. It's funny though, after checking it out recently I don't think I'll ever be able to play it again. I spent way too much time with it, and am too familiar with everything. Luckily I have Oblivion now, but I think Morrowind did a lot of things better. To answer the OPs question, I've got it in my #1 spot so far.
If I'm not mistaken, only 2 expansion packs were released... and the "Game of the Year Edition" also comes in a non-platinum hits version, as it's the one I have.
This game completely occupied my thoughts for almost two months when I played it a few years ago. I had to buy the game guide to beat it... I'd likely rank it somewhere close to World of Warcraft which is my favorite RPG ever.
So what exactly does Morrowind do better than Oblivion?
It's cheaper and you don't need to buy a 360 to play it.
Seriously, I'm not sure. I've wanted a 360 ever since I knew there would be an elder scrolls game on it. I just have trouble with the idea of spending money on one right now (360) when I'm really starting to get a good xbox collection going... and of course all the other systems I own. Although when I do get one, oblivion will be the 1st game I buy.
Once you have gone to every town, looted every house a killed every non-game charactor, you get lonely. But that doesn't really stop you from making another charactor.
It is a great game and it definately kept me a lot more busy than Oblivion. It was such a fun game that I've bought it three times, first time then two Game of the Year editions, all for PC. First one was stolen, gave first GotY away then bought the third to play it again.
Then again I've bought Oblivion twice, once for 360 once for PC because the controls suck on the 360.
I'd rate it at 6 Courics.
Not to bash Elder Scrolls but I bought Oblivion and was only able to invest about an hour into it. It's definitely not the game's fault, as I respect it for what it is. Artistically, graphically and storywise, I appreciated what I experienced, I just didn't feel compelled to experience much more of it. Then again I haven't been able to enjoy an RPG since FFX (ahh, Final Fantsy XII, I had such high hopes for thou...).
It was decent, the fetch quests kinda sucked though. Murdering people was fun. I jumped everywhere so my jump stat became rediclous and I could jump over houses.
I'd rate Morrowind in my top ten games, period. There's just something about how well designed the world is that most other games in the genre are lacking.
I love the Elder Scrolls series in it's entirety, but Morrowind stands out as the game that changed how I view immersion and design in sandbox environments. Sure the game was broken in many ways; your stats were super easy to exploit, there were more than a few crash bugs, and the graphics have NOT aged well, but I once spent two hours real time reading books in the bookstore in Vivec. Any game that can make me do that on my own time and enjoy it obviously has something going for it.
the way I look at how the world of Morrowind was designed can be summarized by the concept of 'substantialized minimalism'. The game world is huge, and there are literally hundreds of places and things to see. To make sure they could include as much of that as they could, Bethesda reduced the infrastructure of the surrounding game to it's bare minimum; NPC's stand in one spot, perpetually... But you never have to hunt down a favorite shop keeper or guild mate. The experience system is basic, almost simplistic, but it allows for some pretty creative builds, even if you do decide to exploit it. The character models are poorly textured and generic looking, but when you walk into a Dunmer camp during a sandstorm and see the locals walking into the wind, shielding their faces against the wind with their arms and scarves, you get a sense of their culture and place. It's all pretty amazing.
Many of the design decisions that annoy other gamers are totally valid; the NPCs are static in their location, the bugs are pretty unforgivable, and the fetch quests are pretty shallow. Despite that, there are places, stories, and themes in the game that in my opinion transcend their flaws.... Though if I even meet the guy who decided that Cliff Racers were a good idea, I will stab him in the eye. Seriously.
I'd rate it far, far below Baulder's Gate II, KOTOR and even Fable. It was big and bland and just not terribly interesting for me.
OK...I'm thread-liching here, and at this point a discussion on Morrowind probably belongs in "classic gaming" far more than "modern gaming," but I'm doing so for a reason: I want to revise my previously expressed opinion based on a new attempt to play through this game. In addition, there still - even eight or so years after this game has come out - appears to be an active modding community that is constantly improving / tweaking / changing this game.
Morrowind is not the best RPG of all time, but it's a far cry from a piece of dreck. I'd really say that the thing that saves this game from the bad review that I previously gave it is the fact that it's allowed the community to do so much with its editor. Many of the mods that have come out address the specific complaints that I had about the game, and liberal use of the UESP wiki pages make the game a lot more playable and enjoyable. I'm currently using "Living Cities of Vvardenfell" (gives NPCs schedules so that they are at home / at the bar / at work at different times during the day...even if they do "teleport" there, it's a big improvement), Herbalism Enhanced and Resources Enhanced (makes collecting things for alchemy worlds better), one that provides purchase-able houses and furniture to place in those houses (I'm surprised by how much this really makes me enjoy the game - the ability to buy a house, decorate it as you see fit, and of course to load it up and hoard all sorts of things) and of course the Code Project / Patch Project, which fixes all sorts of little things in the game to improve it. I think I'm also using a few other mods that change / tweak a few other things (Dark Brotherhood attacks, the ability to re-forge the "end-game" weapon into a different type, and of course one to limit the aggressiveness of those infernal Cliff Racers).
Point being: the mods change a lot of things in this game...if it doesn't quite suit your fancy, you can to a certain extent "bend" the game to your will, and customize it to suit your preferences. Even the skill system.
The big down-side to the game is, IMO, that you almost have to use the wiki. You can't really play this game enjoyably without some sort of guide. A map of the fast-travel points (which I didn't use before), a list of essential NPCs, and where to find decent items (you'll almost never come across them by chance - the world's just too big) are essential. It's annoying that you can't really ask NPCs about equipment necessary to perform certain skills...where you can buy soul gems of various types, for instance, or what places are good sources of decent weapons or armor - even information about what types of armor to be on the lookout for. I know they try to let you "be whomever you want to be," but if I were doing that in the Morrowind game world, I know that - given the prevalence of things that could kill you - I'd be asking everyone, everywhere, where I could obtain the tools for survival. Lots of other RPGs simply put these in the shop as soon as you reach a certain level...Morrowind hides them in out-of-the-way places and hopes you'll come across them (case in point: the one guy, in the whole game, that will forge ebony / glass / adamantium armor for you...and I can't ask the other armorers / warriors / whatever about him, or about someone "who makes good armor?").
So yeah...I'm enjoying this game a lot. It's a whole lot more fun with some of the additions other people have made to it. Can't wait to play Oblivion, since it seems that's equally customizable.
You are startled by a grim snarl. Before you, you see 1 Red dragon. Will your stalwart band choose to (F)ight or (R)un?
I didn't like the graphics of it so I haven't played it.
Never played Morrowind, but the Elder Scrolls is first and foremost a PC series. The mods for Oblivion made the game ten times better - on the consoles you just can't experience that gain. They made Oblivion easier to understand in-game -- you don't need a guide to play it; some hardcore Morrowind fans weren't happy, but I think it was a good decision.
The worst decision made by Bethesda in Oblivion was to level your opponents. When you get higher in level, even the ordinary guards start having ridiculous gear, which is absurd. The mods, though, transform the game, getting rid of this problem and adding so much more.
In summary: you need to play Elder Scrolls on a computer. Reminds me that I need a new rig for Skyrim later this year...
The only reason I like Morrowind is due to the huge world. The world itself is better designed than that of Oblivion in my opinion. The thing I don't like about the Oblivion games is that they're too open.
Morrowind is like looking through Google and not knowing what you're searching for. That's the thing I hate about the game because when I owned the Game of the Year edition, I never really made any actual progression because it felt too much like every random person had you do a fetch quest here and there. With Oblivion you had some idea what to do because it pointed you in the direction you were required to go.
I like games that are similar to the Elder Scrolls games, yet are more enclosed much better. King's Field for example.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
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