Does Morrowind hold up?

[Kahunaburger]

highly praised in a Deus Ex kinda way where it's mostly nostalgia

ಠ_ಠ

..but on topic

Morrowind is very good in many ways, and very clunky in other ways. The freedom is pretty absurd - you can walk around wherever you want, join a huge amount of factions, and cast spells that let you fly, leap mountains, and all sorts of fun things. Content is much greater than later Elder Scrolls games - there's a lot more to do in terms of unique and interesting quests. The mods are also great - I would highly recommend Tamriel Rebuilt and various graphical upgrades [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NX-MvnYUEs] to start with. Oh yeah, and going back to the ability to leap mountains, spellmaking isn't A) neutered or B) absent, so that's nice if you're making a mage.

The bad mostly relates to the melee combat and stealth aspects of the gameplay, particularly melee. It gets a little better when you level up, but it's never very good. There's also a general lack of a difficulty curve, which is awesome from a freedom perspective but also means that there are endgame-tier enemies a 30-minute hike away from where you start the game, and nothing overtly indicating you are about to enter a particularly difficult area.

All in all, loved it, would recommend it.

 

[Diplodocus462]

To be honest I tried very hard to like this game. I have restarted it multiple times and always with the intention of getting into it. I just find it too hard.

I don't believe I'm just some idiot, but I was constantly disoriented. Sometimes you would be sent off on a quest to an unexplored section of the map, and all you had to go on was some very ambiguous worded directions from a random guard. I even had real difficulty finding the guy I was supposed to meet in the first town. Also, I could never get to even the second quest of the Mage's Guild because I just couldn't find the bloody ingredients they wanted. It's all made worse by the fact that there isn't general fast travel, so when you inevitably do get lost, it can be a long trek back to town to get those crappy directions again.

I also found combat too difficult. I play games with the difficulty set on easy because I like combat to be easy. It was not easy: I died about once every five minutes. In particular I didn't like how there were randomness in situations where they shouldn't be. For instance, if I swing a sword and watch it hit the enemy, the game should not turn around and tell me I missed, no matter what my blade skill is.

On the other hand, I do find the world of Morrowind strangely compelling. It has the most varied scenery and monsters of the Elder Scrolls games I have played, and it is a joy to explore.

Incidentally, my favourite game is Deus Ex and I played it for the first time only a couple of years ago, so it can't be nostalgia.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

In a word? No. I had fun with it when it came out don't get me wrong. But the melee combat is DREADFUL. You can swing at a mud crab while you're crouched so low to it you can practically taste it and still miss every swing. I can understand that it's based off your skill with the weapon you're using, but that completely takes the players ability out of the occasion when you have to pray to a random number generator to dictate your fate in every fight.

 

[Enverex]

Morrowind was better than the later two, mainly, because it was less streamlined. The quests required a lot more gameplay input, time wise, and the world took a lot longer to navigate, etc. It generally meant the game felt like you put a lot more soul and imagination in to it. It felt like it didn't hand everything to you on a plate - in fact, I can't remember a less accessible mainstream game.

I agree, it's almost like everything is handed to you on a plate on the newer games. The map pinpoints exactly where you should go, you always have an arrow pointing to your objective, you have fast-travel, etc.

I'm currently playing through Morrowind again now (because I'd never completed it before for various reasons, but had gotten close) and as an example, one of the first quests tells you to get something from somewhere. In Oblivion is would basically say "It's at X, go fetch it" and mark X on your map.

On Morrowind I have a journal entry for the quest which is a massive several paragraphs explaining the route I should take, what to look for (landmarks and signposts) and then a description of the place so I should know what it looks like when I get there. That's the immersion I miss on the newer games, that it's not just fighting that takes effort, it's the actual adventure side of it!

 

[HerrBobo]

I personally have just restarted playing Morrowind and although I haven't played skyrim I can tell you Morrowind is better than oblivion in almost every way. every where felt unique. every dungeon, every room felt it had a perpuos. you didn't feel like you where the only thing happening in the world but rather you felt you where exploring a world much bigger than yourself. i'll give you that the combats clunky but any first person combat game is going to be, even in modern games(and if you talking about the "stay still to chop" you can just set it to automaticly use the best move).

+1

Morrowind is awesome! I'm playing at the moment.

Sure, like people have said, the UI and the combat is a little clunky. For the first couple of hours you'll be swinging madly at rats, just trying to stay alive. After a while though the combat gets better and you'll have a much easier time killing things. Having said that though, I would always avoid a class that uses ranged combat. It just does not work well. A magic based class will offer less frustration, as generally, you can either use a spell or you can not.

The combat will never be great, it comes from a different time and can not stand up to the likes of Oblivion or Skyrim. However, if you can look past the combat you'll find a world that is richer in almost every other way than Oblivion.

The setting is fantastic, huge mushroom along side trees, massive houses made out of the shells of long dead crabs, floating castles, 100's of islands that are litters with caves, dungeons, monsters and more, darweven ruins that look like the devils head gear, all kinds of fantastic animals and at the center the tower of doom that is Red Mountain.

Oblivion may be better in terms of combat and graphics, but it lacks the atmosphere, immersion and down right fun that Morrowind is drenched in.

The GOTY edition can be gotten for less than ?10 now. Do your self a favor and get it.

Then go here: http://morrowindoverhaul.net/blog/

and here: http://www.mwmythicmods.com/telesphoros.htm

 

[Signa]

Morrowind was the sort of game where you could forget what the hell you were supposed to be doing and then wander round for 30 hours trying to find out again, an RPG really ought to be more engaging than that IMO.

I know it's not what you meant, but that sounds pretty damn engaging. I mean, that's exactly the reason why I loved it. If you can get distracted for 30 hours from the thing you were supposed to be doing, then the game is doing something right!

Also +1 for the random dice-roll combat system. Sure, it sucks at first, but when you actually feel your skill rising, it beats Oblivion's combat into dust.

 

[Vkmies]

My favorite game of all time. That and Deus Ex. They both hold up incredibly well IMO. I don't give a shit about the graphics, and the gameplay still works well today, so yes. Yes it does.

 

[Wayneguard]

Morrowind definitely has more to offer than just a nostalgia trip. I still play Vanilla morrowind to this day. I still prefer it to Skyrim/Oblivion; I could go on all day about little nitpicky things that brought me to that decision. Skyrim and Oblivion are still great though. I do love me some Bethesda

 

[majes]

Morrowind holds up well IMO. Only problem is, it doesn't really click for most new players. But that isn't indicative of nostalgia, just that unless you have a solid grasp of the (somewhat lackluster) mechanics it was really hard to do basically anything, but if you do a little research and get some advice you can get a viable build that will help you explore one the most weirdly beautiful and intricate games to ever exist. The island of Vvardenfell is every bit as layered and exotic as the Dunmer who live there and the setting is a million times better than Oblivion, even though it isn't as accessible to a modern audience. Also, modding goes a long way toward fixing many of the gameplay issues.

 

[Continuity]

Morrowind was the sort of game where you could forget what the hell you were supposed to be doing and then wander round for 30 hours trying to find out again, an RPG really ought to be more engaging than that IMO.

I know it's not what you meant, but that sounds pretty damn engaging. I mean, that's exactly the reason why I loved it. If you can get distracted for 30 hours from the thing you were supposed to be doing, then the game is doing something right!

Also +1 for the random dice-roll combat system. Sure, it sucks at first, but when you actually feel your skill rising, it beats Oblivion's combat into dust.

You misunderstand me, I wasnt distracted for 30 hours, I was distracted for 2-3 hours and lost the thread of the main plot... and never found it again, at least not until my next play though.

Thats the opposite of engaging, where you have to actively hunt down the story and even then to fail to actually find it!

 

[Weslebear]

It had an interesting world and the story wasn't bad and that was the only things it had going for it unfortunately.

The game play without mods is incredibly dull and really isn't worth trudging through at all, with Oblivion and Skyrim I can't wait to get back in there but despite some interesting environments Morrowind just made me want to turn the game off.

It's purely nostalgia unfortunately, watching a let's play is more fun than dealing with game itself, all of the story and world without the awful game play.

 

[NLS]

I don't know what everyone else is playing , but I found morrowind fucking awful, to the point where it was unplayable to me after about 30 minutes. And believe me, I tried.

The last straw came when my sword and shield fighter lost to the pack of rats from the first thieves guild mision. A nord fighter. axe and shield. losing to rats.

Yeah it's a bit of a tough game like that. You kind of have to do some exploring around the first town or run along the eastern coast to get some levels and gear. I remember dying to rats in Balmora as well.

Skyrim is basically a better game all around. Not that Morrowind is bad, really. The island it's set on is really imaginative, the dungeons are pretty cool and the leveling scaling/system is better than Oblivion. For it's time it was pretty revolutionary but of course it's a bit outdated these days.

don't get me wrong, I like a hard game. But I just found morrowind bordered on artificially hard. If it were some bandits, yeah, I could see it. If it was some goblins, alright, I know in D&D and such a low-level warrior can be killed by goblins fairly easily, but rats? I was just too insulted to continue

Theres starting from the bottom, and there is having to dig your way up through the earth

Well, it was a mission for the FIGHTERS guild, not the PUSSY guild (Sorry about that one). Oblivion scales and levels your enemies with your own level, so most creatures and enemies are as "difficult" or "easy" to tackle at level 1 as level 13. Morrowind doesn't do that, it sets a static level for all creatures, and then it's up to you and your own levels and skills to defeat it. Found out those rats were too hard? Come back later after earning some levels. But yeah, it can be hard to get into the game, especially after what the last 10 years of games have been like and the streamlining of Oblivion.

 

[theriddlen]

I don't think that Morrowind ever held up. I tried it, and I just could not immerse myself in the experience. I couldn't see any overarching goal, any interesting quest, and every NPC was so generic and badly characterized I just could not enjoy it.

Also, the same year Gothic 2 came out, crushing all the competition on the market - you always had a clear, important purpose, sidequests were always creative and fresh, the world was large and had a great variety, the graphics while not brilliant were colorful and pleasant to look at, and NPC were amazing, to say the least. Up to this day, only Mass Effect 2 teammates and a couple of auxiliary characters were this well made.

 

[LadyTiamat]

Morrowind holds up for depth,story (much better than oblivion- its very lovecraftian in a way),and the amount of freedom you have (almost too much at times). Play if you want a game to sink over 100 hours into. and also the art direction was perfect!

However it has flaws compared to oblivion, namely the quests are boring....very boring. Either deliver/talk to someone, kill someone, find someone/artifact and return to quest giver. At least in oblivion there was some dynamic crafting cause of the increased graphical engine like that one dark brotherhood quest where you get placed in a house with 5 other people, my fave quest. Also it is hard to find where you need to go, a npc could say go west from here and you end up wanderinh cause the cave you need to go to is hidden behind some rocks you over looked. I almost say that there is too much content even cause i never got round to playing the vampire quests, some of the guilds, and various spare quests.

Morrowind is good if you are patient and willing to look past some desgin flaws but other than that it is solid.

 

[stefman]

No. Speaking as someone who only ever tried to get into it for the first time recently as something to do pre-skyrim, it simply isn't worth the time. The world is great, the graphics are fine, but the gameplay is just thoroughly not fun. And that's with it modded to hell, base game even less so...

exactly what happened to me. One of the biggest complaints i have is when you are swiping at an enemy you should be hitting, but the game keeps making you miss.

 

[Itsthefuzz]

Oops double post.

 

[Itsthefuzz]

It takes a lot of patience. I played it when I was much younger and just did whatever because I was small and didn't think very much... and had a lot of fun. It was cool to explore and fight things and do all these quests. Today I CAN NOT get into it, only because it's very slow to start up and I don't have the persistence I did as a kid to just keep playing until it gets really good. It's a good game but you have to invest.

Edit: didn't mean to quote!

 

[epikAXE]

It depends, its an old school RPG where the amount of freedom you're given at the start is ironically nearly crippling.

I played Oblivion at a friend's house a while ago and when I got out of the sewer I was just like "omg what do I do"

It's worse with Morrowind. In Oblivion, you saw the Emperor get assassinated, and right before he told you to go do something. In Morrowind, you get off a prison boat and go through customs, then get a paper telling you to talk to some dude in a town.

There isnt even a compass or anything. You have to ask the people in town for clues to where you are supposed to go next. You have a journal to refer to important things people have said (directions to places, important people ect.) At times its overwhelming, and at times it feels more like a puzzle game than an RPG, but when you finally get the right shit done you feel amazing.

Its much more rewarding than just following a mark on a compass and walking in a straight direction until shit happens, but it is alot more effort. If your not into that kind of thing stay clear, youll just get frustrated quickly.

Gameplay sadly is one of the only things that hasn't held up. Dont get me wrong, the leveling sytem is fantastic, and the conversations (while appearing as incoherent walls of text at times) are engaging, but the combat is sticky and a bit annoying, not to mention repetitive. But its easy to look past that because of my next point...

The atmosphere of the land of Morrowind has yet to be surpassed by any game I have played. Seriously. Its fantastic. But ill not give too much away in case you wish to play it

And one more thing before I go... FUCKING CLIFF RACERS!

 

[Manji187]

Morrowind made you work...HARD.

Made an incoherent character in terms of specialization and skills? Don't know how to level properly? Sucks to be you. Try harder. My first 3 custom characters (Altmer mage, Nord fighter, Dunmer archer) were utter fails too. Moved like a snail, couldn't hit shit; the standard story.

Getting good at the game was challenging because of the learning curve. You couldn't just venture out into the wild right off the bat. You had to take it slow.

Basically, you had to invest considerable effort before you could actually start enjoying the game...but once you did, man it was great. It felt like a real achievement.

Plenty of contemporary gamers today want instant gratification, without any real effort. Plug & play, screw the manual. Less number crunching, more "Press A to win". That kind of stuff.

As a game, Morrowind holds up. But the audience has changed.

 

[Darkmantle]

I don't know what everyone else is playing , but I found morrowind fucking awful, to the point where it was unplayable to me after about 30 minutes. And believe me, I tried.

The last straw came when my sword and shield fighter lost to the pack of rats from the first thieves guild mision. A nord fighter. axe and shield. losing to rats.

Yeah it's a bit of a tough game like that. You kind of have to do some exploring around the first town or run along the eastern coast to get some levels and gear. I remember dying to rats in Balmora as well.

Skyrim is basically a better game all around. Not that Morrowind is bad, really. The island it's set on is really imaginative, the dungeons are pretty cool and the leveling scaling/system is better than Oblivion. For it's time it was pretty revolutionary but of course it's a bit outdated these days.

don't get me wrong, I like a hard game. But I just found morrowind bordered on artificially hard. If it were some bandits, yeah, I could see it. If it was some goblins, alright, I know in D&D and such a low-level warrior can be killed by goblins fairly easily, but rats? I was just too insulted to continue

Theres starting from the bottom, and there is having to dig your way up through the earth

Well, it was a mission for the FIGHTERS guild, not the PUSSY guild (Sorry about that one). Oblivion scales and levels your enemies with your own level, so most creatures and enemies are as "difficult" or "easy" to tackle at level 1 as level 13. Morrowind doesn't do that, it sets a static level for all creatures, and then it's up to you and your own levels and skills to defeat it. Found out those rats were too hard? Come back later after earning some levels. But yeah, it can be hard to get into the game, especially after what the last 10 years of games have been like and the streamlining of Oblivion.

what do you propose I kill? Grass? small weeds? rabbits? there is nothing lower on the scale than rats. and if there is, there is something terribly terribly wrong