What is the best "Elder scrolls" game out of "Morrowind" "Oblivion" and "Skyrim"

[Tallim]

For an actual "game" Morrowind. Oblivion was rubbish all round in my opinion and Skyrim was really good if you just wanted to muck about and explore but the world was a bit sterile other than that.

 

[MeatloafCat42]

I'm going to go with "Morrowind". For whatever reason Vvardenfell felt like a living, breathing world, much more so than Oblivion and even Skyrim. The atmosphere in the game kept me playing it despite that it had frequent glitches, crashed, and the combat kinda sucked.

 

[XX Y XY]

Morrowind easily the best. It offers a level of customization and freedom that the other 2 don't come anywhere near. Especially in spell creation. Deeper lore, better story, and more interesting environment. Also I'm not a big fan of the whole enemies leveling up with me thing. Plus there's lots of little hidden extras and Easter eggs to feed my inner completionist. You can clearly see that when the Bethesda was working on Morrowind, they were just creating a big open world and toolbox for the player to play and experiment with however they wanted, even to the point of breaking the game and finding ways of doing things they never could have anticipated and that's where the real fun in the game lies, finding fun and creative ways to break the game's systems using its own customization tools.

 

[UrinalDook]

My personal favorite is Oblivion, it was the one that first got me heavily into RPGs, but the answer to this question depends heavily on which one you played first and when. Skyrim was an improvement over Oblivion in every respect, but because I was 14 when it came out I played it much more than Skyrim.

Morrowind however, was just completely broken and unplayable. It had weird and interesting environments, but pretty much everything else was either as good as the future installments (Story-line, quests) or complete shit (Everything else in the game). People often times assume that the story-line and quests were amazing because they correlate their enjoyment of it with the games writing, when in truth its pretty much the same as Oblivion and Skyrim.

Welp, second post in the thread and you've pretty much summed up my thoughts. I was a couple of years older than 14 when Oblivion came out, and a couple more when I actually played it, but man did I spend a lot of time with it. I completely agree that technically Skyrim outclasses Oblivion in just about every category - even to the extent at which I much preferthis Skyrim remake [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lyld0ekydd0] of this nonetheless beautiful Oblivion track [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5gqkPYWMZs], but I have no fond memories of Skyrim that quite match up to leaving a cave high up near Cheydinal, while King and Country [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s5YcvWneZc] strikes up just in time to watch the sunset glinting off Lake Rumare. Had Skyrim been my first foray, I'm sure I would prefer it. But Oblivion just hooked me first...

As for Morrowind, well I played a little when it came out, but I didn't own and I never really formed an opinion on it. I will confess I am a very shallow gamer, and trying to play it now is liking grinding my face into a brick wall. The graphics, the awkward stilted combat, the patchy nature of the voice acting, and what I find to be needless complexity all come together to mean it just doesn't do much for me.

I don't want to presume to dictate people's opinions, if you prefer heavy stat based RPGs that's your prerogative. But I can't help but feel a lot of these people who still rate Morrowind so highly just have it on this nostalgia pedestal that I placed Oblivion on.

Honestly, I feel like preference in gaming is more about timing than anything else.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Skyrim. Screw Oblivion and Morrowind's spammy combat, clunky archery, bugs, and weird looking characters. In pure vanilla, I think Skyrim is the best.

However, with mods, I'd side with Morrowind. But, mostly for the wider content. Though Skyrim is the first Elder Scrolls game which I played a pure melee player and enjoyed myself.

 

[Hyper-space]

citizen snips

Morrowind was a weird experience in terms of gameplay. It combined the worst of real-time combat (dodgy hit-detection, weird collision) with the worst of turn-based combat (stats determining your success). Real-time combat leaves nothing to chance and relies on your skills (reflexes and timing) to be effective, while turn-based relies upon tactics and though-out plans.

Both of which is nowhere to be found in Morrowind. It somehow managed to only combine the worst of both worlds, which is the hassle of manually controlling your character and having success be determined by your stats (and not skills).

 

[Owlodex]

Morrowind>Skyrim>Oblivion

If I can interject, Morrowind isn't broken, it's just...old. Old games seem clunky when compared to new iterations because that's the easiest way to innovate. Same game, better interface. But that rarely happens; content gets cut down to make way for better technology. Skyrim backpedaled thankfully, possibly because they are part of the same generation.

Simply put; Morrowind is a time capsule. The events that led to its creation cannot be replicated, and its inclusion on this list seems a bit unfair, since the player base for the series has shifted so much, in addition to technology and predisposition toward consoles. It's like comparing the original X-Com to X-Com: Enemy Unknown. X-Com is undeniably better, but concessions had to be made to make Enemy Unknown available to a wider audience. I guess you can call me grandpa, sit me in my rocker, and let me grumble about how games used to be better in the old days. I don't care. Morrowind has the most content and is, for me, the most fun, and I know I'm not alone in my opinion.

 

[zehydra]

Skyrim, simply because the gameplay mechanics of Morrowind are unbearable.

Skyrim > Oblivion
Oblivion == Morrowind (only because what Oblivion lacks in style, it makes up for the fact that the cleaned up the mess that was Morrowind's combat and skill system)

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

None of them are the best in my opinion as they all have massive glaring flaws that were fixed in later entries only to have new ones added or old ones made worse. I'm tempted to say Skyrim but it is hard to place it at the top of the pile as there are a good few things it could have done better.

 

[Owlodex]

citizen snips

Morrowind was a weird experience in terms of gameplay. It combined the worst of real-time combat (dodgy hit-detection, weird collision) with the worst of turn-based combat (stats determining your success). Real-time combat leaves nothing to chance and relies on your skills (reflexes and timing) to be effective, while turn-based relies upon tactics and though-out plans.

Both of which is nowhere to be found in Morrowind. It somehow managed to only combine the worst of both worlds, which is the hassle of manually controlling your character and having success be determined by your stats (and not skills).

It's called an RPG. That's how it works. There is no "hit-detection" or "collision". Damage is based on your weapon and your chance to hit is based on your skill with that weapon. If you can't hit, train until you can. If you judge it by action game standards you will ultimately be disappointed.

 

[Wayneguard]

Morrowind is my favorite.

 

[k7avenger]

If you want a good story and/or setting, Morrowind is by FAR the best.

If you want decent game play, then Skyrim all the way. Unless you count spell making as game play, then you're just kinda S.O.L.

 

[Callate]

It's actually kind of hard for me to say. Comparing Morrowind and Skyrim feels a bit like comparing a stripped-down experimental car that can hit 250 MPH with a Lexus. Morrowind definitely had its flaws, and plenty of them. But it also tried a lot of new things, created a setting that felt exotic and intriguing, and wasn't afraid to let the players amass some significant powers (perhaps too much so, admittedly.) By comparison, Skyrim is a much more refined experience, its roots in the real-world Nordic cultures give things a little bit of extra depth without having to stretch, and most of the basic systems feel like they've undergone far more rigorous examination and testing. But it also feels more like an amusement ride you're on than an adventure you're crafting for yourself, from the "morally ambiguous" quest options that force you to take one of two paths to the dungeons that all loop back to their entrances- convenient, certainly, but also a little unconvincing. And for all that refinement, it still had some significant bugs- all the harder to forgive given the relatively linear paths the storyline enforces.

They're both really good games, and I'm glad to have played and finished both of them.

...And you might have noted I didn't mention Oblivion. Like most middle children, Oblivion has neither the fussing attention received by the elder child nor the special newness of the youngest. It's completely okay, but its world was far more generic than either of the other games and much of its play-time felt far more repetitive, despite all the beauty of its graphics. I've simply wiped good portions of Oblivion out of my memory as having little value, while irritations like being forced to kill the "Grey Prince" remain.

 

[Berithil]

INB4 Arena/Daggerfall was the bes-

But Daggerfall is best! ;__;

Of those, I prefer Skyrim, because two-handed spells.

... Nevermind...

I prefered the gameplay of Skyrim but Morrowind for everything else. Even though Morrowind's combat system was crap, it was still a really great game. What does that say about it?

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Skyrim.

Skyrim held my attention for 50 hours, and I'm eventually going to go play some more once I find out how to get more time into a day. I've tried to play Oblivion twice, and lost interest both times pretty early on. Morrowind I own but have yet to try, for the same reason why I haven't gone back to Skyrim yet.

 

[Gunjester]

Morrowind wins in Setting/Exploration.
Oblivion wins in Culture/Style.
Skyrim wins in Combat/Protagonist.
Skyrim and Oblivion are tied for Sotryline if you ask me.

Overall I think I played Oblivion the most, but in overall quality I'd say Skyrim, it seemed like there was far more to do, I didn't groan every time I had to fight and I could explore skills easier. If there's anything I miss though it was all the skills I could use in the last game. Especially Unarmed, unarmoured and spears.

 

[Zen Bard]

Ya know, I'm really pleasantly surprised at how many people preferred Oblivion. And I have to say...I'm one of them.

Morrowind was the first Elder Scrolls game I played, so I have a soft spot for it. Loved the freedom of being able to literally do anything. But the journal and combat systems were horrible and after a while that final Nerevarine quest just dragged on and on...

Oblivion fixed much of what was wrong with Morrowind, though the ugly characters and the dread "leveling problem" bugged me. Still, I felt fairly invested in the world and could get into the role-playing aspect.

Skyrim, to me, lacked exactly that. It was more of an action adventure game than RPG. The quests were shallow and a repetitive grind. And though the graphics and gameplay mechanics were probably the best out of all the Elder Scrolls games, I just couldn't get into it like I could its predecessors.

 

[Artemis923]

Morrowind, any day.

I was done with Skyrim in about two weeks.

It keeps my girlfriend riveted, though. Gives me time to play Warmachine. =D

 

[darksuccubus]

Difficult to tell, because of nostalgia I enjoy Morrowind the most but I agree with everyone who said that it was broken. The fighting was bad, constant crashing, sneaking that never worked... in the end, I just played with god mode because I just wanted to explore the world, not die every second because my attacks missed so much. I really hate combat in Morrowind and not ashamed to admit that I use godmode. For me, Morrowind was exploration, pure enjoyment out of traveling and discovering random things. Because of fast travel and map markers I feel that this made us much more lazy. It's very difficult to resist fast travel in TES 4 and 5, plus I wasn't that much interested in exploration because I could see on my compass if I will encounter anything ahead. I enjoyed Oblivion when it came out but it wasn't as interesting as Morrowind (I was disappointed that the game was basically about a Roman Empire clone). Same goes for Skyrim - nords aren't particularly unique, you just take any scandinavian myth and roll with it. Can't say if it's that much better than Oblivion though - while handcrafted dungeons are awesome, more than half of the quests revolve arounf killing a bunch of Draugr in some dungeon. What I really want to see in my next TES game is either Khajiit or Argonian homelands, now that will make an interesting story.

 

[Pieturli]

In terms of atmosphere, I like morrowind. In every other sense, skyrim. Oblivion I don't like that much:S