- Joined
- Mar 17, 2018
WARNING: WALL OF TEXT INBOUND
I still argue that Morrowind was the best ES game. Sure, the gameplay isn't quite as polished as Oblivion or Skyrim, but honestly it was a game where I felt that there were few restrictions. Restrictions that would just fuck the later games over in one way or another.
Morrowind had no locked doors that couldn't be picked or magicked open. Oblivion and Skyrim did.
Morrowind didn't treat you like a child by turning a fuckload of quest NPCs unkillable. Oblivion did, and Skyrim fucking dialed it to 11 making almost any character that was part of any faction quest permanently unable to be killed. (Maven Blackbriar sent the Dark Brotherhood after you and you want some revenge? Too fucking bad.)
Morrowind let you make your own spells. So did Oblivion (though to a slightly lesser extent and requiring you to join the Mage's Guild). Skyrim didn't.
Morrowind allowed you to make your own potions anywhere the fuck you want. So did Oblivion. Skyrim requires you to haul your ass back to town to make your own potions, even if you were deep into a long ass dungeon.
Morrowind assigned different enchantment values to every item based on their material. Ebony weapons and armor were the most enchantable things in the game. In Oblivion and Skyrim you can enchant a shitty iron sword just as much as you can an Ebony or Daedric sword.
Morrowind also felt more real in a lot of ways. For instance by making some things understandably rare, and thus valuable and desirable. Dwemer armor and Daedric Armor were in very limited supply, and Ebony armor would also be in limited supply until the Tribunal DLC came out.
In Oblivion and Skyrim you had fucking bandits wearing what's supposed to be rare as fuck ages old Dwarven armor, armor that isn't made any more because the race that made it is literally fucking gone from the world, like it was on sale at a fucking bargain market. Same for Daedric armor. You tell me how the fuck some dipshit bandit is supposed to get Daedric armor when it's supposed to literally be created through special processes from powerful Daedric spirits and rare metals.
And in Skyrim you can just craft all of it. Fuck, why not, it's not like they're supposed to be special or something, right?
They just kept stripping shit out, too. Weapon types, armor parts, skills, the entire class system, established enemies (Why the fuck aren't Scamps in Skyrim? Or Daedroth? Or any Daedra that aren't Atronachs and Dremora?), the ability to persuade people via dialoge outside of a few skill checks (And Fallout 3 and NV did that so much better), and as of Skyrim all of the core stats like strength, agility, endurance, etc...
There were things I did like a bit more about Skyrim and Oblivion. I liked that Oblivion gave you new abilities and bonuses as you leveled up, allowing you to dodge and roll and backflip as your athletics skill increased, for instance. I liked that in Skyrim I could bash someone with my shield, or that in both Skyrim and Oblivion blocking wasn't just a random check but something you actively had to DO. I liked that there were horses to use to travel faster. But honestly, these additions just weren't worth some of the losses in my opinion.
And Morrowind just felt so different! Skyrim is just fucking Scandanavia, and Oblivion's setting was generic as fuck. Morrowind felt fucking alien as hell. The first time you saw the giant mushroom trees, the Telvanni towers or Netch it just screamed at you that you were in a new and unknown world and you legitimately didn't know what to expect around the next corner.
For all it's faults and flaws, Morrowind was something truly special.
Last edited:
