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Polygon: 20 years ago, The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind changed everything

Boy bawang

Member
The music from Jeremy Soule hits different and it's in a large part responsible for the unique atmosphere of those games. ESVI is going to feel different without him.
 

Zathalus

Member
Yeah, Morrowind was the best game Bethesda has made.

Man the turn of the century was such a great time for RPGs.

1997 - Fallout
1998 - Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate
1999 - Planescape Torment
2000 - BG2, Icewind Dale
2001 - Arcanum
2002 - Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale 2
 

Hudo

Member
c29889e798eae1b2d71c7yjfsy.jpg
 

Markio128

Member
It was my first experience with a 3D RPG and it really did blow my mind at the time. The sense of scale and freedom was unparalleled at the time.
 

Wildebeest

Member
Daggerfall was always an oddity. Something where people enjoyed more talking about its ambitious scope than enjoyed playing it, since it was infinity broken and shallow. In 1996 PC Gamers were 1000% more interested in Quake, Diablo and Duke Nukem.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Morrowind was incredible. So open. no world scaling. You can go and kill the boss almost right way.
if You know where to steal the keys to vaults in vivec and sell the goo? yeah, you can do that
 

tygertrip

Member
It definitely was an important game and milestone for Bethesda, but it was Oblivion not Morrowind that made me a TES Fan. although to be fair i didn't play Morrowind until Jan 2006, 4 years after it was released.
IMO, Oblivion was a HORRIBLE sequel, but fantastic game. Everything that Morrowind so innovative and memorable was watered down to the level of pure crap. Except the graphics, of course, and a very small handful of REALLY well-done quests (like Dark Brotherhood). The reliance on voice-acting just meant conversations were extremely simplified and repetitive (voice acting costs a LOT more than writing text) and the towns and dungeons were so repetitive . Guess they decided to replace cleverness and variety with simple and repetitive voice-acting, in order to appeal to the console-kiddies who valued shininess over depth (the gap between the average PC game and the average console game was HUGE then, with vastly different demographics). Then there was the HORRIBLY implemented level-scaling.., fortunately some very well done mods cured that, if one had the PC version, that is. It’s not that Oblivion was bad, it’s not, it was awesome, I spent a WHOLE lot of time playing it! It was just so different, it felt like an entirely new game, not a sequel. Here’s hoping someone makes a spiritual follow-up to Morrowind someday!
 

Laptop1991

Member
IMO, Oblivion was a HORRIBLE sequel, but fantastic game. Everything that Morrowind so innovative and memorable was watered down to the level of pure crap. Except the graphics, of course, and a very small handful of REALLY well-done quests (like Dark Brotherhood). The reliance on voice-acting just meant conversations were extremely simplified and repetitive (voice acting costs a LOT more than writing text) and the towns and dungeons were so repetitive . Guess they decided to replace cleverness and variety with simple and repetitive voice-acting, in order to appeal to the console-kiddies who valued shininess over depth (the gap between the average PC game and the average console game was HUGE then, with vastly different demographics). Then there was the HORRIBLY implemented level-scaling.., fortunately some very well done mods cured that, if one had the PC version, that is. It’s not that Oblivion was bad, it’s not, it was awesome, I spent a WHOLE lot of time playing it! It was just so different, it felt like an entirely new game, not a sequel. Here’s hoping someone makes a spiritual follow-up to Morrowind someday!
Yeah, everybody's opinion is different based on when they played the games and what they enjoyed about them, for me the setting of Oblivion i preferred, Morrowind felt more alien to me, the combat was better and there was more voice acting in Oblivion but that is just my experience, i still liked Morrowind, i just preferred Oblivion more and your the opposite, both views are valid.
 

tygertrip

Member

Last decent RPG they put out before they sold out and started going after popamolers with Oblivious. Daggerfall is better though...outside of the unique alien world



“Popamolers”… LMAO! I’ve never heard that before, but that is a PERFECT description of the demographic they clearly designed for post-Morrowind!
 

tygertrip

Member
Yeah, everybody's opinion is different based on when they played the games and what they enjoyed about them, for me the setting of Oblivion i preferred, Morrowind felt more alien to me, the combat was better and there was more voice acting in Oblivion but that is just my experience, i still liked Morrowind, i just preferred Oblivion more and your the opposite, both views are valid.
Heh, I actually like the dice roll combat in Morrowind, but I think I am in the minority on that one, even amongst people who prefer Morrowind overall! Two very different games, no doubt. Cheers!
 
Morrowind is an amazing game, even today IMO. I replayed it this past year and absolutely loved it still. Gripping from start to finish for me. Love the systems, the freedom.

Heh, I actually like the dice roll combat in Morrowind, but I think I am in the minority on that one, even amongst people who prefer Morrowind overall! Two very different games, no doubt. Cheers!

Personally I think it's great and feels a lot better than Oblivion or Skyrim.
 
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Denton

Member
I liked it (especially its main menu theme, its soundtrack, its weirdness and its water pixel shaders) but I always considered Gothic 1 and 2 to be superior.

And they are still superior, to everything Bethesda has done to this day..
 
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Wildebeest

Member
The only game from the era I'd put in the same category as Morrowind would be Mount & Blade. One of the few games where you can see a proper inspiration from Elder Scrolls.
 

Pimpbaa

Member
It was amazing back in the day, and I loved it (after many many mods). And I can understand why some still like to play it due to nostalgia. Not sure if I would consider it better than later BGS games. The game was really open but also really buggy and too easy to overpower yourself early in the game if you know what you were doing (skill trainers that could level skills up to 100 without the need to level was a bad idea). And those goddamn cliff racers nearly ruined the damn game.
 
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