Is it time to go back to Morrowind?

Toonces · April 10, 2014, 01:00:31 AM

I've been thinking it is.

I've started Morrowind 3 or 4 times. I always seem to get to about the same spot and then get distracted by some flashy thing in the corner. And then I never go back.

I bought it on Steam a while ago during a sale, summer or Xmas sale I'm sure, and just finally installed it tonight. I had previously installed the Morrowind Graphics and Sound Overhaul mod for a normal install, but somehow it's been corrupted and so I'm going to re-download and re-install that mod on my Steam install and go from there.

Everyone talks about how much Morrowind is than Oblivion and even Skyrim. Speaking for myself, Skyrim sucked me in like few games ever had, although I'm a rookie compared to most at a mere 175 hours of gameplay. Something about Morrowind has just always failed to grab me in the same way. But I'm hoping I'm mature enough now, and seasoned enough in how TES games work, that I'll finally get sucked in and stick with it a while. Because I do want to see what all the fuss is about.

Know what I mean?

Steelgrave · April 10, 2014, 01:30:17 AM

I have 450 hours logged playing Skyrim, and I'm a rookie compared to some on here 8) I'm probably not the right person to answer your question, because while I played Morrowind and enjoyed it very much, it never engulfed me like Skyrim does. I've actually been feeling the pull to return to Skyrim again and it gets stronger each time I see the icon on my computer. When I was done with Morrowind, I was done, I put it away and never thought of it again until Skyrim showed up. Skyrim....damn, it's almost a lifestyle.

Gusington · April 10, 2014, 07:40:36 AM

I feel so inadequate, like I just took a really cold shower. I completed the main quest in Skyrim but only logged in about 125 hours. I bought a boxed version of Morrowind years ago but have yet to open it up...and i dabbled in Oblivion but it never really grabbed me either, don't know why.

Rayfer · April 10, 2014, 07:53:09 AM

Of the three.....I put more time into Skyrim than the other two combined. For me, it was far and away the most immersive and fun to play. Morrowind was a distant second but much better than Oblivion. The level scaling ruined Oblivion for me. There were videos of players beating the game at 4th level...defeating the all powerful Daedra Lords because when you attacked them at level 4 they were scaled back to a similar level. A mind boggling design decision...at least to me it was. But Morrowind is worth some time and effort...it has a deep, long and compelling story and I very much enjoyed how you advanced in skills.

Kushan · April 10, 2014, 08:32:01 AM

As much as I love Morrowind, I don't think I could go back to it. Skyrims graphics and mechanics are far to superior. There was a new texture pack for it that was released a year or so ago, but the in game character models look atrocious now. I'm sure not being able to manually block would drive me crazy too.

I'm really hoping the Skywind team succeeds. Porting older TES games to a newer engine has been tried before. I think Skywind stands a good chance though. And unlike the others they haven't been shutdown by Bethesda.

airboy · April 10, 2014, 09:53:04 AM

I loved Morrowind. But the Morrowind I loved and played to death was heavily modded. Modders made the original Morrowind much, much better.

But at this point I don't know which mods are still available. You also had to pick and choose to get compatable mods with morrowind. Morrowind was graphically far behind today's Skyrim. But Morrowind was also the most engrossing, truly alien game environment that I ever played.

skeptical.platypus · April 10, 2014, 10:50:16 AM

Morrowind was my first delve into the Elder Scrolls universe. I remember some of the awe in my first hours of play. Swimming into a river, searching clamshells and finding jewels. A magic user falls out of the sky and dies at my feet. A freaking SANDSTORM. There are still only a very short number of games that have managed to produce the same sense of exploration and discovery. (Oblivion and Skyrim are two of them, although the feeling quickly passed in Oblivion, because you couldn't walk two feet without finding the equivalent of a cul de sac around which were parked a Keep on the Borderlands, a Pool of Radiance, and a Tomb of Horrors.)

I also remember being extremely frustrated at the combat system. I remember feeling surprisingly constrained in movement from place to place because of map design. And I really remember the tediousness of the constant flying stingray fights.

I agree that Morrowind is one of the best, most immersively-different rpgs I've ever played. I would love to return to that setting, but only with the game and world design experience of Skyrim.

Huw the Poo · February 19, 2015, 07:22:17 AM

YES - it is! :D

I've been waiting for OpenMW to get to a point that makes Morrowind playable since it's the only way I can play on Linux. While it has yet to reach 1.0, I've heard lately that it's pretty much 1:1 already, so I downloaded it last night and gave it a go.

It worked perfectly! Everything is just there and you wouldn't even know you weren't playing the original version. Oh, happy day! I'm going to be putting some serious time into this one.

BanzaiCat · February 19, 2015, 07:32:14 AM

I've been dabbling in Oblivion and it's pretty meh compared to Skyrim.

Morrowind, I never really got into. I tried several times like you, Toonces, to get into it, but I'd get to a certain point and it just wouldn't draw me in anymore.

I'm actually suffering from game paralysis right now...I have so many of them and not enough free time to really delve into something deeply, so games like Wasteland 2 sit played for but 1 hour or so total. I guess I'm reluctant now to sink time into a game and think 5 minutes have passed, only to discover that more like six hours have gone by.

glen55 · February 19, 2015, 10:48:18 AM

Dragon Age: Inquisition, to me, does the same thing better.

Sir Slash · February 19, 2015, 11:52:41 AM

Echo the opinions about Oblivion, couldn't get into it though it was beautiful. There are still on-going projects to bring Morrowind into the Skyrim world: Skywind. There was even an update last week at RPG.com. It's mostly finished and looks to be a huge effort.

Huw the Poo · February 19, 2015, 11:53:41 AM

Quote from: glen55 on February 19, 2015, 10:48:18 AM
Dragon Age: Inquisition, to me, does the same thing better.

Well, they're very different games. I couldn't get into Dragon Age at all and it became one of the last games I ever bought at full price.

Rayfer · February 19, 2015, 01:53:53 PM

Quote from: Sir Slash on February 19, 2015, 11:52:41 AM
Echo the opinions about Oblivion, couldn't get into it though it was beautiful. There are still on-going projects to bring Morrowind into the Skyrim world: Skywind. There was even an update last week at RPG.com. It's mostly finished and looks to be a huge effort.

Is this one different than the one Huw the Poo posted about?

Huw the Poo · February 19, 2015, 02:25:43 PM

Quote from: Rayfer on February 19, 2015, 01:53:53 PM
Is this one different than the one Huw the Poo posted about?

Yeah, Sir Slash is talking about an effort to recreate Morrowind as a total conversion mod for Skyrim. The software I'm using, OpenMW, is an open source reimplementation of the original Morrowind engine.

Toonces · February 19, 2015, 10:20:43 PM

Well Huw, I've found that Morrowind is indeed a fantastic game. It took me a while to get into. I had another thread somewhere talking about it I thought...I think it really didn't open up until I hit about level 5 or so. But once I got there and was strong enough that every little thing killed me, I enjoyed the game much more. Also, the story gets kind of engaging once you get into a bit.

With the Morrowind Complete Overhaul mod the graphics are servicable, although not as pretty as Skyrim. But they work well enough.

At the risk of sounding snobby, I can see after playing the game a while now how it can be considered better than Skyrim. I love Skyrim and if I could only play one I'd probably still go with it. But Morrowind is really a deeper game. I'm posting a pretty good video I found online that discusses some of the things that make Morrowind such a good game (it spends a bit of time talking about Skywind prior to the start point I'm putting at 9 minutes). The way I found to enjoy Morrowind the most is to approach it not as Skyrim, but as a tabletop RPG brought to life with graphics. If you can wrap your head around the tabletop root mechanics, and if you can create a mindset where you stop focusing on the fact that the characters don't act as lifelike as in Skyrim but, rather, just focus on the story they're telling and your part in it, I think it will draw you in.

Anyway, I absolutely think it's worth getting into. It is much harder than Skyrim, I can tell you that. And the lack of fast travel means you really need to put some thought into how you're going to go adventuring...it rewards having a plan before starting out.

Good luck!

Edit: Well the embed doesn't start at 9:00 like I thought I put in there. At any rate, if you start zoning just skip ahead to 9:00 because that's when he gets to the meat of his thesis.