Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC, 2002)
A classic forerunner that introduced many gamers to Bethesda's 3D open world RPG formula. When fully modded, this game can still offer a great experience.
Nostalgia Factor: High. This was my first exposure to the open world RPG genre.
Difficulty: Medium. Most of the difficulty comes from outdated mechanics.
Ahhh, Morrowind. This game is beloved by many who are, no doubt, heavily fueled by nostalgia from a wonderful time in gaming. Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time teased us with their “open area” game design, but the wild success of Grand Theft Auto III really launched the “open world” craze into the stratosphere. Players loved the complete freedom of roaming a fully 3D environment, going wherever they wanted to go, doing whatever they wanted to do. Morrowind followed just a year later, expanding on this core concept, offering the massive fully explorable island of Vvardenfell.
So much of what made Oblivion and Skyrim such excellent games started here in Morrowind – a huge 3D world to explore, a complex society to immersive yourself into, a compelling main quest, a variety of side quests and faction quests, crafting, custom spells, readable books, loads of creatures and hostile characters to battle or sneak past, lock picking, pickpocketing, tons of weapons and armor options, and some of the best fantasy lore a nerdy RPG gamer could ask for. Morrowind formed a strong foundation for Oblivion and Skyrim to build on.
Morrowind is also over two decades old, so it has plenty of frustrating quirks. The combat system leaves much to be desired, especially after playing Oblivion or Skyrim. Even though it may look like you should make contact with your enemies as you swing your weapon, unless your stats are high enough (weapon skill, agility, stamina), you will often miss and do no damage. This is a leftover “feature” from Daggerfall, but thankfully, there’s a mod to fix it. Movement speed can feel brutally slow. Running out of stamina is a dash of realism that just isn’t fun. You can fix this with a mod or by jacking up your character’s speed stat using the console (I set mine to 400 and zipped around from town to town like Sonic the Hedgehog). This also helps to accommodate for the lack of a real fast travel system. The Silt Strider and boat travel systems are very limited.
The visuals in vanilla Morrowind are wrinkly with age. Thankfully, there are great mods that update textures and improve just about everything. It can be overwhelming getting started with graphic mods, but this guide is a good place to start.
While Morrowind’s story is not nearly as engaging as Oblivion or Skyrim, I’m still amazed at the sheer amount of lore development that Morrowind brought to the series. It was such a leap forward from Daggerfall. There are over 300 books that you can find and read in game (averaging about 400 words per book). Some of the quests can be a bit bland and repetitive, but the main quest line has a solid narrative. Things drag a bit through the bloated Nerevarine trials in the Ashlands, but the ending is well done.
The Morrowind soundtrack from Jeremy Soule is not as well known as his Skyrim or Oblivion soundtracks, but don’t pass up on this score. That same celestial sound can be found here too. I’ll never forget the sense of awe and excitement I felt when being released into Seyda Neen and hearing “Caprice” cue up for the first time. There are just so many great tracks that perfectly capture the grandeur and wonder of Vvardenfell. It should be noted, some disturbing allegations against Soule have come to light, and this has soured many on the lasting legacy of his work.
Morrowind is old and has plenty of quirks that might turn some modern gamers away, but those who are willing to put in a little effort by heavily modding this game into a much more playable state will be richly rewarded.