Reviews VideoGame / The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim

I can't stand people telling me to play Morrowind.

You wanna hear my Morrowind experience?

I installed the game. I navigated the byzantine and useless skill system to try to create a character with the stuff that sounded fun.

I could barely get out of the first town. I moved like a snail with nails in its non-existent shoes. I could pay to go to the first city, where I struggled with unlabeled buildings, uncooperative NP Cs, and a map that seemed to actively scorn my ability to locate things.

I got little feedback from anything to help me start on the Big Main Quest.

Later that week, I talked about it to some family at a party. "Oh, you're doing it wrong!"

"What, did I mess up the build?"

"Nah, you've got to run in a circle."

"Huh?"

"Well, before you can play the game, you have to run in a circle for three hours, real time, to grind your run skill. Then you have to jump in place for another two hours, real time, to grind your jump skill. And after that, you're ready to start hitting a tree with your weapon of choice for another few hours, real time, to grind your combat skills."

So I uninstalled the game and never touched it again.

Playability, what designers call "elegance," is a core component of any game. And I will never apologize for refusing to torture myself with anything so artificially complex.

...Also, from what I do know from second-hand sources, Dagoth Ur is no better in the "boring final boss" department, all the books were in Morrowind too or expand on the religious conflicts introduced in the background of this game, and if the main quest took you "hundreds of hours" to complete, then screw it. There is no way all of them were as engaging as your rose-colored glasses would suggest.

I came here for the fair review your title suggested. I got a bunch of bog-standard grognard complaints about how perfectly perfect things were in the good ol' days when life seemed uncomplicated and fun and the world was a better place. At the very least, update that part to filter out people like me.

@Spectral Time:

You do have a point. Several, actually.

To be fair, I do really like Skyrim. Is it my favorite? No, and neither is Morrowind. That spot belongs to Batman: Arkham City.

Morrowind\'s graphics and playability are…well, frankly, abysmal, at first, and it took me two years of playing to get used to it. The voice acting is…well, Bethesda voice acting. I do prefer the \"text-box\" dialogue, because then everything\'s paused and that monster won\'t attack til you\'re done talking. And I never personally had those problems with the combat…and since this review was based off my personal experience with the game…

I, personally, found Dagoth to be much more interesting than Alduin. Dagoth\'s story is one of betrayal, friendship, corruption, and murder. Alduin\'s is…eating the world ahead of time.

Where, in my opinion, Morrowind succeeded was its main story (and no, it\'s not actually hundreds of hours, but I didn\'t only focus on the main questline); where Skyrim succeeds, story-wise, is with the side-stories, especially the Companions and the College.

I just can\'t wait for \"Skywind\" to come out.

@Spectral Time: Hope you don\'t take that badly, but I found the story of your experience with Morrowing absolutely hilarious^^\' Can understand why you\'d be pissed though. This level of Grinding is downright ridiculous.

@Cainand Able: I get your point for Alduin, but frankly, it didn\'t bother me. Partially because there are plenty of more interesting characters and antagonists in the sidequests, and partially because while Alduin himself isn\'t very interesting, you do get a lot of compelling parts in the main questlines (Paarthunax, the Civil War, the Blade/Greybeards conflict...). Also, the DLC do provide major antagonists a bit better in my opinion.

Yeah, the DL Cs are my personal high-point for Skyrim, especially Dawnguard. Harkon is one of my favorite videogame villains, because, while he has only a little more depth than Alduin, he\'s so damn cool.

@Spectral Time Sounds like your family did it wrong too. The real way is to make enough money (it\'s easier if you killed Assassins and collected their lot, they\'re always after you) and then pay trainers, preferably on skills that raise Speed. But I agree, the grinding in Morrowind is unfair.

@Spectral Time. I'm assuming he updated the review now, because I'm not seeing anything offensive or insulting here. And I hope the "hitting a tree" stuff was a joke, otherwise you've been badly misled, though I'm guessing that wont change your opinion of the game.

Here's my take, since it seems like there are way more people on this site who don't like Morrowind or think it's overrated at best.

Although I'd played a little bit of Morrowind before (around 20 minutes of it, and not enough to form any kind of attachment), I completed Oblivion and Skyrim before Morrowind, and all three only after Skyrim had come out. I don't have any nostalgia-goggles on, and I still prefer the latter. It's not for everyone, but it's my kinda game. I don't think it's the best fantasy action RPG, but in my opinion, it's got a lot more to it than the following two games, and I like the following two games just fine.

I've only ever played vanilla Morrowind, and I've never really had to "grind" in the sense that I'd have to just stay in one area doing a repetitive task to get my skills up, definitely nowhere near anything like having to just run around for no reason. I don't know what people are talking about. Just go out, explore the world, complete sidequests, and make money like you'd do with any other RPG and you'll be fine. You'll level up naturally. Trainers make leveling skills super easy in the game once you get some cash as well. And later on you can get so many spells that make travel almost a joke. You don't really move that slowly right off the bat anyway. Or maybe I'm just used much slower RP Gs.

So why do i like Morrowind?

I like having a ton of skills and character options. I like that you're just thrown into a big world and have to make your own way. I like that you actually have read dialogue and your journal entry for directions and have to think about where you're going, not just mindlessly follow a checkpoint to your next location. I like dice-based combat. I like the level of customization you can do with the armor. I like the variety of spells. I like the minimal level scaling. I like the idea of the keyword-based dialogue system, but I feel that could been done better, with fewer repeated lines. I like the music. I like the alien setting and weird monsters. I like the overall plot, although writing (particularly dialogue) is not Bethesda's strength.

I'm not going to convince anyone to like the game, but I know what I like, and I like Morrowind. It's flawed, and I don't think anyone can say it isn't, but it has a lot to enjoy for people who like the older style of RP Gs and don't mind taking things slow. Anyway, from reviews and forums here it doesn't really seem that Morrowind has much of a "sacred cow" status on this site like it does on more RPG-focused websites. I've even seen a couple of people here claim that it's "unplayable", even though millions of people seemed to have no problem with it, and it it's not like the game is that old that standards were wildly different. Then again, I still thinkDeus Ex is the best game ever made, and consider the period between 1996-2004 to be gaming's greatest years.

@supergod I didn\'t update anything, actually, and I agree with most of your points.