The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind® Game of the Year Edition

Install OpenMW, pick one of the semi-automatic mod packs from modding-openmw, come up with some memorable roleplaying idea and go exploring. Leave completionist and minmaxing mindsets out of it and just try to figure out what kind of adventurer you are. If there's some obvious feature lacking, then in 2026 it's resolved by either picking another mod pack, finding another source of curated mod packs or installing a mod manually. Or waiting a bit for new mods to arrive. Even the difficulty of mod installation is handled by community tools (try Skeleton Key for example). Sure, it's not exactly a fantasy adventurer simulator like Daggerfall, Devil Spire Falls or DF's Adventure Mode - here the world is visibly scaled down, offers the same content each time and is mostly static. But thanks to the decades of modding the sheer content size is just insane and its quality is sublime (for its genre anyway). With largest mod packs it comes to a point of probably having more than 500 hours of content (both new and enhanced old), none of which is randomized or procedurally generated. You can pick a few handwritten, massive and somewhat branching quest/faction lines, spend dozens of hours finishing them and "retire" (or continue playing an overleveled power fantasy). Then start a new character, get into a different adventure, and then again, and again, and - oh look, a new huge mod! - again and again. The weakest part is probably having restricted options for early game due to a limited number of organically accessible early-game dungeons. But this is somewhat mediated by Tamriel Rebuilt (which has its own big low-level area) and its included in most of modpacks. If aforementioned games are just too same-y and become too generic too fast; if you played a long time ago; if you tried it and wished it was more approachable and modern; if you've seen everything the base game has to offer - if you meet any of these conditions - install modded OpenMW. Avoid if you absolutely hate some character-skill-based combat (instead of purely player-skill-based), if you're completely allergic to some Bethesda open-world jank or if you're interested only in pure Western medieval fantasy settings.