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

Woe, a thousand Cliffracers be upon ye. Easily the strongest title in the Elder Scrolls series. Strongest at least in terms of RPG elements at least and roleplaying as a whole. Which is what I value most when playing these games. As many others have said, the world and lore of this game is truly fascinating. Alien, strange, bizarre, and refreshingly different from the bog standard fantasy settings that usually come out of this genre. From the surprisingly deep religious politics of the Tribunal Temple, to the mystery behind Indoril Nerevar’s death, to your character’s journey as the Nerevarine. From the canal canton city of Vivec to the Telvanni and their mushroom towers. It’s hard not to get completely lost in it all. The crazies over at r/TrueSTL really do have a point about Kirkbride’s writing-- The gameplay also stands heads and shoulders above Oblivion or Skyrim by my reckon. An insane amount of freedom is afforded to the player with the game’s alchemy, enchanting, and spellmaking systems. Dice roll combat stands as a hurdle for sure, but once your character gets moderately skilled at a weapon it becomes more of a game of managing your fatigue through encounters. Which, owing to the mentioned systems above, is really a non issue. If you’re a Skyrim baby like I was, you’ll find it all to be kinda janky. But it’s good jank. The main thing that filters out most people I think is just how pathetic your character starts in the first hours of the game, but before too long it’s hard not to become a god of war and magic. Now in spite of the positives, the game’s not flawless. Not in the slightest. It’s riddled with bugs and stability issues that can feel frankly amateurish, to the point where you’d expect them from a studio’s first ever game, not the third installment of a long running series like Elder Scrolls. It’s highly recommended to play with fan mods that stabilize the experience like OpenMW. Jeremy Soule did a great job with the music. The issue I have is less with the quality of the soundtrack itself however, and more with how it’s contextually implemented. Most of the music feels haphazardly thrown together, determined almost entirely by whether you’re in combat or not. It’s jarring as hell making your way through the hellscape that is Red Mountain while dainty, peaceful exploration music plays in the background, only to have it interrupted in ten second bursts of combat music whenever some cliff racer pecks at your ass for the umpteenth time. Then, just as quickly, you’re dropped right back into the same calm, serene track as if you aren’t walking through one of the most hostile places in Tamriel. You also end up hearing the same track over and over again, which is fine for the first couple of dozen hours. After hour 100, it starts to get very grating. Overall, the game is a very good time capsule for western RPGs near the turn of the millennium. It can be archaic, clunky, unstable, and deeply strange. It’s also a very rewarding experience in spite of the jank. Either you’ll love it, or you’ll bounce right off of it.