So I've played both Skyrim and Oblivion, loved them to bits, and I'm wondering how much I'm missing out on having not played Morrowind. However, I am a dirty console gamer and my shitty laptop is...well, shitty, so I'm looking online for it on the Xbox. the very cheapest is about £12, used.
Basically, is it worth it? Will I be disappointed, playing it straight after Skyrim? Will I be disappointed because it's shit on a console? Will I be shooting rainbows from my arse and levitating slightly because it was an absolute bargain and a masterpiece?
Well you can expect some really janky shit, as in this is an 11 year old game plus 5 years for being a Bethesda bodge job.
They do have a lot more going on mechanics wise but you will need to overcome the fact this is an ancient game.
Now I have to go cry in a corner as it made me remember just how old I'm getting.
I love Morrowind to death and think its the greatest game since competitive Tetris but I'll be the firs to admit that it has not aged well. All of the little mechanics and lore that I understand place a heavy bias on my opinion on the game.
I'd say it has aged somewhat badly, from my perspective of only playing the game a few years ago. The mechanics while quite in depth in places they are very clunky to use nowadays, especially the combat. Also obviously the graphics un-modded are what you call on the rough side nowadays. However I think the sense of wonder and the insane amount of freedom the game offers to the player has aged very well, which was what really helped me see past the wonky mechanics and enjoy the game.
Don't. The Xbox version of the game is legendarily bad, with thousands of people getting disk read errors so they were unable to finish it. If you buy a used disk of the game, you're pretty much guaranteed to get a malfunctioning one. On top of that, its graphics on Xbox are so unbelievably bad that you probably won't be able to see anything. I'm not kidding. The game hasn't aged well on PC either and looks quite bad without extensive modding, but on Xbox it's just unplayable.
Nope, and the graphics are the least of its problems in this respect. But I also don't think it could have been very good back in the day either, so there's my opinion. Try it anyway just so you know for sure.
If you're going from Oblivion\Skyrim to Morrowind, then chances are very good you're going to loathe it. Although its a much more deeper game, its beyond dated in lots of ways; the combat system is borderline atrocious, the cities are dead (people just stand at one spot, literally like info dispensers) and everything looks like badly rendered vomit and bile.
BUT there's some fantastic overhaul mods that brings the game's graphics up to near modern standards and updates a lot of old mechanics (except the combat, nothing can save it, its just that bad), making it manageable to play. The game's real hook though is definitely the lore and quests and world, its huge and there's a lot of cool and freaky things to experience. All in all, if you enjoy retro games and can scrounge up a PC version (avoid Xbox version at all costs), then take the plunge if its cheap enough, just be prepared to do some insane amount of modding first before playing though.
However, I am a dirty console gamer and my shitty laptop is...well, shitty, so I'm looking online for it on the Xbox. the very cheapest is about £12, used.
Your laptop may handle Morrowind pretty well anyway. If you bought your laptop after about 2006 it should run Morrowind fine even if it was a cheap laptop when you got it. You'll have mods to pretty it up, high resolution, reduced load times, and the option to play it on a better machine if/when you get one. It's £13 on Steam, not discounted.
If what Carnagath says is true about the XBox version, definitely get it for PC.
Morrowind either suffers from or is elevated by some much older RPG philosophy then most of what we see right now, so it's very much your mileage may vary depending on what you like in an RPG. For example, the swordplay is more or less what happens if you take Skyrim's combat but make it dice-roll based, so whether you do damage is determined by your skills and not whether the models made contact even though it still plays like a real time hack and slash. On paper this sounds horrible and it can be. But if you pay attention to the mechanics, invest in agility, keep your stamina up, etc., it can actually be pretty workable. It all comes down to how much you enjoy RPGs that don't really go out of their way to explain everything or include everyone, sort of like a less punishing Dark Souls. You see that sort of philosophy reflected in a lot of different places with it.
I still hold up the world as one of the greatest in all of gaming, if exploring interesting places is a big thing for you I'd recommend it on that alone. It's highly unique and imaginative, the atmosphere, the geography, the architecture, the culture, the history, everything is The Elder Scrolls arguably at its best, even by its already high standards of world building. If anything this is where those standards came from.
Playing it totally vanilla can have it's charms if you're a big fan of the retro look, but I highly recommend you install the Morrowind Overhaul 3. It's a compilation of mods that does incredible things to the presentation, graphics, textures, sounds, environmental details, it's insanely massive and truly impressive. It's also easy to install and very well optimized. If you're laptop can handle the normal game, and it'd have to be really, really shitty to not, it can probably run the mod version too. You can find it over here: http://www.ornitocopter.net/morrowind-overhaul/mgso-release/
I'd really try to avoid the Xbox version if at all possible. While I believe it is more or less technically functional, it doesn't work nearly as on the PC and it doesn't have any mod support.
Don't. The Xbox version of the game is legendarily bad, with thousands of people getting disk read errors so they were unable to finish it. If you buy a used disk of the game, you're pretty much guaranteed to get a malfunctioning one. On top of that, its graphics on Xbox are so unbelievably bad that you probably won't be able to see anything. I'm not kidding. The game hasn't aged well on PC either and looks quite bad without extensive modding, but on Xbox it's just unplayable.
Not to mention that on the Xbox version you will not be able to mod the game at all. Which means great mods like no cliff racers cant be put to the game.
I'm going to say yes, it has aged well, only because of how today's "RPGs" aren't really RPG games, and are just action games with RPG elements to them. Morrowind accomplished blending real-time action with a RPG ruleset almost flawlessly. This blend doesn't work for a lot of people expecting either a real-time action, or a straight RPG, but if that blend is what you are looking for, no game has ever done it better. Games age well or poorly based on how well their successors have cloned and improved their mechanics. Morrowind hasn't been improved on, it's just been altered into something unrecognizable. Morrowind's successors are a new genre and don't impact its age.
The real question is finding our if Morrowind is for you in the first place. Did you enjoy other straight RPGs like Baldur's Gate or Fallout 1 and 2? How about actual tabletop D&D or Pathfinder? Good chance you will like Morrowind.
Does the thought of shooting something, or smacking it squarely with a sword, only to be told it was a miss, piss you off to no end? Then Morrowind is not for you. Most games made today allow you to be a badass with little exception. Morrowind makes you work for that badass achievement by starting you out weaker than many villager NPCs. The CoD generation of gamers have no time for that, because instant gratification is far more important than good character customization and adventure. Nothing wrong with that, but it does factor into how much this game works for your expectations.
Things like this make me wish Bethesda would remake morrowind. Keep everything, update some graphics and effects, just add a toggle fast travel and some actual combat overhaul.
Not Bethesda themselves, but this is one of the best things about that series. The mod community.
Mind you, I don't think it's anywhere near completion.
OT: No...Morrowind has not aged well. It had game play accessibility issues at launch, for heavens sake, and the intervening years have done nothing to improve it. Frankly, it's close to being in the same boat aged classics like Ultima or Wizardry or Wasteland or Golden Candle or Bard's Tale are in. Too old and too laden with UI anachronisms to appeal to anyone but the most ardent of retro enthusiasts.
Signa said:
The real question is finding our if Morrowind is for you in the first place. Did you enjoy other straight RPGs like Baldur's Gate or Fallout 1 and 2? How about actual tabletop D&D or Pathfinder? Good chance you will like Morrowind.
All those games, including the pen and paper ones, have nice clean rule sets and easily understood UIs that make game play relatively painless. Even BG2, although it hasn't aged particularly well, and the Infinity Engine was always a little dubious. It's why they're generally considered all time classics and titans of the genre, whereas Morrowind is considered something of a cult game by comparison.
So I've played both Skyrim and Oblivion, loved them to bits, and I'm wondering how much I'm missing out on having not played Morrowind. However, I am a dirty console gamer and my shitty laptop is...well, shitty, so I'm looking online for it on the Xbox. the very cheapest is about £12, used.
Basically, is it worth it? Will I be disappointed, playing it straight after Skyrim? Will I be disappointed because it's shit on a console? Will I be shooting rainbows from my arse and levitating slightly because it was an absolute bargain and a masterpiece?
Seconding Carnagath, the Xbox port is abysmal. And you can't mod it on console. And the PC version has no DRM except the disk needs to be present. And get the GOTY edition if you can - that's £13 on steam atm and has all the expansions. If you're willing to wait it might come down again - I've seen it on there for cheaper in the past.
These are the requirements for PC, yours will probably run it fine, whatever it is:
The combat is, I freely admit, crap. Expect to be swinging and missing a lot on low levels, and there aren't any combo attacks or shield bashes or anything. It's hack and slash. Better selection of weapons and offensive magic than Skyrim though.
No physics engine. Gravity simulated for player character and NPCs, some scripted physics-y stuff, that's about it.
The graphics are really dated now. That said, the general style and feel of the gameworld is downright beautiful in spite of that. The diversity and inventiveness of locations, along with touches like the weather systems, planetary and lunar cycles, transport systems, cultural differences, complex guild allegiances and political intrigue, go a long way to overcoming the technical primitivity of it.
If I had to use one word to describe it would be bleak, but it's hauntingly bleak, in a good way. Reminds me of the artwork [https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=myst+artwork&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&channel=fflb&gws_rd=cr&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=UpEaUuvqL_K20QXvs4CgAQ&biw=1391&bih=684&sei=VZEaUsu_Csez0QXSwIHICQ]in the Myst series.
Mixture of levelled and non-leveled enemies. Expect to die if you wander into *any* kind of daedric fort or shrine at low level.
Limited travel options. You need to utilise boats, stilt strider caravans, mage transportation, personal teleportation spells, to fast travel.
The menu system is an old-school grid one which I actually prefer to the sequels but takes some getting used to.
(You probably won't end up carrying as much miscellaneous crap as this guy is unless you've just cleared a dungeon)
Following on from that, there's much more choice in terms of equipment and magic. To give you an idea, my high level characters would be wearing:
Trousers, rings, amulet, shirt, cuirass, 2x pauldrons (shoulder armour), 2x gauntlets/gloves, greaves, boots/shoes, helmet/hat, underrobe[footnote]Technically a skirt, but it was a really good enchantment and you couldn't see it under the robe alright?![/footnote], robes, shield, weapons. All of which would be pre-enchanted loot or custom made, either with constant effect enchantments or with offensive/defensive magic.
I've said this already, but it's seriously unforgiving at low level. You might want to consider cheating your way to level 10 or something to ease the transition, so to speak.
WARNING: DON'T GET THE X-BOX VERSION - IT'LL LOOK LIKE ASS.
The vanilla version hasn't aged well, but due to modding, the PC version looks and sounds far better:
This LP shows how the game looks and sounds with the Overhaul mod.
Also worth noting is that your stats matter much more in this game. It doesn't matter how fast you press a button or dodge an attack - the results are determined mostly by your stats + dice rolls.
That doesn't count. For a game to "age well" it needs to be able to stand up on its own original mechanics and graphics. If you allow mods then you are giving an unfair advantage to more popular games.
No, it hasn't. It was a mess of a game in terms of the actual gameplay even when it was new (but this is Bethesda so no surprises there), it's graphics never impressed anyone and it's murky.
Sure, it has a few redeeming qualities (if you value that immersion thing, Morrowind won't disappoint) but my response to it has always been 'meh' to it, thank what ever's up there that it didn't put me off the series otherwise I wouldn't have bought Oblivion.
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fficial&client=firefox-a&channel=fflb&gws_rd=cr&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=UpEaUuvqL_K20QXvs4CgAQ&biw=1391&bih=684&sei=VZEaUsu_Csez0QXSwIHICQ]in the Myst series.
