So I'm planning a trip to Morrowind...

[The Eggplant]

...Maybe some of you have heard of it?

In all seriousness, though, after having played through Oblivion more times than I care to remember, modded the living hell out of, then played it through more times than I care to remember again--and all within the span of the last year or so--I'm finding myself predictably getting bored. I've heard fantastic things about Bethesda's last ES outing, of course, and so I'm very tempted to pick up Morrowind.

But as someone who's committed ungodly amounts of time to Oblivion, what should I expect going into Morrowind? Is it incredibly different, or just minorly so? It is still an open-world concept? How does the storyline stack up against Oblivion's? (Which, for the record, I thought was pretty poor. The Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood were much more fun than that insipid main quest.) Is the voice acting still as awful? Hell, is there any voice acting? What, in short, should a devoted Oblivionite expect on this little trip into the past?

 

[eggy32]

There is very little voice acting.
It's vastly different from Oblivion. Combat is harder to get used to. Magicka doesn't regenerate over time unless you are resting or using potions.
No levelled monsters or loot.
Still open world but bigger.
More diversity in towns. Places have buildings made out of trees and big mushrooms while other are made of bricks or sand and mud.

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

Expect something much better. Some environment, an actually interesting location, badass villain, absurdly kick-ass creature design ... they just don't make games like this anymore.

 

[SnowdensOfYesteryear]

Take a lot of money, the airfare's a *****.

Spoiler

 

[AWAR]

Bring a pair of boots with you.

Other than that it's a love it or hate it situation

 

[MikeTheElf]

Morrowind is amazing. I've spent hundreds of hours modding and playing Morrowind. It's similar to Oblivion in the respect that it's Bethesda, a massive world (though Morrowind's is bigger), has tonnes of quests, etc.. There is little voice acting. Combat is a tad different (see eggy32's post), with one of the most notable differences is there being no block button.

The entire world is pretty much covered in ash, mushrooms cover the landscape, towns are bigger, fast travel doesn't exist, so you either need to walk everywhere, or use other methods of travel: siltstriders, boats, Mages' Guild teleportation, etc..

There ARE levelled monsters and loot, on the PC version, which I assume you have, if you do modding. Speaking of mods, a noteworthy one would be the Galleon Mod (by MadMax, I believe). You can basically go sailing about the world and awesome stuff.

 

[Stilt-Man]

It really depends on what you care about with your games. If you put voice acting and graphics high on your list of priorities, you're going to be a bit disappointed. Most dialogue is written, apart from general greetings and stuff when you interact with characters (there are a few parts that are fully-voiced, but they're reserved mostly for significant moments in the game).

If you place high priority on story, quests, game worlds, and such, then I think you'll be extremely pleased. The storyline was satisfying (to me, at least), once I got around to it. The world is huge, and full of tombs, caves, grottoes, mines, strongholds, and such to explore. If that's your thing, you'll have a lot of fun.

Combat is okay. Nothing groundbreaking, but nothing boring, either.

Good luck,pal. Watch out for the cliff racers.

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

It really depends on what you care about with your games. If you put voice acting and graphics high on your list of priorities, you're going to be a bit disappointed. Most dialogue is written, apart from general greetings and stuff when you interact with characters (there are a few parts that are fully-voiced, but they're reserved mostly for significant moments in the game).

If you place high priority on story, quests, game worlds, and such, then I think you'll be extremely pleased. The storyline was satisfying (to me, at least), once I got around to it. The world is huge, and full of tombs, caves, grottoes, mines, strongholds, and such to explore. If that's your thing, you'll have a lot of fun.

Combat is okay. Nothing groundbreaking, but nothing boring, either.

Good luck,pal. Watch out for the cliff racers.

You forgot the visual design.

 

[Direwolf750]

It is incredibly different, here's a list:

Combat:decided into way more different categories(6 i think), your chance of hitting is dependent on your skill with the weapon. 3 classes of armor(don't pick medium)

Spells:you have to take out your hands to cast a spell, can't cast with weapon drawn, again chance based

Movement: THERE IS NO FAST TRAVEL. there is a series of transport npc who will take you only to certain other places for money

graphics and characters: The game is primarily text based, very little actual talking. Graphics are horrible by comparison. items wont randomly move like in oblivion, and dropped object is rooted to that spot until picked up.

These are only some of the many differences

 

[The Eggplant]

So what I've got out of this so far...the world is larger and more varied, the ability to just stand there with the Block button held down constantly doesn't exist, that Godawful voice acting is also pretty much gone, the storyline is actually halfway decent, and there isn't a magical and completely immersion-destroying teleportation system. Where the fuck do I sign up?

[sub]And if someone tells me there are werewolves, I might just start crying from joy.[/sub]

 

[cybran]

So what I've got out of this so far...the world is larger and more varied, the ability to just stand there with the Block button held down constantly doesn't exist, that Godawful voice acting is also pretty much gone, the storyline is actually halfway decent, and there isn't a magical and completely immersion-destroying teleportation system. Where the fuck do I sign up?

[sub]And if someone tells me there are werewolves, I might just start crying from joy.[/sub]

There are werewolves, and you can become one with the bloodmoon expansion =P

Buy it off steam and you'll have it all.

 

[LaughingAtlas]

I revisited morrowind some weeks ago and found it to be more vexing than I'd previously known it to be. Guards weren't psychic, (if memory serves) but as I recall you're pretty much feeble anywhere you go until you've leveled up a good bit. (this was before the "leveled" mess, low stays low, high stays high most of the time) There's no fast travel beyond teleporting or flying (if you've got magic down) that doesn't result in you being scammed by the bastards running the stilt striders. (perhaps not their real name) That's not to say you don't get cheated anywhere else, these are NPCs, after all. Money isn't really an issue if you abuse the creeper in caldera's glitch, I guess, but I hate being ripped off.

Then there's combat. Ever had your weapon miss and perpherate your foe at the same time? Until your weapon (or unarmed) skill (Speaking of skills, there are MANY more in morrowind, whether that's good or bad depends, I suppose) goes up, the "whoosh, you missed" sound will be everpresent in your travels. Then, oh yes, the travel! You can walkrunflyjumpswimride all over the fucking landscape looking for an obscure little doorway into the dungeon you were directed to, go in, finish the quest, and on your way back realize you may have spent more time looking for the place than doing the quest. Also, I hope having the eyes of a Metal Gear Solid 1 guard is OK, because the old days couldn't give us the spectacular views we may enjoy today.

...I think that's all my complaints, more nostalgic, less resentful fans than I can probably tell you the good bits. For the record, I used to play Morrowind ceaselessly. (before Oblivion, of course)

 

[nerezza23]

in my opinion, its better than oblivion

 

[TOGSolid]

Not to mention more faction quests. Way more. It's kinda depressing how much Oblivion got neutered compared to Morrowind .

 

[Fappy]

I see these threads here all the time it seems. I wish they would just plaster a permanent ad on the Escapist front page that says "Play Morrowind". In any case, yes, Morrowind is incredible and even better than Oblivion in many regards. There's a guide for Oblivion players who want to try out Morrowind here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Morrowind_for_Oblivion_Players

 

[Stilt-Man]

Buy it off steam and you'll have it all.

Sorry to de-rail the thread a bit, but as someone totally new to Steam, is Steam's Morrowind any different than what you'd buy off the shelf? Is it updated in any way to accommodate newer machines (my Morrowind tends to freeze/stop working on my computer)? Can it be modded?

 

[Fappy]

Buy it off steam and you'll have it all.

Sorry to de-rail the thread a bit, but as someone totally new to Steam, is Steam's Morrowind any different than what you'd buy off the shelf? Is it updated in any way to accommodate newer machines (my Morrowind tends to freeze/stop working on my computer)? Can it be modded?

My friend has the steam version and it tends to crash on him a lot. He's never ran it on a disc (on his current PC) before so it could just be the machine, but I'd definitely like to know the answer of this question too.