Anyone else find Morrowind massively over rated?

[UglyDuckling]

Well you have to compare it to 2002 standards for graphics and gameplay. In 2002 there were very few open world games, and probably none that looked as good as Morrowind. It looked gorgeous at the time with the water and lighting etc and since it now looks ugly, you already lose some of the appeal of the game. Plus the gameplay is somewhat dated by modern standards but I greatly enjoyed it at release. I tried to play in a few years ago though and found it tedious.

Then again, I'm starting to get a bit "over" open world games. At least ones by Bethesda. Fallout 4 was quite boring imo.

I agree to the gameplay, but graphics and combat system were both low tier even for 2002.

Mate we had the likes of MGS2, Gran Turismo 3, Star Wars Rogue Squadron, yes these are console games, but i was not a PC gamer when i was 12 years old man, no silver spoon in my mouth.

Graphically Morrowind sucked in comparison to most games on consoles, at least the XBOX release, but graphics do not make games so a moot point, or i would never go back to classic games.

 

[bystander36]

I agree to the gameplay, but graphics and combat system were both low tier even for 2002.

Mate we had the likes of MGS2, Gran Turismo 3, Star Wars Rogue Squadron, yes these are console games, but i was not a PC gamer when i was 12 years old man, no silver spoon in my mouth.

Graphically Morrowind sucked in comparison to most games on consoles, at least the XBOX release, but graphics do not make games so a moot point, or i would never go back to classic games.

On PC, Morrowind looked very good. The shadowing and water were the best of its time. I'm sure the console version looked bad, but on the PC, it was a good looking game.

 

[Zenoth]

Not to sound rude, but you're asking this in 2017. It was released in 2002. With the exception of the soundtrack and the script / dialogue quality in general, which are usually timeless aspects in many (if not all) games, almost everything else would definitely show its age, to put it lightly. And you do specifically ask if people find it 'massively overrated' - today. I, for one, really liked Morrowind - at the time. I owned it on the original XBOX and finished it two times, from what I can remember. The last time I played Morrowind was on PC, but it was probably a solid 10+ years ago anyway. If I tried to replay it today, and with or without modifications, then of course I would think that it was overrated, or at least that very specific aspects of it were (such as the combat, or the exploration for example, etc). I'd probably think something along the lines of "And I used to actually like this game?".

This, for me at least, applies to almost every old / early 3D games I can think of, with only a very few select exceptions. I have a lot less issues with old (or current) 2D games, I think that they can (it's not always the case, of course) age much better than early / old 3D games have (in general). And Morrowind is no exception to that 'rule' for me. The same would apply to Skyrim. Ask me if I find Skyrim to be 'massively overrated' in 2026 and let's see if I'll praise it beyond its soundtrack, I doubt I will.

 

[wanderer27]

Combat:

Haven't read the whole thread, but there are different types of moves/maneuvers for different weapon types.
This can be a pain to figure out and get the hang of.

I seem to recall there is an option in the Menu to have the game automatically select the attack type based on the weapon you have equipped.

I remember I couldn't even handle a Mud Crab until I selected this option - definitely made things more manageable as I'm not the most coordinated when it comes to esoteric Mouse gestures.
Never did figure out how to do the Power Attack moves in Oblivion(?) due to the gesture combos required.

.

 

[wanderer27]

I tried playing Morrowind for the first time a few years ago but couldn’t get into it. Within an hour I uninstalled the game:

-constant stamina drain when running.
-no quest markers.
-no real fast travel.

An open world game with such flaws is an epic fail for me, because that’s not fun.

If the game wants to provide a hard mode that requires elite gameplay with no niceties, that’s absolutely fine. But easy/casual difficulty should fully support the player.

There are two (maybe even three or four) fast travel modes:

Striders(?) - giant Flea looking critters
Magic Teleports - Magic Guilds
I think there were Boats in some locales.
I also think there was a fast travel option available to some towns you'd already been too, but this caused time to pass as well.

Been a while, so I could be foggy on all those.

.

 

[twinrider1]

I just remember way too much walking.

 

[WhiteNoise]

I think it is an awesome game. Agreed that it didn't age well but the only thing I don't like now are the graphics. Mods help with that but character models still suck. Back in the day though this was one awesome game.

 

[bystander36]

There are two (maybe even three or four) fast travel modes:

Striders(?) - giant Flea looking critters
Magic Teleports - Magic Guilds
I think there were Boats in some locales.
I also think there was a fast travel option available to some towns you'd already been too, but this caused time to pass as well.

Been a while, so I could be foggy on all those.

.

I do recall the striders, and magice teleports. There was probably a couple boats, though I don't recall any "fast travel" options. I liked what was available, at least at the time.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

There are two (maybe even three or four) fast travel modes:

Striders(?) - giant Flea looking critters
Magic Teleports - Magic Guilds
I think there were Boats in some locales.
I also think there was a fast travel option available to some towns you'd already been too, but this caused time to pass as well.

Been a while, so I could be foggy on all those.

I do recall the striders, and magice teleports. There was probably a couple boats, though I don't recall any "fast travel" options. I liked what was available, at least at the time.

Correct, MW had no 'click the map' fast travel (unless there was a mod for it), I think Obliv introduced that one. It did have the siltstriders/mage guilds/boats though, as covered. That gets you within quick walking distance of just about everything.

 

[Stg-Flame]

They had explained they didn't want a fast travel option because they felt players would miss out on all the extra stuff they had littered all over the map, but considering fast travel was one of the most wanted features for their next TES game, they caved in and added fast travel to Oblivion. Doing so, I feel they really dropped the ball with Oblivion because since players were no longer walking from one objective to the next, they didn't need to fill the gaps with anything interesting which left us with a massive world full of nothing. Considering how many thousands of hours I've put into Oblivion, I feel they could have done a much better job, especially since they dumbed down the dialogue and the dungeon variety.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

They had explained they didn't want a fast travel option because they felt players would miss out on all the extra stuff they had littered all over the map, but considering fast travel was one of the most wanted features for their next TES game, they caved in and added fast travel to Oblivion. Doing so, I feel they really dropped the ball with Oblivion because since players were no longer walking from one objective to the next, they didn't need to fill the gaps with anything interesting which left us with a massive world full of nothing. Considering how many thousands of hours I've put into Oblivion, I feel they could have done a much better job, especially since they dumbed down the dialogue and the dungeon variety.

Agreed, sometimes you don't listen to the players, else you end up with WoW.

Any good DM will tell you, the players are the enemy. You string them along, you keep them alive, you teeter them on the brink, but they are not your friends.

 

[Mandres]

Agreed, sometimes you don't listen to the players, else you end up with WoW.

Any good DM will tell you, the players are the enemy. You string them along, you keep them alive, you teeter them on the brink, but they are not your friends.

Haha, +1!

 

[Red Storm]

Morrowind did have fast travel via that giant creature thing, it just was only available at fixed locations.

For its time there was nothing else like Morrowind. Sure by today's standards it might not look as good, but that's a pretty unfair comparison.

Playing Morrowind as a young teen, I absolutely enjoyed having to lay out the physical map on my bed and figure out where I needed to go. Now as an adult approaching my thirties, I have no desire or interest in doing that. Times change.

 

[pmv]

The best aspect of Morrowind was that the setting was inventive and atmospheric for a sword-and-sorcery world. It wasn't a generic Tolkien-influenced one. And there was a fair amount of story in the main plot-lines. And at the time that size of sandbox was just impressive in itself ("quantity has a quality all it's own"). For me life is now too short to enjoy that feature in games any more, but it was fun at the time.

The fighting was meh, but I don't have any strong preferences about tabletop RPG skills-and-die-rolls style vs 'dumbed-down' modern console style. Just two different styles.

Likewise the difficulty-scaling has problems either way - either you constantly blunder into areas that are too dangerous and lose any sense of continuity due to frequent restarts (while finding increasing swathes of the world to become boringly easy as you outgrow it), or you have the immersion-breaking experience of every mudcrab relentlessly levelling-up with you. I can't see there's any flawless solution. Best seemed to be Oblivion with mods to loosen the level-up-with-you system a bit, so the world somewhat levelled-up with you but with some things still capped at lower levels while new higher-level enemies appeared. But the Oblivion environment wasn't as distinctive as Morrowind's (being straightforwardly fantasy-medieval)

 

[Mandres]

Oblivion's enemy-scaling was a total horror show. It destroyed the sense of continuity in the world and ruined the game for me. Between that and the procedural world/dungeon generation I thought Oblivion was an incredibly lazy effort, especially after Morrowind did so much interesting new stuff. The only good thing about it was the combat.

They finally struck a pretty good balance in Skyrim. There was still that feeling of "you are now entering generic_cave#45657" in some of the dungeons, but there was enough hand-designed stuff around to keep it interesting. Same with the enemy leveling - not as jarring as Oblivion's system.

 

[IEC]

I enjoyed the alchemy system. And being an archer. Combining those two led to some hilarity.

Potions of levitation + sniping = laugh as your melee enemies can't touch you.

Few games at the time offered that degree of freedom. Even if having that much freedom was game breaking.

 

[pmv]

Oblivion's enemy-scaling was a total horror show. It destroyed the sense of continuity in the world and ruined the game for me. Between that and the procedural world/dungeon generation I thought Oblivion was an incredibly lazy effort, especially after Morrowind did so much interesting new stuff. The only good thing about it was the combat.

They finally struck a pretty good balance in Skyrim. There was still that feeling of "you are now entering generic_cave#45657" in some of the dungeons, but there was enough hand-designed stuff around to keep it interesting. Same with the enemy leveling - not as jarring as Oblivion's system.

Entirely true for vanilla Oblivion, but mods improved it a lot by relaxing that enemy-scaling so you got some sense of progress without all danger being removed.

I found with Skyrim you levelled up so quickly the world became boringly easy before you explored much of it. Or if you used a level slowing mod, it started off too difficult for too long. Preferred modded Oblivion, myself. Anyway ran out of real world time for those sorts of games, unfortuately.

 

[pmv]

I just remember way too much walking.

I kind of liked the walking. It was more immersive than magically jumping back and forth across the world - made it feel like a real place with a real cost to bad planning and where you experienced things logically based on geography. (Mind you, I tend to dislike all forms of fast travel in real life as well. If I can't walk, run or cycle there, it probably isn't worth going to, I've decided)

 

[pmv]

I agree to the gameplay, but graphics and combat system were both low tier even for 2002.

Mate we had the likes of MGS2, Gran Turismo 3, Star Wars Rogue Squadron, yes these are console games, but i was not a PC gamer when i was 12 years old man, no silver spoon in my mouth.

Graphically Morrowind sucked in comparison to most games on consoles, at least the XBOX release, but graphics do not make games so a moot point, or i would never go back to classic games.

Surely none of those were huge-scale sandbox games, so its not the same thing? No distant vistas you could walk into. How large were the areas in MGS2? Wasn't it mostly corridors? Morrowind looked very impressive for the time, with the weather and water effects and landscapes. The character animations and models were weak, though.

 

[pmv]

I still like the music from the Elder Scrolls games. It's a weird effect to listen to them on the DAP while walking through some quiet rural area (or the parks here that been here since medieval times). It's unnerving late at night, when the player unexpectedly shuffle-plays to the 'battle music' and for a moment you wonder what's out there in the trees.

 

[Crono]

I remember it being easy to add/change tracks to use custom music on PC.

To this day Headstrong by Trapt has me looking up to the skies and in anti-Cliffracer mode. 😀

 

[norseamd]

Ban OP.