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✇ At the bottom of this review I'll post my recommended mod set-up for 2023 ✇
Morrowind is the last unfiltered Elder Scrolls experience. This game does so many things better than others in the series while requiring players to read and understand the world they're in to progress. I love each Elder Scrolls game for different reasons, but Morrowind is special. Quests are not guided by markers, instead you have a detailed journal which gets updated with automatic notes. These notes give a general path to proceed and require you to be engaged with the story. The inventory/spell/equipment menu is better and more responsive than any other Elder Scrolls game which in my opinion became clunkier slow (without the assistance of mods). You can open your map, inventory, spell menu, and equipment, all just by right clicking and everything is intractable and movable.
Morrowind doesn't give care if you're the main character or on a quest. If you're exploring and piss off a Daedra by saying something they don't like one might cancel dialogue with you by saying "After I kill you, I will r*pe your corpse. Don't worry, I'll be gentle.", and then proceed to spawn a corpus beat and beating you in the face with a Daedric axe.
The main story of Morrowind is intense. You are the Nerevarine, a subject of the local Ashlander prophecy which is destined to kill Dagoth Ur, who is corrupting the minds of the people in Morrowind. As you progress through the story more and more corrupted Dark Elves start getting afflicated. You are commission by a member of The Blades to stop this threat.
The biggest complaint, mostly due to it being the first problem everybody experiences, is attacks and hits missing. Even if you're standing right in front of an enemy, with a low skill your attacks might miss, which can be incredibly frustrating for a new player. This obviously gets better and better as you level up but I can completely understand why a new player might think the game is buggy or broken from this experience.
The coolest part of Morrowind is it is the only Elder Scrolls game to have truly 3D game play. This game features levitation which even becomes a requirement to complete the main quest. The Telvanni wizards live in tall fungi towers, and as they're wizards you can only explore the hallways by levitating up. This translates into the rest of the world through caves, dungeons, and other towns. After you master a levitation spell or have an enchanted item you can fly around a city or volcano to find your destination.
Morrowind GOTY includes two DLC's, Bloodmoon and Tribunal. Fans of Skyrim will recognize Bloodmoon as it's Solstheim (Dragonborn DLC). I won't detail too much, but you're able to build the city of Raven Rock which you visit in Skyrim with the assistance of the East Empire Trading Company. Both of the DLC's add a ton of value to the game and are full of interesting lore and decisions. I can't get into the details of Tribunal without spoiling too much, however you gain access to two cities which includes a intricate sewer system. You're able to engage with the Dark Brotherhood, Tribunal Temple, and Gods themselves.
The guilds in Morrowind are done perfectly. They require specific tasks relevant to the guild and in order to receive a promotion your skills in the related areas must be met. In Morrowind, you won't become the Archmage unless you are an actual master mage. This is the same for the Thieves & Fighter's Guild. A unique part of Morrowind is the Morag Tong. The Tong are an assassination guild which operate within the law of Morrowind as they have 'writs' which allow them to legally execute people. This guild is by far the most interesting because even if caught by a guard, displaying your writ allows you to freely walk away. Another unique group in Morrowind is the Temple.
Similar to Guilds, Morrowind features "Houses", which each have their own intricate story lines. Each House has their own style of operating, ranging from political warriors to homicidal rogue wizards who live in desolate fungus towers. You can choose whichever you wish to join and can gain rank and prestige. Each house also includes a compound you can build from the ground up which operates as a base.
Magic in Morrowind is better than any other game in the series. The amount of spells you can use is incredible. There's simple stuff like mark/recall, where you can instantly teleport back to any point in the game you set, and conjuration where you can summon a huge variety of creatures. This includes enchanting as well, as you can associate spells to items and utilize this same spell list. Every magic related mod I've found for Oblivion/Skyrim is just trying to achieve what vanilla Morrowind offered.
Equipment in Morrowind is once again the best of any Elder Scrolls game. You can wear layers of equipment which offers a huge array of loadouts. You can wear a shirt/pants, put armor on top of this, and then wear a robe over all of this. Armor is split into pieces: helmet, shoulders (left and right), hands (left and right), chest, waist, legs, boots (left/right). You can also wear two rings and a necklace. So in Morrowind you can wear 16 pieces of equipment at once, all with their own unique enchantments. This doesn't include weapons or shields.
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Mod set-up for Morrowind in 2023: MOISE by ForgottenGlory is the best way to play Morrowind. With the creation of 'Wabbajack', installation of MOISE is incredibly easy and automated. This total overhaul does everything you need. It'll update graphics, fix bugs, and make the game stable and perform smoothly on a modern PC. It remains true to the vanilla experience.
- Wabbajack website: https://www.wabbajack.org/
- MOISE Mod Website: https://www.fgsmodlists.com/docs/moise/
- Installation instructions: https://www.fgsmodlists.com/docs/moise/installation-guide/readme/
Message me on Steam if you need help installing it.