Hell yeah! Kajheet birthsign steed acrobatics athletics hand to hand unarmored sneak Security alchemy illusion soeechcraft mercsntile Joined thieves guild, hlaalu, imperial cult. Had a love for sujamma and moon sugar. Loved it so much she used her alchemical knowledge to make her own skooma and founded a criminal empire.
I think Morrowind was the last game my parents drove me to buy, so I spent time reading the manual in the car while they shopped for vacuum cleaners or something. That stands out distinctly in my mind.
I loved that the game came with a physical map. I had the map up on my wall and put color coded pins in it. Blue pins were boats, yellow, silt striders, purple for polyon chambers. Then I had red, orange and black pins for various locations and sticky notes all over the place. It was quite enjoyable
@@TheCassinus Same. I also had a notebook I wrote in, because the game's journal was kinda shit, but that actually wound up being a positive overall. I'd write about characters, who and where they are and any notes about interactions. I'd also write about locations like the dungeons, like where they are, what I found in it, how much I explored it, if it seemed like there was something more to it, whether or not there were quests tied to it, etc.
I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but one of the OG devs for Morrowind, Douglass Goodall (who hasn't been at bethesda for years), went back and added some starter quests to Seyda Neen to ease the transition into Morrowind via a mod called AFFresh in 2023. You *could* technically consider it an official DLC of sorts.
I just downloaded it today. Always awesome when devs come back to show some love for their projects! Can't wait to play these new quests now, knowing it's gonna feel vanilla+ as all heck!
I first played Morrowind in 2021 when I was on temporary disability for tearing my bicep tendon. Like you, I had given it a few tries in the past, but it never landed. When I was able to sit down and really get into the lore and world of Morrowind, it struck me just how amazing this game is. It made me re-evaluate every other Bethesda game. Morrowind is hands down their greatest creation. It's crazy to think that Morrowind is where Todd Howard started when you look at where he is now.
I was so excited when I heard they were working on Oblivion. Then I played it...😑. It's an objectively impressive game, but I thought they would be improving in the same formula. It's just way too different. Same with Skyrim.
If you don't mind me asking, what separated that playthrough of Morrowind from the previous ones? Did you pick a class instead of making one, or something?
@DragonsShadow-ttrpg The biggest difference of that playthrough was that I had an abundance of time to dedicate to immersing myself in the world. I was able to read every little bit of lore within the world. It felt much more like I was connected to the story than being told a story.
Morrowind was my first ES game, I had absolutely no idea what it was. I bought the original X box and had to choose 3 games. The clerk was you have to play this game and I was like yeah fk it. Best recommendation I've ever had
I find the fact that you can find powerful artifact in random dungeon, great experience. It makes me want to explore each dungeon because I never know what I can find in the very next one.
I think it's similar to why i prefer Elden Ring to Bethesda's modern formula. I dont like people over-using the "it doesnt hold your hand" statement, but it holds so true here. There are no map markers telling me where to go to explore and partake in activities. I cant stand the idea of an open world where the game tells me where I need to go and what I need to do. Why make it an open world at that point? Exploring is at its best when it's spontaneous and natural.. discovery should be upon the player, not forced waypoints. Makes exploration feel like a task, rather than an adventure
it also helps prevent it feel like EVERYTHING revolves around the player, Clavicus has a champion already in the world, he's already given someone his masque. Someone who isn't the player. He isn't just waiting to hand it over to the player when they find his shrine, there's a story there and you aren't a central figure in it.
@@captainslender12to piggyback off this, im not a big fan of chosen one narratives but I think morrowind does it right. You could be the chosen one, but you don't do all the things because you are the chosen one, you are the chosen one because you did all things.
This review really gets it: Morrowind is loved because its lore and its story make an engaging whole, featuring one of the most genuinely fantastic settings in the history of video games to this day and a substantial main story which is unafraid of complexity, and because its gameplay is less restricted than that of its successors. These days I wouldn't play it without heavy visual modification and a few quality-of-life mods, but it holds it own compared to modern games in those aspects I care most about: worldbuilding, story and the ability to do things without being overly restricted by the game's systems. Every single Morrowind game I ever played was plagued by bugs more than most other games, but it was all worth it.
Just the environmental storytelling too. I love me a good, desert, beach, volcano, tundra, and plains, but the alien and fantastical biomes of Morrowind are constantly amazing.
And when you ask the main quest giver what you’re supposed to do next, and his answer is something like “whatever you want-come back when you’ve seen the world a bit”.
@@TheBiomedZed it's been a few years, so I can't recommend specific mods, especially since I haven't played with OpenMW (and I would likely do that today), but here's what my essential mods did. Note that I don't know OpenMW, it may provide options covered by these mods, making them superfluous: (1) Change level progression so that you don't have to care about attribute multipliers any more. There have been several very good continuous-progression mods of that kind over the years. (2) Make all locations that you have already found visible on the map. (3) Change item weights somewhat so that weak characters like my magic-and-stealth centered characters don't have to return to a merchant after having picked up one daedric item or two. (4) Change money available to merchants, and make some or all merchants accept any kind of item, albeit perhaps at lower prices. Not that lower prices matter a great deal, since weight and merchant money are the primary limiting factors when making money, but it's a little nod to balance. I've also played with more comprehensive economy mods, but a simple 'have merchants have more money and accept more items' mod is already a great QoL feature that removes a great deal of annoyance. Edit: When I played MW last, Wrye Mash was still the best mod manager IMO. I don't know if that has changed. It requires you to know what you're doing, but Morrowind mod management has ever been a science of its own, and it appears that hasn't changed since 2017. There appears to be a version for OpenMW.
Yeah. I usually have my Mark at Creeper. Means I can quickly drop of some loot(or stash expensive stuff at his feet), run over to the mages guild and use either Propylons(master index) or the guild network. And if I need a strider, I can quickly use my Fortify Jump/Acrobatics/Feather 100 spell to bunny hop over to Balmora😂
Yep. That's my thing about open-world games. Getting around needs to be fun. Finding the Boots of Blinding Speed and learning how to cancel out their "permanent blindness" side effect (and how you need to make an extra effort to do so if you play as a High Elf, which I usually do) was immensely satisfying, and running around super-fast by default isn't something I had the opportunity to do in a lot of other open-world games until Saints Row IV.
@@dracosummoner Even without cancelling those effects those boots were great and a lot of fun to use. Which is why I will forever look down upon Argonian and Kahjit players (also because they are scalies and furries but that is a different matter)
@@dylanevartt3219Man, Morrowind completely opened my eyes at what a video game could be. It gave me so much hope and hype for the future. Once Oblivion came out and I got to play it it contributed a lot to a sense of disillusionment with the gaming industry in my later teen years. Things were simply trending in a way that downplayed the things I had learned to love about video games and invested in and doubled down on trends that I was less enthused about... It's what it is. I will say that today there are so many great options in gaming historically and within the modern indie sphere that anyone can find something to be happy with, imo. Even if some franchises or studios with names we used to admire have fallen from our esteem. - Funny anecdote about when I first played Morrowind: It took me a couple weeks to even realize how to level up. I was very confused before I realized that you needed to rest in a bed. I think I was level 15 or 16 by the time I figured that out!
Mark and Recall were game changers in regards to *traversal*. Great retrospective as always! You got pretty indepth as well. My dad got my morrowind when I was younger by asking a walmart employee what are some good RPG's (he knew what they were because he did talk to me about games I played) That employee gave him morrowind, and knights of the old repulic. I don't know WHO gave him those options, but salute to him and my dad :) Besides nostalgia Morrowind holds up but like you said the barriers would prevent people from playing.
I have to hard disagree on the part about daedric artifacts seeming misplaced just laying around or in possession of NPCs and mobs. To me it makes the world feel more alive because it shows I am not the only person going around doing things, there are other adventurers, other important people doing the bidding of daedra, grabbing their items and possibly losing them in the wild for whatever reason may lead to that. One of the reasons people tend to talk about Oblivion and Skyrim as theme parks is because everything can feel like a ride designed just for you, the world stays still with bated breath until you come with a ticket for your ride. I'm not just here to dunk on you though, this review is great and I love that you mentioned the part about Vivec talking about the houses of Morrowind. Good stuff!
When I got a Clavicus vile's mask, I've didn't even know abut that Daedra. Morrowind just don't throw everything in your face like Skyrim does, you need to explore game to learn the lore to get into.
Another clever thing Morrowind does to make the map 'bigger' is to make impossible to travel in a straight line between two points on the map, because the center of the island is either dangerous or sealed off you have to travel around the map. It kind of encourages you to travel the entire length of the map during your playthrough.
nah I just hoarded levitation potions and traded it with the Shrine in Vivec (Temple Canton) that gives you a speed boost and a few minutes of levitation. I'd just fly over the entire island and only I'd only have to worry about the cliff racers.
I use the Mudcrab Merchant (always base my recall spell there) to build up the funds for constant effect enchantments. Combined with the boots of blinding speed, travel is far less taxing. Obviously, I still explore everywhere I can. But for quests like the silent vigil to a shrine at the opposite end of the map, flying up and over is much more convenient!
One of my favorite mechanics is the fact that there are no quest markers and you have to ask people for directions and use landmarks to know where to go
Oh my, a retrospective. Going to save this to my watch later so that I can enjoy this to the fullest in the coming weekend. Retrospectives is how I discovered this channel. A thank you in advance for the video :D
This is one of the few rpg that make me feel like i'm in a "real" adventure instead of a videogame. World, exploration, quests, story and factions are top. Easily the best TES. Great review as always!
I know retrospective reviews are hard to make but boy i've been waiting for this since the first time u mentioned you're doing it. Also i love the in depth reviews u make
Nostalgia (for simpler times) Ever since reading rumor of remaking previous The Elder Scrolls titles, I've come to the conclusion that 'updating' to a current remake format would be to the detriment of the alienating atmosphere thanks to the idiosyncratic art direction & non-photorealistic graphics of this sincerely timeless anomaly. Sure as hell can't improve upon the glorious soundtrack & skyboxes. More then two decades have passed & yet no proper disciples have followed up the distinct ways of Morrowind to this day. Haven't played Morrowind (along with Gothic I & II) for quite some years (since 2015/16) if it weren't for the quarantine days. The trip down memory lane during quarantine made it crystal clear that Morrowind aged like a fine wine. PS salutations & cheers from the Netherlands, ya absolute madman.
Agreed. It's not just a Morrowind thing, it's that whole era of games. Graphics were high quality enough to register as "real" in our brains (unlike, say, Doom) but low quality enough to be highly stylised and atmospheric without losing that sense of reality. Modern high fidelity games leave little to the imagination and can't get too out there without looking silly. And there are still plenty of stylised games but they tend towards being overtly abstract and representational and don't really register as literal. But imo the specific technology (and expectations) of the early 2000s allowed us to have both.
One thing I am going to disagree with in your conclusion is that you said it's a negative that you can't max out some bonus' if you build your charcter a particular way. I personally think thats a plus I don't think in an RPG you should be able to be good at everything. Other than that great retrospective :)
It also make’s artifacts and enchantments and alchemy even more essential for those characters. As long as you have one or more of those things, you can absolutely still get those attributes, and by the time you can do that, its not unbalanced to do so.
I have been playing Morrowind since the original Xbox released and I still sat here for an hour and a half watching a video on it. It is so intrinsic to who I am as a gamer and influenced so much of my gaming since it came out. Thank you so much for such a delightful video on one of my all-time favorite games.
I really think that kingdom come deliverance is the true successor of morrowind’s combat. Your character’s skills determine if you hit or are blocked but instead of morrowind’s whiff there is a visual block from the npc. If you played morrowind back in the day I highly recommend it
_ahh yes, we’ve been expecting you_ lol I am glad to see this. I remember playing this when it came out, I was in the seventh grade and it was pretty much all me and my friends talked about. Morrowind is still my favorite TES game!
Mantling is less proving that you are the thing that you are trying to mantle and more akin to acting in such a way that you become it. It's a weird part of the cosmology of Nirn. By acting like Sheogorath and using the things of Sheogorath, the Champion of Cyrodiil became Sheogorath. The MC became the Nerevarine by doing the deeds that Nerevarine had to do. They had to rise to the occasion.
If it looks like a Duck and sounds like a Duck and acts like a Duck, it becomes a Duck. Yet it would have always and forever been a Goose if it had not acted like a Duck, and a random Swan may have decided to start Quacking since a Duck needs to exist.
I don't really comment on videos that often, but this retrospective was awesome! You really covered everything I loved about Morrowind back in the day, and I'm glad you finally got to experience it. Looking forward to the next one!
One thing I love about Morrowind is that you're not just the chosen one, but there were dozens of people before you who also claimed to be the Nerevarine. You are just one of many who tried. The difference is that you completed more of the challenges than anyone before you and it is uncertain why. Were you just lucky, skilled or divinely fated? No one knows for sure. And even if you fulfil the criteria of the Nerevarine. Are you actually Nerevar reborn? There is no definitive proof. It all depends on what you want to believe yourself. This is brilliant because it allows for a wide range of role playing options but also is exactly how the real world works. The great houses of Morrowind do not just support you because you are the chosen one and showed up one day. They all have something to gain from supporting you, so if you are real or not doesn't matter in their eyes.
I always had in my mind that the playthroughs I failed or didn't complete was the failed neveraine and it wasn't until I did the actual mission I was the real deal
A thought about what you mentioned about finding major daedric artifacts in the world, like the Masque on Sorkvild the Raven - I actually consider this a plus in the game. It adds to the feeling that these artifacts are real things in the world with their own stories and not just for you as the player. The random mage who had it - I see him as the last guy that Clavicus Vile sent on a quest for his entertainment, and it adds a layer of believability to the world. The artifacts you get from the Princes themselves just show you how these come into the world (though I whole-heartedly agree that Daedric quests in general were more interesting in the later series)
This is actually something I think Skyrim nails, a lot of the daedric quests don't see you going to a shrine you just stumble into them and then get the artifact more naturally which keeps you from chasing shrines like in Oblivion and adding more flavor than just finding it on a random guy.
I think a system to randomize or procedurally determine the locations of such artifacts would greatly improve replay value. Maybe it's a mod already. Probably.
I bought this game pre order on xbox back in the day something was wrong with my disc but it ran, I used to make steps out of forks and plates up to the skies and make sky walks between mountains made of books and trash. That game ruled. I never actually left Seyda Nean even though i played hundreds on hundreds of hours.
My new favorite Mortismal video! Thankyou! Now I need to play Morrowind again. One of my favorite things to do is keep notes in a journal while playing Morrowind because the in game journal isn't great.
Yessss. The perfect thing to wake up to and start my work day! Love Morrowind reviews and I've been waiting excitedly for yours! Thanks Mort, you the man!
There's a ton of Morrowind reviews out there but I'm amazed by your ability to make your own review unique and compelling. I even learned some new things from you, particularly about the attribute system after over a decade of playing the game, which is really rewarding. Great review, and please keep making videos my friend.
There is a pleasure in role playing as a character in Morrowind that Skyrim and Oblivion never managed to duplicate. Despite the fact that npcs didn't move and most had repetitive topics, the world managed to feel lived in, well thought out and immersive. And I highly recommend that you try Tamriel Rebuilt, it adds a lot of new land and quests to the game and it's constantly being updated.
The review was spot on as all of your reviews are, I played it back in 2002 for the first time and the only word i can use to describe the experience is Magical,
What an amazing video. So glad you were able to experience this gem of a game. It does have a steep learning curve but it is so worth it at the end. I was so happy when Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC gave us a little bit of Morrowind back. I honestly hope we get to revisit this lands and lore cause as you well said, the story is simply incredible. Cheers and wealth beyond measure, outlander.
Something I love about Morrowind is it's not afraid to be weird. People talk about slavery like it's just a normal thing because in their world it just is. The architecture is unique especially in places like Sedrith Mora, you could tell at a glance which places were imperial and which were native. The is still some lore in TES that's going to throw people through a loop, like the green pact, but it's never represented in game or even really mentioned.
This video was a pleasure to watch! I'm really glad you finally played through this amazing game mort! I know I'm a fanboy, but this is my favorite rpg ever made. I just recently got the urge to play it again (been a couple of years) and I decided to check out the Tamriel Rebuilt mod this time around. It's like playing the game for the first time again! The amount of content they have added to this since 2006 is staggering. I'm done rambling, but I'm glad you made this video and shared your opinion! I don't have high hopes for the next Elder Scrolls, but that universe will always capture my imagination.
I remember seeing Toonami on Cartoon Network do a review for Morrowind, and what I saw blew my mind away. As a teenager at the time, I immediately asked my mom for the game as a birthday gift, and immediately spent my entire summer playing this majestic game. I immediately purchased both expansions and proceeded to add even more runs to the game. It's definitely dated and it would require a lot of quality of life changes for me to fire it up again, but great time in my teenage years.
Thank you for making this video. It brought back so many memories from all the wrinkles in my brain. I might even load this up just to go get that OP sword on top of the bookshelf.
I use to make a save file right before curing Corprus disease, sleeping for thousands of days, curing it, then healing my stats back to normal (aside from the ridiculous strength gained from years of having Corprus), then go through and one punch Vivec after beating the game to celebrate! 😂
Good retrospective review, there are only two things I can think of that you missed. Firstly the mark and recall spells in fast travel, which I sorely missed in later TES games. Secondly how much better spell crafting, enchanting and alchemy is compared to the implementations in Oblivion and Skyrim. Playing a high-level wizard in Morrowind really makes you feel like a powerful wizard.
This was a revolutionary game to me, it kind of took the old classic 1st person rpgs and let you move freely in their setting, instead of either psuedo-3d or tunnels etc. It was like a dream game to an explorer, and I never even finished the story, because my own story was the whole point. This is also why I've loved TES in general. I actually think Starfield is an amazing example of what happens when they don't play to their strength of making a connected world.
heck yeah I watched the whole thing, this is one of my favourite games that I come back to every now & then. Thanks for all the content you put out so regularly, though I hope you're taking enough breaks!
Two great parts of the game: when the sleepers come up and talk to you and you can’t avoid them-it’s so startling. And the quest (it’s either legion or temple) where they move one of the walls.
I'll still never forget my first time playing morrowind on the original xbox and marveling at the thunderstorms and the soundtrack of the game. It'll always have a place in my heart. great video!
For me it was the night sky and the soundtrack. And the swamps and wilderness. Just wandering around picking plants and wandering in the forests and coastlines.
One thing I never hear mentioned is that the different weapon type's best attacks and damage ranges fairly closely track to reality and affect play style. Running in and out with a spear to keep distance or add power to your thrust😏. Planting your feet and chopping as hard as you can with an axe or hammer, swords having more balance between attack type, bows need to be fully drawn, and daggers do a small but narrow damage range for high speed shanking. I never play with always use best attack on anymore since I think the combat is more engaging if I have to consider my movement direction and how long to hold my swing. I love this game.
I originally played Morrowind on the OG xbox console I loved the game so much it lead me to soft modding it and replacing the sata cable so the game would load faster from the HDD. The game also had many problems on the console like the save file couldn't be greater than 8mb, shutting every door behind you not picking up everything or killing to many npcs was necessary to keeping it from breaking. After many failed broken playthroughs I did manage to beat the game and both dlcs, a feat in gaming that I am still unsure how 14 year old me accomplished.
One of my favorite games of all time. Also the last game where the bundled paper map was really useful. I had it on the wall next to my computer and I referenced it all the time.
I'm in a similar spot as you - though I initially played it back on the original xbox back in the day, I barely knew what I was doing but still loved the world enough to get stuck in the corprusarium due to a bug. I've greatly enjoyed finishing it properly as an adult; able to really care and understand about the quests and various plotlines, both obvious and less so. Getting told to sod off and get some experience to deliberately get a chance to get into factions before getting skillchecked on the bridge to the Dwemer ruin is a good way to make people explore things without unnecessary handholding.
This was a very enjoyable watch. I smirked when you said it was embarrassing to not having finished Morrowind as a rpg youtuber as I had the same experience and waited until last year to beat it for the first time and it really changed my perspective on it to the better.
when I was playing Morrowind 22 years ago finding the fast travel merchants was always exciting because I could see new places that I could go that were unexplored. It was a rewarding experience that got ruined in other games where you can just fast travel from anywhere
Far and away the best lore/context breakdown for this game I have ever heard. You just may have convinced me to go back and play Morrowind again, Mortym!! 🤜🤛
Haha, same here! The first time I played as a late primary schooler, it took me hours just to find the first city. So many great memories of trying dozens of ways to rob that shop I came across!
Welcome to the club. Playing this as a kid and teenager was insane. Never forget how special the GOTY edition of this game was with two massive expansions. Finding the most powerful gauntlets in the game in some god forsaken sixth house cult dungeon and hidden behind a casket and drenched in darkness was crazy haha
17:08 No 😂 I’m watching this because I saw a Morrowind video pop up, and I always watch Morrowind content. For me it’s the best game I’ve ever played. Thanks for the review, glad you finished it. I played it first when I was 12.. I didn’t know wtf was going on. Finally finished it when I was 19 😅
Being a DND player really helped me adapt to the whole chance to miss mechanic. Honestly, even gameplay-wise, i prefer Morrowind to later ES games, as it's much more layered. The default option for combat has you utilizing different movement patterns for different weapon types to access your strongest attacks, and makes conserving stamina a big part of it as well (hence why hand-to-hand is so fun). The magic, too, is just so much more varied and interactive. Rather than just "shoot fire in stream" or "shoot lightning in bolt" or "gradual heal", you get "shoot exploding ball of fire and lightning that lowers my opponent's equipment load, making them slower as the fight goes on until they can no longer move" or "use a melee poison strike that does powerful DoT while also draining their intelligence and making myself invisible". I've played oblivion and skyrim my whole life, only picking up Morrowind last year, and it's already easily my favorite in the franchise.
Great video. I mostly agree with your take on the game. I recent played through the game fully for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had more fun playing through Morrowind than I did with Skyrim. One day I'll get around to playing Oblivion and eventually Daggerfall.
Honestly I'd urge you to try Daggerfall! Daggerfall Unity isn't that big of a leap away from how janky Morrowind is, and what Daggerfall does well, it does fantastically. It offers the same power fantasy as Morrowind, since even spells scale with your character level, so that Heal spell you buy at level 1-2 is JUST as relevant at lvl 25 - though as per tradition, the enchanting system lets you gimp the magic system so hard that you can start creating absolutely god-tier spells that lasts for days and costs almost nothing to cast. It's radiant quest system was also leaps and bounds before its time, I was sent on a quest to kill a rogue wizard for the mages guild and villagers would tell me how they felt safer after that rogue wizard had been killed. I was asked by my favorite local blacksmith to rescue his daughter who'd gotten captured by orcs, and any time I'd talk to him he'd mention how thankful he was for my actions and I got a nice discount. Selling items is actually not a hassle in Daggerfall, merchants have "infinite" money, though gold has weight - But if you sell so much that you'd be worried, they instead give you a letter of credit! And you can use that letter of credit to pay for stuff, and also you can put anything your character can't carry into a wagon (that you have to buy first) and you'll quickly be rolling around with millions worth of gold, credit and gear in your wagon. The only things I have to say against the game is that it sucks that you could soft-lock progression by being poisoned/diseased and having overwritten a save, as if you can't cure them before resting you may die in your sleep. There's also the dungeons which sometimes seem bugged, though you often just need to find a specific item to interact with to open a path in it. And quests being timed, though using a Teleport spell to mark/recall back to a quest giver comes in clutch.
Step 1: Obtain Boots of blinding Speed. Step 2: Enchant an amulet with 100% Magig resistance for 2 Seconds. Step 3: Enchant Amulet with 1% Levitation. Step 4: Equip first amulet, quickly equip boots, then equip the levitation amulet. Now you can fly with top speed across the map, without being blinded. 😅
Thank you for the video. 19:07 as it should be. By the end of a Fantasy RPG I should be a demigod, especially in this title. Onward to 400k. All glory to the algorithm.
One of my fav childhood games. Watched the entire vid just because I just like hearing about other people's experience with the game (in the case where they give it an honest attempt).
Install Tamriel Rebuilt, Skyrim Home of the Nords, Project Cyrodil Stirk, and Beautiful Cities of Morrowind, and as many mods like groundcover and HD assets. Open Morrowind with fov and all the shaders, and as many mods as you can handle, and its truly on par with a modern AAA.
After watching your videos and some of Mandalore's I decided it was about time I'd take a pause from sinking so much time into mmorpgs, it's been over a decade now. So I've decided to start playing some games that I never got to finish, be it from long ago or more recent ones. I've recently finished Nioh 2 and one of my oldest favorites that I wasn't savvy enough 20 years ago, which was Arx Fatalis! Next on my radar I'll probably go for Gothic 2 since I got stuck on the final boss entrance for some reason all those years ago, but I'm currently giving Sunless Sea a shot. As for Morrowind, it was the first game I remember where I actually tried to understand its mechanics and although I did many playthroughs, I never finished it, stopping right before I had to face Dagoth'ur. I do have very fond memories of it and I even vaguely remember that there's a few guys in one of the Vivec sewers that have Daedric weapons and I also remember there's a shrine next to a village that you get to with the silt strider that has full ebony armor.
Love Morrowind :3 For the past year or so I've been working on/maintaining my own Wabbajack modlist for it, and it's been so fun engaging with other fans, OpenMW devs, and the very active modding community.
i have such a weird love of this game. i never beat it, or even got past the tutorial. but watching my dad’s friend play it growing up open my eyes to a whole new genre of gaming.
Agree with the story writing being great. I think this has the best quests (at least compared to later entries). The feel I get from this one is they were experimenting the whole way through. They didn't care if you broke something; you earned the way you broke it.
It is kinda rough now, but back in the day, it was amazing. When Morrowind came out, I was hooked. I'd never really been a "gamer" before that. But I played it for like 3 weeks straight. Loved it. I still replay it every couple years, just for the nostalgia. Thankfully we have OpenMW now to make it easier and stable
Getting rid of acrobatics was my biggest elder scrolls gripe. Being a khajiit thief who jumps to the roof to escape was amazing.
Hell yeah! Kajheet birthsign steed acrobatics athletics hand to hand unarmored sneak
Security alchemy illusion soeechcraft mercsntile
Joined thieves guild, hlaalu, imperial cult.
Had a love for sujamma and moon sugar. Loved it so much she used her alchemical knowledge to make her own skooma and founded a criminal empire.
i frickin LOVED being a literal cat burglar :)
I liked the crazy beast feet. Who cares about shoes when you get to be digitigrade?
High acrobatics, a little slowfall, long sword in hand, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon OST in the ears, flying from roof to roof... Good times.
Get the glide mode for Skyrim adds that and slow fall
I think Morrowind was the last game my parents drove me to buy, so I spent time reading the manual in the car while they shopped for vacuum cleaners or something.
That stands out distinctly in my mind.
A physical manual, imagine that.
I loved that the game came with a physical map. I had the map up on my wall and put color coded pins in it. Blue pins were boats, yellow, silt striders, purple for polyon chambers. Then I had red, orange and black pins for various locations and sticky notes all over the place. It was quite enjoyable
That's actually a neat idea. Ugh I miss late 90' early 2000's era creativity.
@@TheCassinus Same. I also had a notebook I wrote in, because the game's journal was kinda shit, but that actually wound up being a positive overall. I'd write about characters, who and where they are and any notes about interactions. I'd also write about locations like the dungeons, like where they are, what I found in it, how much I explored it, if it seemed like there was something more to it, whether or not there were quests tied to it, etc.
vacuum cleaners or something
I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but one of the OG devs for Morrowind, Douglass Goodall (who hasn't been at bethesda for years), went back and added some starter quests to Seyda Neen to ease the transition into Morrowind via a mod called AFFresh in 2023. You *could* technically consider it an official DLC of sorts.
Wow, that's cool!
Seyda Neen “Dank Little Squat” and “Beautiful Cities of Morrowind” are both essentials.
Thanks for the information ❤
I just downloaded it today. Always awesome when devs come back to show some love for their projects! Can't wait to play these new quests now, knowing it's gonna feel vanilla+ as all heck!
I still think Fighters Guild in Balmora is great for starter quests. It starts out easy but progressively gets harder.
I first played Morrowind in 2021 when I was on temporary disability for tearing my bicep tendon. Like you, I had given it a few tries in the past, but it never landed. When I was able to sit down and really get into the lore and world of Morrowind, it struck me just how amazing this game is. It made me re-evaluate every other Bethesda game. Morrowind is hands down their greatest creation.
It's crazy to think that Morrowind is where Todd Howard started when you look at where he is now.
I was so excited when I heard they were working on Oblivion. Then I played it...😑. It's an objectively impressive game, but I thought they would be improving in the same formula. It's just way too different. Same with Skyrim.
If you don't mind me asking, what separated that playthrough of Morrowind from the previous ones? Did you pick a class instead of making one, or something?
@DragonsShadow-ttrpg The biggest difference of that playthrough was that I had an abundance of time to dedicate to immersing myself in the world. I was able to read every little bit of lore within the world. It felt much more like I was connected to the story than being told a story.
Morrowind was my first ES game, I had absolutely no idea what it was. I bought the original X box and had to choose 3 games. The clerk was you have to play this game and I was like yeah fk it. Best recommendation I've ever had
I got into the devil may cry series when I got Covid and marathoned all the games except dmc5
I find the fact that you can find powerful artifact in random dungeon, great experience. It makes me want to explore each dungeon because I never know what I can find in the very next one.
Bethesda made exploration right with Morrowind. It evokes a need for adventure like few games do.
Bang on. Dragons Dogma 2 has terrible loot balancing, luckily there’s a mod for that (wild loot).
I think it's similar to why i prefer Elden Ring to Bethesda's modern formula. I dont like people over-using the "it doesnt hold your hand" statement, but it holds so true here. There are no map markers telling me where to go to explore and partake in activities.
I cant stand the idea of an open world where the game tells me where I need to go and what I need to do. Why make it an open world at that point? Exploring is at its best when it's spontaneous and natural.. discovery should be upon the player, not forced waypoints. Makes exploration feel like a task, rather than an adventure
it also helps prevent it feel like EVERYTHING revolves around the player, Clavicus has a champion already in the world, he's already given someone his masque. Someone who isn't the player. He isn't just waiting to hand it over to the player when they find his shrine, there's a story there and you aren't a central figure in it.
@@captainslender12to piggyback off this, im not a big fan of chosen one narratives but I think morrowind does it right. You could be the chosen one, but you don't do all the things because you are the chosen one, you are the chosen one because you did all things.
This review really gets it: Morrowind is loved because its lore and its story make an engaging whole, featuring one of the most genuinely fantastic settings in the history of video games to this day and a substantial main story which is unafraid of complexity, and because its gameplay is less restricted than that of its successors. These days I wouldn't play it without heavy visual modification and a few quality-of-life mods, but it holds it own compared to modern games in those aspects I care most about: worldbuilding, story and the ability to do things without being overly restricted by the game's systems. Every single Morrowind game I ever played was plagued by bugs more than most other games, but it was all worth it.
Just the environmental storytelling too. I love me a good, desert, beach, volcano, tundra, and plains, but the alien and fantastical biomes of Morrowind are constantly amazing.
And when you ask the main quest giver what you’re supposed to do next, and his answer is something like “whatever you want-come back when you’ve seen the world a bit”.
What mods would you recommend out of interest?
@@ironyage the master roshi method
@@TheBiomedZed it's been a few years, so I can't recommend specific mods, especially since I haven't played with OpenMW (and I would likely do that today), but here's what my essential mods did. Note that I don't know OpenMW, it may provide options covered by these mods, making them superfluous:
(1) Change level progression so that you don't have to care about attribute multipliers any more. There have been several very good continuous-progression mods of that kind over the years.
(2) Make all locations that you have already found visible on the map.
(3) Change item weights somewhat so that weak characters like my magic-and-stealth centered characters don't have to return to a merchant after having picked up one daedric item or two.
(4) Change money available to merchants, and make some or all merchants accept any kind of item, albeit perhaps at lower prices. Not that lower prices matter a great deal, since weight and merchant money are the primary limiting factors when making money, but it's a little nod to balance. I've also played with more comprehensive economy mods, but a simple 'have merchants have more money and accept more items' mod is already a great QoL feature that removes a great deal of annoyance.
Edit: When I played MW last, Wrye Mash was still the best mod manager IMO. I don't know if that has changed. It requires you to know what you're doing, but Morrowind mod management has ever been a science of its own, and it appears that hasn't changed since 2017. There appears to be a version for OpenMW.
This game somehow made effective navigating-via silt striders and mage guilds-incredibly satisfying to master/learn
Combined with the two intervention spells, mark/recall and the Propylon teleportation (you did know about that right?) and you're really talking.
Yeah. I usually have my Mark at Creeper. Means I can quickly drop of some loot(or stash expensive stuff at his feet), run over to the mages guild and use either Propylons(master index) or the guild network. And if I need a strider, I can quickly use my Fortify Jump/Acrobatics/Feather 100 spell to bunny hop over to Balmora😂
Yep. That's my thing about open-world games. Getting around needs to be fun. Finding the Boots of Blinding Speed and learning how to cancel out their "permanent blindness" side effect (and how you need to make an extra effort to do so if you play as a High Elf, which I usually do) was immensely satisfying, and running around super-fast by default isn't something I had the opportunity to do in a lot of other open-world games until Saints Row IV.
@@dracosummoner Even without cancelling those effects those boots were great and a lot of fun to use. Which is why I will forever look down upon Argonian and Kahjit players (also because they are scalies and furries but that is a different matter)
@@w00tz0rzZ Yes! For sure. Meant to stick an “etc” in there.
Personal favorite game. Got the game early 2003 when I had just turned 13.
Changed my life, man.
@@dylanevartt3219Man, Morrowind completely opened my eyes at what a video game could be. It gave me so much hope and hype for the future.
Once Oblivion came out and I got to play it it contributed a lot to a sense of disillusionment with the gaming industry in my later teen years.
Things were simply trending in a way that downplayed the things I had learned to love about video games and invested in and doubled down on trends that I was less enthused about...
It's what it is. I will say that today there are so many great options in gaming historically and within the modern indie sphere that anyone can find something to be happy with, imo. Even if some franchises or studios with names we used to admire have fallen from our esteem.
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Funny anecdote about when I first played Morrowind:
It took me a couple weeks to even realize how to level up. I was very confused before I realized that you needed to rest in a bed.
I think I was level 15 or 16 by the time I figured that out!
Mark and Recall were game changers in regards to *traversal*.
Great retrospective as always! You got pretty indepth as well. My dad got my morrowind when I was younger by asking a walmart employee what are some good RPG's (he knew what they were because he did talk to me about games I played)
That employee gave him morrowind, and knights of the old repulic.
I don't know WHO gave him those options, but salute to him and my dad :)
Besides nostalgia Morrowind holds up but like you said the barriers would prevent people from playing.
My all-time GOAT. I've still to this day never found a world as immersive as Morrowinds
I have to hard disagree on the part about daedric artifacts seeming misplaced just laying around or in possession of NPCs and mobs. To me it makes the world feel more alive because it shows I am not the only person going around doing things, there are other adventurers, other important people doing the bidding of daedra, grabbing their items and possibly losing them in the wild for whatever reason may lead to that.
One of the reasons people tend to talk about Oblivion and Skyrim as theme parks is because everything can feel like a ride designed just for you, the world stays still with bated breath until you come with a ticket for your ride.
I'm not just here to dunk on you though, this review is great and I love that you mentioned the part about Vivec talking about the houses of Morrowind. Good stuff!
When I got a Clavicus vile's mask, I've didn't even know abut that Daedra. Morrowind just don't throw everything in your face like Skyrim does, you need to explore game to learn the lore to get into.
Absolutely true about Skyrim, but I think that all the clever writing and plot twists in Oblivion’s quests save it from this
Another clever thing Morrowind does to make the map 'bigger' is to make impossible to travel in a straight line between two points on the map, because the center of the island is either dangerous or sealed off you have to travel around the map. It kind of encourages you to travel the entire length of the map during your playthrough.
nah I just hoarded levitation potions and traded it with the Shrine in Vivec (Temple Canton) that gives you a speed boost and a few minutes of levitation. I'd just fly over the entire island and only I'd only have to worry about the cliff racers.
@@citrus_sweet Vivec Airlines ftw
I use the Mudcrab Merchant (always base my recall spell there) to build up the funds for constant effect enchantments. Combined with the boots of blinding speed, travel is far less taxing.
Obviously, I still explore everywhere I can. But for quests like the silent vigil to a shrine at the opposite end of the map, flying up and over is much more convenient!
There is an unwritten rule that every retrospective youtuber has to make a video on Morrowind
One of my favorite mechanics is the fact that there are no quest markers and you have to ask people for directions and use landmarks to know where to go
Oh my, a retrospective. Going to save this to my watch later so that I can enjoy this to the fullest in the coming weekend. Retrospectives is how I discovered this channel. A thank you in advance for the video :D
This is one of the few rpg that make me feel like i'm in a "real" adventure instead of a videogame. World, exploration, quests, story and factions are top. Easily the best TES.
Great review as always!
Sujamma ruined my life but I regret nothing.
Could be worst...You could be Argonian
@@longboy5639 And wear a colovian fur hat !
@@jacobbronsky464 and use the amulet of Van Halen!
I know retrospective reviews are hard to make but boy i've been waiting for this since the first time u mentioned you're doing it. Also i love the in depth reviews u make
Same, 100%
Did you watch Patrician's?
Nostalgia (for simpler times)
Ever since reading rumor of remaking previous The Elder Scrolls titles, I've come to the conclusion that 'updating' to a current remake format would be to the detriment of the alienating atmosphere thanks to the idiosyncratic art direction & non-photorealistic graphics of this sincerely timeless anomaly. Sure as hell can't improve upon the glorious soundtrack & skyboxes. More then two decades have passed & yet no proper disciples have followed up the distinct ways of Morrowind to this day. Haven't played Morrowind (along with Gothic I & II) for quite some years (since 2015/16) if it weren't for the quarantine days. The trip down memory lane during quarantine made it crystal clear that Morrowind aged like a fine wine.
PS salutations & cheers from the Netherlands, ya absolute madman.
Agreed. It's not just a Morrowind thing, it's that whole era of games. Graphics were high quality enough to register as "real" in our brains (unlike, say, Doom) but low quality enough to be highly stylised and atmospheric without losing that sense of reality.
Modern high fidelity games leave little to the imagination and can't get too out there without looking silly. And there are still plenty of stylised games but they tend towards being overtly abstract and representational and don't really register as literal. But imo the specific technology (and expectations) of the early 2000s allowed us to have both.
@@codyvandal2860 You've completely misunderstood his post
One thing I am going to disagree with in your conclusion is that you said it's a negative that you can't max out some bonus' if you build your charcter a particular way. I personally think thats a plus I don't think in an RPG you should be able to be good at everything.
Other than that great retrospective :)
There's many factions who conflict with others and three main styles of combat to play. Replayability is definitely a plus.
It also make’s artifacts and enchantments and alchemy even more essential for those characters. As long as you have one or more of those things, you can absolutely still get those attributes, and by the time you can do that, its not unbalanced to do so.
I have been playing Morrowind since the original Xbox released and I still sat here for an hour and a half watching a video on it. It is so intrinsic to who I am as a gamer and influenced so much of my gaming since it came out. Thank you so much for such a delightful video on one of my all-time favorite games.
Same. Same.
I've managed to get a copy of this game on my old tablet and using a ps5 controller. Can't fking wait
@ please share how that sounds amazing
Just here to thank you for reviewing my favorite game!
Just started replaying this and the nostalgia is real!
Levitating to a mountaintop to watch the sunset and walking on water along the coast made Morrowind click for me. An absolute gem.
Been waiting for this!
I really think that kingdom come deliverance is the true successor of morrowind’s combat. Your character’s skills determine if you hit or are blocked but instead of morrowind’s whiff there is a visual block from the npc. If you played morrowind back in the day I highly recommend it
Yeah both combat systems always drove me mad because my skill as a player was differed to a skill system. Still loved both games tho.
_ahh yes, we’ve been expecting you_ lol I am glad to see this. I remember playing this when it came out, I was in the seventh grade and it was pretty much all me and my friends talked about. Morrowind is still my favorite TES game!
Mantling is less proving that you are the thing that you are trying to mantle and more akin to acting in such a way that you become it. It's a weird part of the cosmology of Nirn. By acting like Sheogorath and using the things of Sheogorath, the Champion of Cyrodiil became Sheogorath. The MC became the Nerevarine by doing the deeds that Nerevarine had to do. They had to rise to the occasion.
If it looks like a Duck and sounds like a Duck and acts like a Duck, it becomes a Duck.
Yet it would have always and forever been a Goose if it had not acted like a Duck, and a random Swan may have decided to start Quacking since a Duck needs to exist.
I don't really comment on videos that often, but this retrospective was awesome! You really covered everything I loved about Morrowind back in the day, and I'm glad you finally got to experience it. Looking forward to the next one!
One thing I love about Morrowind is that you're not just the chosen one, but there were dozens of people before you who also claimed to be the Nerevarine. You are just one of many who tried. The difference is that you completed more of the challenges than anyone before you and it is uncertain why. Were you just lucky, skilled or divinely fated? No one knows for sure. And even if you fulfil the criteria of the Nerevarine. Are you actually Nerevar reborn? There is no definitive proof. It all depends on what you want to believe yourself. This is brilliant because it allows for a wide range of role playing options but also is exactly how the real world works. The great houses of Morrowind do not just support you because you are the chosen one and showed up one day. They all have something to gain from supporting you, so if you are real or not doesn't matter in their eyes.
I always had in my mind that the playthroughs I failed or didn't complete was the failed neveraine and it wasn't until I did the actual mission I was the real deal
I’ve got a hour and twenty minute drive. This is your classic “win-win” scenario.
Awesome, in depth video on Morrowind. Think it’s finally time to buckle down and get this one done myself!
I fell asleep with this on repeat and as you described it my mind showed it to me as a crpg. It was really cool. Thanks man.
I like how in Morrowind, jumping over mountains with insane stats/spells is normal. And yes, that's how I usually traverse. I leap across the island.
Mort i havent even watched this but i already know its quality. Keep it up dawg
A thought about what you mentioned about finding major daedric artifacts in the world, like the Masque on Sorkvild the Raven - I actually consider this a plus in the game. It adds to the feeling that these artifacts are real things in the world with their own stories and not just for you as the player. The random mage who had it - I see him as the last guy that Clavicus Vile sent on a quest for his entertainment, and it adds a layer of believability to the world. The artifacts you get from the Princes themselves just show you how these come into the world (though I whole-heartedly agree that Daedric quests in general were more interesting in the later series)
This is actually something I think Skyrim nails, a lot of the daedric quests don't see you going to a shrine you just stumble into them and then get the artifact more naturally which keeps you from chasing shrines like in Oblivion and adding more flavor than just finding it on a random guy.
I think a system to randomize or procedurally determine the locations of such artifacts would greatly improve replay value. Maybe it's a mod already. Probably.
I bought this game pre order on xbox back in the day something was wrong with my disc but it ran, I used to make steps out of forks and plates up to the skies and make sky walks between mountains made of books and trash. That game ruled. I never actually left Seyda Nean even though i played hundreds on hundreds of hours.
My new favorite Mortismal video! Thankyou! Now I need to play Morrowind again. One of my favorite things to do is keep notes in a journal while playing Morrowind because the in game journal isn't great.
I just finished this whole video and THIS is exactly why you are one of my favorite YT creators. This video was amazing. Thank you!
Yessss. The perfect thing to wake up to and start my work day! Love Morrowind reviews and I've been waiting excitedly for yours! Thanks Mort, you the man!
Holy Smokes! Hour and a half?! Mort, my friend, I hope you know how we all appreciate you spoiling us this much.
There's a ton of Morrowind reviews out there but I'm amazed by your ability to make your own review unique and compelling. I even learned some new things from you, particularly about the attribute system after over a decade of playing the game, which is really rewarding. Great review, and please keep making videos my friend.
Omg, thank you for pronouncing Caius Cosades correctly!
Even a broken clock is right twice a day, people are usually complaining about how I pronounce things lol
@@MortismalGaming Haha true! But I've noticed 90% of morrowind reviews get this one wrong :D
hey! a feature-length Mortismal is a nice way to start the day. Thanks for this!
There is a pleasure in role playing as a character in Morrowind that Skyrim and Oblivion never managed to duplicate. Despite the fact that npcs didn't move and most had repetitive topics, the world managed to feel lived in, well thought out and immersive. And I highly recommend that you try Tamriel Rebuilt, it adds a lot of new land and quests to the game and it's constantly being updated.
The review was spot on as all of your reviews are, I played it back in 2002 for the first time and the only word i can use to describe the experience is Magical,
Such nostalgia, a tear just rolled down my cheek.
What an amazing video. So glad you were able to experience this gem of a game. It does have a steep learning curve but it is so worth it at the end.
I was so happy when Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC gave us a little bit of Morrowind back. I honestly hope we get to revisit this lands and lore cause as you well said, the story is simply incredible.
Cheers and wealth beyond measure, outlander.
Something I love about Morrowind is it's not afraid to be weird. People talk about slavery like it's just a normal thing because in their world it just is. The architecture is unique especially in places like Sedrith Mora, you could tell at a glance which places were imperial and which were native. The is still some lore in TES that's going to throw people through a loop, like the green pact, but it's never represented in game or even really mentioned.
This video was a pleasure to watch! I'm really glad you finally played through this amazing game mort! I know I'm a fanboy, but this is my favorite rpg ever made. I just recently got the urge to play it again (been a couple of years) and I decided to check out the Tamriel Rebuilt mod this time around. It's like playing the game for the first time again! The amount of content they have added to this since 2006 is staggering. I'm done rambling, but I'm glad you made this video and shared your opinion! I don't have high hopes for the next Elder Scrolls, but that universe will always capture my imagination.
I remember seeing Toonami on Cartoon Network do a review for Morrowind, and what I saw blew my mind away. As a teenager at the time, I immediately asked my mom for the game as a birthday gift, and immediately spent my entire summer playing this majestic game. I immediately purchased both expansions and proceeded to add even more runs to the game. It's definitely dated and it would require a lot of quality of life changes for me to fire it up again, but great time in my teenage years.
That's how I found it too.
Thank you for making this video. It brought back so many memories from all the wrinkles in my brain. I might even load this up just to go get that OP sword on top of the bookshelf.
I use to make a save file right before curing Corprus disease, sleeping for thousands of days, curing it, then healing my stats back to normal (aside from the ridiculous strength gained from years of having Corprus), then go through and one punch Vivec after beating the game to celebrate! 😂
played this game on release at about 4fps. Worth it.
My PC at the time couldn't even run it , never ended up playing it because of it.
Im playing Morrowind on Xbox Series X currently and it plays rather well.
I am playing on my android and it works like a charm
1.5 hours of Morrowind discussion?? Is it Christmas?? Great video as always!!
Good retrospective review, there are only two things I can think of that you missed.
Firstly the mark and recall spells in fast travel, which I sorely missed in later TES games.
Secondly how much better spell crafting, enchanting and alchemy is compared to the implementations in Oblivion and Skyrim. Playing a high-level wizard in Morrowind really makes you feel like a powerful wizard.
Being a wizard and having the ability to summon multiple creatures by your side is another very satisfying ability that I sorely miss
I noticed he didn't mention Mark and Recall either and it kind of surprised me.
This was a revolutionary game to me, it kind of took the old classic 1st person rpgs and let you move freely in their setting, instead of either psuedo-3d or tunnels etc. It was like a dream game to an explorer, and I never even finished the story, because my own story was the whole point. This is also why I've loved TES in general. I actually think Starfield is an amazing example of what happens when they don't play to their strength of making a connected world.
heck yeah I watched the whole thing, this is one of my favourite games that I come back to every now & then. Thanks for all the content you put out so regularly, though I hope you're taking enough breaks!
Two great parts of the game: when the sleepers come up and talk to you and you can’t avoid them-it’s so startling. And the quest (it’s either legion or temple) where they move one of the walls.
I'll still never forget my first time playing morrowind on the original xbox and marveling at the thunderstorms and the soundtrack of the game. It'll always have a place in my heart. great video!
For me it was the night sky and the soundtrack. And the swamps and wilderness. Just wandering around picking plants and wandering in the forests and coastlines.
I'll keep plugging this dude. I'm so curious what your days are like as far as life to content ratio. Either way man, Good stuff. Keep it up
One thing I never hear mentioned is that the different weapon type's best attacks and damage ranges fairly closely track to reality and affect play style. Running in and out with a spear to keep distance or add power to your thrust😏. Planting your feet and chopping as hard as you can with an axe or hammer, swords having more balance between attack type, bows need to be fully drawn, and daggers do a small but narrow damage range for high speed shanking. I never play with always use best attack on anymore since I think the combat is more engaging if I have to consider my movement direction and how long to hold my swing. I love this game.
Just started Morrowind and completely obsessed and truly enjoying every long trek from destination to destination.
I originally played Morrowind on the OG xbox console I loved the game so much it lead me to soft modding it and replacing the sata cable so the game would load faster from the HDD. The game also had many problems on the console like the save file couldn't be greater than 8mb, shutting every door behind you not picking up everything or killing to many npcs was necessary to keeping it from breaking.
After many failed broken playthroughs I did manage to beat the game and both dlcs, a feat in gaming that I am still unsure how 14 year old me accomplished.
One of my favorite games of all time. Also the last game where the bundled paper map was really useful. I had it on the wall next to my computer and I referenced it all the time.
Oh nice, I've been waiting for this video! Thank you!
Thanks for making this! May YOU wander and wisdom!
I'm in a similar spot as you - though I initially played it back on the original xbox back in the day, I barely knew what I was doing but still loved the world enough to get stuck in the corprusarium due to a bug. I've greatly enjoyed finishing it properly as an adult; able to really care and understand about the quests and various plotlines, both obvious and less so. Getting told to sod off and get some experience to deliberately get a chance to get into factions before getting skillchecked on the bridge to the Dwemer ruin is a good way to make people explore things without unnecessary handholding.
This was a very enjoyable watch. I smirked when you said it was embarrassing to not having finished Morrowind as a rpg youtuber as I had the same experience and waited until last year to beat it for the first time and it really changed my perspective on it to the better.
when I was playing Morrowind 22 years ago finding the fast travel merchants was always exciting because I could see new places that I could go that were unexplored. It was a rewarding experience that got ruined in other games where you can just fast travel from anywhere
Far and away the best lore/context breakdown for this game I have ever heard. You just may have convinced me to go back and play Morrowind again, Mortym!! 🤜🤛
An hour and 30 minutes video on my favorite game!
Haha, same here! The first time I played as a late primary schooler, it took me hours just to find the first city. So many great memories of trying dozens of ways to rob that shop I came across!
Sweet! Wasn't expecting this yet
oh heck yea ive been waiting for this one
Perfect timing. Literally just installed Tamriel Rebuolt ready for tomorrow. It's Morrowind time on my day off!
Welcome to the club. Playing this as a kid and teenager was insane. Never forget how special the GOTY edition of this game was with two massive expansions. Finding the most powerful gauntlets in the game in some god forsaken sixth house cult dungeon and hidden behind a casket and drenched in darkness was crazy haha
Great retrospective. Quality games like Morrowind are a true rarity these days.... thank you for your insight on it.
17:08 No 😂 I’m watching this because I saw a Morrowind video pop up, and I always watch Morrowind content. For me it’s the best game I’ve ever played. Thanks for the review, glad you finished it. I played it first when I was 12.. I didn’t know wtf was going on. Finally finished it when I was 19 😅
Well, maybe it is time for me to finally play it too. Thank you for the review
Being a DND player really helped me adapt to the whole chance to miss mechanic. Honestly, even gameplay-wise, i prefer Morrowind to later ES games, as it's much more layered. The default option for combat has you utilizing different movement patterns for different weapon types to access your strongest attacks, and makes conserving stamina a big part of it as well (hence why hand-to-hand is so fun). The magic, too, is just so much more varied and interactive. Rather than just "shoot fire in stream" or "shoot lightning in bolt" or "gradual heal", you get "shoot exploding ball of fire and lightning that lowers my opponent's equipment load, making them slower as the fight goes on until they can no longer move" or "use a melee poison strike that does powerful DoT while also draining their intelligence and making myself invisible". I've played oblivion and skyrim my whole life, only picking up Morrowind last year, and it's already easily my favorite in the franchise.
Great video. I mostly agree with your take on the game. I recent played through the game fully for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had more fun playing through Morrowind than I did with Skyrim. One day I'll get around to playing Oblivion and eventually Daggerfall.
Now that's the review I've been waiting for!
Absolute Classic game and great review as usual.
My Old favorite game of all time. Love this game. Only thing that surpassed it imo is BG3. Grew up with this game and it was way ahead of its time
Honestly I'd urge you to try Daggerfall!
Daggerfall Unity isn't that big of a leap away from how janky Morrowind is, and what Daggerfall does well, it does fantastically. It offers the same power fantasy as Morrowind, since even spells scale with your character level, so that Heal spell you buy at level 1-2 is JUST as relevant at lvl 25 - though as per tradition, the enchanting system lets you gimp the magic system so hard that you can start creating absolutely god-tier spells that lasts for days and costs almost nothing to cast.
It's radiant quest system was also leaps and bounds before its time, I was sent on a quest to kill a rogue wizard for the mages guild and villagers would tell me how they felt safer after that rogue wizard had been killed. I was asked by my favorite local blacksmith to rescue his daughter who'd gotten captured by orcs, and any time I'd talk to him he'd mention how thankful he was for my actions and I got a nice discount.
Selling items is actually not a hassle in Daggerfall, merchants have "infinite" money, though gold has weight - But if you sell so much that you'd be worried, they instead give you a letter of credit! And you can use that letter of credit to pay for stuff, and also you can put anything your character can't carry into a wagon (that you have to buy first) and you'll quickly be rolling around with millions worth of gold, credit and gear in your wagon.
The only things I have to say against the game is that it sucks that you could soft-lock progression by being poisoned/diseased and having overwritten a save, as if you can't cure them before resting you may die in your sleep. There's also the dungeons which sometimes seem bugged, though you often just need to find a specific item to interact with to open a path in it. And quests being timed, though using a Teleport spell to mark/recall back to a quest giver comes in clutch.
Step 1: Obtain Boots of blinding Speed. Step 2: Enchant an amulet with 100% Magig resistance for 2 Seconds. Step 3: Enchant Amulet with 1% Levitation. Step 4: Equip first amulet, quickly equip boots, then equip the levitation amulet. Now you can fly with top speed across the map, without being blinded. 😅
Thank you for the video. 19:07 as it should be. By the end of a Fantasy RPG I should be a demigod, especially in this title. Onward to 400k. All glory to the algorithm.
absolutely criminal to not have dagothwave on a continuous loop on the background smh shaking my head..
One of my fav childhood games. Watched the entire vid just because I just like hearing about other people's experience with the game (in the case where they give it an honest attempt).
Perfect timing. Everyone's in a Fallout frenzy lately, but me, I'm a Morrowind virgin, and that's what I'll spend my next month(s) with.
same
Install Tamriel Rebuilt, Skyrim Home of the Nords, Project Cyrodil Stirk, and Beautiful Cities of Morrowind, and as many mods like groundcover and HD assets. Open Morrowind with fov and all the shaders, and as many mods as you can handle, and its truly on par with a modern AAA.
After watching your videos and some of Mandalore's I decided it was about time I'd take a pause from sinking so much time into mmorpgs, it's been over a decade now. So I've decided to start playing some games that I never got to finish, be it from long ago or more recent ones. I've recently finished Nioh 2 and one of my oldest favorites that I wasn't savvy enough 20 years ago, which was Arx Fatalis! Next on my radar I'll probably go for Gothic 2 since I got stuck on the final boss entrance for some reason all those years ago, but I'm currently giving Sunless Sea a shot.
As for Morrowind, it was the first game I remember where I actually tried to understand its mechanics and although I did many playthroughs, I never finished it, stopping right before I had to face Dagoth'ur. I do have very fond memories of it and I even vaguely remember that there's a few guys in one of the Vivec sewers that have Daedric weapons and I also remember there's a shrine next to a village that you get to with the silt strider that has full ebony armor.
Love Morrowind :3 For the past year or so I've been working on/maintaining my own Wabbajack modlist for it, and it's been so fun engaging with other fans, OpenMW devs, and the very active modding community.
I wished some one would put all the mods together in one big pack so you can just install it instead of downloading 100s of mods and unpacking them.
this is the video ive been waiting for that i didnt even know was coming
Thank you for the review of one of my favourite games :) I still have my save files from 2003-2004! :D
i have such a weird love of this game. i never beat it, or even got past the tutorial. but watching my dad’s friend play it growing up open my eyes to a whole new genre of gaming.
Great review as always, I remember trying out Morrowind many years and just could not get into it at the time
Agree with the story writing being great. I think this has the best quests (at least compared to later entries). The feel I get from this one is they were experimenting the whole way through. They didn't care if you broke something; you earned the way you broke it.
It is kinda rough now, but back in the day, it was amazing.
When Morrowind came out, I was hooked. I'd never really been a "gamer" before that.
But I played it for like 3 weeks straight. Loved it.
I still replay it every couple years, just for the nostalgia. Thankfully we have OpenMW now to make it easier and stable