This game blows Oblivion away on so many levels. It's like they learned from all the mistakes with Oblivion, corrected them all and then added even better content on top of it all. It's an amazing game. Buy it asap.

After playing this game I don't think I am going to touch morrowind ever again or Oblivion. It's story and voice acting is really good and you really be svcked into it. Also, I love how you meet the Dark Brother Hood. It is way better than Oblivion's greeting and has more depth to the guild.

Its what Oblivion should have been all those years ago, I say that because gameplay wise the two games are very, very similar. and in many ways not in a good way. however the world is fing awesome and Skyrim Blows away anything that ever tried to LOD distant playable landscapes, like damn

This game is so much better than Oblivion it's laughable, it's almost night and day. The main thing is that the game has such character it's hard not to like it.

If any game has ever been worth you're money, it's this one.

Atmosphere is one thing, but how is gameplay? I completely skipped Oblivion because of the "easy mode" additions.

I will be building an entire new computer soon, and I'm totally against Steam but may consider it anyway for Skyrim, but if the game cannot live up to Morrowind in terms of difficulty (meaning no quest pointers etc.) I'll avoid this one too. Damn I hate Steam...

the compass is small and less intrusive than Oblivion (crazy right?) make sure to turn off in game markers through options and youll be fine. Combats not much of a Leap but play the game and be blown ;p

Game is pretty easy so i put the game on Expert and that seems to be a sweet spot. Not too difficult but encounters are an enjoyable challenge. Combat, depends on how high you're standards are.... It's a step up from Oblivion, but maybe a bit behind Dark Souls, ah well.

There are quest pointers but the game seems to spoon feed you less. There is also a quest marker that actually shows in the gameworld (a floating quest marker above an NPC if he's your current quest target, or on an item) which is a little annoying. But that one can be disabled in the options menu. The classic quest marker still exists but it's now possible to deselect all quests (or select multiple active ones) so you don't get them on your compass.

Enemies aren't scaled to your level in the extreme way that it was in Oblivion so there's definitely a challenge.

For the sole matter of the civil war, I decided to play a Dunmer. Good chance for some descendant's revenge. The intro fueled my fire to follow this route.

After joining the Stormcloaks... Well, I don't want to give away any spoilers but I quickly learned that freedom fighter's remorse is a thing. There's an old saying that's something like, "Those who delight in war have never been." In that aspect they've made the consequences of choosing a side hit home quick and well. Now I can only wonder if choosing the other side produces the same strange regret. The story of your character comes out intricately weaved and beautifully crafted, as is the land -- something I remember from Morrowind but was disappointed to find lacking in Oblivion. TES V captures that feeling of being part of a world in a way the former denizens of Morrowind know very well -- but better. Now I only wish I could discuss my journey thus far in greater detail without having to worry about spoilers.

^^ So far, the gameplay is excellent. The combat is fun, and you will be challenged by higher level monsters right from the jump. Some monsters are not pushovers. It's great that you regenerate health over time too, so you can slowly make your way through a dungeon without consuming a million potions or having to wait for 8 hours at a time.

The loot system is also excellent. You'll be constantly finding new and useful goodies, and it's a lot of fun. NPC interaction is also pretty good, you occasionally get a decent amount of topics to talk with them about, and quests and such are initiated in a very natural way.

Upgrading weapons and armor and crafting your own weapons and armor are great additions to the game. You will feel so cool after you used your steel ingots to upgrade your steel armor pieces. It just adds a great touch to the game.

So far, I've been challenged enough in one dungeon that I was like, "Alright, Im ready for this to be over and go back to town.". I never knew what was around the next corner, and that was a great feeling. The dungeon I visited was long and deep with lots of twists and turns, and it really felt like a real place, with lots and lots of attention to detail, similar to how Morrowind did things. Lots of hand placed loot, which is great.

As for quest pointers, they are there, somewhere, but they are not intrusive at all. I never felt like I was being led by the hand. It felt very natural. My goal was to investigate the secret of this ruin, and I did so, and was never bothered by markers or a magical compass or anything. Even if those markers do exist and are there, they are barely noticeable, and that's a great, great thing. You actually feel like you are the one accomplishing things and not just being led around from point to point. It's much better than Oblivion in that regard.

I loved Morrowind and have spent hundreds of hours playing and modding it. Not so much in the last two or three years, but plenty from 2002-2008.

I think Skyrim is fantastic and Morrowind's worthy successor. The art direction is superb rather than generic (Oblivion), the atmosphere is immersive and engaging rather than bland (Oblivion), the world is hand-tailored and exciting rather than repetitive and uninspired (Oblivion), the level scaling and random treasure are cleverly and subtly handled rather than blatantly obvious (Oblivion), there are TONS of awesome new improvements over both Morrowind and Oblivion... and the graphics (especially the new character models and faces) are superb. It ain't Crysis, but Crysis bores me to tears, while I find Skyrim fascinating. I've been playing Skyrim on-and-off since 18 hours ago, with breaks to eat, toilet and perform other necessities, and I want to go back and play even more than I did when I first started.

That wasn't true of Oblivion at all. My attitude toward Oblivion was "meh" when it released, and it's been "meh" ever since.

tl;dr: Skyrim is Morrowind's worthy successor. End of story. Yes it's consolized, yes it's slightly casualized, but it also possesses many other tremendous qualities Morrowind could never dream of. Skyrim may even end up being the better of the two, if we can just get this terrible UI that must have ported over to the PC by Beth's janitorial staff tweaked and spruced up.

Seems to be a lot better than Oblivion. Its so long since I played Morrowind I cant tell (though my Morrowind was so modded up it may as well have been a different game).

It even has the exact same bugs as Oblivion! Right down to the unexpected drops to desktop and funky sound. Which is exactly the same as I had with Fallout 3 and Oblivion.

The voice acting is pretty good for the most part with the odd exception of one or two characters having full-on US accents instead of the kinda scottish accent the rest of the Nords have. The kids in the game are as mind blastingly annoying as every other kid in a game - right down to the mid-US accents. Might have been better to hire some scottish kids to have done the voice...

I loved morrowind. I hated when oblivion took out a lot of the weapons and exploration content in the game.

Skyrim seems to have taken out even more weapons and spell making also no more classes and stats. Making it seem less customizable and less unique items to find. However the world seems a lot more lively and I can just tell there is a massive amount of exploring to do. Likely alot of unique items no one has discovered yet. Magic still seems fun but not as fun as making your own spells.

Since characters are hardly customizable at character generation I feel no reason to make multiple new games to try different builds. Detracting from long term re playability. Good thing there is much content to munch on.

Every elder scrolls game had the launch bugs that Skyrim has so I'm not going to take that into account.

Simply walking down the road in Skyrim can face you off with bears, dragons or vampires picking on a neutral traveller. Wearwolves are in the game and dragon voice is a nice touch. I'm so far loving the game and just can't wait for bug fixing patches that make it more amazing.

I love Morrowind, a game which I've played - and modded - many times. Skyrim at present still feels strange and somewhat unwelcoming, but I wonder if I might eventually become as fond of it as I am of Morrowind.

The story-telling so far is good; NPC interactions are realistic and the game is rich in animations. On my way to the local Jarl I paid a minstrel 25 septims in exchange for a song - which he then duly performed, Ultima 7-style (does anyone else remember Iolo?).

Sometimes the engine seems to be a bit rough around the edges - distant land in Oblivion looked slightly less chunky. Yet the lighting effects are very well executed and a lot of attention has been paid to the landscape, the placement of ruins and villages and little details such as the effect of dripping water.

I do hope that I'll find a town or village with imperial-style architectecture as I enjoyed the Imperial cities in both Oblivion and Morrowind, Chorrol and Caldera in particular. If not, though, there are also many attractive features to the Scandinavian towns that I have seen so far.

About an hour into the game I actually stopped and said to myself, "This feels like Morrowind. I'm getting deja'vu." The world has personality and character, and every environment is telling a story. I've cleared about half a dozen dungeons so far and all of them have been unique and amazing, with puzzles, enemies that are actually aware of the environment and using it, etc. In each dungeon so far there have been places where I just stop and gape at the scenery and have to stop and take it all in. The level design is brilliant, and sneaking around I can listen in on bandit conversations - all of which have been unique and specific to the politics of their group and what's happening in the dungeon.

I've seen a lot of hand placed loot, and NPCs are wonderfully fleshed-out and alive. They actually feel like people. Most are indifferent to you upon first meeting, but depending on what you do can warm up and act differently around you. Beggars remember your charity, an NPC that I've befriended came up to me in a tavern at night (drunk) and gave me a gift before turning to clap with the rest of the crowd at the bard's songs. Barkeeps cut people off, etc. It's amazing really. I was questing with an NPC and picked the lock on a chest his family owned and took the items inside. He immediately called me on it, shouting, "Hey! Those belong to my family!" I thought he might fight me, but we just stared at each other for a minute before he sighed and grumbled I could keep the stuff if I kept helping him. Other NPCs have let me take small things with no comment, or telling me I could help myself "within reason". Meaning I could take foodstuffs and other things without it counting as stealing, but they wouldn't let me help myself to the family treasures or the fine silver!

Skyrim doesn't feel generic like Oblivion did. Everything seems handcrafted.

It's like diet-morrowind with Oblivion 2.0 graphics.


Five words should make you buy it though: Varied dungeons; dwemmers are back.

I'm playing MW as we speak.

The fact that MW has a superior UI, controls, and fewer bugs (even unpatched) should be a solid indication.

The game definitely feels a ton more like Morrowind than Oblivion. Earlier today, I ran through a multi-level cavern, killing bandits along the way, rooting through their stuff for food and alchemical ingredients. It was exactly the sort of thing I did at low levels in Morrowind, with the added bonus of a named bandit at the end who was a much more difficult fight.

Exploring also feels a lot more like Morrowind - there's a real sense of ruggedness to the landscape, with things hidden around corners, so that it's a ton of fun to head off the road and just see what you can find.

Overall, I'm absolutely loving the game so far and will be playing it again soon. Skyrim is awesome, but I do have to eat.

It's definitely better than Oblivion. I'll have to play it some more to decide whether or not it's better than Morrowind. I haven't been playing the main quest at all, and the main quest was part of what made Morrowind so great.

Wow hearing some great things! I'm definitely getting some nostalgia reading what you guys are saying especially with running through dungeons at low levels looting anything that can help you survive another day. That's the kind of thing I was doing in Morrowind after I decided to give it another chance when I got beat to death by a cliff racer(crick-kaw!) Oh and I did know about the dwemer ruins which I'm excited about.



Can anyone confirm what someone said about there being less weapons and spells? That's kind of a bummer since it does lower the replayibility a bit

Why people hating on Oblivion on topic it's hard to say right now i only have 9 hours need about 100 atleast to decide.

LOVE it!

Morrowind and Daggerfall were my favorite Bethesda games before this one (I was not to huge on F3 or Oblivion). Skyrim rules though man, Bethesda really did a great job on this game.

The graphics are a step up from Oblivion and Morrowind, I enjoy the crafting system immensely and the removal of the idea of classes seemed logical to me , I almost always went with a custom class anyhow so this seems to be a better fit for the way I play the game.

What I'm curious about, is whether you think it possible to complete quests solely based on the NPCs's dialogue. Also, do you find the game a great deal faster than Morrowind?

Cheers,
the author of this post (who else would sign it...?)

I still cannot shake the feeling that this is actually a follow-on of Fallout 3. Lol. It must be the horrible edges on the rock design when viewed close up. I also dislike the camera not zooming in during dialogue. It actually makes the NPC's feel distant and unconnected to the conversation. Oblivion had a much better feel of NPC.

As far as the OP Morrowind concern I would really suggest you wait for the heap of PC Mods that will come out. It feels like a console game at the moment with the awkward UI.

Despite the complaints I am actually enjoying it. It does grow on you....