Frankly, it surprises me to be one of the people saying it feels soulless. But...

without NPCs who are memorable, there's no reason to interact with people other than "because", or "they're merchants". They might as well be Dwemer Vending Machines (the merchants, I mean).
without dialogue choices, my character has no way of expressing a personality, let alone DEVELOPING one.
without a bit of effort being required to level, there's no reason to get excited for it. It's not like I won't get another level soon...
without faction ranks, I don't feel like I belong to an organization.
without a reputation system, I don't feel like I'm befriending anyone.
without a working interface, the game is a pain in the butt to play.
without depth, cooking and smithing are boring.

the list goes on.


If the game came from an "up-and-coming" studio with no massive RPGs to their credit, it might get a little slack from me. Bethesda Game Studios, though, has a track record to compare with, and Skyrim simply doesn't live up to that.

How do you define soul? I guess it`s that special `something` that permeates a game. that human element that shines throughout a game. Something made because the Creator BELIEVED in what he was doing...

I think to call it completely `soulless` is a bit unfair, but shallow yes.

I defintely found Oblivion soulless and of course, Morrowind had a true soul that wipes the floor with both still lives on now.

Morrowind is one of the few games that had the hard to define `soul`.

lol when I read the title, I thought it was talking about this thread.

Please elaborate on how or why I should invalidate something that is absolute truth in the eyes of people who post this kind of thing? If you've read this thread and the multitude of others just like it, people come in and speak their peace, only to leave because the unimpressed minority never validates their points.

Whether or not I change people's minds on an internet forum is irrelevant. The point is that these threads are "dare you to prove me wrong" threads that are useless and a waste of forum space if they contain no productivity.

I am satisfied by this game and will continue to provide feedback in whatever way possible to merge the "new" TES with the "old" TES which I think would birth a supergame.

Sorry, but if you dont have a feel for the game after 20 hours, not even the slightest hint towards your opinion beyond initial impressions then i doubt 300 hrs will make a very substantial difference.

just because you can look at a mountain and say it has "soul" doesn't mean that I see it. If you want to convince me that the mountain you are looking at is better than the one I am looking at, you are going to have to use something to describe it that I can see or measure, such as "this mountain has more snow", or "this mountain is taller".

I can understand people when they discuss attributes, it is something I can see and evaluate as a game mechanic. I can understand if people bring up the size of a particular town, organisation or feature, again, it is measurable. But "soul" I don't understand, I look at Morrowind, and I see no soul at all.

That's funny... I recently watched The Holy Grail again and fired up Morrowind and both times came to the same conclusion. Skyrim, on the other hand, I'm still in love with. This may be the best game I've ever played.

I agree that it's pretty shallow as-is. Needed more time to cook. I'm still bitter about how badly mages got shafted.

Well the op is not completely wrong.

Some days ago I just played Oblivion again and today I tried the new Kingdoms of Amalur. At least when talking about quests, Skyrim is the weakest among these three.

The quests in Skyrim........ half of them are worse than those daily quests in WoW.

The guild quests in Skyrim are a joke when compared to those in Oblivion or the faction quests in Kingdoms of Amalur.

Morrowind preachers are here?

*leaves*

Disagreed. That game is about the atmosphere.

Then you are completely missing the point.

The fact that I have to tell you where the soul is in Morrowind means there`s no point in me telling you at all.

Chew round that one.

What? The funniest movie ever not funny?
Hes not the messiah! hes a very naughty boy!

The best game ever made not good?
Reach heaven by violence then!

As with Morrowind and Oblivion, I'm so glad I got the good version of the game that has most of the stuff you guys miss. I see little point argueing ti though. Some folks still can't see past Daggerfall even now and really really enjoy anything afterwards. The old stuff was always wonderful and the new stuff is always worse than useless.

This 1000x.

I think a lot of this board has a serious case of Rose Tinted Glasses. Morrowind was a lot of player's first ES game (mine included), and at that time it was an amazing game. But, trying to recapture that feel of the "first time" is damn near impossible, across all media. Game companies beat some franchises to death trying to capture that "first time feeling" and never do it. Music groups who "go back to their old sound" try all the time, and fail 90% of the time. It's a video game; what were some of you expecting?

I played Morrowind non-stop for a good 3 years; explored every inch of the world map, every dungeon, etc. Comparing Morrowind to Skyrim, I'll take Skyrim any day. The only things I see missing are long-winded text blocks, some weapon options (I miss crossbows), spell making, and a load of clunky skills and attributes. Big deal. Some people act like Bethesda ran over their dog or something.

I am currently playing my 9th character in Skyrim, level 76, have completed every major faction across my different characters, and I still have many more character archetypes I want to play as. I got my money's worth and then some. Sorry if some people were expecting the Second Coming out of a video game.

Morrowind is not Skyrim. Skyrim is not Morrowind. Some people need to stop comparing the two and play the game on it's own merits. If it took anyone 300+ hours to come up with the opinion that the game isn't for them, at least they still got 300 hours of gameplay out of it. A lot of single-player portions of games barely scratch that, even on extra playthroughs.

Actually it's only very small things that are missing that would "Flesh" it out.

i can only think of one atm

On a daedric quest Whatever one does'nt matter but say for instance you're approaching a forsworn base,you get detected and start crunching through the npc's as you get closer to the Quest item the npc's levels should be considerably higher than yours and should attack more ferociously and literally coming out of the cracks like rats but you should be picking up npc pvssyr amongst themselves. i.e "Go left i'll take him from the right" or "Someone tell the chief,Get him down here" or "Can't let him get it or we're dead" "Go get the stash and get it out of here" "Only one of us walks out of here"

Of course theres alot of verbal content already but there could be more

i.e "Aw crap he's got ebony on","He's got Volendrung!" and cowardly npc's that drop their weapons and run off not in fleeing mode but actually disappearing "I'm not going up against that" "Wh-at are you"

Theres no alarm horns raising the camp

Trolls in the house again!

I thought your post meant you were looking in the mirror too long..... I disagree.

NPC's comment on several of the Daderic artifacts if you wear them in towns. I had the Mace of Molag Bal equipped and guards kept saying "That mace... Get that thing away from me!" in a really scared voice.

I do see where you're coming from with more banter between enemies in combat, but in general I've noticed a lot of things people say are missing, actually IS in the game. A lot of people complain about no npc's recognizing your accomplishments, and this baffles me. Every time I walk through town, I constantly hear "You did a great thing for all of us. Thank you" referring to defeating Alduin, along with multiple dialogues about being the Harbinger, killing th Glenmoril Witches, etc etc. All I hear is comments on my accomplishments. Gets tiring sometimes. Yes! I know I lead the Companions! I don't need a reminder! lol

Honestly, the thread started out as a troll thread, now it's got accusations of troll stuff. Sorry I missed this one earlier.

Some of you have useful discussion points, but I don't ahve time to do a clean up. Sorry.