CthuluIsSpy
Arcane
So 10 hours into morrowind, and here are my thoughts -
- The pace is a lot slower than the later games. You level up slow and there's not as much combat as in Oblivion or Skyrim. You don't really dungeon crawl that much until you have some good investment in your combat skills because enemies are a lot more dangerous and there's less leveled list nonsense. It overall feels more like a traditional CRPG like Fallout rather than a modern action "RPG."
- I really like the main quest structure. Being told to just go out and make a name for yourself and then come back after you've integrated into society is a hell lot more natural than the later games' questline structure where you're the hero and you have to save the world, but you can take your time because Dagon and Alduin will just wait for you.
- Hybrid builds don't seem as viable as in Oblivion. Part of it is due to the lack of magicka regen but also you don't have a nice little quick cast button and instead have to switch to magic mode. I prefer Oblivion's system, really. Being able to just throw out spells mid combo felt great.
- I really like the variation in combat skills and weapons. Oblivion simplified it into something silly (axes are blunt? What?) and removed spears, and Skyrim simplified it even further into two handed and one handed weapons. That said, splitting the damage into chop/thrust/slash seems unnecessary; there doesn't seem to be any resistances against those attack types, so you really just use whatever deals the most amount of damage. There's even an option that enables "the best attack" so such a mechanic seems pointless to me.
Without that option the combat feels awkward as you have to move and attack to use those moves, and that just feels weird.
- Sneak is really hard and finicky to level up. I don't want to abandon my current character, but I suspect going just pure cave man might be a more effective build.
- That said, sneak builds do tend to favor speed (because of small blade), which does actually make you move faster. This is a real convenience in a game with no fast-travel at will
- The game lacks a NPC routine like in Oblivion. They never sleep and shops are always open. I won't fault Morrowind for that though because it's an earlier game and as such would suffer from technical limitations, but it is interesting to see when that feature was introduced.
- No poisons. That makes me sad.
- Enchanted weapons recharge over time, instead of needing to constantly recharge them with gems. This feels so much better and actually makes finding an early enchanted weapon pretty advantageous.
- Hostile NPCs do not respawn. I kind of like this. I always found it odd how there was an infinite legion of bandits in the later games, that just move into a cave where a bunch of them was just brutally slaughtered with a mix of fire and sword.
- The pace is a lot slower than the later games. You level up slow and there's not as much combat as in Oblivion or Skyrim. You don't really dungeon crawl that much until you have some good investment in your combat skills because enemies are a lot more dangerous and there's less leveled list nonsense. It overall feels more like a traditional CRPG like Fallout rather than a modern action "RPG."
- I really like the main quest structure. Being told to just go out and make a name for yourself and then come back after you've integrated into society is a hell lot more natural than the later games' questline structure where you're the hero and you have to save the world, but you can take your time because Dagon and Alduin will just wait for you.
- Hybrid builds don't seem as viable as in Oblivion. Part of it is due to the lack of magicka regen but also you don't have a nice little quick cast button and instead have to switch to magic mode. I prefer Oblivion's system, really. Being able to just throw out spells mid combo felt great.
- I really like the variation in combat skills and weapons. Oblivion simplified it into something silly (axes are blunt? What?) and removed spears, and Skyrim simplified it even further into two handed and one handed weapons. That said, splitting the damage into chop/thrust/slash seems unnecessary; there doesn't seem to be any resistances against those attack types, so you really just use whatever deals the most amount of damage. There's even an option that enables "the best attack" so such a mechanic seems pointless to me.
Without that option the combat feels awkward as you have to move and attack to use those moves, and that just feels weird.
- Sneak is really hard and finicky to level up. I don't want to abandon my current character, but I suspect going just pure cave man might be a more effective build.
- That said, sneak builds do tend to favor speed (because of small blade), which does actually make you move faster. This is a real convenience in a game with no fast-travel at will
- The game lacks a NPC routine like in Oblivion. They never sleep and shops are always open. I won't fault Morrowind for that though because it's an earlier game and as such would suffer from technical limitations, but it is interesting to see when that feature was introduced.
- No poisons. That makes me sad.
- Enchanted weapons recharge over time, instead of needing to constantly recharge them with gems. This feels so much better and actually makes finding an early enchanted weapon pretty advantageous.
- Hostile NPCs do not respawn. I kind of like this. I always found it odd how there was an infinite legion of bandits in the later games, that just move into a cave where a bunch of them was just brutally slaughtered with a mix of fire and sword.
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