Do you remember Morrowind?

Each of the Elder Scrolls games takes place in one of the provinces. The first was Arena.
Arena was good for the time and the free roaming aspect was completely new and innovative at the time. It was only limited by the hardware/OS limitations of the time.

Then second was Daggerfall. What made Daggerfall unique and seemingly endless was that the countryside encounters and dungeons were randomly generated as you traversed the map.
Each time you entered a dungeon (except the main quest storyline ones, they were static) it was randomly generated and it made for some huge and complex dungeon mazes at times.
It also had a pretty nifty 3D mapping system for dungeons (absolutely necessary!!) and you could put your own notes on the main map.
I played Daggerfall 2-4 hours every day for 15 months and NEVER did any of the main storyline past the first 3 quests. It was that HUGE of a world.
Then with Morrowind they compromised that randomness for static instances with prettier graphics.
Personally I loved the free roaming of Daggerfall.
There hasn't been any other game that managed to achieve that aspect so well, before or since.



plus you could get a horse and cart, leave him outside the dungeon, set a mark, fill up with loot until you can't move, recall to the entrance, unload your booty into the cart, go back and continue looting and killing..........

I miss a horse and cart, I hope I can get a cart in Skyrim?

 

Even though I find Morrowind superior to Oblivion and Skyrim. I think that Bethesda had a bit of "luck" with that game. The world - Vvardenfell was really original and unorthodox in a classic RPG context. When I look at Oblivion and Skyrim I see generic german and nordic environments and visual motives.

The darker, melancholic, but still very subtle image of Morrowind was something that made the game (yeah and the music of Jeremy Soule). Imagine that Morrowind had the same mechanics and quests, but the environments and its aspects were all like classic "middle-ages" fantasy. Would it be so superb? I don't think so.

I don't know if you know, but Cyrodiil is originally a tropical jungle with the imperial city on the island in the middle and villages situated in the treetops. Sadly, they even changed the lore to justify the shift to classic german fantasy - according to lore, emperor used old artifacts to change the climate, to suit better the imperials.

On another note - other thing I didn't like in Oblivion and Skyrim is the fact that imperials actually lost all their "roman empire" flavour. It's ironic, because thing that this is what made them special and fitting in the exotic environment of Morrowind, they were simply "European" conquerors in a faraway land.

Oh how I miss the game, but I can't afford to play it again, I just don't have that much time anymore and I don't like to play RPGs by little bits.

 

I never knew that about Cyrodill but yeah, I only played Morrowind and Skyrim extensively and never got Oblivion that was situated in the empirial province. I thought the tropical jungle and villages in treetops was located in the lands of the woodelves. I stand corrected though
Anyway, I don't really agree that the setting of Skyrim is less superb than that of Morrowind. It seems to be a totally subjective matter though, it's mainly what we personally value in a setting. They didn't stray away from the original setting I think. Remember the skyrim settlements in Morrowind and the nords in that game. Skyrim was always intended to be more inspired by nordic environemnts and lore. Personally I freaking loved the setting but I admit I already have a weakness for this scandinavian inspired setting myself. Also, during the era of Skyrim the empire was not in the same place as during Morrowind (they were essentially defeated by the high elves) so it's logical the attitude of the cyrodillic army and soldiers is different too. Same with their weaponry and armor I guess. Although I still thought they looked like a consistent follow up.

 

well, it's not really luck if they chose to move to a more generic setting. they could have just as easily had one of the games following morrowind take place in black marsh.

i do see your point; i loved the morrowind culture. but then again, solstheim was arguably my favorite location in morrowind, which is basically little skyrim anyway.

 

Just curious, am I the only old fart here that has played Arena and Daggerfall as well?

As far as the areas and Bethesda shifting the setting, no, not really.
Morrowwind is home to the Dunmer, Dark Elves. So of course the setting/architecture/etc. is going to be vastly different than the other provinces.
Arena and Daggerfall were both similar to Oblivion and the Imperial city because they are both provinces inhabited by humans. That was one other difference with Morrowind, the area is inhabited by predominantly Elves, not humans.

 

i never did. i seriously considered it after playing morrowind, but i never got around to it. i just settled for reading about them on the internet to get a basic idea of the earlier storylines.

i had never even heard of the elder scrolls until morrowind. i never even heard of morrowind until my mom somehow stumbled across it and got it for me for christmas because the box said it was rpg of the year or something and she knew i was into rpgs.

 

I first got introduced to the Elder Scrolls when a new friend from work was playing it on a shared 386 DX40 laptop with a greyscale screen LOL
Even so, it was captivating because nobody had done an rpg like that before. Shortly after that I built a 486 DX4-100mhz based system and started playing Arena in all it's 16 bit, 256 color glory.

 

I have a friend who was into the elder scrolls earlier than me so when I got into Morrowind he eventually got me Daggerfell since he really digged that game as well. I couldn't get past the graphics and the point and click controls though... Hence why I say I was spoiled with graphical games like Morrowind and Ocarina of time, I didn't wanna play much older looking games after those.

 

I played Daggerfall as a kid. It was my dad's copy. It's still one of his favorite games ever, and I really want to play it again. I remember it being really good, but then again, that was about 15 years ago. It might not hold up. I'm a retro gamer, but old PC games tend to not age as well as console games in my opinion. When they do, they're awesome, though - Age of Wonders, for example.

As for Arena, I borrowed a copy from a friend and got it running on my computer a few months ago. I could barely play it. It took me about half an hour before I figured out how to attack (right click and move the mouse around - yeah, that's really intuitive. Fucking horrible.), and even after that, I kept getting killed by rats and goblins for another half hour before I gave up. I'm surprised I made it that long. It's aged horribly.

As for the original question that started this thread, I have a copy of Morrowind on the original XBOX and the complete edition on PC, but I haven't played the PC version. I played the XBOX version, which is exactly the same as the PC version according to a friend of mine who's played both - of course, there's no modding it, but that's fine. I kind of want to play it again over my summer vacation. I remember not liking it way back when, but my opinions can change a lot over a few years and I want to give it another chance.

 

yeah, the only difference i noticed between the two was that my xbox could handle the game and my pc couldn't.

i think there might have been slight differences with the journal or something too, but nothing significant.

 

I mean luck in the fact, that they were able to create something so original and unorthodox.

 

This is one game I really miss playing.

 

morrowind > oblivion > skyrim

 

I put Morrowind and Skyrim on a shared first place, both excelled in different things. Although I can't say much about Oblivion cause I didn't play that one alot

 

Well Bethesda just released the "Elder Scrolls Anthology"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832136039 which contains all 5 Elder Scrolls games; Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim including ALL the add-ons and DLC.

They all are great games.

I believe Arena did take place in the entire continent of Tamriel, but the game engines of the time didn't allow for the huge expansive feel that they have today, but it did cover all areas.

Arena was the first PC rpg I ever played, and the third PC game I played.

 

The main reason I say morrowind> oblivion> skyrim is morrowind has the most quests and factions and expansive world to explore next oblivion next skyrim. Theyre all fun but I put months and months into morrowind while I beat skyrim in a couple weeks

 

Yes, it was awesome Morrowind kept you going with the storyline alone for a very long time, I have to admit I didn't even finish it... There were lots of factions and side quests etc. in Skyrim too. That Skyrim's main quest and stuff can be completed much sooner isn't that mainly caused by the difference in difficulty?

 

You're right about it covering all of Tamriel, but a lot of it was randomly generated. As you say, to create an actual game world that big was just beyond the scope of the hardware back then. Also, it would have probably made the game way more expensive to develop.

I remember reading a review for Daggerfall when I was young, but my first Elder Scrolls game was Oblivion. I'm on Morrowind at the moment, doing the Fighters Guild quests.

 

Just signed up for Elder Scrolls Online beta.

 

Morrowind is probably the best game I have ever played, for the vastness of it and the open-ended world in which you can do anything. I got super far in this, played it for a year or so - then lost everything when my hard drive crashed. It was a sad moment.