I first played Morrowind almost 20 years ago. It remains my favorite RPG of all time. For so many reasons that I can't even list them out without sitting here typing all day, the world building and progression in Morrowind so far exceeds Oblivion and Skyrim. You feel like a person within the world, growing and building your power and reputation in a way that feels organic and cohesive, rather than your character waking up one day and almost instantly learning that you are some special chosen hero who is immediately tasked with high stakes objectives by important people. In Morrowind when you start out as a released prisoner, you actually feel like a poor foreigner in a strange land. One of your first main story quest givers basically tells you to go get a job and learn how to handle yourself a bit before I can even give you any useful tasks. By the end you basically have the strength of a demigod (like in all elder scrolls games), but this is the only one where you really feel like you've actually earned it and truly climbed the ladder from being a nobody at the beginning. In Skyrim and Oblivion you are told from the beginning you are special, and leveling up in a world where enemies and gear just level up with you makes the progression feel arcadey and immersion breaking. In those games you "unlock" high-end gear as a function of your level. In most cases high-teir items simply don't appear until you are high level, at which point they are suddenly everywhere, massively immersion breaking. In Morrowind, the most powerful gear and artifacts are truly rare, and as you acquire more of them over time through exploration of dangerous hard-to reach dungeons and overcoming powerful foes you truly start to feel like a legendary hero to have been able to acquire them. Money is tight in the early game, but when you've saved enough money to buy an expensive high-tier weapon or armor from a shop that you first saw 30 hours of playtime ago, you feel like you've actually progressed, and the fact that the item existed in the shop for you to see when you were low level, poor and couldn't afford it adds to the world building. Faction questlines in this game truly feel like you've joined an organization and are doing work for them in a way that supplements your character's overall story, rather than in Oblivion and Skyrim each faction questline is a totally self-contained storyline which makes you feel as though you are playing as entirely different characters in each one, rather than all supporting your roleplaying as one cohesive character in as is the case in Morrowind. There is so much more that I'm not going to say, but if you like RPG's you really owe it to yourself to give this one a try.

This was my middle school grind. Classic Xbones. What makes this better than the others? LEVITATION SPELL. I make boundries and borders go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

7/10

Après plus de 20 ans à essayer de me lancer, j'ai été pris d'une envie suite à la sortie du remaster d'Oblivion qui avait beaucoup déçu l'un de mes amis (pourtant grand fan de l'ancien Oblivion). Bien décidé à avancer dans Morrowind, j'ai découvert un plaisir mêlé à une exigence qui me fit vite comprendre pourquoi je n'avançais pas dans ce jeu auparavant. On n'est absolument pas tenu par la main contrairement à Skyrim (qui reste l'un des meilleurs jeux). Il faut lire, tout tenter et beaucoup, BEAUCOUP marcher. Mais cela en vaut la peine. Et le site de Lilou La Nérévarine est un excellent coup de pouce quand on est perdu. Bref, Elder Scrolls mais sans aucun indicateur autre que les panneaux de ville et les conseils des bons personnages à écouter attentivement, enfin plutôt à lire attentivement pour la plupart.