I have spent some 45 hours playing Morrowind, and I have played Arena and Daggerfall. What peaked my interest in Oblivion, (my personal favorite) was mostly the combat aspect; it was much more challenging than ever before in the series. It involved more real-time skill. The difference for me between Oblivion and Morrowind is mostly just the combat. The "roll of the dice" combat in Morrowind really turned me off, as it required no skill to succeed. You simply relied on your stats to ride you to victory. In Oblivion it was a mixture of stats and real-time skill. (those of you who have played Monster Hunter might have a meaning of what I mean when I say "skill")

To the avail of Morrowind however, It showed alot of customizable options which were really fun. I loved being able to feel different as a beast race (complete with their own animation set and armor restrictions) as well as the option of each individual armor set being inter-placed, and also the thousands of quests and faction quests.

So all in all, I found Morrowind less "fun" comparatively to Oblivion because of the combat. I also believe that Skyrim will be better than oblivion because of the improved combat system.

Could those of you who started out playing Morrowind (and loved it) please explain to me in detail the BIGGEST thing that made you grow a distaste for Oblivion and your per-determined prejudice on Skyrim? I am still very curious, and from what I hear, Morrowinders tend to think Oblivion is more streamlined? Is it the combat specifically, or is it something else? please do tell.

Edit: I decided to bring in Skyrim to this topic because I forgot to mention it before :wink_smile:

I like Oblivion's combat more than Morrowind however, Oblivion's combat to no skill at all IMO it was just spam the attack button.

Lack of political/religious conflict was the only thing I didn't like about Oblivion, but I don't have a distate for it. I think it's a great game, almost as good as Morrowind.

Everything was -perfect- in Oblivion, in a bad way.

the guilds were disjointed from each other, each Guild acted like it was the only guild in existence. you'd think atleast 2 guilds that were erected from the Empire would acknowlegde each other

the amount of options -gone-.

that you couldn't fail at just about anything. the only thing the player had to worry about was their health reaching 0 and that -all- problems were solved by flailing a sword at it.

The MQ was poorly executed for what could have been a dynamic and interesting MQ for the Modern TES.


I -hate- that Oblivion could have been so much more from Beths Track record, and all it lived up to was to be a cash cow.

This, plus the level scaling. Exploration is my thing. I didn't find Cyrodiil interesting to explore, because the level scaling ensured you'd never find anything interesting.

Exploration was more rewarding in Morrowind, Fallout 3, and it looks like it's going to be better in Skyrim too.

First off, there is no level scaling in Morrowind, this adds a feeling of your character growing.
More variation in weapons (spears, crossbows etc.)
Having skillbased combat, where skill, agility and fatigue is actually useful.
More skills: Enchanting, spear etc.
Conflict between factions. I think Morrowind is a more mature game in general.

And about the combat, the enemy dodges and stuff as well it just isn't animated I know it makes combat feel a little weird.

It lost a lot of attention to details in the world, therefore felt less real, and more game-y, loss of a darker tone. Other things really ruined the experience for me, the in game guide that came in the form of way too handholding quest markers, the compass that told you where everything was when you were within a mile of it, which completely ruined exploration for me (and I fear this might return in Skyrim). Level enemies and loot that completely negated any reason to level up. Legendary weapons only being tied to quest (another aspect that ruined any reason to explore). and lastly a severe lack of content compared to Morrowind. Most of this seems to be fixed IMO with Skyrim, my only real concern now is if the compass can be turned off, and quests completed without the use of markers (or if they hold your hand as much. mark the cave, but not the long lost armor in the third room on the left).

Ah, I completely agree that the MQ for oblivion was horrible. It felt like a bunch of filler with very little specific content generated for the Main Quest itself. You were sent to go fetch thousands of sigil stones and save every city. It was totally just filler.

Ahh okay! However I don't believe that the compass markers made it too easy to find what you wanted. In a large game such as Oblivion, you needed at least some sort of guidance. If the world was more concentrated and filled with content, than I would agree that the compass ruined exploration. For instance, take the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and put in Quest markers. It would ruin the game for me, mostly because you guide yourself through those games with hints dependent on people within the game, and not the dev just plopping a marker in the map.

Well, I felt a lot of that was less of a filler than Morrowind's main quest where you have to travel to every group in the game and do them favors until they consent to let you wander up the volcano by yourself and solve all their problems. That was about as strung out as a main quest could have been. With Oblivion it was more like a shopping list of things to get for Martin, and you were the only one in the country who would go get them. And in Oblivion's, you could largely ignore the gathering of sigil stones and let the cities fend for themselves if you didn't expect their very little help in the end.

Oh, and the Colovian fur helm wasn't in oblivion.
Another reason I like Morrowind better.