» Tue Aug 30, 2011 3:55 am [The following is a VERY long introduction to how I come to play Morrowind, TL;DR at the end.]
I started my TES 'career' with Oblivion, a game I thoroughly enjoy, to this day, and I'll admit, I must have atleast 4 or 500 hours, (which I realise is nothing compared to some fans), and I have yet to finish the MQ. But with Skyrim coming, I've made it my aim to not necessarily finish, but to atleast play all the previous Open-World TES games.
I started with Arena, (the age of which isn't much different from my own), and while the control scheme definitely took some getting used to, when I got the hang of it, I began to enjoy it. But soon I began to realise that despite the HUGE world, it suffers from the same thing Oblivion does, (although to a much greater extent); the VERY repetitive landscapes. On top of this, the lack of factions or anything to particularly do in the world made the game boring, even the main quest, as far as I got in it, simply seemed to be the same task repeatedly.
I moved onto Daggerfall and actually began to enjoy that, surprisingly, and having joined the Mages Guild and recieved death threats from the Dark Brotherhood, among other things, I thought I might actually finish the game. But again, the even HUGER world seemed even smaller than Arena's due to even more repetitive landscapes and this began to annoy me as well, since every city varied so little from the last. I actually preferred Arena's combat as well, despite the now out-dated control scheme.
Having decided I'd finished with my Daggerfall experience, I decided it was time to play what many perceive to be the best TES game yet. I watched a few "Let's Play" Youtube videos but found the game seemed as boring as the previous two, but still, I was going to give it a chance since I was determined to complete my 'quest'. After a week of searching I finally found Morrowind GOTY Edition in a second hand store in my town centre, (since I refuse to pay ￡13 for a 10 year old game from Steam), and got home and booted it up straight away.
Having been released and been given a dagger and a few good spells, I thought it was time to practice on the Captain, "Sellus Gavius". Having killed him I made for the door: "Speak to Sellus Gravius to find out your duties before you leave". After only 5 minutes of gameplay I'd already broken not only the MQ, but every quest in the game. At that point I knew I was going to enjoy the game. I'm a roleplayer to the most hardcoe of degrees in Oblivion and this sort of potential game-breaking freedom was just the sort of thing I wanted! Anyway, I've played a while and although the combat isn't quite as enjoyable as Oblivion, (I suppose I am spoiled by not being able to fail spells or miss with a weapon, despite hitting, albeit, I'm getting used to it), the game itself is definitely as good, although I'm not sure if it's better yet. Only time will tell.
I love Oblivion though, despite the identical landscapes throughout. That Medieval Tolkien-esque type landscape, while repetitive on the whole, was great and I enjoy travelling through it even if the out-of-towns travelling is pretty much the same, (although still not quite as repetitive as the first 2 TES games).
[Introduction Over.]
To remain on topic, as far as I am aware, Morrowind has the smallest landmass out of all the TES games, and yet, it FEELS huge compared to the others. I don't know whether this is because the roads wind more or because you don't HAVE to fast travel like in the first 2 TES games, whether it's because the landscape is less flat than Oblivion's seems to be or just the fact that there is variety in the landscape. But when travelling, (I actually use fast travel now occasionally thanks to the boats and Silt Striders.etc. while I refused to in Oblivon), the island of Vvardenfall feels like an actual island itself in size, rather than the province of Cyrodil that seemed more like a small county instead of the huge area, the centre of Tamriel, in all senses, that it was supposed to be.
I don't know whether this is just me, I haven't actually travelled the full length and breadth of Vvardenfall yet, but from what I've experienced, the variety in landscapes makes the place come alive in a way that Oblivion, despite it's gorgeous graphics, even today, cannot do. Perhaps you have some explanation why you think Morrowind feels big, perhaps you don't think it does, but if someone asked me now whether I prefer Oblivion or Morrowind, I couldn't give an answer. But one thing I will definitely miss most about Morrowind, next time I play Oblivion, is not Morrowind's larger number of skills, not the greater number of factions, not even the ability to Levitate, Mark and Recall.etc. but the variety in the landscape itself.
In this way, playing Morrowind has made my anticipation for Skyrim increase tenfold; marriages are great, I can easily make use of those when I RP, the new magic system and finishing moves look amazing and I feel I could spend hours in the new Charater Creation system alone, but out of all those things, what I am most looking forward to now, is what makes me love Morrowind as I do. The variety in landscapes; from the grasslands that stretch out beyond the horizon to the immense, looming mountains to the forests that seem to be perpetually autumn in shade to the shores of the ocean that streches out beyond the game's draw distance. For this reason, I hope that Skyrim will be the best TES game yet and perhaps, despite being only the size of Oblivion, not really much larger than Morrowind, it will feel MASSIVE. But that is just a hope, until I get my hands on Skyrim, (and at this rate, despite having pre-ordered it, I think I'll still be playing Morrowind at Christmas), I know that Morrowind IS the biggest TES landmass, regardless of whatever stats and figures you throw at me.
TL;DR: Morrowind feels HUGE.
