Im new to the elder scrolls since buying skyrim, i love skyrim i played a bit of oblivion a few years back, and ive beeen told to get morrowind as its the best?
Which is best? and why because i dont have a clue!
Thannks

Unfortunately the Elder Scrolls games are like one amazing game shattered into five pieces and each piece encased in crud.



Arena has the tight gameplay and game balance, and a complete world.

Daggerfall has the sprawling epic content, and the metaphysical grandeur.

Morrowind has the writing, mood, culture, and story.

Oblivion has more living towns and NPC behavior and the right magic/combat/thief mechanics, and introduced good graphics and physics.

Skyrim has dragons, I guess.

It all boils down to personal preferences, but here on the forums you will definitely find people who will tell you that Morrowind is the best. As the post above me said: Morrowind had the best writing, mood, culture, and story. It also has lots of skills and choice, however it also has some flawed game mechanics as one would expect from a game that's 10 yeasr old. If you've got the patience however, Morrowind will give you a very big payoff.

The best is subjective.

If you are into Lore then morrowind will probably be the best game for you.

If you are into gameplay then Skyrim will probably be the best game for you.

Or even if you are into those things you could like any of the games. I would recommend all of them. They are ALL good games on their own merit. Morrowind just happens to be my favorite. And I didn't even beat it yet though I do know the ending and everything, (I got it spoiled for me ). Nor did I beat Skyrim. I beat Oblivion but meh. Loved the crap out of that game but still not my favorite. But I am the type to like Lore, Story and Setting. IMO Morrowind has the best of all of them in that regard.

To the OP: it will all depend on your personality and gameplay style. Morrowind and specially the earlier ones were more traditional rpg's in terms of gameplay. There's no "better" game. Some love MW and some really hate MW; and that is the same with the rest.

Each one is better than all the others, except for the ones that are not.

Play them and decide for yourself.

There is no such thing as "best" when it comes to art or entertainment. As the others have said, it is all a matter of preference. I like the way glargg put it: "Each one is better than all the others, except for the ones that are not."

In my opinion Morrowind is an excellent game. I spent four years of my life playing and modding Morrowind and enjoyed every minute of it. If you enjoyed Skyrim and Oblivion it's likely you will enjoy Morrowind too. I'd say buy it. It must be dirt cheap by now anyway.

Last I saw it was like $10-20 on steam. Price tends to vary with steam sales. There is a TES pack that is like $60-70 I think that has Skyrim and all the previous games with it as well.

In my opinion Morrowind has the best lore, cultures and a lot of the world is different and sometimes even alien like in certain areas.

Oblivion was a massive disappointment and though the towns did seem a little alive it didn't matter much since the story was bleh, the characters weren't that well written and the only enjoyable part is Dark brotherhood, thieves guild and the shivering isles expansion also there wasn't much to do and the entire province was dull and boring as was so unlike how its described in the lore.

Skyrim was massively better then oblivion in many ways but the factions are incredibely poorly written, the main questline has a bit better writing then Oblivions, they guilds tried to force you into taking side quests and radiant quests. The civil war questline could've been a lot better and well written instead of "Go here, take over this fort, K done."

True. I much prefer Oblivion. Mainly I guess it′s because that was my starting point into the ES universe and coming from Doom 3 it was such a peaceful game.
But it′s up to you what game strikes your fancy. Maybe look them up on youtube?

I never did the MQ so I can′t argue on that. But imho Cyrodiil feels much more alive than Vvardenfell in all areas and there′s so much more to do. Also I never liked the ash areas, too much gray which was kinda depressing. Cyrodiil has green, flourishing forests with waterfalls here and there and many different towns and the NPCs′ goofiness only amuses me

But isn′t it fortunate, then? We both have our favorite game and can enjoy them as much as we want

The quality of Oblivion's sidequests and guild quests was pretty decent, actually. The toddler-level writing came into the main quest and the npc's side conversations, mostly. Unfortunately it's hard to escape either of them..

Overall, i'd say Morrowind is the best TES game. But to be a little more specific, i'd say:

- Daggerfall is the best in terms of RPG mechanics, as well as the best dungeon crawler. The gameworld is a bit hit or miss though depending on the person playing. Some have a big problem with the random generation, whereas others like myself fill in the blanks with their imagination and appreciate the world for it's size rather than it's attention to detail.

- Morrowind is the best as an open-world game, with fairly good RPG elements. Kind of poor if you treat it like an action-adventure game though.

- Oblivion is fairly average all-around, but has the best modding community currently and the most charm (in my opinion).

- Skyrim is the best sandbox action game, with poor RPG elements.

...

So it really depends on what you want from the series.

Oblivion is a very generic fantasy RPG. To its credit, the combat mechanics are much improved over its predecessors and the D.B. questline is fantastic.

Morrowind has serious combat flaws, but magic, story, lore, guilds, difficulty, soundtrack, and atmosphere rival that of any RPG ever made.

Daggerfall has easily the best dungeons, is the scariest TES game, and has a massive world filled with political intrigue.

First off I've only played 3 thru 5 so that's what I'm comparing.

All three games have their strengths and weaknesses, but taken as a whole my favorites is Oblivious hands down. Skyrim looks better (obviously) and handles a bit better, Morrowind is deep in story, lore and creative writing but Imo OB is the best combination of all aspects put together. It's not necessarily the best at most things but It's good or great at more things then the rest.

Skyrim to me is shallow, it looks great, has amazing art design and the combat feels awesome. However it lacks in all other aspects and I just got bored with it once the initial excitement subsided.

Morrowind is the peak of Bethesda's writing and story telling. However the game felt clunky and the npcs lacked life. It's definitely a game worth playing but it shows It's age.

Oblivious has great guilds, surprisingly deep side quests and retains many features cut out of Skyrim. The game play isn't quite up to Skyrim but its better then MW. Better npcs that live their lives unlike MW and don't just spout the same annoying [censored] at you like SK, and occasionally have humorous randomly generated conversations (sp system SK should have improved and not just cut!) Makes for a more enjoyable world to roam. I just feel OB is the more complete package.

Thankyou for all your opinions, i will buy the rest of them and get lost in the eorld of TES. cant wait, for me the story line is one of the main things so i think when skyrim no longer calls me ill go for morrowind the oblivion, ill tell you guys my opinion in a few years no doubt!
Thankyou all.

Good luck and have fun

You won't regret it

Forgot to mention it but this. I haven't played Daggerfall in at least 5 years but I still get occasional wonderful nightmares. Something about the SFX makes its dungeons impossible to forget.

Depends on what type of game you're looking for. If you're looking for countless of hours wandering aimlessly across barren-like landscapes with no access to fast travel or quest markers, then Morrowind is the game for you.

If you want nostalgia and a classic dungeon-crawl experience, Arena or Daggerfall would be your game.

I came in during the Oblivion era, but I started with Morrowind, as at the time, Oblivion's rating was too high for my parents to let me get it, so I had to settle for Morrowind. I spent tonnes of hours in Morrowind, and I still love it, but I think Oblivion took the TES series to a whole new level, and Skyrim achieved near-perfection. But hey, that's just my opinion.

Pretty good comparison. Maybe the "mission" for the next installment should be a throwback to Arena's main quest: "Find the lost pieces of the shattered Heart/Libram of The Elder Scrolls and re-assemble them into the most epic RPG ever!" Well, something like that, anyway.