I have played them all, and I have to say while I love Skyrim, especially with running lots of mods mostly stable after using ENBoost and the SKSE memory patcher, there is something about Morrowind that I just can't place that I like. I started playing a modded Morrowind again as well, and there is something about the feel of it that SKyrim is lacking...I just can't put my finger on it. Maybe the simplicity helps with the environment? I don't know. I do know that even with all the graphical improvement mods and retextures the game looks pretty bad compared to Skyrim and even Oblivion. There is just something about it tho that has me more in to it than Skyrim...maybe the storylnie is more engaging, I don't know.

What do you all think on this?

I like all three games, for different reasons. In their vanilla states I'd say I like Morrowind the best, then Skyrim, then Oblivion. But each game has something the others don't. I would never want to be without any of them.

Morrowind has an alien atmosphere that the other two games lack. The sense of wonder is always there and it's easy to believe you're discovering an alien land and culture.

Oblivion and Skyrim have medieval fantasy feel; Morrowind's atmosphere is simply different.

Skyrim's atmosphere is still a big improvement over Oblivion's though (but Oblivion has its perks, too).

Morrowind: Great atomsphere, story, lore, factions, and personally-placed loot

Oblivion: First attempt at a fully-speeched TES, first attempt at minigames for speechcraft and lockpicking. Changes combat

Skyrim: Improved combat, dual-wielding, perk trees,

Oblivion - 10 steps up from Morrowind.

Skyrim - 7 steps back from Oblivion.

Oblivion has autonomous npcs that acted like they were alive. The player character also has emotions as well. No matter how an npc/PC fell down, he always got up like a real person.

Like Morrowind, Skyrim is lifeless, it's just a puffed up version of Morrowind. In Skyrim no matter how an npcs/PC falls down, he always twist, contort, fold up before being 'picked up' like a doll.

I'll take it you don't use mods?

Honestly vanilla and modded versions are so different they may as well be completely separate games...

I'm a PC gamer here as well, but the fact is that a huge percentage of TES fans are console gamers who have no access to them and I'm sure there are plenty of PC gamers that also can't be bothered with mods either.

Not to mention mods don't justify anything for Bethesda unless it was acutally made by them.

Well here's what I think Morrowind's strengths are..

Best story- main story as well as other stories in game especially MQ though, best villains, best design/mechanics of beast races, best Khajiit design for it's time, most interesting world design, best art style, best world design, best factions, best architecture, most vertical exploration, and second most character development after Daggerfall.

Best TES game at having more player skill reliant combat: Skyrim.

Best TES game character creation: Daggerfall.

Best TES game at being challenging: Daggerfall.

Best Dungeons at being challenging: Definitely Daggerfall.

Best combat- if you like more classic old school RPG mechanics- but without pausing in combat, Morrowind and Daggerfall would be tied imo, if you like absolutely despise old school TES combat hit/miss mechanics, then I'd say Skyrim and Oblivion are tied. I think in that case it's Oblivion's more complicated stat dynamic- and more complex magical system, vs Skyrim's dual wielding.

Best magical travel systems: Morrowind.

Best loot placement/system: Morrowind.

Worst TES game if you hate time limits: Daggerfall.

Worst TES game if you prefer everything streamlined as possible: Daggerfall

Worst TES game if player skill is deeply important to you in a TES game: Morrowind.

Worst TES game if classical more typical medieval fantasy is a must for you: Morrowind;

Worst TES game if you feel being nearly omnipotent at max level ruins the game: Morrowind.

Best armor customization: Morrowind.

Best weapon selection: Morrowind followed by... Skyrim. Skyrim brings back crossbows with mods or a DLC, and it brings in dual wielding... Yet Oblivion and Daggerfall afaik didn't even HAVE crossbows, and Oblivion IMO consequently had the LEAST diverse weaponry of all settings. No spears, no dual wield, no crossbows, amongst other things.

Best TES game at remaining challenging at higher levels: Oblivion.

Worst TES game if a lack of heavy stats may bore you: Skyrim.

Worst TES game story: Skyrim.

Worst TES game for a Mage: Skyrim.

Worst TES game faction interactions: Oblivion.

Worst TES game level design: Oblivion.

Worst TES game art design: Oblivion.

Morrowind is my personal favorite, probably not surprisingly. I tried Daggerfall again recently, though I personally didn't like the time limit for quests. Although the dungeons of Daggerfall are amazing, and I like the ship/carriage features a lot. One thing I like about Morrowind that I think is super unique to it and almost defines it, is it's teleportation/magical mobility system.

One thing I disliked about Daggerfall was it being so huge I actually have to click the map to fast travel in a way I see as having questionable immersion. Because so much practically empty space between areas, that you can travel an hour on horseback without seeing a single enemy, building or dungeon. The massive towns and massive dungeons were great though. And while I have complained a lot about Skyrim and Oblivion lacking Morrowind's fast travel system- AT LEAST when you DON'T fast travel, there's not a ton of empty space between destinations unlike Daggerfall.

TES games are never bad though, and largely which TES game you like most is widely a matter of preference and taste.

Half life 2.........shrek is love shrek is life.........

It's a matter of what you found important as opposed to what other players thought; each game had its strong points and weak points, and they were nowhere near the same from one game to the next.


Morrowind consisted of static and lifeless NPCs in a vibrant and detailed culture. The Main Quest story was excellent, but some of the missions were pathetic.


Oblivion consisted of active and talkative NPCs in a sterile and dead culture. The Main Quest story was mostly mediocre, but a few of the faction quests were excellent.


I can't fairly comment on Skyrim due to lack of experience with it.

I would not say Skyrim is lifeless, but yes besides of working outside npc in Skyrim is far worse than in Oblivion. Main problem is that they always talk to you not each other, not only is this extremely annoying.

Using crafting station close to NPC is best done with sound off but also don't generate an atmosphere, yes NPC in Oblivion had senseless discussion about mudcrabs but they was just stupid not annoying.

For some reason Skyrim also dropped the relation and reputation system. Yes it had the bug that it could generate fights in Oblivion but that should be easy to fix.

magic in skyrim was pretty uesles outside healing yourself and utility spells and conjuration, compared with Morrowind and Oblivion where you could use hours trying out new spells.

The one area Skyrim win in is immersion, the world is beautiful and more interactive than earlier games.

Skyrim wins without a doubt because it is a mprovement to the previous ones in every way possible... anyone who likes the older ones better probably only does cause of notalgia.

I disagree.

I went Skyrim, Oblivion, then Morrowind, then Daggerfall, then Arena.

My fav. (Morrowind) was released when I was two, and my joint second fav with Skyrim (Daggerfall) was released three years before my birth, so that is in no way nostalgia

*Every* way possible? Nope. Which game has the most intricately-detailed, heavily cultural and political main questlines with one of the best villains in video game history ever? Hint: It isn't Skyrim.

Mind you, I love Skyrim and have played it for hundreds of hours and am still playing it, and agree that Bethesda has made numerous improvements to a number of things since the earlier games, but in *every* way? Most definitely not by a long shot.

First of all, Skyrim is not an improvement over the previous games "in every possible way." That is virtually an impossibility. No game can be an improvement "in every possible way." And I say this as a person who loves Skyrim. I love it better than Oblivion and Daggerfall and much, much better than Arena. But Skyrim is not an improvement "in every possible way." If you're going to speak in wildly over-exaggerated, hyperbolic absolutes like this people are not going to take you seriously.

Second of all, if I never hear this witless, asinine, unimaginative "nostalgia" comment again it will be too soon. I pray that someday people will start to think for themselves and stop repeating this rancid "nostalgia" statement. I swear to the gods, there are times I think Bethesda should give people an IQ test before allowing them to post in these forums.

I concur. I'd even swear to Malacath

Skyrim and Morrowind are better two games but in two different ways. Morrowind is more superior when it comes to having a rich and beautiful world that is completely new to the player and unknown. Morrowind also has the best MQ story in both the main game and in the Expansions. Skyrim is more superior in other ways, including combat mechanics, better leveling system, and a lot of other things which really made the roleplaying and immersion in Skyrim much better than the other two. However, Skyrim has a pretty simple main story (better than Oblivion's main story though) but nothing like Morrowind's. The DLCs in Skyrim ended up having better stories than the main game but nothing like Morrowind either.

The only thing I can really give to Oblivion is a few minor quests, the Dark Brotherhood story, the Thieves guild story, and Shivering Isles. (Shivering Isles is so amazing that I would honestly buy it as a separate game if Bethesda has done such). If you try to say that Oblivion's Fighters Guild story and Mages guild story are good then I'll laugh at you and assume you're joking. The fighters guild story made me completely hate the fighters guild as it made them sound like bad guys half the time and the mages guild story was completely cringe worthy and even ruined one of the best villains in the Elder Scrolls series (hell, I don't believe that the Mannimarco we kill in Oblivion was the real one).

Completely agree with this.

For a few specifics:

Morrowind has the most interesting atmosphere and world on top of having the traditional RPG elements that I miss in the newer games. Also the variety of spells that exist is just fantastic. I've never had as much fun just experimenting around with random effects as I have with just casting random spells in Morrowind and combining a bunch of different effects into one spell. It's my favorite game in the series and probably in my all-time top 5 games.

Oblivion has some of the most interesting and well-written side quests of the series. In it's vanilla state it's actually my least favorite of the three, but fully decked out with all the best and most interesting mods, it's probably my favorite. Also, the Shivering Isles basically made up for everything I didn't like in the base game. It was just fantastic and I loved every second of it.

Skyrim easily has the most fun combat in the series. Oh and dual-wielding. It still needs work but at least we got it. Also despite the disappointing lack of variety in spells, the magic was so darn fun to use. Morrowind had an amazing and awesome variety of spells to use, but none of them feel as good as tossing a fireball into a group skeevers and watching them fly all over the place.

Skyrim is one of the shallowest games I've ever played; I can't play for more than an hour or two before getting hopelessly bored. Few memorable characters, a plot that is paper thin even by AAA video game standards, and dragons that make cliffracers look at once fierce and endearing combine to make a very forgettable game. About all Skyrim has in its favor is its artstyle and mildly improved combat over previous games. A shame its cities look like movie sets.

Oblivion is okay; the plot is generic but bearable, the cities are nice, and there are some decent side quests to make up for the ambivalence of the main quest.

Morrowind remains my favorite game of all time, and I see no contenders for the title in the near future. The depth of the setting, the brilliant main quest, the only Bethesda game I know of that has a handful of memorable characters, and no voiced dialogue are among my favorite of its features. (I'm not inherently against voiced dialogue, but over the course of three games Bethesda has demonstrated that either they lack access to good voice actors or they have horrible voice directors--or both.) And there's no nostalgia here; true, Morrowind was my first TES game and the only one I'm really fond of--but I discovered it only in 2008, not when it was first released in 2002. Assuming someone disagrees with you because their perception is somehow skewed or distorted is the weakest of logic. Morrowind's not a perfect game by any means--but it stands far above the games that have succeeded it. I've come to accept that Morrowind is unique, and that Bethesda will never again make a game like it.

Are you praying to Akatosh? Or Perhaps Talos? Better hope he isn't one of the Aldmeri Dominion's spies...hahahaha

That is where mods come in...giant mods like Interesting NPC's, OBIS, Warzones 2015, Civil War Overhaul, Skyrim Immersive Creatures, SkyMoMod13, Sands of Time, Watchtowers Reborn, Perma, ASIS, Immersive Citizens, Immersive Patrols, People of Skyrim, etc, breathe life into Skyrim and turn it into a pretty amazing experience to be honest. Morrowind and Oblivion both have these type of mods, but I think Skyrim is able to handle them better than previous versions...if you aren't playing on the PC you honestly have no idea what you are missing...some of these mods are honestly as good or better than the game itself, and some have more content than the official DLC's(Falskaar, Wyrmstooth, Shumer and the Fall of Allagard,etc).

I'm PC-only; I'm horrible with a controller. I use more mods for Skyrim than any other game I own; both it and Oblivion are pretty unplayable without them. I haven't used any of the landmass/quest mods for Skyrim, though; I have no problem believing they're better than the base game though--that hardly takes much.

1.Morrowind

2.Skyrim

3.Oblivion.

I Morrowind still love Vvardenfell far more than Skyrim or Cyrodiil.

Interesting NPCS made me realize how dumb and boring of character the vanilla Dovahkiin was. When you interact with a character from the mod, judging by the dialogue options they give you, it's as if you gain an extra digit in your IQ and have the options to finally express yourself romantically, sarcastically and etc instead of just being a dumb errant slave as you would be in the normal game.

Last time I heard Warzone and the Civil war Overhaul had huge problems, especially warzones with scripts and bloating.

That implies we actually had any real dialogue options in the vanilla game. The only times we get anything substantial (and I use this term very, very lightly) is solely relevant to the MQ, Serana...Neloth...and that's off the top of my head. Ooh ooh! Bethesda actually did give us unique dialogue options depending on our skill level in enchanting and alchemy with Farangar though, aaaaaaand promptly never ever did anything like that for the rest of the game, ever. Why, I'll never know.

Let's be honest though, all of TES has always been bad where PC dialogue options has been concerned. Skyrim would have been a marked improvement if they even attempted to replicate Fallout 3, which is at least passable.

OT, I play all three...er, two, games for different reasons. Never went back to Oblivion though. I don't care how much I can mod it, I just can't get passed everything that game is and enjoy it, despite it having some of the best side quests Bethesda has ever pumped out. Despite my gripes with Skyrim, I truly do adore the game, even if I do think it pales in comparison to what it could have easily been. Which is a shame, because unlike Oblivion, I think that it does have legitimate potential that was waiting to be untapped, but didn't follow through.