Oblivion is more difficult at higher levels. Haven't you ever fought a goblin in Oblivion at level 40 before? My equipment is always up to date, and I level well, but creatures level with me, and goblins are a nightmare at high levels. Since the average goblin is still powerful when I'm at level 40 and it can actually kill my character, Oblivion is more difficult than Morrowind at higher levels. The player can easily become powerful in Morrowind. Why wouldn't Oblivion be more difficult with more powerful enemies? I like being able to become powerful in Morrowind. It's easier in Morrowind than it is in Oblivion. Morrowind reallly isn't that hard, and there is nothing to fear at higher levels. It's easier to do many things in Morrowind.

The complexity of Morrowind is the main thing I prefer over Oblivion. Yes, MW can be slow, tedious and confusing at times. But in an age when most games just let you jump right in and start killing stuff right away, its a welcome change. You really have to dedicate yourself to building up your character and when you finally reach the point where you can survive most dangers, its quite rewarding.

On the other hand, I dont like the itty-bitty dungeons in MW and the fact that most of them have nothing worth having inside. Oblivion's dungeons were much more interesting.

I have to disagree with this, most if not all Oblivion's dungeon had nothing worthwhile inside since it would be stuff you most likely already have, thanks to level scaling, no hand-placed artifacts in Oblivion x:)

I think it's more accurate that Oblivion becomes much harder than Morrowind at medium levels. Beyond level 20 you start getting some truly wicked loot and it's really not that hard to have a character with 100% Resist Magic, 85 AR, and 66% Reflect Damage. You can even get to 101% Reflect Damage with some luck. And with that kind of defense it doesn't even matter much what sort of stats you have.

The difference in godliness between MW and OB is than in OB you become godlike at high evels if you have the proper equipment, while in MW you become godly no matter what equipment you use.



The Oblivion dungeons themselves were more interesting from an "overcoming obsticles" point of view, yes. But they all had the same randomly generated, level appropriate loot. In Morrowind most dungeons had worthless loot, but every now and then you'd come across one that housed a Daedric artifact or other awesome item.

Obviously, you went into different dungeons than I did. It's true that much of the loot in MW is levelled, but there were extended possibilities in the lists of finding slightly higher level items, and there are a few scattered pre-placed items which you can find at any level. That makes all the difference between finding the same iron daggers, garden tools, food, and household dishware in every crate in OB until you level up a few times, and finding one or two "different" items that you normally wouldn't expect to see yet, or even a semi-powerful unique artifact. In OB, those items simply didn't exist in Tamriel until you reached the proper level.

Quite frankly, I got bored with OB after about two weeks or so, and struggled to maintain the drive to finish the game to its less-than-rewarding conclusion. I'm STILL playing MW on a regular basis.

I played both Morrowind and Oblivion for good amounts of time. I liked them both.

As far as Morrowind goes;

1. I never played any of the main quest; were they good?
2. I liked how if you joined one guild you couldn't join the other.
3. I liked that there were more guilds to join.
4. Morrowind had a lot more quantity and uniqueness than Oblivion. They really have to get that back for the next elderscrolls game.
5. The art style of Morrowind was good. I didn't like the alien feel to the game at first, but ended up loving it as the game went on.
6. I hated the combat. It felt like a hack and slash game when I would battle monsters.
7. The walking animations were terrible.
8. The side quest were fun.
9. The Dark Elves were much cooler than they are in Oblivion.
10. I liked that it was very mod-able.
11. I didn't mind the Text until I started to play Oblivion.
12. I was disappointed that you couldn't build your own castle when you became the Neverain or whatever. I noticed that the Duke of Ebonheart had a deed to a castle made out to YOUR Character, but he never gave it to you. I guess it was something planned for the game, but for some reason Bethesda didn't go with it kind of like they didn't go with you becoming the Count of Kavatch which they had originally planed for OB.
13. I didn't like that you couldn't fight in the Arena.
14. I too liked that I felt like a stranger in a strange land.

As far as Oblivon goes;

1. Not much uniqueness and quantity.
2. The world felt smaller when it should feel bigger.
3. I played the main quest and liked the beginning as well as the end. The middle was rather boring and kind of gave that "Lets just get this over with" kind of feeling.
4. As for the beginning of the main quest; I liked that secret agent type of feeling when working with Baurus. It made it fun. They need more of this for the next TES game.
5. I liked the Combat and I liked that they put blocking under your control instead of leaving it up to chance. I also like that you could learn new moves like back flips as you gained more exp.
6. It is really fun to be an assassin in this game. The sneak was good and the DB quests were great.
7.The land was beautiful, but it lacked uniqueness in the dungeons. I liked the traps and everything, but all the dungeons looked the same.
8. The side quest were also fun. This is one of the few places where there was some uniqueness involved.
9. The Imperial City should've been a lot bigger.
10. I liked the Arena, but expected more and was disappointed.
11. Fast Travel made the game too easy. We should at least have to pay for it. It also took away the exploration feeling that Morrowind had. I think if they did FT like in Morrowind people would give more credit to the towns for all being different. Skingrad is my personal favorite.
12. Horses were ok, but again I was disappointed.
13. I liked that we could buy a house.
14. Of course this game was also very mod-able.
15. The expansion was great and Sheograth was a strange and funny guy.

Overall, both games had their strengths and downfalls. Both games have been successful in giving me the choice to make my own story. Both games have yet to give me that "I'm the Boss feeling" when I became leader of a guild or faction. Also both games need more Bosses. Like random bosses for example that you just find. Not big versions of the SF of MC, but different models of monsters.

I prefer Oblivion right now though because of the sneak and combat factors. Being an Assassin is my type of class and in that case Oblivion gives me a better feel than Morrowind when it comes to being an assassin which is why I prefer it over Morrowind.


Also, I heard people say that there was no personality in OB except for SI. I disagree. Baurus felt like a friend to me and it was kind of sad after that last battle when I walked through the gate to see if he was still alive. I looked at the bodies and found him among them. It was a sad feeling. I almost wanted to restart the game and make sure that he lived. Lucien was pretty cool too. I liked the feeling of being his personal assassin. Martin was also cool and he seemed like a depressed guy kind of forced into being the new emperor. He wouldn't of gotten no where if it wasn't for me.

I tell you one thing that i really love compared to Morrowind vs Oblivion. Now before i start i played an equal amount of time for both games over the years. I've played well over a thousand hours for oblivion and well over a thousand hours for Morrowind. The very first thing that comes to mind is the game engines. Oblivion's is more realistic. But gues what? It's more annoying. You know how many times i was in my house trying to put a sword exactly where i want it in Oblivion? I can remember times it would take me 15 min to place something in a certain spot and the number one thing that really annoys me is how the items float and reset their position after you enter each time. It's really anoying. In Morrowind they don't move. It's just more user friendly.

Example, look at my personal map of Vvardenfell i made. I would never even attempt to do that in oblivion b/c each time i would enter my house the items would move ever so slightly and after 100 loads it would look totally different.

It should take one hit. I mean its just a rat. In less that rat was bigger than you.

I also feel this way.

Actually you do get to build a stronghold once you advanced far enough in the Great House you joined.

Yeah. I paralyzed (or stunned, dont remember) a goblin, then proceeded to whack his head in. After 200 hits with a dwarven mace (which by that time was falling apart) I started using power attacks and spells. His head just lulled from side to side with each strike but he didn't show any other signs of being KILLED.

Boring, yes, frustrating, yes, unrealistic, yes, difficult, no. Challenge in games is something completely different. Something TES2, BS and RG still had plenty, but TES3 already much less. TES4, none.

There's your problem. If you're talking high level (I'm assuming 25+) then why were you using a low level weapon?
And if you had this problem at the level when dwarven levels are the best you can get, then, damn...

THAT is the problem with OB compared to MW: in Morrowind, your character's Skills and Attributes are the foremost things, and you can play the game successfully with even the worst equipment, given a bit more time to improve your own strengths and skills. In Oblivion, you've got a continuous "rat race" against the levelling adversaries, and either you continue to upgrade your gear every time that "better" becomes available, or else you fight at a serious disadvantage. That's not "incentive", that's an annoyance. One of the best parts of MW was finding a set of equipment that "fit" your character, in terms or appearance, function, and category (Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor; Long Blades, Short Blades, Axes, Blunt weapons, and Spears), and using that for most of the game. It might not be the best, but it's "you". Sure, there might be something out there that would give you a 20% improvement in something, but after a few levels, what's the difference between taking one hit to kill a Rat or one hit to totally annihilate that Rat?

One of my favorite weapons in MW was a "Broken Bottle" added in the TR expansion mod. Its stats are worse than those of the Iron Dagger you find at the start of the game, but there's a certain satisfaction to walking into a bandit lair and telling the first adversary you come across "Go ahead if you dare. I'll kill you with this, slowly......". With the kind of skill and physical power you've got at that point, it won't even be "slowly"; maybe three or four hits.

At low levels in MW, your pitiful skills and abilities give you almost no benefit, so you're mostly reliant on the damage that the weapon itself can do. Late in the game, YOU are the weapon, the tool is all but irrelevant.

Morrowind:

Had a sense of progression, unlike vanilla Oblivion where everything is leveled to you. Yes, you start out weak and miss half your swings, but as you level up you actually feel stronger, rather than the rest of the world simply "adjusting" to you, which is neither fun nor makes any sense.

Felt like an alien world that you could get lost in. It's not just the compass. Morrowind was a more harsh and alien landscape, with more diverse cultures and architecture. It was better realized, with more depth the underlying politics and factions. It felt less like a world that revolved around YOU. And yes, the darkened map and lack of compass and quest pointers made you feel like you were really stranded in a foreign place, forcing you to think about what you would really do in that situation, rather than following the magic arrow in the sky.

Didn't punish you for role-playing. Oblivion punishes you for playing any non-warrior class, and really pushes the player towards being a battle mage. Want to play a thief? Well guess what, all the loot you steal will be leveled to you (apparently someone forgot that the whole point of thieving is to get stuff that you're not supposed to have), and as you get more skilled at being sneaky, everyone else in the world gets more skilled at hitting harder and absorbing more damage. Fun.

Had a real plot, one that did not simply break down to "go into repetitive Oblivion gates over and over and over". 'Nuff said.

I could go on, but the downgrades in Oblivion are pretty obvious to anyone that's spent considerably time with the two. That's not to say that OB didn't improve *anything*. It did make strides in certain areas, but it was mostly a case of one step forward, two steps back...

Sorry for bringig up something you posted a few days ago, but comparing the dates of this and your post on the MW Cheats & Hints forum I just came to the conclusion you posted the quoted text on the same day that you got Morrowind and began playing it. Now I'm curious how mayn hours did you actually invest in the game and what level did you reach? Because if you played it for just a few hourse and didn't come much further than level 2 I can confidently say that you haven't really experienced Morrowind at all.

I had the benefit of playing Morrowind before Oblivion and so when I first began I wasn't spoiled by how easy Oblivion makes it for you. I was content with just roaming around, admiring the beautiful world (at that point MW was the most graphically advanced game I had ever seen) and doing the easy starter quests of the Balmora guilds.

I freely admit that modern gamers going from Oblivion to Morrowind have it harder. The graphics aren't stunning for them (often quite the contrary) and they got used to a different style of gameplay. Oblivion is for people who want to play adventurers. Morrowind is for people who want to play explorers. The difference between adventurers and explorers is that adventurers explore to find something to do and reap the rewards while for a true explorer exploration is it's own reward. There were plenty of times when my characters in MW got lost and I had great fun walking a path I had never walked before until I finally reached familiar teritory.

As for MW lacking freedom I in one way agree and in another way disagree. The key thing here is different kinds of freedom. Oblivion does give you the freedom to go to wherever you want to go, but in other ways it is more restricted. For example you are forced to upgrade your gear while in Morrowind I was running around in a mix of Iron and Steel at level 18 and doing just fine.

Played for a few hours before I just got annoyed. Don't know what level I hit, didn't really level up because as I said I couldn't find anything to do. It's a curse I guess. I could imagine liking it if I never played Oblivion first, but whener I play Morrowind I just get the feeling I should play Oblivion instead. Whilst Morrowind may be deeper, more immersive and more open in ways, Oblivion is just more... fun

I play on the Xbox 360 and the first time I attempted to run the game it was a disaster, everything was brown I could not see details properly and turned it off after half an hour. I upgraded my 360 to one that uses HDMI and the difference was incredible. Still lots of brown but I could see all the detail now unlike with the VGA cable. I also played Oblivion before Morrowind.

A very major benefit was after sinking a couple hundred hours into Morrowind I then wanted to replay Oblivion. It was so beautiful when I emerged from the sewers I gasped in awe. I ran around exploring, just enjoying grass and so on.