» Sun Oct 16, 2011 6:33 pm
I feel it, too. I think it has a lot to do with the type of atmosphere and the location and the political/historical climate of the game. Like you, it was my first RPG that I really got into. First and foremost, the game world is more or less completely original, which is something the "medieval" Oblivion atmosphere lacks. Most of the creatures were completely foreign and not based on other conventions (like imps, goblins, run of the mill evil spirits, but I have to say I love Oblivion's deer). They were unpredictable because of that. They could paralyze us, eat our souls, bake us cookies-- we had nothing to base our notions on. I know when I first played Morrowind I feared for my life when I left towns, and I shuddered to enter any ruins because I knew I'd get my ass handed to me. I was also eleven at the time of release. lol We feared because in many cases enemies were at a defined level, which is something we lost in Oblivion. Leveling everything gave a new level of difficulty to the game as we leveled up, but it also made it easier initially, and fogged the player's understanding of the PC's position in the world at level 1.
Fast travel was my saving grace and really my only means of getting around back in the day on MW. Finding the Urshilaku camp was a nightmare, if only for the backwoods way of getting there and the creepy atmosphere of the Ashlands. I feared entering the Ghost Gate.
In Morrowind, no one was really textbook "evil." In Oblivion and in other comparable RPGs, I feel that the characterization is at least a little more cut and dry for ease of interpretation and helping to make decision making (that sometimes you cannot actually make) make more sense.
Finally, Morrowind was a big deal when it came out and was the pride-and-joy of sandbox RPG-ing (even though that's a rather small category) for both story, atmosphere, and even graphically. Even though it was the third in the series, it could have very well been the first, as new technology truly breathed new life into the already riveting history of the Empire. Morrowind mods also actually enhanced gameplay, and still do. Oblivion mods I find either "Morrowfy" aspects of Oblivion or simply add an object or house. Rarely do we see the same type of modding that Morrowind modding had brought us, with in-depth quest mods with new guilds and factions, companions and slaves, mods that changed the way we viewed the PC death, etc. etc. To this day most of the articles that say "Let's replay Morrowind" detail mostly graphical enhancers to bring the game up to date. The story remains untouched. It has its own innate replay value. It seems that Morrowind has developed a timelessness and a special place in the heart of its players whose shoes not even the game's sequel could fill.
I have to say though that for me the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion did what Morrowind did for me to a certain extent. I thoroughly enjoyed it.