MrEco wrote:P.S. A lot of people seem to be hoping this one will be more like Morrowind. As I said I haven't played Morrowind so can somebody tell me what made it different from Oblivion that makes so many people prefer it?
Here's a few points;
. It didn't hold your hand in any way. In Oblivion you're given a full tutorial followed by an important quest minutes into the game, in Morrowind you're dumped in a backwater town with no direction other than to speak to a man in a distant town. It can be daunting, but it's also quite rewarding.
. Oblivion relied entirely on fast-travel. While there was fast travel in Morrowind, it was only between certain points - harbours, mage's guilds, silt striders (giant bugs that carry you across land), which is frankly more realistic than just magically clicking on a map marker and being transported wherever the hell you want to go.
. Oblivion had to point everything out - in Morrowind, there was no magic compass telling you what's in the local vicinity, there were no map markers to illustrate exactly where you have to go. You'd be given a destination, with directions on how to get there, but it'd be up to use those directions in conjunction with landmarks to get where you needed to go.
. Morrowind had no levelled enemies and loot - every cave, every ruin you entered could potentially hold a monster waaaaay above your level, but it could also hold rewards way above your level too, so there was a much larger element of 'risk vs reward' - also, because of the lack of levelled loot you'll never see crappy bandits wearing expensive-ass armour like you do in Oblivion.
. In Oblivion you can play the game and be proficient in practically every discipline. In Morrowind you were much more restricted to your character class - so if you started off as a ranger, it'd be hard to use magic or heavy armour and weapons effectively.
. Morrowind had conflicts between joinable factions - for one thing, there were a lot more factions, and these would at times come in conflict with each other. So it'd be impossible to complete all the factions storylines in a single playthrough.
. Morrowind's art direction was a lot more varied, and this ultimately led to a more engaging gameworld.
. Everything in Morrowind feels hand placed, because it was. Every cave, every ruin, every quest, every item - it was all hand paced, whereas Oblivion used random generation for so many things, such as the forest-covered landscapes or the near-identical caves.
. The lore of Morrowind is much, much deeper than that of Oblivion.
I could go on for hours. I love Oblivion and have spent 200+ hours playing the game, but I love Morrowind so much more (1000+ hours and counting!).