The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind is the best game I have ever played and I played nearly all the well known games and a lot of unheard ones, even some unreleased ones too.
And I own 4(four) copies of it :)
I first saw its first teaser screenshot (a silt strider standing in probably in Ald'ruhn under magical many colored evening sky) in a gaming magazine from a more civilized age, cd's were new and people were making games because they loved making games. After two years I think it was released, and was not available in my country, anywhere but pirated. I was lucky, a few weeks later I went to Italy and there it was: A beautiful sandy brown colored box which look like an old tome. And it supported English too! I immediately bought. I got a new computer just to play it and guess what, the 3dfx card came with a copy of Morrowind! I played it every year finishing average 4 times a year for 5 years. Along the way, the expansions were released. I got them. They re released it in GOTY edition, I got it to protect my original cds. And recently I got The Elder Scrolls Anthology, which also includes Morrowind and expansions!
Morrowind is such a game that, one who does not pay attention to detail will not enjoy half of it. Every house you walk in, every tiny NPC you talk is interesting in some way and most have a different thing to say. Vvardenfel is such a unique and magical fantasy setting that I have yet to see another remotely close feel.
The ash storms and the voice of the wind while you try to reach the camp, a bright starry night at Vivec, creaking wooden platforms and boggy surroundings of Seyda Neen, unique plant life modt of which you can actually collect, make porions or place in patterns with obsession, cities really feeling like cities teeming with life, a unique meaningful and deep story, books and books of history(most of which were present in Arena and Daggerfall but still...), distinct items which reflect the world perfecly, artifacts, guilds(each one is worth a seperate rpg game) and the Great Houses with their own intrigues, ideas and in and inter house conflicts( comes with great replayability ;), politics, cult of the Tribunal and the pilgrimage... I can go on for days and ı would still have lot to tell. And the Combat system was not some "random clicks" as somebody here mentioned, it was controlled by your movement keys plus the attack button, producing different strike styles for each movement and each weapon had seperate damages for each strike. A fully customizable "free" magic system was present(which was gradually watered down in each TES game to some flashy limited spells in Skyrim) in which you could do some pretty crazy(and sometimes gamebreaking and like cheating) things. Journal was flavorful and a joy to read. There were no "waypoints", just your good old journal with hardcore pathfinding and asking for directions and a few common landmarks. This was a true "roleplaying game".I can go on for days and will still have something more to say. Forgive me for the things I forgot to mention.
To those who didn't play: Please play this game and play right. Savor the moment, talk the people and in the eightbabd one's names read the books!
Oh I forgot the best feature was the adorable, magnificent cliff racers!
I am looking forward to buy my 5th Morrowind from GoG! ;)
