Author:
Simulacrum
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Date:
5/31/2017 9:38:49 AM
Subject:
RE: SSE Creation Kit
If I can ever get out of this dopey vampire DLC, I'll try Dragonborn, but I have my doubts that 2011-2015 Bethesda understands 2002 Morrowind.
It's true that Morrowind was plagued by bad animation, whack-a-mole combat, frequent crashes, long walking sequences, and other problems, but it rose above all this in various ways.
Bethesda has never equaled MW's world creation. Oblivion was a console game with dull towns, a duller landscape, indifferent voice acting, and a stupid loot system. The combat was better, but Beth was so focused on plugging up exploits and turning ES5 into Medieval Halo that they lost the deep ideological textures and complexity of ES4. Skyrim was better, but it never got what made MW special.
Beneath all its jickiness, Morrowind was intricate in its crazy religions and politics, which were foregrounded instead of obscured behind shallow quests and combat. You had to read things in Morrowind, and you had to pay attention to what people said. Everything was part of a vast tapestry pointing to who the Nerevarine was, and all the factions/religions were politically implicated in this identity.
The loot was often unique and rarely disappointing. Artifacts were hard to find but worth the trouble. A thief had something to steal. Progress sometimes depended on how you managed to put two and two (and more two's and two's) together. You found yourself realizing things instead of having them thrown in your face, and you really could go anywhere and do anything if you just figured out how.
ES5 and 6 were big open-world video games with gimmicks. Morrowind was a fantasy/mystery on an epic scale. With all its faults, it was a world made up of dreamlike, disparate parts that, over time, hung coherently together. Dragonborn may revisit Morrowind, but I doubt that the developers can recreate its insane grandeur.
