Morrowind vs. Oblivion

So I've heard a lot of people say Morrowind is better than Oblivion, but I can't fathom why they say it. Maybe it's because I started with Oblivion, and then when I go back to Morrowind, stat and inventory management is horribly abstracted and combat, well, sucks.

No, really. I'm not going to say Oblivion's the pinnacle of quality combat, but Morrowind's combat is like some kind of sick joke.

I think Oblivion's menu system is a little TOO console-ized and dumbed down, but a quick modding fixes that, and the fast travel added is a lifesaver. I also must be the only person in the world who doesn't mind the game's leveling system.

So what the heck makes Morrowind better than Oblivion?

 

i have to say i started with marrowind and then wne to oblivion and i have to say in every aspect oblivion is better then marrowing IMO but that doesnt mean that it suceeds in everything as its not hard to be better then marrowing, the fighting was boring, the inventery sucked and the level system was annoying i prefer oblvions though i dont like the quick travel as i missed so much stuff just jumping from location to location

 

Both annoyed me greatly.

Somehow the way it was all managed just bugged the hell out of me. I couldn't stand how stats grew, really...the rest of it wasn't bad.

You know, maybe I should try the PC versions, I have only played morrowind for xbox and oblivion for xbox 360, I'm getting the vibe that a PC version might help me enjoy the game better.

Honestly, I was never able to finish either game, it felt like whenever I turned them on I had to spend the first few hours fighting off the game itself before I got to play. Guh...I feel so bothered just thinking about it.

Yeah, PC version must be the reason you guys like it so much.

 

I pretty much enjoyed oblivion more, as is more graphically beautiful and far more complex...I remember when morrowind was out, you would need a geforce 2 64 mb I think to enjoy water waves and such,and look at oblivion now, it kneels a lot of computers...
I say oblivion, since morrowind at this point looks ridiculous.And it was finished in 7 minutes : check http://speeddemosarchive.com/

 

We almost got the best of both worlds! Morroblivion! Shame project had to be abandoned due to Bethesda request



I prefer Oblivion over Morrowind since i started with Oblivion first. But one the other end it seems people who started on Morrowind first prefer it over Oblivion. There has been comments that Morrowind is more open ended than Oblivion so that might be a reason, i think Morrowind didn`t have a compass arrow to help guide you to the location of each quests goal. Also just playing Morroblivion i feel the wordspace does have a unique, if slighty more darker atmopshere to it than oblivion`s.

 

No, you are not the only one. I liked the leveling system since it gives a different perspective for making levels, which I find coherent with Oblivion freedom of choice, in contrast with most of the RPG's where you start in 'the forest of the begginers' and finish in the 'advanced dungeon'.

 

Oblivion with this http://devnull.devakm.googlepages.com/convergence is a completely different experience.

 

I personally haven't played and wouldn't even consider playing either of these games without heavy modding. Both have serious issues in game mechanics and gameplay, which Bethesda have left for the community to update and fix. Though, these issues mostly bother only HC RPG gamers, propably not so much casual players or those new to the genre.

But any flaw that you might think of, the communities of both games have usually already fixed. So I don't think there's really point of talking about stat/inventory management, combat issues etc.. or pretty much anything related to game's mechanics of either game unless we are comparing only vanilla Oblivion and vanilla Morrowind.
In this case it's a tough call: I would say there's more depth in the world of Morrowind (NBCs, conversation, quests, story etc.). Oblivion makes many of these things a lot simpler and shallow (NBCs, conversation, quests etc.), maby too simple to some people; adds some new great features (Radiant AI, horses, combat, fast travel, nice graphics etc.) but also takes off some good features found in Morrowind (open cities, levitation, intervention/mark, armor pieces etc.)... So it's propably personal preference, which is better when unmodded. Both have their own pros and cons.

Anyway I wouldn't recommend either of these games unmodded. When modded, Oblivion is technically better, but still lacks the depth of Morrowind. Still I think they are both great games when modded right and definitely worth playing.

 

As a player of the ES series from the beginning Arena era I think it's because Morrowind truely was amazingly different when it came out. It was the first game to show DX8.1 advantages (only available on Radeon 8500 and above [along with Truform]) with beautiful scenery and dynamically reflecting water, and it was just enormous for the time (although smaller than Daggerfall, maybe 1/10th the size).

I think the people who like Morrowind more than Oblivion liked that whole "WOWee, I ain't seen nuthin' like this before! " feeling, and while Oblivion was to them great and solid, didn't have that same WOW factor.

However anyone playing Morrowind now, is jaded, Oblivion is definitely more beautiful (although the mods for Morrowind helpedimprove it's beauty) , and you've gone through the FartCry, HL2, D3, WOW, EQII, Fable, BF2, COD2, etc eras of games that came afterwards.

For the time Morrowind was pretty special and very much on it's own which is why people still think of it fondly. I still love it, and it definitely was more HOLY COW! to me than Oblivion, but if they launched simultaneously there's little doubt that people would prefer Oblivion, although the story of Morrowind is probably better being the self-centered gamer that I am.

It's like those who were fans of HalfLife more than HL2 or Doom more than D3 because of what it meant to them at the time they were released, not because they still remain better games.

 

it's not a fair comparision, there're 4 years between the two games, so technically speaking oblivion is a much better game than morrowind but morrowind world is much more intresting and the art design is stunning and very otherwordly compared to oblivion's typical european middle-ages and crusaders style which i found to be uninteresting and overused since we've seen it in hundreds of games before. yes the combat sucks and many of the gameplay mechanics felt kinda unfinished, even though i still prefer morrowind for things like orginality, atmosphere, unique art-design and the island of Solstheim(werewolves!! ).

 

there are always people who go out of their way to go against something that's mainstream. if you say Oblivion is better then that doesn't evoke much emotion but if you say Morrowind is better then voila you start up ridiculous debate which he/she have been waiting for. it's something people label as attention whore.

 

Wow man, i bet you don't even know what you're talking about!! but that's fine cause there're always those who try to show others how cool they are by telling people they're dumb.....why? just trying to get some attention and many many replies( did somebody mentioned attention whore!!! )..

it's really funny because no one here mentioned that morrowind is better than oblivion(with the exception of you!), well some of us liked morrowind better maybe because of the bizzare art design or huge open-world which was a hit at that time, but everyone agree that oblivion is a better game than morrowind, so please read well next time, and i'll leave it to you to judge whose debate is rediculous...

 

Actually NULL, you're the first person to bring that up. I guess that makes you the attention whore...


Both were fantastic games, but Morrowind was very harsh on beginners. Oblivion has all the good points of Morrowind but none of the weaknesses.

Oblivion was an amazing game, and I still play it from time to time.

 

I emphatically disagree that this isn't a fair comparison, because I'm not talking about the visual styles of the games (for the record, I think both have absolutely miserable art design). This is absolutely a fair comparison. What you're suggesting is that it would be unfair for something like Doom 3 to be compared to Doom I & II, but that throws your whole system out the window since I think just about everyone would agree that Doom I & II are vastly superior games.

 

when did i accuse anyone of being dumb? but if you feel that way then i can't help you.

i was inferring to OP who claimed there are 'a lot of people.'

thank you, that was my main argument.

why when i can judge without 'reading well.'

 

yeah i guess that sort of makes me a attention whore. guilty!

 

Yes however if you were to launch Doom or Doom II now, few people would play it.

They were good for their time, and may have had better story lines (didn't realize there was much of a storyline to Doom until much later), butneither would sell well today regardless of all that.

And for whatever reason, graphics, gameplay, AI, combat etc, other examples have come along that have improved on that, so now Morrowing doesn't seem as special, so those 4 years do matter.

 

IMO, the story in Morrowind was better than the story in Oblivion.

 

I disagree, and I won't get into a hypothetical argument over whether Doom or Doom II would see play today (for what it's worth though, the health of the source ports suggests "yes.")

Morrowind may not seem comparatively special now, true, but the mechanics about it that ARE bad were bad THEN too. The game is inaccessible to beginners and dwarfs them, and the combat in the game makes Diablo II and Hellgate: London seem downright deep and complex. Combat in The Legend of Zelda was more complex and better executed.

I tried playing Morrowind over and over again in the intervening years prior to the release of Oblivion (I received a free copy with my All-in-Wonder 9800 Pro), and it never drew me in and always struck me as being beginner unfriendly at best and downright hostile at worst.

 

I played Oblivion first, went back and played Morrowind.

I felt Morrowind was the better game - the story kept me going even through some real annoyances (the freaking birds). The quest system in Oblivion is definitely an upgrade, but the quality of the quests in Morrowind were simply better. In terms of comparing the 2, if you play both you can see how Oblivion corrects many of the flaws in morrowind, but they dropped the ball with the story/quests - they aren't bad but the quests from Morrowind just seem more epic and I remember Morrowind months later while accomplishments in Oblivion were just less meaningfull and some just seemed pointless.

So graphically / technically - Oblivion is better
Story, content Morrowind kills it.

 

that's not true, you liked the Doom I & II better than the third game but that's not because years don't matter, it's because the developers simply did a terrible job, the gameplay mechanics and game design were ripped straight from the classic games, so doom 3 was nothing but the old games with new shiney paint, but it didn't work because the technology that backed the game was at odds with the old-fashined gameplay and design, even though, if you want to get real doom3 actually is better than the old games, but you don't feel that way because when you played doom I it was a hit and impressed everyone and had alot of new ideas and surprises and since doom3 was based on the same formula the WOW-factor was lost....so years matter..alot and gaming industry is benefiting from time and technology.

Btw, many people agree morrowind's art design is better than oblivion's, and yeah a straight comparision between the two games isn't fair and simply doesn't work because oblivion is an evolution of morrowind and without morrowind, oblivion wouldn't be the same great game it is today...

 

A port relies on that built-up good feeling of past plays, so even that's not a good standard by which to judge.

Sounds like you don't like an FPS RTS so much as top down, because Hellgate's combat in FPS is terrible for what it could be based on the hardware, and that to me was always the biggest limitation of Morrowind, which obviously impacted the combat since you really can't make it over complex without it becoming a turn based system, which is not what it set out to be.

To each their own, never got that feeling found it easy myself, but then again it's like Stragate and others to n00bs, either you like it and make the effort to 'get it' or else it's more hassle than it's worth and you don't and you move on the the other genres that suit you better.

 

I'm not mixing up nostalgia here; Doom I & II offered a better, more visceral experience than Doom 3. Doom 3 has fundamental flaws Doom I & II don't. Doom 3's level design is poor and uninspired and it never presents you with the wave after wave of enemies that Doom I & II do (and can't, really). I have yet to play a game since that produces the raw visceral thrill that Doom I & II do/did.

Doom 3 is visually superior to the old games, but its gameplay is generally regarded as being inferior for the reasons I cited. I enjoy playing Doom 3 because I do find it visually appealing, but the gameplay is middling.

Mega Man 1 is a stunningly mediocre game, punishingly challenging (at least for American kids) and loaded for bear with profoundly frustrating levels. Mega Man 2 is regarded as one of the best games produced for the NES. A bad game can produce a quality sequel.

I don't mind a FPS RPG, but Morrowind's combat was stunningly bad, and I think my comparisons are apt. I'm not suggesting Hellgate: London's combat is particularly good; the game is pretty awful, so my suggestion that Morrowind's combat is worse isn't a compliment to Hellgate: London, it's a damning criticism of Morrowind.

Well, congratulations for being so sharp and so brilliant as to be able to jump right into Morrowind. But for the rest of us plebes, the game is unfriendly to new players and doesn't do itself any favors by being so openly hostile to them.

 

they are both boring to me..but oblivion had bttr mods

 

once you dig yourself into the modding territory you'll see oblivion has a lot of flaws that were corrected by the community, but morrowind was "developped" the same way

storywise - morrowind was and is better, but that's just a personal opinion. oblivion has pathetic npcs, really weak quests and too straight warrior oriented campaign. morrowind feels a tad more open minded...

 

Well, I actually started with Morrowind, and then moved on to Oblivion, and though I dropped both of 'em before reaching 25% completion (I do plan to give Oblivion another chance in the future though), I'd have to say that Oblivion's the better game just because of better graphics and what I want to call "more compulsion" to play. With Oblivion, you could actually have fun doing the quests and customizing your character and taking on the harder enemies. Morrowind was just a burden to play and there was absolutely no point in time where I could say I was having fun, even though I thought that was what games were for.

 

Well considering the maturity level of that reply, I think I know why you had so much difficulty with it.

You completely miss the point, what may be difficult to some isn't to others, and that's not because either A) the game is n00b unfriendly or B) the player is st00pid; it's just not a match.

Some people like a challenge like RISK or chess, others prefer games that are pick-up and go like checkers, and then some people like both, that's just the way it is.

Sounds like you need to go play a game though because you're obviously too wound-up about this.