The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind® Game of the Year Edition

What a grand and intoxicating experience. The moment the Oblivion Remaster was announced I knew I had no choice but to finally replay ... Morrowind, my first Elder Scrolls game. I would have gone back to Arena but every time I get out of the starter dungeon--whether emulated or on my MS-DOS machine--the game crashes so yeah I think Morrowind is a safe place for modern gamers to start in revisiting the Elder Scrolls anyway (what is Daggerfall???). It largely plays like a modern FPS/RPG because it helped usher in that era of game in the first place, another aspect that helps make it an easy recommendation no matter how many years have passed. And its worldbuilding, narrative, and even gameplay are unrelentingly enjoyable as long as you are prepared to take some notes and stick with it.

It is a Bethesda game so character creation is some of the most enjoyable around, even if they probably only perfected it with Oblivion. The process is extremely brief but immediately helps you feel invested in the larger world and gives you a hint of your place in it, and fleshing out the choices you make in the beginning--or of course totally abandoning them for a life of crime and leaping over mountains--provides some of the most enjoyable experiences you will have in this or any other game. There are eight million things to do and eight billion ways to do them and it is basically impossible to feel limited, and that is really what I am looking for in my open-world games. I am not going to say that combat is the best feature of the game, and Bethesda definitely had not yet figured out how to balance human reflexes against character skills just yet, but again if you make sure to begin by leaning into whatever combat type your character is actually good at, you will get the hang of it.

It is true for the most part what they say about Bloodmoon and Tribunal--they each have enemies in them that are so much harder than anything you encounter in the base game, including the final encounter, that it makes you wonder what the designers were thinking not at least retroactively raising the difficulty of the main game in response lest they realize they had made a world where "goblins in a sewer" were some of the deadliest creatures around. BUT the cool thing is that both games had genuinely awesome storylines of their own, including some Elder Scrolls-wide plot updates (that I never knew since I beat Morrowind the first time before the expansions came out and never touched it again until 2025) that are well worth experiencing first-hand. Tribunal in particular really hits hard with its dramatic and almost perverse twists on the main storyline, and for both you really feel like you have accomplished something when you wrap them up.

There is no justification to not at least give Morrowind a shot, especially now that we have entered the era of the literally automated modding process. I finally tried my hand at getting hundreds of mods to work together and failed spectacularly, so I gave up and used OpenMW's automatic installation to get the visual fidelity stuff working effortlessly and dove back in. I am sure Tamriel Reborn in particular is exciting for people who want even more areas to explore--yeah I am definitely not one of them since even going nuts and trying to visit places I never saw before I still probably only set foot in 50% of the locations in the actual game, let alone the hundreds or thousands more added by the insanely dedicated modding world keeping this game relevant for decades.

I haven't progressed alot in the game... ive only pretty much made it to Balmora... and i can confidently say that this is one, if not the best mainstream Elders scrolls experiences i have ever had, the fact that im modding skyrim to remove waypoints just shows how fond i am of way the have you explore the world... its challenging, it's jank but it is phenomenal

I hated this game for the first 15 hours. I installed and uninstalled multiple times. After 15 hours, some switch was flipped and now I think this game slaps. Epic levels of slappage. I can't wait to play more of this game. I urge you to push through the initial discomfort, because what you will find is something so unique and beautiful.

Good game, OpenMW is the way to go. A little critical thinking during character customization saves a lot of headache. Definite no to mods that change hit chance, takes away from any character progression which is really enjoyable in this game.

Coming from a girl that started the elder scrolls series from Skyrim. Despite how dated the game is you can clearly see how epic and deep the lore and gameplay of story is than its successors in the first five minutes. I would love to see a remaster one day. But I fully implore all fans of rpgs young and old to give the alien world of Morrowind a chance.

Let's be clear: Morrowind has absolutely dated graphics and animations. There’s no voiced dialogue, no quest markers, no responsive AIs, and fast travel is limited at best. Does that make it a pain to play today? Perhaps. It's a world remarkably alien and bizarre compared to classic fantasy RPG concepts.

Yet this exact world feels so real, so alive, and tells a main storyline less epic than none. A game that opens with a dream and hands you a passport to an enchanted, uncaring, and unapologetically dense world. It sucks you into it, forcing you to read, think, and explore—to actually become part of this world—in order to progress. It asks you not to conquer it, but to understand it.

The spirit of TES always went beyond mechanics and graphics—it was about the world speaking back to you in whispers. But the names that once gave it that soul—MK, Ken, Jeremy Soule, and now Kurt—are gone. Under the Xbox acquisition, I don't know if BGS can still find the experimental spirit and layered worldbuilding they once had, rather than going for mass-market appeal. Now, there is a community that remembers, and there are indie developers carrying the flames. But to make a big open-world game this vast and complex, I can only imagine the compromises a small studio would be forced to make.

VI might still surprise us—and I hope it does. But right now, I feel that a spiritual successor to Morrowind may never come from Bethesda. It might come from someone who loved it as much as we do, somewhere else.

[quote] But, nonetheless, I'm afraid I find it all very, very sad that it should end this way, something that began in such glory and noble promise.

—Vivec [/quote]

wow. damn its good. It took me 3 tries and around 25 hours to understand but I fucking get it now. Probably my favorite of the series

convoluted, hard, and tons of text... 10/10. By the nines, bring back the old magic system please

I don't recommend this game at all. People can barley play oblivion, this game takes time to learn and struggle with. but its worth it, if you take the time

I have played this game for infinitely longer than it appears: I owned the original CD-based game and ever since I've had this on Steam, I've played it using the OpenMW engine for Linux. I just finally decided to play the vanilla version long enough to write a review.

This is the best Elder Scrolls game, by far, and much better than either Oblivion or Skyrim since it is actually a role playing game, not just an action/adventure light RPG. Swinging your weapon and "hitting" the enemy like in those other games isn't a guaranteed hit, just an attempt, given the variables which you have to modify your attack attempt with, like in a real RPG. The people who complain about this game not having good combat because of this do not understand this simple concept.

The world is wide, there are lots of little things to do, find, discover, and so on, similarly to any other game of its type, but this game seems to give you so many little subtle things that can be built upon to create something incredibly powerful if you figure it out that it absolutely creates a beautiful, living world those other games can't quite match.

OpenMW is a complete, great, modern engine for this game and I recommend you use it. Better graphics options and other little things as well as being able to run it on pretty much anything is a great addition to this game.

Put away your NuBlivion and Skyrim and sink hundreds and hundreds of hours into this game. Worth it.

Played first time 10h without moding... liked, but cant continue without alcohol😂
Now complete overhaul mod pack installed. Loving it. Can play sober.
I will spend days with this game.

Easily the best roleplay-oriented title in the elder scrolls line-up. This game doesn't hold your hand. Its strange alien world is complex and captivating. Many of the systems in this game, especially magic, are more fleshed out than those later games. The experience really feels as wide as an ocean, and as deep as an ocean too.

I hope that Bethesda does the brave thing and remakes this gem. Just give it a shiny coat of paint, tweak the outdated combat system, reduce fetch quests, and make NPC's more lively and there you have GOTY. I often hear modern gamers complain about the hardcore aspects of this game, like the complexity of navigation, but Morrowind is not a game that is enjoyed by turning your brain off and following a marker. And it can't be that difficult if I was playing and loving the game at only 7 years old. The reality is modern players would learn to love these systems if the rest of the game was updated to modern standards.

That being said, this game is still very playable to the right people. Just get it and install graphics mods for an unique and unforgettable experience.

Probably should use OpenMW, as it makes the experience simple and accessible. With the excellent modding community, this game is awesome.

Old game but great nonetheless. Kind of a slow/difficult start to the game, but it gets very fun after leveling up some levels. Even though the mechanics are old and a little clunky, I still think Morrowind is better than Skyrim.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was my very first step into the Elder Scrolls universe, and it marked the beginning of my lifelong love for open-world fantasy. When it launched in 2002, it wasn't just another RPG, it was a portal to another world.

At the time, one moment that truly left an indelible mark on me was witnessing the water effects for the very first time. The shimmering surface, the way ripples danced under the soft Morrowind sun, and the reflection of the alien landscape, it felt almost magical. For a young gamer back then, it was nothing short of revolutionary. I remember just standing at the shorelines, moving the camera around, utterly mesmerized by the realistic waves.

Driven by that obsession, I specially built a rig with dual 7800 GTX cards in SLI configuration, just to push Morrowind to its absolute visual limits. Even though SLI was largely overkill for a 2002 game, at the time it felt like the only proper way to experience Vvardenfell in all its glory. It wasn't just about frame rates, it was about reverence for a game that dared to dream so much bigger.

Morrowind wasn't perfect — the combat was clunky, and the guidance for quests could be unforgiving — but none of that mattered. The sheer freedom, the rich lore, and the sense of being dropped into a living, breathing world made it an experience unlike any other. Even today, decades later, the memory of that first shimmering lake under Morrowind's alien skies still feels like magic.

Recommend every ElderScrolls fan give this one a try. Use mods such as Open Morrowind, Morrowind code patch and unofficial bug fixes. They will make your first playthrough smoother by fixing some of the game's issues without affecting the story or the original content at all.

One of the best to ever be made. For new folks, read up a little on how the gameplay works if it initially bounces off of you, this is closer to DnD than an action rpg; you will have to rethink and stratagize to survive the first 5-12 hours of gameplay. Quest markers are not present, read directions and be open to getting lost into this great world. I still find new things 23 years in.

My first Elder scrolls game was oblivion, then I played this right before Skyrim came out, and you know what? It's still the best game Bethesda has ever made, where Oblivion (and Skyrim kinda) is a generic LotR version of Bethesda Maryland, Vvardenfell is a truly alien landscape teeming with interesting locations and people to meet.

Please remaster this game Todd!!! This was my favorite game as a kid and I would buy this 100 times like you wanted us to do with Skyrim! Give the people what they want. Morrowind remastered.

The best TES game, one of the best games of all time. A fun game, that while clunky occasionally, makes up for it with great gameplay. Don't play Skyrim go culture yourself and play Morrowind.

Oh my god. I attempted this game on the Xbox original, when I was younger.. after oblivion! dropped it, I don't think I was mature enough. Attempted it again when i was around 26 years old on the Xbox series x... sadly I lacked the required discipline to read things and to do a good job on my builds, I had real bad symptoms of ADHD growing up... so I gave up again. I am now 28 years old, half a year on my medications and finally able to think clearly! I am now attempting this on the pc and I am having an absolute blast, things are cohesive and simple as.

I highly highly recommend this game, as I thought oblivion was better, way better-- but I was so insanely wrong. This game has it all and now I am sad oblivion is getting a remaster and not this one hahah, it was the other way around my whole gaming life.

It doesn't age well, but I still love this game for being my entry into the world of RPGs, and that nostalgia carried me through a recent playthrough of its brilliant, clunky wonders.

I am sure that Todd hates this game, because it is the best out of all installments, and he had the least to do with it.

Go play some Morrowind, Nerevarine.

This is an incredibly good game if you are into the genre , the game requires you to do a fair amount of reading but the story and charecters really draw you into the world , Iv beaten the game 3 times and iv seen plenty of new thing each time iv played the game. A lot of people say this is the best elderscrolls game and I would say at the very least it has the best story and atmosphere. unlike its successors the player feels very weak at the start and absurdly powerful at the end of the game, instead of middling all the way through to the end because the enemies dont level with you, getting to level 50 does not mean you will just start seeing normal bandits wearing endgame armour and weapons.

Love this game, the feel and vibe. May be outdated and i'm forced to read to understand whats happening but i love it :)
Just wish i didn't run at a snails pace

he Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind — A Review Worthy of Nerevar Reborn

In the age before time, before fast travel coddled the weak and quest markers led the blind, there existed a world forged not merely by code, but by myth, grit, and the ash-swept dreams of gods. That world... was Morrowind.

Released in the year of our Lord 2002, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was not just a game. It was a portal — a blessed gateway to the alien majesty of Vvardenfell, where silt striders hum across fungal canyons and prophecy drips from the lips of madmen. The moment you awaken on that prison ship, with Jiub’s gravelly voice heralding your rebirth, you are no longer yourself. You are myth in the making. You are the Nerevarine.

The Worldbuilding? Divine.
Other games describe their settings. Morrowind breathes them. Its cities aren’t cookie-cutter outposts — they are wonders. Vivec, a floating hymn to hubris and divinity. Ald’ruhn, built beneath the corpse of a colossal crab god. Even the air tastes different — thick with spores, ash, and ancient secrets. No compass guides you here; you learn the land, charting your own course like the explorer you were always meant to be.

The Lore? Deeper Than Oblivion’s Maw.
Morrowind doesn’t hand you a story — it lets you live in a poem written by mad scholars and forgotten gods. Tribunal heresies, Chimer betrayals, Dwemer vanishing acts — every book, tomb, and mushroom-strewn path whispers lore older than the stars. Read The 36 Lessons of Vivec and try not to go mad. You won't. Because madness is enlightenment here.

The Gameplay? Rough. Raw. Real.
Morrowind demands patience. Your sword will miss. Your spells will fail. But with every swing, every stumble, you are learning. Becoming. Progress isn’t handed to you — it’s earned through sweat, salt, and spell scrolls looted from ancient ruins. It's an RPG that respects your intelligence — expects it, even. And for that, it is eternal.

The Music? A Sacred Hymn.
Jeremy Soule's score is not background music — it’s soul music. It doesn’t play — it resonates. The theme alone could reforge broken empires, or rouse Vivec from meditation.

The Legacy? Untouchable.
Morrowind is the reason modding communities still thrive like cults devoted to a forgotten god. It is the root of Tamriel’s mythos, the cornerstone upon which Oblivion and Skyrim built their fame. But those games? They are shadows. Morrowind is the flame.

In Conclusion:

Morrowind is not just a game. It is a holy pilgrimage through the dreams of gods and the ashes of empires. It is literature wrapped in code, art sealed in pixel dust. To play it is to be humbled. To finish it is to be changed.

And if ever a game could make God weep — it is this.

10/10. Not even Azura herself could improve it.

(I have way more hours on this game's OpenMW version)

Welcome Moon-And-Star, to this game, where peak is played.

This is my ex-wifes favorite game so i'm not allowed to play it anymore but still pretty fun. I miss her and i think about her every day

Can be difficult at the start but the game is filled with hours of fun if you are able to push through until you raise your skills. Outdated mechanics can be frustrating at times, especially for people used to more modern titles. The world, lore, and world building of the game is absolutely fascinating and extremely immersive if you take the time to learn and explore. Would recommend giving the game a try, especially if you are a fan of the other Elder Scrolls games.

I've had this game on Xbox since 2004; it is the best Elder Scrolls game. Todd's only taken it downhill from here. It has diceroll mechanics on hitting enemies right in front of you, but there's a mod for that if you really can't handle it. It's a game for experienced gamers, not one made to appeal to toddlers like Skyrim is in many ways.

only time I ever played morrowind was as a child and I remember understanding nothing of it lol mainly cause english is not my main language.
played a lot of oblivion and skyrim since then, but was always relutant to try morrowind again because of the the mechanics and the difficulty of the game as a whole to absorb.
now, after about 125 hours playing, I can say that I couldnt be more wrong. The game in fact doesnt lead u by hand, but it is very well described and the quest directions and instructions do server their purpose, being exactly what the experience is about: absolute exploration and self improvement. the game can be cheesed easily at the end with trainers and skills, but it still is such an unique RPG experience, that I think gets a bit behind other games like baldurs gate series because of the lack of the traditional turn based combat, which makes a bit confusing for begginers to accept that they simply cant hit everything like in newer the elder scrolls games.
but after u overcome those simple "problems" that are actually a overgossip (is that a word?) of how mechanics are hard in theory. but in the end, u really just need to pay attention. it is actually a game made to be played after reading a manual (which is included with the game) because it tries to be a real rpg, but adapted to be a video game. role playing games are based on strong solid rules, that can be overwhelming if u r new or dont like reading stuff, but I can asure u its worth it.
I have over 3k hours of skyrim gameplay (including consoles, mutiple pc versions and vr) and I can say that morrowind surprises me in many ways skyrim could never. It's an absolute must play for any fantasy player who enjoys rich lore. now get those nwahs out of resdayn. play dunmer.

Morrowind is a fantastic game. Out of all of the Elder Scrolls games, Morrowind is the best at conveying a sense of progress. In the first hour of the game, you will struggle against bugs. Near the end, it almost because boringly easy to topple the biggest creatures the game has to throw at you. The scope of the world is wonderfully done; the map feels large because of the corridor-like open world finely crafted by natural buffers such as lakes, rivers, lava, and mountains. Dungeons are a blast to explore, and I like the the lack of of markers, requiring greater attention to NPCs and your journal, making for better immersion.

The only negatives I can say about the game is that the guilds are on the weaker side, the main story didn't captivate me like Oblivion's, the game is frankly dated by most people's standards, and certain skills, such as sneak and speech, are not fun to use or level. But, if you're considering purchasing this game in 2025, you likely know what you're getting into.

Proof Bethesda can make an open world RPG with great writing and story telling. There are plenty of mods to make the game more comfortable for the modern gamer.

You love a great story and like magic.
Then i can recommend the game, but please play with mods.
Do it for yourself!

One of the games I return to replay every few years. This will be the 10th< time I play it. LETS GO!
I wish Bethesde knew how to make games with depth to them still. Every playthrough I do is significantly different from the previous!

Sooooo old now but sooo nostalgic. Plays awful compared to modern games but 10/10 for story. Will always be a favorite for me.

It's probably my favourite game. No other way to put it. The sights, sounds, creatures, people and music of Vvardenfell are forever burned into my brain. There's too much good in this game for me to even properly articulate it. The atmosphere is unrivalled, the character-building possibilities near unlimited and the pure joy of discovery this game offers is magical. It's unforgiving in places and obtuse but those things make it a better game in the end. The factions, settlements and characters are unique and offer incredible role-playing opportunities. The weapons are cool, the armour is cool, the spell system is insane in the most beautiful way. The books flesh out the world in a way that is almost unfair to other games. Morrowind is the best.

I have been a long time Elder Scrolls fan since I first watched my mom play it when I was a young boy. I started with Skyrim and I played it for years, but in 2023 I began my journey into Vvardenfell. I was entranced by it's beauty and charm, and I spent hours playing it. My mom had lent me her game discs and allowed me to play it on an old computer owned by my step-father. Unfortunately my mother died in September of 2023 and my step-father took the game discs as well as the guide books my mom owned even though she promised them to me (my step-father didn't like me very much). I have recently bought a computer and this was the first game I bought on Steam. Even though I began with the much newer Skyrim, Morrowind became my favorite of the Elder Scrolls games. I would definitely recommend this game to Elder Scrolls fans both new and old so that we may remember where we began.

Morrowind is a game that excels at requiring you to think ahead. As a teen I made very slow progress in this game. As an adult, it's become apparent that cashing in 2-3 quests at a time should be the norm. For the time, this game was ground breaking. Today, it still holds solid weight as an enjoyable RPG.

At 2016, my halfway playing skyrim, i play morrowind. And i love this game more than skyrim, even after all these years i always think to play this again, there always this idea that morrowind offer much more adventure and mysteries to uncover, because unlike skyrim who take nordic inspired theme that we seen a lot at media, morrowind does not take any reference, its create its own world. imagine a game that purely made from scratch, everything is new without reference to real world theme, none. Its purely fantasy, that is nuts. and that is morrowind. neat part is, engine back then have limit so they cant spamming grass or leaf at the game, it will cost performance, so what they do is. Bethesda let the worlds barren with few flower for alchemy, but they compensate this barren world with actual lore as to why the worlds barren, and the more you play its gonna make sense why its barren. In this game you not born as hero, you were nobody, nobody expecting you do anything, and that is give you more freedom to what to do in game, because you are nobody you can do whatever you want, explore the lands, help people, mugging them, none of this matter except to fullfill your own excitement. In skyrim you born hero, you must fight dragon, so you trained to fight dragon, in a way that will give you sense that other quest is just stepping stone to fight dragon. In morrowind you always wander what to do who to fight, so you goes talk to people asking what to do, are there job? Are there threat? What their stories? And they offer you job, give some lore what happen at town, and tell there some big bad guy to defeat, but they not expecting you to defeat it, so neither are you expecting to go defeat that big bad guy, because you not own anybody anything. This idea make playing morrowind is more fun and immersive, like making your own name on this world. Sure there lot of reading in this game cause not everything voiced, but its make you more active to actual read and care about the stories.

Best Elder Scrolls game in the series. This game is absolutely fantastic and the player freedom is incredible.

7/10 - Good.
Started the game. Missed 5 attacks in a row. Got killed by a rat. 10/10 immersion.
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For a game over two decades old, Morrowind still manages to impress with its depth and unique RPG elements. I played it on OpenMW, and it was surprisingly stable and visually appealing. The quests, however, can feel repetitive, as many are basic fetch quests or simple tasks like "talk to this person and return." That said, the magic system is one of the game's standout features, offering a vast array of spells and scrolls that add a lot of variety and fun to gameplay.

Unfortunately, the combat system is a major letdown—it’s clunky and unrefined, and it’s the biggest barrier to fully enjoying the game. I'd recommend focusing on the main quest and any side content that catches your interest while avoiding combat-heavy sections if you can. The best thing about Morrowind is its distinctiveness and quirky charm. While it might not hold up to the hype for everyone, it still offers a unique RPG experience.

Overall, I'd suggest playing on OpenMW for a smoother experience, but be sure to grab it on sale. It’s definitely worth exploring, just don’t expect it to be flawless.

God Tier RPG, simply the best ES game in existence. PERIOD.
Steam says a couple hours played but I assure you it's closer 1k all together.

Recently played through it for the first time and it is absolutely incredible.

Very old, absolute classic. I am a rather new Elder Scrolls fan, having only played Skyrim a couple times around 8-9 years ago, but I absolutely love Morrowind. It's exactly what i'm into, but what that is, is a game from 24 years ago. If your system can handle it, you can use OpenMW to improve aspects of this game that's older than me, but honestly... it's pretty good in it's original engine. Plus, you can get mods in original Morrowind that fix the same bugs (maybe not, but they do fix bugs. so.).
What I'm saying is; Great game, I love it, it's my style for sure. However, many people may not have the same ideas when looking for a fantasy RPG. This is dungeons and dragons on the screen, so, only play this game if you're good with reading and behind-the-scenes dice rolls. (and lots of exploits. check those out!)

In the begining it is diffivult but as you kep playing it starts to get easier

One of the most immersive RPGs to ever play if the graphics bother you i suggest mods but other than that keep a open mind going in, and be ready to die this game ain't easy

Best time I had was when I stole some sacred armor and took the potion of divine intervention to get ported randomly somewhere far away and then had to grind for gold but still couldn't enter any cities because guards hated me so I found some drug lord slaver elves and drank a ton of alcohol in order to stack the buffs and debuffs so that if I ever hit any of the criminals they would die in one hit but that's a big IF because I was beyond drunk since the game allows you to just keep going and then I finally had enough gold and then had to strip completely naked and drop all inventory in order to outrun the guards and then went house to house in a city in order to find a guild to finally clear my name after hours and hours of living in exile... 10/10 would do it all again! (This happened maybe over a decade ago and then I rebought the game and then promptly even forgot this was in my Steam library til just now)

pretty good, holds up really well gameplay wise, although the map is a little annoying cause its unclear and travel is slow

I first got my hands on this gem when I was about 11 years old, so it was a nice memory from my childhood. I decided to get it on steam and give it a revisit. Still amazing, the music is stunning, the world is still creepy and alien, the RPG elements are still good - not as complex as in Arena or Daggerfall but still deeper than Skyrim or Oblivion. Bethesda is really good at building massive immersive worlds with a ton of lore. Still enjoyable in 2025. Still one of my all time favourites.

Very first Elder Scrolls game i played was Oblivion so i never got around to playing this one. Bought it last year and played 5-10 minutes on two separate occasions. It was VERY difficult for me to get into this game. So much was different compared to the usual Elder Scrolls i'm used to. Oblivion has its wonky charm but man, this one is out there.
However today i decided i'm going to force myself to play this game because i need some new Elder Scrolls entertainment as we disdainfully wait for 6. Now i cannot stop. After getting past all the things that turned me away from this game initially i found that i am falling in love with it more and more. Oblivion will always be my favorite Elder Scrolls game, but the more i play this game the closer it gets to dethroning Skyrim as my second favorite.

Worked for a little, then it began to crash every time I opened it; it gives me an error code that says it cant find the title.mp3. Now I am unable to return it because the time that I spent trying to fix this error somehow transferred to gameplay and exceeds the 2 hour return policy. Thanks for nothing steam. Now I know to go with Microsoft, at least they ensure their games work.