The battle for the title of best Elder Scrolls game is still going strong, even after an entire decade of Skyrim being out. While Bethesda seems to be completely convinced that Skyrim is the height of fantasy gaming, many fans are quick to argue in favor of an earlier installment in the series: Morrowind.
While Skyrim ushered in a decade of open world games and set the stage for more stunning graphics, Morrowind still keeps pace with any long standing fans. It finds itself as a classic of the genre while Skyrim is still clinging to life and trying to play in the big leagues.
10 Skyrim Has Prettier Graphics
When Skyrim was released in 2011, it was a breathtaking game. Fast forward to the higher definition releases, visual modding community, and the intense love Bethesda actually gives it, and Skyrim continues to be a gorgeous game.
It is never going to be the absolute bombshell of some of the newer 4k games, but it still holds up to being a visually appealing game. Morrowind is not standing up to time nearly as well, and instead is becoming something almost laughable by today's standards.
9 Morrowind Is More Unforgiving With Mistakes
Very few large-scale games allow the player to make such a mistake that they actually bar themselves from completing the main storyline. Morrowind makes the player actually pay attention to their little popups and be careful on who and what they kill. Nobody is safe.
If the player decides to go on a murderous rampage and kills an NPC they need for a quest fifty hours from then, well they are dead and they are not coming back without console commands. It leaves the player with a stronger sense of accomplishment knowing they actually succeeded at something when they finally make it to the end.
8 Skyrim Allows The Player Access To Everything
While sometimes being able to join absolutely every guild is a little awkward, Skyrim allows the completionist inside to do so. There is no need to be playing a mass of different files in order to experience the entirety of the game.
The Listener of The Dark Brotherhood can also be the Archmage of The College of Winterhold. There is the ability, albeit difficult to achieve, to actually complete the game 100% on one file, where that just is not possible in Morrowind by design.
7 Morrowind Doesn't Assume The Player Is A Hero
No matter what the player does in Skyrim, eventually the player will always be regarded as a hero. Unless modded, the game forces the player to undertake the skills and abilities of the dragonborn, which, for a game that is so heavy on being open world, is actually really limiting.
Morrowind on the other hand never once assumes heroism. Actions taken can actually have consequences, and the NPCs will remember. The character is never regarded as a hero unless they actually worked for it.
6 Skyrim Has More Complicated Dungeons
The dungeons, probably full of draugr and other undead, can be anywhere from a small cave with a couple of items, to a whole labyrinth hiding quests and items that would otherwise have been missed.
From the tiny dungeon holding a whole swath of vampires which new characters make a beeline towards to get turned before the game really gets going, to intensely trapped Dwemer mines, Skyrim excels in its ability to create interesting dungeons to crawl.
5 Morrowind Works In All Dimensions
A disappointing mechanic mostly removed from later games in the Elder Scrolls series was the ability to move upwards without the use of glitches or DLC. It was not without its flaws for sure, and sometimes it would become complicated to handle all directions, but it gave the world a much larger scope.
Nothing had to happen linearly and could be tackled at all sorts of different angles with different strategies. Taking that away really took away a whole layer of magic from the series.
4 Skyrim Exceled In Combat
Skyrim was infinitely better at handling battles. It relies more heavily on player skill instead of hidden mechanics. Skills can be improved, shuffled, and adjusted for better gameplay that is more suited to the style of the player themselves.
The game also allows dual-wielding, and not just swords. The player can have a spell ready in one hand and a weapon in the other, or even two entirely different spells ready to blast the enemy with, while also having a shout keybound. It made for more complicated battles with a better use of individual strategy and preference.
3 Morrowind Has Better Means Of Transportation
As funny as the glitchy horses riding up the Throat of the World are, Morrowind really takes the cake on transportation. The choices aren't just horse, walk, fast travel, or those carriages everyone forgets about.
In Morrowind there is the ability to put custom waypoints to teleport to as well as levitation which really should have been called flying. The ability to just run around in the air really gave a better vantage point that Skyrim really didn't have much of without very limited situations.
2 Skyrim's DLC Is Amazing
Hearthfire granted the player the ability to build houses after completing quests in certain regions, where they could bring their spouse or even adopted children. Dragonborn gave an entirely new section of the map to explore with new mechanics, shouts, and abilities to discover.
Dawnguard introduced an extremely engaging, complicated, and intense series of quests. It also allowed for the ability to become a Vampire Lord and unlocked an entirely new skill tree. At one point there is also the option to literally turn off the effects of the sun on vampires, effectively negating the main issue against playing as one. Not to mention the treasure, spells, and weapons given are all to die for.
1 Morrowind's Plotline Is Better
Hands down the best main storyline of any of the Elder Scrolls games goes to Morrowind. The player begins the game as a complete nobody, with racism that puts Skyrim's to shame. Everything has to be earned. It required advancement in skills, quests, and everything else in order to complete.
Nothing was ever handed to the player. Not some great blood right granting special abilities, not some old guys on top of a mountain. If the player manages to succeed, it was entirely due to their own skills and effort.