No you don’t, because you can just buy training until you max stat gain. (I really disliked the way subsequent games limited skill training but I can understand feeling a need to.) Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the natural course of play or anything, but it’s easy and optimal.
Still, my favorite of the series as well.
You guys are nuts. I loved Morrowind for its atmosphere and its world, and the physical map that came with it. And how I got so enraged by the slavery happening in Morrowind.
But it was such a badly balanced game. I could kill anything starting around level 18. By the time I got to level 26 or 28, I was bored out of my mind because there was nothing I could encounter that I couldn’t beat, so what is the point of exploration if there’s not also a sense of accompanying danger to go along with it? If you’re walking around as a demi-god as if you have cheat codes activated, nothing feels all that interesting anymore.
I do wish the game had been better balanced, that the actual combat felt more fun, so that I could have explored more of Morrowind without getting bored.
Fair, I guess I don’t ever think of things like that because it’s not the way I play RPGs. I don’t understand the desire in games (MMOs in particular) to skip content. Like people complaining about leveling in WoW because they just want to be max level. I mean, Why play at all if you don’t, you know, want to actually play the game?
I get that there are people who just want to get to max level and raid, and say “leveling is boring and repetitive on the umpteenth character” but I don’t really see how leveling up is more repetitive than running the same raids over and over again. ;) (This is more a conversation for the WoW thread, probably.)
For another unpopular opinion, by the way, I also don’t like fast travel in RPGs, especially Bethesda ones, and I tend to avoid it unless I can give myself a plausible reason for it. Again, in Morrowind, you could get almost anywhere via Mages Guild, Silt Striders, boats, temple and fort recalls, and a few other methods. You could even learn “Mark” and “Recall” for those one off middle of nowhere teleports.
In Skyrim, I only ever used fast travel in towns that had carts or mages guilds in them; I never just teleported anywhere from the middle of nowhere. (I know mages guilds in Skyrim didn’t offer teleporting, but I justified it in my mind that they should have since ES3 did.) I think in Fallout 4 I almost never fast traveled at all. The point of open world games is to explore the world, not just skip over it. Even crossing a landscape on the 14th time I’d sometimes come across things I hadn’t noticed before.
I will however qualify that statement by saying that after I’ve played through a game 3 or 4 times I might start using fast travel sparingly. But my initial playthroughs are always clean.
Holy crap, I know I’ve said this elsewhere but I’d have lost my mind long ago without fast travel, though I have no idea where popular opinion is on that particular time saver. Especially Witcher 3, which I’m playing now, if I had to steer that goddamn horse through wolf-infested countryside anytime I wanted to go anywhere, well I would have just quit. I’m beginning to think there is such a thing as too much content.
I honestly just wish more games would offer the kind of fast travel that Morrowind did… even if they still want to keep the fast travel that everyone has become accustomed to for those that want it (which I imagine is the majority) it would be nice to have the option there for those of us who like a bit of “RP” in our “RPGs”. ;)
(I know I’m not the only one that eschews fast travel, but we are definitely in the minority, I think.)
I don’t play any Elder Scrolls game for the combat or challenge. The closest thing to good combat in the entire franchise is in ESO, and that’s still just more active MMO combat. So I really didn’t care if Morrowind was balanced. But it’s easily the best at what the series’ actual strengths are, and the lack of limitations meant freedom to do some really fun stuff that, sure, wasn’t balanced, but it also made me happier than the series has offered since.
Not me, I thought the combat in Oblivion was 100% improved over Morrowind, and then 50% improved again for Skyrim. I love the way the controller shakes in my hand when the enemy hits the shield I have up on the left hand, and then thud as I wack them with the hammer in my right hand. Or the Fwwwwwp sound as I sneak-snipe the enemy to start combat with my bow. Morrowind was the last Elder Scrolls game where I didn’t enjoy the combat.
Oh, I will totally fess up to my unpopular enjoyment of Skyrim’s combat. I know it’s supposedly the worst thing ever, but I legit enjoy it and always have even at release before modders fixed the rest of the game.
I don’t get tired of Draugr ruins, either. Skyrim is the best.
That was my point above…Skyrim was good, but it weren’t no durn Morrowind. And Oblivion just feels like standard-fare fantasy 101 with a lotta elves compared to both.
Incorrect. You can rise to the top of every faction other than the three local houses, since you ultimately have to chose one of them, but that has nothing to do with stats. You can also screw yourself out of completing the fighter’s guild by making certain thieves guild choices, but that’s avoidable.
I guess my unpopular opinion is that Oblivion may be my favorite. All 3 are in my top 10 of all time though, so I’m a huge elder scrolls fan. The virtual world aspects are much improved in Oblivion over Morrowind, and even further enhanced in Skyrim. It’s just a cool world to hang out in.
I hear you, and the Assasins and Blades storylines and quests are fantastic. The world just had a very vanilla/derivative ambiance to it for me. Same for Skyrim (Norse mythology/ Fantasy). Morrowind’s feel and mood were just…otherworldly. Hemce my original comment, I think it’s the most unique setting. Gameplay, questlines…I’m open to discussion. :)
Strategic and tactical layers don’t mix and games with both are always worse for it.
Agree wholeheartedly.
What most systems/corporate people envision when they think of Strategy and Tactics
https://206hwf3fj4w52u3br03fi242-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/stratpyramid.jpg
What Strategy and Tactics are
Tactics are the use of armed forces in a particular battle, while strategy is the doctrine of the use of individual battles for the purposes of war. Strategy is about picking the right battles. Tactics are about successfully executing those battles. Strategy is concerned with defining an overall purpose and priorities
I guess I should have properly said that you can’t easily lead every faction. Yes, I know that you can, given enough hours. You can grind like crazy to raise all the stats necessary (or pay cash for them, as @malkav11 pointed out), but you can’t in the normal course of gameplay.
If Skyrim made me spend three times as many hours playing so I could complete the mage guild quest and fighters guild quest in order to become their leader as a thief, then I would be more forgiving. As it was, all I had to do was the questline and suddenly I’m the archmage that has zero magic. (The mage guild questline in Skyrim is laughably easy for a non-mage, btw… IIRC, the final boss has a skill that drains all your mana. Oh noes, my thief archer was seriously impeded by that.)
Gotcha, yeah, that’s silly. They seem to just think that given the size of the game, separate playthroughs for each class-specific experience is less likely, so they try to not deny players any content, but a more customized roleplaying experience would be my preference.
Agree with this so hard. Constraints make for interesting decisions and personal stories. Nobody ever tells a riveting story about “man wasn’t that awesome when I was all “idkfa” and totally beat DOOM without even dying.”
Skyrim is probably a top-5 all-time game for me, and I love so much of what it does, but not all constraints are evil, Todd.
So I have been playing Far Cry 2 lately and there are a few game mechanics I don’t like.
You have night and day, but they don’t give you a watch. You have malaria and it flares up at the worst times. When your health gets low and you take something for it you go to a cutscene of your character removing a bullet with a knife, all while you are still under fire. And you have to take more health to actually heal. The constant re-spawning bad guys and the constant road attacks.
But other than that I am learning to like the game.
Yeah, the cut-scenes get old. What I like is there is no “Red Alert” and HUD type aids for you. Things just happen. Brutally. Quickly. I am always on my toes in that game.
The enemy AI is probably one of the best I have ever played against. But trying to find that enemy sniper is almost impossible.
Why is it in most FPS the enemy is always crack shots.