In my last blog, I told of how I got into the series with Skyrim. Around seven months after originally getting Skyrim, and playing the game for far longer than I'd like to admit, I picked up the Game of the Year Edition of Oblivion, the Elder Scrolls that came before Skyrim. Very similarly to Skyrim, Oblivion immediately wrapped it's claws inside my mind, an I became completely enthralled. While Oblivion was a bit more clunky around the edges when compared to Skyrim in terms of interface and controls, the game had held up tremendously well. The world was still gorgeous, the music still touchingly soft as you would expect, and the controls and gameplay were solid as ever. Ever engrossing, I spend hunderads of hours traveling the plains of Cyrodiil. The voice acting was great, and similarly to Skyrim, playing the game just made me happy. It should also be noted that the Shivering Isles Expansion is my favourite expansion of all time. While I felt the game, overall, wasn't quite on par with Skyrim (that may simply be because I played Skyrim first), it is still my second favourite open world game today.
After I had shut the gates of Oblivion, I decided to go backwards once again, and play Morrowind - but this time on PC, since my old computer could handle it, even if only on medium.
It did not take me long to realize that Morrowind is a very strange beast. While the two newer Elder Scrolls games are quite accessible and fluid, Morrowind is rigid, strict, and pretty tough. You can easily go into a random cave and get fully destroyed in seconds. However, this difficulty coupled the unwelcoming inhabitants and the harshness of the terrain created a real sense that you were in a new and frightening world. The game, being released in 2003, I think, is a lot rougher around the edges than the two more recent releases, but the same core mechanic still works wonders: Be who you want to be, live in another world. The story was very well told and interesting as well. However, I would easily say this is the most flawed Elder Scrolls game as the combat is awful, the NPCs all say the same thing over and over, the soundtrack is amazing, but insanely short, and the game is just generally less engrossing than it's successors. I'm looking forward to playing this game again, since before I only really did the main questline and most of the DLC. There's still a lot out there for me!
Well, Daggerfall. I certainly haven't played enough of this game to judge it (I've only played around 30 minutes of it), but it's nice and all. I think. Same goes for Arena. I only really dabbled in the game.
...And that's what I think of the main entries of the series! So my question for you today is, what Elder Scrolls game is your favourite, and why? Stay tuned as the next blog steps away from the games themselves and gets a little goofy. We're still celebrating!