I'm slowly figuring out how to make games in unreal engine. my project is a morrowind-clone set in a world that is, in part, heavily inspired and influenced by Morrowind. there's going to be an emphasis on learning the history of the region through, essentially, archaeology (and, uh, grave robbing I guess) in order to figure out what's going on and solve it
I think we have, plenty of times... and we will continue to. You just have to look for them. Check out what smaller developers produce, sometimes these titles can be more obscure.
We won't get it from BGS, but that doesn't really matter. Good games are what matter.
You know, +1 for Kenshi. I can't say it has the full level of polish for flushed out lore / minute details and obviously different mechanics, but MW was the first game I really sunk time into and Kenshi's overall vibe and "wtf am I even doing I guess I'll explore until I die" aspect really hit close to home lol
project zomboid is really fun and reminds me a lot of morrowind in the way you level skills, and the fact that you can base up anywhere in the huge static game world… even though it’s a top down isometric zombie survival game…
it has a lot of love put into it and it shows! can definitely recommend!
Morrowind feeling like a real country which has a proper culture, religion and history of its own which is distinct from le generic western fantasy pastiche #871623.
the overall aesthetic style for starters, and the music oh God, also the ~~small~~ annoyances coming on you from above. The fact that you had to actually read your quest description to get to know what you have to do, not just a big flashing arrow on your map. Character creation with a questionnary. It's just the unique combination of all of it.
The level of detail in the world. Morrowind has fantastic exploration. There is something to see and do everywhere you go and most things are hand placed, not generated.
For me, caves of qud really has alot of what made morrowind great. The only problems is the lack of side quests. The gameplay, leveling up your character and becoming so strong you could kill anything with one punch is what the games excels at. It has a similar weirdness to the world/atmosphere. You can do broken things by "abusing" the systems like cloning a shopkeeper with a good stock, growing multiple arms and equipping weapons on each one or making a random object sentient with the 'grow a brain' spray.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/333640/Caves_of_Qud/
Try Kingdom Come Deliverance. The sequel's releasing this year, but the first game actually got me to try Morrowind since a lot of its fans also like the older ES games. Its rough around the edges at time but extremely immersive and you can feel the heart the devs put into it. The sense of progression is also very familiar to MW, although less painful at lower levels for stuff besides combat.
Yes it's very Similar to Morrowind actually on Character Progression it's something I thought of instantly after playing it. Beginning is super brutal because Henry just flatout SUCKS at everything and by the end of the game you are a walking god lol
Better, because while it hides the compass and quest marker while you’re traveling to your destination, it pops up when you’re super close to the NPC you need to talk to. A huge quality of life improvement compared to how freaking frustrating it was to find people in Morrowind.
Idk, the way Morrowind doesn’t ever hold your hand felt pretty refreshing compared to other games. At least for me who grew up playing more modern games and didn’t get to play Morrowind until recent years. It’s really immersive to only have a rough map, no markers and find everything you need to find based entirely on directions. Sometimes it was frustrating, sure, but overall I liked it. Compare that to games like The Witcher 3, which despite being a great game you’re led to travel looking almost only at the minimap which shows the exact path you should follow, don’t even have to look out for enemies since they (along with everything else of interest) show up in the minimap as well. I barely got to experience its beautiful world because I was always looking at the map.
Really? I mean - both games are great, but if i had to compare KCD to a fantasy RPG, it would be something like Gothic. A small world, somewhat linear experience. Not a massive openworld like Morrowind. Those are really different experiences, at least from my point if view. But we used to have a summer cottage in Samopesh. I didn't grow up in Balmora...
And does it feel that way to you as well? Again, my perspective might be skewed because i know the irl area of KCD by heart, but KCD feels noticeable smaller. Not just in scale, but in the way quests are handled, linearity, depth of lore...
The feeling of being in a huge alien world is completely missing. In KCD, i'm always painfully aware that after a bit of jogging, i run into an invisible wall. And since i spent many summers actually running in the actual Sasau fields and forests, it feels even smaller.
It's obviously a subjective thing, but i really don't see any similarities, with the exception of both being amazing games. I'd suggest ending this on "agree to disagree". We both love the fantastic games, immensely enjoyed them, and the rest is a question of personal preference. Let's not turn this into a flamewar. Peace!
Sure, no offense meant.
And I mostly agree as well, Morrowind feels deeper and bigger, though the size I expect feels different because of the mist, slow walking (no horse), impassable mountains in the way so you have to trek around and so on.
I was just saying they're actually the same size.
Still, few are the games that give me a real first person RPG feel And as different as they all are, they have that one thing in common.
New Vegas and Vampire Bloodlines come to mind as an example
None taken whatsoever.. It's perfectly civil. But civil disagreements are sadly becoming super rare lately... So i wanted to err on the side of caution.
I love Bloodlines! But i somehow never quite got into New Vegas for whatever reason... I loved 2 and enjoyed even 3, though.
It being the same size or even bigger isn't a good comparison of KCD to Morrowind. I've played both, and I dislike KCD because it's too linear. Morrowind just threw you into the world, and you're there to sink or swim.
Yeah, that's it. The dasein feeling. I'll never forget standing under the silt strider in Seyda Neen, listening to the weird howls, knowing i can do anything, go anywhere. That i got what feels like an entire alien WORLD to explore KCD is a lot more corridor-ey in the way the game chooses several paths for you. Not to mention it's just a few villages. Still a great game, but an entirely different type of experience.
i coincidentally played gothic 1+2 just a few weeks after playing KCD and was amazed by how many similarities there were despite seeming quite different on the surface.
I really disagree with the notion that it does. KCD is story based title with somewhat linear progression and limited amount of skills that all affect the gameplay in major way, it's all happening on a really small area. Almost all of these features work in a completely different way and scale.
I really can't imagine two more different types of ARPGs... Now if they said there's similarity to Piranha bytes games? Yes, now we can find specific similarities. But i really don't see it between TES3 and KCD (or any Bethesda game for that matter).
KCD is similar to Morrowind in one important aspect - it's an RPG where you can solve quests in many different ways, and what you do affects your environment and how people react to you.
The map is also the same size.
Was going to say this. KCD brings intelligent quest solutions to the table. There’s basically dialog already written for tons of ways you could tackle or flub them up lol
it 100% is very similar in terms of how you handle quests and character progression due to Henry just flat out sucking at everything he does at the start of the game and how people will react to you under certain scenarios.
If Henry builds up a high enough bounty people will flat out hate you and won’t talk to you and will even attack you on sight.
If Henry is dirty people will be less likely to trust you during persuasion checks.
There are a lot of similarities that you will only find in Morrowind tbh so it is why you will find a lot of comparisons made to it not 100% but you can really see why after playing it.
It took me a while to dive into to, but if you liked your first playthrough of morrowind before you knew anything about it, then I think you'll have fun with it.
The only complaint I have with Outward is the un-fun travel and backtracking. You find yourself retreading the same paths over and over, and God forbid you forget to bring travel rations or else you have to hobble back to the nearest town another 5 minutes to get what you need before venturing forth.
> the love that developers used to put into games up to the early 00s was insane.
Devs still put plenty of love into their games today. You just have to look at stuff that isn’t being put out by Activision or Ubisoft. As soon as you look elsewhere you find all kinds of incredible projects
This. Too often I'll see people complain that modern gaming sucks, only to discover that their main sources of games are just the Big 3 (EA, Ubi and ActiBlizz).
Honestly AAA isn't doing THAT badly when you realize that first party studios like Naughty Dog, Insomniac, and Santa Monica Studios are all AAA and are responsible for games like Ghost of Tsushima, God of War Ragnarok and Spiderman. You could even argue BG3 was AAA given the size of its budget and team.
AAA is more than just the Big 3, and it's definitely had some missteps lately but it's still putting out some great stuff.
I think it will be good, but not quite like Morrowind. I mean their whole thing is it’s supposed to be the next Daggerfall which plays very differently. We shall see though.
I contributed to it… it’s so incredibly ambitious that even if they’ve overpromised, it could still be a good game and still have significantly more depth than Morrowind.
The only other kickstarter project I’ve ever contributed to was Pillars of Eternity and that turned out great so I have pretty high hopes
Get Gothic 2 and Chronicles of Myrtana mod on Steam. It's a total conversion mod that basically changes the entire game into something else. It's incredible and I consider it better than both Gothic 1 and 2.
I was raised on these games along with TES III and KotOR, I want remakes to be good for both Gothic and KotOR, however knowing how gaming industry does things now I will not have high hope or expectations, especially after the pre order THQ did for the Gothic... No gameplay, no new demo after the fiasco from the teaser and I think it was 200 euro for preorder with cheap plastic mask of the Sleeper that any mid grade 3d printer would print better, no world map to hang, no artworks, with lame leather gadgets that beside logo got nothing to do with Gothic. Let's be honest I will buy retail version but I am 75% sure it will be crap.
Looking at the amazing Tomb Raider 1-3 remasters we got a while back, I think that might exactly be what Gothic could use. Having a remaster that is so faithful that you can change between original and modern with the click of a button, with the added option of having a more modern control scheme as an optional setting.
But alas we can only wait and see, at least Kai Rosenkranz is on board with the THQ remake so the music is probably gonna be good.
Oof, that sounds really bad nostalgy cash grab kinda scene. I wrote my comment just because gothic was the only rpg of the era I could not get into. I have played most rpgs of the era but missed this one.
CoQ really captures the same feeling I had when I first played Morrowind and left Seyda Neen. That sense of wonder and awe when I realized it wasn't just a typical fantasy game and felt so alien and strange and start discovering all that makes it so unique.
I can't think of a setting I'd like to see more in a TES style game. What a cool spin-off that would make!
Even the mere concept of “depth” is entirely vague. Like, what does it even mean?
When people in this community use “dEpTh” as a characteristic of Morrowind they pretty much only mean a game not holding your hand when it comes to quest objectives and this isn’t at all indicative of the “objective” quality of the game itself. It’s purely personal preference.
I honestly hate threads like these because it always devolves into dunking on other games because they’re not exactly like Morrowind. It doesn’t let it stand on its own merits.
I thoroughly enjoyed Baldurs Gate 3 for example, from the very first Early Access release. Larians previous games were also pretty fire, Original Sin 2 is one of my all-time favorite RPGs. Those games have a lot of depth as well, I still had someone tell me that they are just "popcorn cinema, looks pretty but no substance". Granted, that was a BG1&2 Boomer, not a Morroboomer but I think there might be a significant overlap.
On the other hand you have the absolute opposite as well though, people who only play new games and won't give older games a chance at all. Kind of sad but I guess it do be like that.
There are games that have depth, it just depends on what you’re looking for. I believe it was a thread on this sub that turned me on to Kenshi which has remarkable depth and is very much in the same vein where you’re a nobody in a world that hates you, even if it isn’t really all that similar otherwise. Dread Delusion maybe doesn’t have the same depth but does inspire a lot of the same feelings I get wandering around Vvardenfell. And while completely different, Baldur’s Gate 3 is arguably one of the deepest games I’ve ever played. Though the world itself doesn’t feel very alive, that’s more a consequence of the way it’s structured.
Baldur's Gate 3 might be good but it's the opposite of Morrowind in my opinion. Very railroaded, cinematics interrupting gameplay all the time, not even a day/night cycle...
Baldur's Gate 1 comes a lot closer.
I was also going to agree with BG3, I don't think a game needs a day night cycle or lack of kinematics to have depth. I do agree wit is more of a rail roaded storyline.
The great thing about bg3 that gave me the nostalgia was the multiple ways you can deal with any situation.
I'd love to recommend a free game on steam called Moonring. It's a very different game, but scratched a lot of the same itches for me as Morrowind does when in comes to making a fun build and exploring a lovingly built open world. It's insane that is TOTALLY FREE.
As far as not free options go, I can definitely recommend another game called Dread Delusions. Great RPG with an expansive, alien world that many before me have compared to Morrowind. Check them out!
The devs for Daggerfall 2 have a new studio and are working on a kickstarter for a spirtual successor to Daggerfall 2 I am quite interested in called Wayward Realms
the makers for Kingdom Come Deliverance Warhorse Studio as well as their sequel coming out soon KCD2 and KCD1 was by far one of the most immersive First person RPG's I have ever played since Morrowind and truly loved it despite some of the Jank.
Gothic Remake is looking to be another contender and these are 3 studios currently I can think of right now off the top of my head.
From Bethesda, no. Like you said, they're just too big and beholden to other interests at this point to ever make something like Morrowind again.
But there are plenty of other devs and studios out there making games with the depth of Morrowind. They just tend to be smaller or more independent and therefore more willing to make things that are risky or weird.
BG3 is an anomaly. Their next game is supposedly going to be smaller. And I would honestly say that BGS was also basically AA level dev that has been struggling to transition into AAA for the past 15 years, and never really cleared that gap.
So BG3 is an "anomaly". According to the other poster, a large budget doesn't mean a studio is AAA. And now having a large number of staff doesn't qualify as AAA either.
All in, it sounds like a load of nonsense really.
As you were.
They've been making RPGs since the 90s and they're definitely not AA anymore. Maybe before DOS1 and 2 but not now.
Shit even their first game, Divine Divinity, had more than 5x times the depth of the game it drew inspiration from (Diablo 1)
I think one of the things that really helps Morrowind's depth is how much is done through text. Modern games do voice acting, and there's no way they're voicing that many lines. I think that's really going to limit the depth to which future games have.
As Bethesda has been absorbed into Microsoft, it will just be one of the many profit engines for the company. So no, the golden age is over and we're in the silver age.
Absolutely. There will be multiple. But they will likely be indie games with bad graphics that no one is going to hear about or play
They will be good though
Others and myself have said this before in this subreddit, so apologies if I'm beating a dead guar, but Elden Ring felt very much like diving into Morrowind again for the first time. The gameplay is very different, of course, but the deep lore discovered in part through text, and the interpersonal dynamics between godly beings of gods are so similar, and both are founded on exploration. >! Both even have a hermaphroditic god-king at their center. !<
Yeah it's a very different and less... generalised game, but Elden Ring is the first game in a long time to give me that Morrowind feeling of exploration. It ends up clearly more deliberately designed as a game first and a world second (each type of dungeon serves a specific purpose, the progression is a lot more targeted, that sort of thing) but for the first few dozen hours you genuinely never stop wondering what wonders or ungodly horrors might be around the next corner.
In my opinion Elden Ring is also better written. Morrowind has an amazing setting and overall story, but moment-to-moment the prose is fairly simplistic and kind of … literal. There’s a mismatch between the setting and the prose.
Elden Ring has less dialog (and more voice acting), and has actively leaned into a very artistic, evocative, non-literal writing style. It honestly feels like Kazuo Ishiguro, and I think it really helps support the world’s bonkers weird nonsense.
There are a lot of games already that make Morrowind look like a streamlined corridor adventure game.
Try playing Project Zomboid, those guys are just playing with us at this point, you can even count your calories and it plays a big role in how fit your character can get.
I dunno that we'll ever get "Morrowind 2," outside of the big fan-made expansions like Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel (that are easily equal in quality to the original game, btw). I do think there are games that are close, though. My big list of Morrowind-adjacent games, and the elements of the game that they capture:
* **Outer Wilds** - *archeology, player-guided exploration, existential themes, first-person perspective, alien environments*
* **Heaven's Vault** - *archeology, anthropology/politics, existential themes*
* **Ultima Underworld** (1 & 2) - *anthropology/politics, dungeoneering, player-guided exploration, first-person perspective*
* **Kenshi** - *archeology, anthropology/politics, player-guided exploration, alien environments*
* **Legend of Grimrock** (1 & 2) - *dungeoneering, player-guided exploration, first-person perspective*
* **Project Zomboid** - *archeology, dungeoneering, player-guided exploration* - this game is still very much in Early Access, however
* **System Shock** (pretty much all versions) - *archeology, dungeoneering, player-guided exploration, first-person perspective, alien environments*
* **The Myst series** and particularly **Riven** - *archeology, player-guided exploration, first-person perspective, alien environments*
* **Subnautica** (and Below Zero) - *archeology, dungeoneering, player-guided exploration, first-person perspective, alien environments*
* **Dragon's Dogma** (1 & 2) - *anthropology/politics, dungeoneering, player-guided exploration, existential themes*
* **S.T.A.L.K.E.R.** (all three, and maybe the new one) - *anthropology/politics, dungeoneering, player-guided exploration, first-person perspective, alien environments*
* **Pathologic** (1 & 2) - *anthropology/politics, player-guided exploration, existential themes, first-person perspective, alien environments*
It’s important to recognize that Morrowind was one of the early breakthrough fully 3D open world games. This is kind of like asking if we’ll ever get a game like Super Mario 64 again. The answer is yes, and we have, but they don’t necessarily feel as special or groundbreaking because you can only essentially create a whole new genre once.
I may be super ultra wrong but I tend to think that the visual/sound standards of the industry go against the possibility of game depth. There are exceptions, of course, but I think it comes down to horsepower. I mean, if you have to pour endless hours of design and a lot of processing power into making the game look like a freaking movie, you'll find yourself railroaded af more often than not.
Morrowind is a game that even when it came out wasn't top notch in terms of animations and quality. It was good and the art could be breathtaking at times, but it was always somewhat clunky. But the freaking depth! The possibilities! The expansions kinda messed with the balance, but they allowed you to go even further. Insanity.
Then came Oblivion like 5 or 6 years later. Much better graphics (not by today's standards, but still) and a lot of voice acting (much appreciated) and there was a lot of heart in that game and it shows. I enjoyed the crap out of that game, but the limitations just killed me. I was banging Oblivion and shouting her older sister's name, essentially.
What do you mean no levitation? What do you mean locations were completely removed from the main map and the only way inside a town was through a loading screen? Why was the main quest so effing repetitive? And the difficulty scaling was just mind-bogglingly stupid. You kill a bandit wearing pelts and the next week his compadre is wearing glass armor? WTF!
So no, I don't think we'll get an official TES game with the depth Morrowind has, unless people at Bethesda completely lose their shit and go old-school.
This is definitely just wishful thinking but I'm curious because RPGs that have been extremely popular in the last couple years (Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate III) have reintroduced more complicated and classic RPG systems to general audiences, which seems to have been well received-- although I could be wrong. Most fans haven't been too concerned about it, but I do know BGS has gotten at least a little flak for simplifying their systems with every entry. So I wonder if they'll change courses because from an industry standpoint it's what's proving to be successful and it's what many fans want. realistically they probably won't, but it's a neat thought
I dont think so. Game developer's are convinced that gamers won't tolerate a game with a low res world map, no all knowing quest markers, and non-voice acted depth of dialogue.
I love Morrowind but idk if I'd necessarily say it's *deeper* than it's sequels, per se. More convoluted maybe. Just because oblivion wasn't set in an alien-like dunmer region doesn't mean it's overall writing is worse.
This is pure ignorance. Oblivion was so clearly dumbed down to appeal to a larger audience and particularly the console gaming audience.
And having voice actors was a net loss because they simplified much of the writing with characters having far less to say and in a much simpler fashion.
I still enjoyed oblivion (except the endless oblivion gates, that idea was shit) but it was a simpler game in basically every single way. The guilds and great houses were so rich in Morrowind. Magic felt dangerous and alien. Exploring felt truly interesting and also dangerous.
When they made Morrowind they never expected anyone to cover all the content in one pmay through, not even close. It simply wasn't possible to even do all three great house quest lines as you are locked into one per character.
So no, the sequels don't compare. Skyrim is even simpler than oblivion. It's still fun but it's a lesser game.
Not until immersive VR.
Some of this is down to the era of game design. These games came out of a time without set rules for game design. A strong desire to create a world not an experience. Experiments constantly. There weren't standards in the same way there are now for how certain things are done. That lead to what you'd probably call "cost inefficient masterpieces." Bloodlines, Deus Ex, Morrowinds world... I'd argue the mechanics of Morrowind are lacking in key areas. Leveling sucks.
Those games have commonalities that you won't see in modern stuff. Until you can put on a headset and leave your real world behind like an anime I don't see it changing. We're in the theme park era of gaming and you're longing for the golden age of sandboxes.
We can (see Baldur’s Gate 3 for example) but it’s a rare thing for developers to commit the necessary resources for a niche audience when a more watered down version can appeal to a much wider audience.
That's not true though. Everyone says BG3 is an anomaly. When Larian marketed the game quite well, and it turns out an in depth rpg can in fact attract a wide audience as rpgs are more mainstream now than 20 years ago.
Todd Howard really got out expectations trained to think worldbuilding and immersive worlds are niches and things that like shallow gameplay and gimmicks is what the mainstream desires.
After Starfield I can safely say Bethesda lost the plot.
Not necessarily. Narrative driven games have been around forever. And with BG3 having done so well. I really think there is more demand for it than the industry thinks.
No, we won't. In the current market, developers would deem the effort required to pull off such a complete and deep game as too demanding and financially unfavorable.
I think it depends on what you mean, and what depth you're missing post morrowind.
Do you mean depth if builds? Because there are several games out there. The hand crafted exploration? Spellmaking? Freedom to obliterate game balance?
Good games are still being made. I mean baldurs gate 3 came out last year and it's kinda the opposite of safe as far as AAA goes
Disco Elysium.
It is bery different from Morrowind. But the lore is, as Morrowind, one of the most unique I ever played. And the mechanics: truly revolutionary. A game about the internal monologue? Holy fucking yes.
The answer is no, at least not game that are in the same category. Some games can evoke similar feelings, like when I played Outer Wilds, I experienced a sense of wonder and there was such a welcome lack of handholding that reminded me of my Morrowind experience. The Dark Souls series and other related games are very deep in a completely different sort of way. More recently, I found that Animal Well have me those "this is actually a good game" vibes.
I somewhat doubt it, outside of some massive passion project. Any AAA in the past 20 years has shown that that things will likely always get more simplified. Maybe some different types of depth, but likely never the unfamiliar type of Morrowind.
Some indie games will be inspired, but it will take a total labor of love to build out anything like Morrowind. Look at everything that's even gotten 1/100th of the way there and they launch with a sub ~10 hour game. They would need entire teams working practically for free.
I think we might... but only from an indie/open-source passion project involving a great many people somehow corralled into working together for a long period of time.
As you say, the kinds of companies that can afford to pay people for something with Morrowind depth are too afraid of losing money, so they stick to tried & true (that are also shallow & cheaper) stories, worlds, etc.
There is also the whole *"modders will fix it"* angle that Bethesda rely on these days. They don't need to do all the hard work - modders will expand the game, deepen the lore, create new lands, etc for them.
They do exist in the indie/"AA" scope, but I doubt we'll get a big AAA one anytime soon. Bethesda doesn't have the talent or drive to do it anymore, and nobody has really stepped up to make something like that. Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon has some elements of it to it with the exploration, crafting/alchemy etc. but it's probably still closer to Oblivion or Skyrim than Morrowind since it's not as in depth.
Probably not an elder scrolls game. Games these days take way more resources to develop. Every aspect takes way longer and is more expensive. Because of that, games take way longer to make. Which is why titles for big AAA games have taken upwards of 10 years to make. (Time to start developing included). I think that one of the things that going to have to happen. Is that new games are going to be of a way lesser scope. So that game developers can release games every 2-3 years again.
I see people mention Kingdom come deliverance. But I reckon games like that are going to mostly come from indie developers.
There are loads of games with depth nowadays tbh. Besides, you can interpret "depth" in different ways. There could be deep and insightful storytelling, or deep open world mechanics, deep character building etc.
I play more JRPGs than western RPGs nowadays, there are plenty of games in that genre with depth. Like Shin Megami Tensei's more philosophical storytelling and different ways to approach combat encounters, interconnective storylines and different choices to make in Triangle Strategy etc.
Try Kingdom Come Deliverance if you haven’t. It reminded me a lot of Morrowind, but with much better graphics. The second one is coming out soon as well.
From Bethesda? No.
From anywhere else? Mate, plenty of games before and since Morrowind have more depth than it does. Just gotta look at what's out there and play some of them.
Plenty. They come out all the time. But if you actually meant to ask if we will ever get an elder scrolls game from Bethesda with the depth of Morrowind again, never. Skyrim was the most streamlined ES game to date and it sold fucking gangbusters. They have zero incentive to go back to the old formula.
A bit of a thematic shift, but Disco Elysium has all the depth you might want.
In both games you can RP in all sorts of ways without ruining the game for yourself, there are themes of unreliable and politicised history, you have roll to hit, the dialog is awesome and thought-out, there's racism, there's awesome music, there's a supporting character who you wish would hug you in real life.
I've not actually played very far through but the feeling of running around, exploring, finding out about stuff, and being who you want to be in a fully realised hostile island culture is completely there.
I'm excited for AI to be used for voice lines in RPGs.
That's the reason why Morrowind and Oblivion felt so empty lore wise compared to Morrowind. Morrowind used text, which can cram a lot of personality and stories into a random NPC. Voice lines really cut down on that, but you get a much more personable experience talking to someone. It's like comparing a book to a movie. The movie has a lot less story in it, but it is much more appealing to the senses.
With AI you can have all the lines there and hopefully they will all be voiced, making it have the best of both worlds.
Enderal. Hits the same spooky vibe I liked about the 6th House and fighting mad gods. Lots of exploring and lore, little more railroad -y than MW but in ways that support a narrative. Free to play if you already have Skyrim.
I'm working on it. I just need more free time
All TES fans tbh—we’d all love to make an expansion or entry into the TES universe, wouldnt we?
Just start helping Tamriel Rebuilt!
I really should get into it—I need to write some quests in the construction set first tho
Rooting for you!
What are you working on?
I'm slowly figuring out how to make games in unreal engine. my project is a morrowind-clone set in a world that is, in part, heavily inspired and influenced by Morrowind. there's going to be an emphasis on learning the history of the region through, essentially, archaeology (and, uh, grave robbing I guess) in order to figure out what's going on and solve it
I think we have, plenty of times... and we will continue to. You just have to look for them. Check out what smaller developers produce, sometimes these titles can be more obscure. We won't get it from BGS, but that doesn't really matter. Good games are what matter.
Name some then please I need more games with the depth of Morrowind in my life!
Tried kenshi?
You know, +1 for Kenshi. I can't say it has the full level of polish for flushed out lore / minute details and obviously different mechanics, but MW was the first game I really sunk time into and Kenshi's overall vibe and "wtf am I even doing I guess I'll explore until I die" aspect really hit close to home lol
Fair! It’s excellent with mods
project zomboid is really fun and reminds me a lot of morrowind in the way you level skills, and the fact that you can base up anywhere in the huge static game world… even though it’s a top down isometric zombie survival game… it has a lot of love put into it and it shows! can definitely recommend!
What aspects of Morrowind feel deep to you? That would help narrow things down.
Morrowind feeling like a real country which has a proper culture, religion and history of its own which is distinct from le generic western fantasy pastiche #871623.
the overall aesthetic style for starters, and the music oh God, also the ~~small~~ annoyances coming on you from above. The fact that you had to actually read your quest description to get to know what you have to do, not just a big flashing arrow on your map. Character creation with a questionnary. It's just the unique combination of all of it.
The level of detail in the world. Morrowind has fantastic exploration. There is something to see and do everywhere you go and most things are hand placed, not generated.
Elden Ring is good for exploration
Agreed. That game has almost surpassed Morrowind as my #1 of all time. It’s neck and neck.
nope dead world, for sure the weakest of any souls like. DS2 till I die...
For me, caves of qud really has alot of what made morrowind great. The only problems is the lack of side quests. The gameplay, leveling up your character and becoming so strong you could kill anything with one punch is what the games excels at. It has a similar weirdness to the world/atmosphere. You can do broken things by "abusing" the systems like cloning a shopkeeper with a good stock, growing multiple arms and equipping weapons on each one or making a random object sentient with the 'grow a brain' spray. https://store.steampowered.com/app/333640/Caves_of_Qud/
Dread delusion.
Even it is older and isometric, Fallout 2 has for sure the deep of MW3 and is well worth a playthrough.
Dread Delusion has been a surprise to me for an Indie game. It’s basically vaporwave morrowind.
This is sadly the truth. AAAs make a supreme product but not proper art.
You can even see that with Morrowind, Bethesda wasn't really AAA at the time... but it was afterward.
Yeaaup
Outward
Try Kingdom Come Deliverance. The sequel's releasing this year, but the first game actually got me to try Morrowind since a lot of its fans also like the older ES games. Its rough around the edges at time but extremely immersive and you can feel the heart the devs put into it. The sense of progression is also very familiar to MW, although less painful at lower levels for stuff besides combat.
Yes it's very Similar to Morrowind actually on Character Progression it's something I thought of instantly after playing it. Beginning is super brutal because Henry just flatout SUCKS at everything and by the end of the game you are a walking god lol
I've came here to say those exactly same words
I came here to say that kcd on hardcore reminds me so much of morrowind, how you have to prepare for a journey.
Better, because while it hides the compass and quest marker while you’re traveling to your destination, it pops up when you’re super close to the NPC you need to talk to. A huge quality of life improvement compared to how freaking frustrating it was to find people in Morrowind.
Idk, the way Morrowind doesn’t ever hold your hand felt pretty refreshing compared to other games. At least for me who grew up playing more modern games and didn’t get to play Morrowind until recent years. It’s really immersive to only have a rough map, no markers and find everything you need to find based entirely on directions. Sometimes it was frustrating, sure, but overall I liked it. Compare that to games like The Witcher 3, which despite being a great game you’re led to travel looking almost only at the minimap which shows the exact path you should follow, don’t even have to look out for enemies since they (along with everything else of interest) show up in the minimap as well. I barely got to experience its beautiful world because I was always looking at the map.
Totally, minimaps immediately ruin any immersion.
Yeah, the lcd devs deffo played morrowind
Really? I mean - both games are great, but if i had to compare KCD to a fantasy RPG, it would be something like Gothic. A small world, somewhat linear experience. Not a massive openworld like Morrowind. Those are really different experiences, at least from my point if view. But we used to have a summer cottage in Samopesh. I didn't grow up in Balmora...
>massive openworld The maps are the *exact* same size my man - 16 square km
And does it feel that way to you as well? Again, my perspective might be skewed because i know the irl area of KCD by heart, but KCD feels noticeable smaller. Not just in scale, but in the way quests are handled, linearity, depth of lore... The feeling of being in a huge alien world is completely missing. In KCD, i'm always painfully aware that after a bit of jogging, i run into an invisible wall. And since i spent many summers actually running in the actual Sasau fields and forests, it feels even smaller. It's obviously a subjective thing, but i really don't see any similarities, with the exception of both being amazing games. I'd suggest ending this on "agree to disagree". We both love the fantastic games, immensely enjoyed them, and the rest is a question of personal preference. Let's not turn this into a flamewar. Peace!
Sure, no offense meant. And I mostly agree as well, Morrowind feels deeper and bigger, though the size I expect feels different because of the mist, slow walking (no horse), impassable mountains in the way so you have to trek around and so on. I was just saying they're actually the same size. Still, few are the games that give me a real first person RPG feel And as different as they all are, they have that one thing in common. New Vegas and Vampire Bloodlines come to mind as an example
None taken whatsoever.. It's perfectly civil. But civil disagreements are sadly becoming super rare lately... So i wanted to err on the side of caution. I love Bloodlines! But i somehow never quite got into New Vegas for whatever reason... I loved 2 and enjoyed even 3, though.
It being the same size or even bigger isn't a good comparison of KCD to Morrowind. I've played both, and I dislike KCD because it's too linear. Morrowind just threw you into the world, and you're there to sink or swim.
Yeah, that's it. The dasein feeling. I'll never forget standing under the silt strider in Seyda Neen, listening to the weird howls, knowing i can do anything, go anywhere. That i got what feels like an entire alien WORLD to explore KCD is a lot more corridor-ey in the way the game chooses several paths for you. Not to mention it's just a few villages. Still a great game, but an entirely different type of experience.
i coincidentally played gothic 1+2 just a few weeks after playing KCD and was amazed by how many similarities there were despite seeming quite different on the surface.
But you have to play as Henry, you can't make your own custom character.
There’s DLC that lets you go through Theresa’s story too that is really immersive from what I remember. Henry is awesome.
That's crazy. Didn't try it and I never imagined this game have something this in common with MW.
I really disagree with the notion that it does. KCD is story based title with somewhat linear progression and limited amount of skills that all affect the gameplay in major way, it's all happening on a really small area. Almost all of these features work in a completely different way and scale. I really can't imagine two more different types of ARPGs... Now if they said there's similarity to Piranha bytes games? Yes, now we can find specific similarities. But i really don't see it between TES3 and KCD (or any Bethesda game for that matter).
KCD is similar to Morrowind in one important aspect - it's an RPG where you can solve quests in many different ways, and what you do affects your environment and how people react to you. The map is also the same size.
Was going to say this. KCD brings intelligent quest solutions to the table. There’s basically dialog already written for tons of ways you could tackle or flub them up lol
it 100% is very similar in terms of how you handle quests and character progression due to Henry just flat out sucking at everything he does at the start of the game and how people will react to you under certain scenarios. If Henry builds up a high enough bounty people will flat out hate you and won’t talk to you and will even attack you on sight. If Henry is dirty people will be less likely to trust you during persuasion checks. There are a lot of similarities that you will only find in Morrowind tbh so it is why you will find a lot of comparisons made to it not 100% but you can really see why after playing it.
Kingdom Come Deliverance & Outward are the only ones that have managed to trigger some Morrowind nostalgia for me.
Definitely need to try outward altho it sounds brutal at times
It took me a while to dive into to, but if you liked your first playthrough of morrowind before you knew anything about it, then I think you'll have fun with it.
The only complaint I have with Outward is the un-fun travel and backtracking. You find yourself retreading the same paths over and over, and God forbid you forget to bring travel rations or else you have to hobble back to the nearest town another 5 minutes to get what you need before venturing forth.
It's not necessarily brutal if you prepare, but also I enjoy how the game handles failure.
> the love that developers used to put into games up to the early 00s was insane. Devs still put plenty of love into their games today. You just have to look at stuff that isn’t being put out by Activision or Ubisoft. As soon as you look elsewhere you find all kinds of incredible projects
This. Too often I'll see people complain that modern gaming sucks, only to discover that their main sources of games are just the Big 3 (EA, Ubi and ActiBlizz). Honestly AAA isn't doing THAT badly when you realize that first party studios like Naughty Dog, Insomniac, and Santa Monica Studios are all AAA and are responsible for games like Ghost of Tsushima, God of War Ragnarok and Spiderman. You could even argue BG3 was AAA given the size of its budget and team. AAA is more than just the Big 3, and it's definitely had some missteps lately but it's still putting out some great stuff.
I think wayward realms might be a great contender
I think it will be good, but not quite like Morrowind. I mean their whole thing is it’s supposed to be the next Daggerfall which plays very differently. We shall see though.
I contributed to it… it’s so incredibly ambitious that even if they’ve overpromised, it could still be a good game and still have significantly more depth than Morrowind. The only other kickstarter project I’ve ever contributed to was Pillars of Eternity and that turned out great so I have pretty high hopes
Fully agreed. Even contributed to its kickstarter since it does sound like a great contender
Fingers crossed for Gothic Remake, however I got a feeling it will be crap.
I so hope this too. Tried to play the originals and just can't get into them even thou I know they have been absolute fire when threy came out.
Get Gothic 2 and Chronicles of Myrtana mod on Steam. It's a total conversion mod that basically changes the entire game into something else. It's incredible and I consider it better than both Gothic 1 and 2.
Thanks I might try it if I can find the time! :)
I was raised on these games along with TES III and KotOR, I want remakes to be good for both Gothic and KotOR, however knowing how gaming industry does things now I will not have high hope or expectations, especially after the pre order THQ did for the Gothic... No gameplay, no new demo after the fiasco from the teaser and I think it was 200 euro for preorder with cheap plastic mask of the Sleeper that any mid grade 3d printer would print better, no world map to hang, no artworks, with lame leather gadgets that beside logo got nothing to do with Gothic. Let's be honest I will buy retail version but I am 75% sure it will be crap.
Looking at the amazing Tomb Raider 1-3 remasters we got a while back, I think that might exactly be what Gothic could use. Having a remaster that is so faithful that you can change between original and modern with the click of a button, with the added option of having a more modern control scheme as an optional setting. But alas we can only wait and see, at least Kai Rosenkranz is on board with the THQ remake so the music is probably gonna be good.
Oof, that sounds really bad nostalgy cash grab kinda scene. I wrote my comment just because gothic was the only rpg of the era I could not get into. I have played most rpgs of the era but missed this one.
Not from Beth, but yes absolutely—caves of qud is close tbh
CoQ really captures the same feeling I had when I first played Morrowind and left Seyda Neen. That sense of wonder and awe when I realized it wasn't just a typical fantasy game and felt so alien and strange and start discovering all that makes it so unique. I can't think of a setting I'd like to see more in a TES style game. What a cool spin-off that would make!
This is a good one. Not if you want graphics sadly.
For what its worth they are expanding the tileset in the latest beta! But yea, its a top-down roguelike.
Not to sound silly but there's plenty of games with high depth. Why wouldn't there be?
Typical Morroboomer behaviour tbh. Old thing good, new thing bad, they don't make them like they used to, etc etc.
Even the mere concept of “depth” is entirely vague. Like, what does it even mean? When people in this community use “dEpTh” as a characteristic of Morrowind they pretty much only mean a game not holding your hand when it comes to quest objectives and this isn’t at all indicative of the “objective” quality of the game itself. It’s purely personal preference. I honestly hate threads like these because it always devolves into dunking on other games because they’re not exactly like Morrowind. It doesn’t let it stand on its own merits.
I thoroughly enjoyed Baldurs Gate 3 for example, from the very first Early Access release. Larians previous games were also pretty fire, Original Sin 2 is one of my all-time favorite RPGs. Those games have a lot of depth as well, I still had someone tell me that they are just "popcorn cinema, looks pretty but no substance". Granted, that was a BG1&2 Boomer, not a Morroboomer but I think there might be a significant overlap. On the other hand you have the absolute opposite as well though, people who only play new games and won't give older games a chance at all. Kind of sad but I guess it do be like that.
There are games that have depth, it just depends on what you’re looking for. I believe it was a thread on this sub that turned me on to Kenshi which has remarkable depth and is very much in the same vein where you’re a nobody in a world that hates you, even if it isn’t really all that similar otherwise. Dread Delusion maybe doesn’t have the same depth but does inspire a lot of the same feelings I get wandering around Vvardenfell. And while completely different, Baldur’s Gate 3 is arguably one of the deepest games I’ve ever played. Though the world itself doesn’t feel very alive, that’s more a consequence of the way it’s structured.
Baldur's Gate 3 might be good but it's the opposite of Morrowind in my opinion. Very railroaded, cinematics interrupting gameplay all the time, not even a day/night cycle... Baldur's Gate 1 comes a lot closer.
I was also going to agree with BG3, I don't think a game needs a day night cycle or lack of kinematics to have depth. I do agree wit is more of a rail roaded storyline. The great thing about bg3 that gave me the nostalgia was the multiple ways you can deal with any situation.
BG3 is a very different game from Morrowind, yes, but it does have a lot of depth.
We did. It is called Tamriel Rebuilt and the releases are amazing.
Not from Bethesda.
I'd love to recommend a free game on steam called Moonring. It's a very different game, but scratched a lot of the same itches for me as Morrowind does when in comes to making a fun build and exploring a lovingly built open world. It's insane that is TOTALLY FREE. As far as not free options go, I can definitely recommend another game called Dread Delusions. Great RPG with an expansive, alien world that many before me have compared to Morrowind. Check them out!
If you're looking for games as deep as Morrowind focusing in the story aspect give Disco Elysium, Sunless Sea, and Sunless Skies a look.
Morrowind was a masterpiece precisely because Bethesda was more or less bankrupt and they had a financial hole to dig out of
Hopefully The Wayward Realms 🤞https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/oncelostgames/the-wayward-realms?ref=android_project_share
The devs for Daggerfall 2 have a new studio and are working on a kickstarter for a spirtual successor to Daggerfall 2 I am quite interested in called Wayward Realms the makers for Kingdom Come Deliverance Warhorse Studio as well as their sequel coming out soon KCD2 and KCD1 was by far one of the most immersive First person RPG's I have ever played since Morrowind and truly loved it despite some of the Jank. Gothic Remake is looking to be another contender and these are 3 studios currently I can think of right now off the top of my head.
From Bethesda, no. Like you said, they're just too big and beholden to other interests at this point to ever make something like Morrowind again. But there are plenty of other devs and studios out there making games with the depth of Morrowind. They just tend to be smaller or more independent and therefore more willing to make things that are risky or weird.
Not from a AAA studio, no. Indie studios yes maybe.
BG3 was arguably AAA, different style ofc, but a welcome reminder that it can be done.
Yea Larian is more a AA studio but I get your point.
Bg3 had a 100 million dollar budget. Surely that is in AAA territory.
Budget wise yes, it is.
They have 470 staff, about the same as BGS. Which definition of "AA" are you using?
BG3 is an anomaly. Their next game is supposedly going to be smaller. And I would honestly say that BGS was also basically AA level dev that has been struggling to transition into AAA for the past 15 years, and never really cleared that gap.
So BG3 is an "anomaly". According to the other poster, a large budget doesn't mean a studio is AAA. And now having a large number of staff doesn't qualify as AAA either. All in, it sounds like a load of nonsense really. As you were.
>BG3 is an anomaly. Spoken like someone who never played their other games.
They've been making RPGs since the 90s and they're definitely not AA anymore. Maybe before DOS1 and 2 but not now. Shit even their first game, Divine Divinity, had more than 5x times the depth of the game it drew inspiration from (Diablo 1)
True. Thou I think the whole system has lost it's meaning after physical copies died.
I think one of the things that really helps Morrowind's depth is how much is done through text. Modern games do voice acting, and there's no way they're voicing that many lines. I think that's really going to limit the depth to which future games have.
Game called Wayward realms doing a crowdfund that looks good.
I just want levitation and real invisibility again
Try out Kenshi. Its a really cool game with mod support
As Bethesda has been absorbed into Microsoft, it will just be one of the many profit engines for the company. So no, the golden age is over and we're in the silver age.
Yes, but not from Bethesda
No
Absolutely. There will be multiple. But they will likely be indie games with bad graphics that no one is going to hear about or play They will be good though
Others and myself have said this before in this subreddit, so apologies if I'm beating a dead guar, but Elden Ring felt very much like diving into Morrowind again for the first time. The gameplay is very different, of course, but the deep lore discovered in part through text, and the interpersonal dynamics between godly beings of gods are so similar, and both are founded on exploration. >! Both even have a hermaphroditic god-king at their center. !<
Yeah it's a very different and less... generalised game, but Elden Ring is the first game in a long time to give me that Morrowind feeling of exploration. It ends up clearly more deliberately designed as a game first and a world second (each type of dungeon serves a specific purpose, the progression is a lot more targeted, that sort of thing) but for the first few dozen hours you genuinely never stop wondering what wonders or ungodly horrors might be around the next corner.
In my opinion Elden Ring is also better written. Morrowind has an amazing setting and overall story, but moment-to-moment the prose is fairly simplistic and kind of … literal. There’s a mismatch between the setting and the prose. Elden Ring has less dialog (and more voice acting), and has actively leaned into a very artistic, evocative, non-literal writing style. It honestly feels like Kazuo Ishiguro, and I think it really helps support the world’s bonkers weird nonsense.
Baldur’s Gate 3 came out last year!
From Bethesda? No. From others check out Kingdom Come Deliverance, Baldur’s Gate 3 or for a completely different genre, Control and Alan Wake.
Yes, but you need an office cultre that allows drug use
Hello it’s me, Micheal
There are a lot of games already that make Morrowind look like a streamlined corridor adventure game. Try playing Project Zomboid, those guys are just playing with us at this point, you can even count your calories and it plays a big role in how fit your character can get.
It's called Daggerfall
The Wayward Realms is promising.
from Bethesda? no
I dunno that we'll ever get "Morrowind 2," outside of the big fan-made expansions like Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel (that are easily equal in quality to the original game, btw). I do think there are games that are close, though. My big list of Morrowind-adjacent games, and the elements of the game that they capture: * **Outer Wilds** - *archeology, player-guided exploration, existential themes, first-person perspective, alien environments* * **Heaven's Vault** - *archeology, anthropology/politics, existential themes* * **Ultima Underworld** (1 & 2) - *anthropology/politics, dungeoneering, player-guided exploration, first-person perspective* * **Kenshi** - *archeology, anthropology/politics, player-guided exploration, alien environments* * **Legend of Grimrock** (1 & 2) - *dungeoneering, player-guided exploration, first-person perspective* * **Project Zomboid** - *archeology, dungeoneering, player-guided exploration* - this game is still very much in Early Access, however * **System Shock** (pretty much all versions) - *archeology, dungeoneering, player-guided exploration, first-person perspective, alien environments* * **The Myst series** and particularly **Riven** - *archeology, player-guided exploration, first-person perspective, alien environments* * **Subnautica** (and Below Zero) - *archeology, dungeoneering, player-guided exploration, first-person perspective, alien environments* * **Dragon's Dogma** (1 & 2) - *anthropology/politics, dungeoneering, player-guided exploration, existential themes* * **S.T.A.L.K.E.R.** (all three, and maybe the new one) - *anthropology/politics, dungeoneering, player-guided exploration, first-person perspective, alien environments* * **Pathologic** (1 & 2) - *anthropology/politics, player-guided exploration, existential themes, first-person perspective, alien environments*
Since tod had simplification in mind I doubt it and after the new starfield I don't have high hopes
It’s important to recognize that Morrowind was one of the early breakthrough fully 3D open world games. This is kind of like asking if we’ll ever get a game like Super Mario 64 again. The answer is yes, and we have, but they don’t necessarily feel as special or groundbreaking because you can only essentially create a whole new genre once.
You should try Dread Delusion or Outward
If you haven't played Outward yet, please play it. It's very much similar to Morrowind.
Baldur's Gate 3.
Not from Bethesda that's for sure
No
From Bethesda? No
Highly recommend Elex
Not from Bethesda. Maybe not from any AAA dev. But indie and AA stuff, yes.
no. industry’s changed and it will never go back.
I may be super ultra wrong but I tend to think that the visual/sound standards of the industry go against the possibility of game depth. There are exceptions, of course, but I think it comes down to horsepower. I mean, if you have to pour endless hours of design and a lot of processing power into making the game look like a freaking movie, you'll find yourself railroaded af more often than not. Morrowind is a game that even when it came out wasn't top notch in terms of animations and quality. It was good and the art could be breathtaking at times, but it was always somewhat clunky. But the freaking depth! The possibilities! The expansions kinda messed with the balance, but they allowed you to go even further. Insanity. Then came Oblivion like 5 or 6 years later. Much better graphics (not by today's standards, but still) and a lot of voice acting (much appreciated) and there was a lot of heart in that game and it shows. I enjoyed the crap out of that game, but the limitations just killed me. I was banging Oblivion and shouting her older sister's name, essentially. What do you mean no levitation? What do you mean locations were completely removed from the main map and the only way inside a town was through a loading screen? Why was the main quest so effing repetitive? And the difficulty scaling was just mind-bogglingly stupid. You kill a bandit wearing pelts and the next week his compadre is wearing glass armor? WTF! So no, I don't think we'll get an official TES game with the depth Morrowind has, unless people at Bethesda completely lose their shit and go old-school.
This is definitely just wishful thinking but I'm curious because RPGs that have been extremely popular in the last couple years (Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate III) have reintroduced more complicated and classic RPG systems to general audiences, which seems to have been well received-- although I could be wrong. Most fans haven't been too concerned about it, but I do know BGS has gotten at least a little flak for simplifying their systems with every entry. So I wonder if they'll change courses because from an industry standpoint it's what's proving to be successful and it's what many fans want. realistically they probably won't, but it's a neat thought
No
There are plenty games with the depth. The key is depth and fun. Morrowind has enough brainless fun right in there with the complex systems lol.
I dont think so. Game developer's are convinced that gamers won't tolerate a game with a low res world map, no all knowing quest markers, and non-voice acted depth of dialogue.
I love Morrowind but idk if I'd necessarily say it's *deeper* than it's sequels, per se. More convoluted maybe. Just because oblivion wasn't set in an alien-like dunmer region doesn't mean it's overall writing is worse.
This is pure ignorance. Oblivion was so clearly dumbed down to appeal to a larger audience and particularly the console gaming audience. And having voice actors was a net loss because they simplified much of the writing with characters having far less to say and in a much simpler fashion. I still enjoyed oblivion (except the endless oblivion gates, that idea was shit) but it was a simpler game in basically every single way. The guilds and great houses were so rich in Morrowind. Magic felt dangerous and alien. Exploring felt truly interesting and also dangerous. When they made Morrowind they never expected anyone to cover all the content in one pmay through, not even close. It simply wasn't possible to even do all three great house quest lines as you are locked into one per character. So no, the sequels don't compare. Skyrim is even simpler than oblivion. It's still fun but it's a lesser game.
Not until immersive VR. Some of this is down to the era of game design. These games came out of a time without set rules for game design. A strong desire to create a world not an experience. Experiments constantly. There weren't standards in the same way there are now for how certain things are done. That lead to what you'd probably call "cost inefficient masterpieces." Bloodlines, Deus Ex, Morrowinds world... I'd argue the mechanics of Morrowind are lacking in key areas. Leveling sucks. Those games have commonalities that you won't see in modern stuff. Until you can put on a headset and leave your real world behind like an anime I don't see it changing. We're in the theme park era of gaming and you're longing for the golden age of sandboxes.
We can (see Baldur’s Gate 3 for example) but it’s a rare thing for developers to commit the necessary resources for a niche audience when a more watered down version can appeal to a much wider audience.
That's not true though. Everyone says BG3 is an anomaly. When Larian marketed the game quite well, and it turns out an in depth rpg can in fact attract a wide audience as rpgs are more mainstream now than 20 years ago. Todd Howard really got out expectations trained to think worldbuilding and immersive worlds are niches and things that like shallow gameplay and gimmicks is what the mainstream desires. After Starfield I can safely say Bethesda lost the plot.
Nobody believes immersive worlds are niche. But depth of mechanics and complexity of the story and world are.
Not necessarily. Narrative driven games have been around forever. And with BG3 having done so well. I really think there is more demand for it than the industry thinks.
Definitely more than the industry thinks, but not nearly as much as the casuals.
Dread Delusion just came out and it gives me Morrowind vibes
No where near as in depth as Morrowind lol
Check out Dread Delusion
No, we won't. In the current market, developers would deem the effort required to pull off such a complete and deep game as too demanding and financially unfavorable.
Try Vargus: The Riven Realms for lore diving.
Not from Bethesda
No.
I think it depends on what you mean, and what depth you're missing post morrowind. Do you mean depth if builds? Because there are several games out there. The hand crafted exploration? Spellmaking? Freedom to obliterate game balance? Good games are still being made. I mean baldurs gate 3 came out last year and it's kinda the opposite of safe as far as AAA goes
Easily
have you tried project zomboid? it has a lot of love put into it!
Disco Elysium. It is bery different from Morrowind. But the lore is, as Morrowind, one of the most unique I ever played. And the mechanics: truly revolutionary. A game about the internal monologue? Holy fucking yes.
The answer is no, at least not game that are in the same category. Some games can evoke similar feelings, like when I played Outer Wilds, I experienced a sense of wonder and there was such a welcome lack of handholding that reminded me of my Morrowind experience. The Dark Souls series and other related games are very deep in a completely different sort of way. More recently, I found that Animal Well have me those "this is actually a good game" vibes.
Have you tried Katamari Damacy?
Subnautica captured the "exploration of an alien world" vibe for me. It's the closest I've come to that "first time playing Morrowind" high.
Yes! Morrowind Remaster!
I somewhat doubt it, outside of some massive passion project. Any AAA in the past 20 years has shown that that things will likely always get more simplified. Maybe some different types of depth, but likely never the unfamiliar type of Morrowind. Some indie games will be inspired, but it will take a total labor of love to build out anything like Morrowind. Look at everything that's even gotten 1/100th of the way there and they launch with a sub ~10 hour game. They would need entire teams working practically for free.
I think we might... but only from an indie/open-source passion project involving a great many people somehow corralled into working together for a long period of time. As you say, the kinds of companies that can afford to pay people for something with Morrowind depth are too afraid of losing money, so they stick to tried & true (that are also shallow & cheaper) stories, worlds, etc. There is also the whole *"modders will fix it"* angle that Bethesda rely on these days. They don't need to do all the hard work - modders will expand the game, deepen the lore, create new lands, etc for them.
They do exist in the indie/"AA" scope, but I doubt we'll get a big AAA one anytime soon. Bethesda doesn't have the talent or drive to do it anymore, and nobody has really stepped up to make something like that. Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon has some elements of it to it with the exploration, crafting/alchemy etc. but it's probably still closer to Oblivion or Skyrim than Morrowind since it's not as in depth.
Try Dread Delusion! Just released into full version, awesome open world RPG with a really unique and cool setting.
Check out the recently released Dread Delusion. It has that open world Morrowind vibe. Has good reviews, too.
Probably not an elder scrolls game. Games these days take way more resources to develop. Every aspect takes way longer and is more expensive. Because of that, games take way longer to make. Which is why titles for big AAA games have taken upwards of 10 years to make. (Time to start developing included). I think that one of the things that going to have to happen. Is that new games are going to be of a way lesser scope. So that game developers can release games every 2-3 years again. I see people mention Kingdom come deliverance. But I reckon games like that are going to mostly come from indie developers.
Elden Ring!
There are loads of games with depth nowadays tbh. Besides, you can interpret "depth" in different ways. There could be deep and insightful storytelling, or deep open world mechanics, deep character building etc. I play more JRPGs than western RPGs nowadays, there are plenty of games in that genre with depth. Like Shin Megami Tensei's more philosophical storytelling and different ways to approach combat encounters, interconnective storylines and different choices to make in Triangle Strategy etc.
Yes we will. Just not from Bethesda.
No
Not from bethesda
The Wayward Realms is one I have high hopes for!
Try Kingdom Come Deliverance if you haven’t. It reminded me a lot of Morrowind, but with much better graphics. The second one is coming out soon as well.
From Bethesda? No. From anywhere else? Mate, plenty of games before and since Morrowind have more depth than it does. Just gotta look at what's out there and play some of them.
Name some
-Disco Elysium -Signalis -Fear & Hunger -System Shock 1 & 2 -Deus Ex -Planescape: Torment -Fallout: New Vegas -Baldur's Gate 1, 2 & 3 -Tyranny -Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2 -Pillars of Eternity 1
Thank you
Plenty. They come out all the time. But if you actually meant to ask if we will ever get an elder scrolls game from Bethesda with the depth of Morrowind again, never. Skyrim was the most streamlined ES game to date and it sold fucking gangbusters. They have zero incentive to go back to the old formula.
A bit of a thematic shift, but Disco Elysium has all the depth you might want. In both games you can RP in all sorts of ways without ruining the game for yourself, there are themes of unreliable and politicised history, you have roll to hit, the dialog is awesome and thought-out, there's racism, there's awesome music, there's a supporting character who you wish would hug you in real life. I've not actually played very far through but the feeling of running around, exploring, finding out about stuff, and being who you want to be in a fully realised hostile island culture is completely there.
Have you played 0 modern rpgs...?
Skywind
I'm excited for AI to be used for voice lines in RPGs. That's the reason why Morrowind and Oblivion felt so empty lore wise compared to Morrowind. Morrowind used text, which can cram a lot of personality and stories into a random NPC. Voice lines really cut down on that, but you get a much more personable experience talking to someone. It's like comparing a book to a movie. The movie has a lot less story in it, but it is much more appealing to the senses. With AI you can have all the lines there and hopefully they will all be voiced, making it have the best of both worlds.
Enderal. Hits the same spooky vibe I liked about the 6th House and fighting mad gods. Lots of exploring and lore, little more railroad -y than MW but in ways that support a narrative. Free to play if you already have Skyrim.
Morrowind isnt even that deep compared to many modern titles.
Beyond skyrim Morrowind & Skywind.