I've finished Morrowind!

About an hour ago I finished my playthrough of Morrowind. I finished the base game about two weeks ago and since then I've first finished Tribunal DLC and most recently Bloodmoon DLC. Before doing this blog post I read through my original ranting post about Morrowind and I realise how much things have changed since November. For me, coming from the newer TES games, Morrowind had a really steep learning curve. Starting the game I didn't understand the leveling or the skills, I didn't understand the factions or all the means of getting around the island quickly. I was completely lost and I hated it so I hated the game. Things have changed now. I really enjoyed Morrowind. There are some things I don't like, but most things I've loved, and now I do understand why most Elder Scrolls fans praise Morrowind as the best one. I'll always have a first time love for Skyrim, but Morrowind was amazing, and to me that puts them both at the top, sharing the number 1 spotlight. Oblivion had a lot of humour, but it doesn't come close to the epicness of Morrowind and Skyrim.

Game mechanics: The leveling had me dumbfounded for a long while. You really need to make a choice and focus on one type. I focused on Light Armor, Short Blade, Block, Athletics, Sneak and Security of my skills. Since I played a rogue type character. Since I didn't do a magical character I didn't focus much on Willpower or Personality or any of the magical skills.
There are means of fast travelling around the island. The items with Almsivi Intervention (direct to closest Temple) and Divine Intervention (direct to closest Fort) became my best friends, and I was addicted to both silt striders and boats. I also fell in love with Levitation and when I had to walk for long distances I always chose to walk over everything instead of having to find a winding way down there somewhere.
Having no quest markers was confusing at first, but thanks to UESP and my paper map I learned to find my way very quickly. The in-game map is still useless unless you're going somewhere you've already been a few times and just need a hint for which way to go.
Interestingly you get used to not being able to block. It's a bit risky on low levels, but once you go up a few levels it's not really bothersome anymore.
There's some autosave actually, but not nearly as much as Oblivion and Skyrim, so saving often is something I had to learn to remember.
I really like the old school interface and having everything on the screen all at once: character, map, effects, skills, inventory... It's really practical. Why did they stop making it like that?

Gameplay: The main quest started out really slow. Something like no one really knows who you are and you were a prisoner in the Imperial City but the Emperor decided to send you to Morrowind for no reason whatsoever and now you're with the Blades and there's some stuff going on that you need to investigate. Now there are strange things happening, and wow this really is all about you. The quest givers start to realise that the prophecy actually concerns you about halfway through the main quest line. The Path of the Incarnate is the quest when things actually start to heat up.
Morrowind is a lot about choice and consequences. A majority of the quests can end in several different ways (including the main quest), and there are no unkillable essential NPCs (well, some NPCs are essential to the main quest but you can still kill them and destroy the quest line). You can only join one Great House and some factions actively fight against each other or openly dislikes each other. So you actually need to think about what you're doing, why and to what purpose. This is why I chose to do the Morag Tong quest line as the last thing I did on Vvardenfell, before going to Tribunal.
The game is all about exploring, but it's marred by the frequent attacks by different creatures. Especially cliff racers who don't attack you immediately, but rather duplicates before actually attacking. Turns around, there's one, continues walking, turns around, now they're two, continues walking, now they're four, continues walking, they're attacking and now they're five -.-' Even after you've leveled your Speed to max the walking pace is still very slow and running is about the same pace as walking in Skyrim...
Morrowind has a lot of personality and all races are very distinguished. You can cross-dress and both males and females will compliment you on your looks. Also, Morrowind has recognition for what you have accomplished, which is a nice change from Skyrim where no one seems to know I'm Dragonborn even after I've killed Alduin -.-' The architecture is also very distinguished and you can easily tell if you're in a Redoran controlled city, a Hlaalu controlled city or a Telvanni controlled city. Vivec City is still the most retarded case of architecture ever perpetrated in a game. But I don't think the landscape is as amazing as everyone says, it still looks pretty ordinary. The only areas I'd say are special are Sheogorad to the north and Zafirbel Bay to the east. Otherwise it's mostly just ash and swamps.
I must also say that I loved the cut scenes that gave the whole game an entirely new level of epicness. The soundtrack was also amazing. And Azura is my new BFF.

DLCs: Mournhold as a city failed to impress me and the whole fight against monsters in the plaza was so similar to the final fight in Oblivion. However I loved meeting with Almalexia and Sotha Sil, and I adored Sotha Sil's very steampunk Clockwork City.
Bloodmoon was a huge nostalgia trip for me, since I played Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC first and both Dragonborn and Bloodmoon take place on the island of Solstheim. I loved being the one laying the groundwork for Raven Rock and its ebony mine. The mystery novel-ish main quest line of Bloodmoon was also intriguing and I really enjoyed meeting Hircine. The cut scene in the end there was also very special.

How things have changed:

 M'aiq the Liar in Morrowind and in Skyrim

 Draugr Lord in Morrowind and in Skyrim

Udefrykte in Morrowind and in Skyrim

 Gyldenhul Barrow in Morrowind and in Skyrim

Humour:

 1). Talk about skeleton in the closet! xD 2). Many Nords in Morrowind base game are nude due to being tricked by witches. This one is nude cause it's too hot in Mournhold and he loves to say it. 3). All he wants is a pair of boots. It's cold in Solstheim.

Things to note: In Morrowind base game you get to meet the last living Dwemer, which I can't help but being ridiculously happy about. There's also this guy in Bloodmoon DLC who wants you to help him find proof of the Falmer civilisation and how it ended, which also makes me smile. In the mine in Bloodmoon DLC you get to meet Gratian Caerellius, the great-grandfather of Crescius Caerellius who we meet in Dragonborn DLC. In Tribunal DLC you get to meet Queen Barenziah whose crown is a real pain in the ass in Skyrim base game.

The Last Living Dwemer

There are also some features in Morrowind that are not in Oblivion or Skyrim. For example the strip club in Suran and the different slave markets throughout Vvardenfell.

All in all, Morrowind is an incredibly detailed game with enormous amounts of content to offer. Although the graphics aren't the greatest the game is still great enough that the, nowadays, impaired graphics is nothing but an easily overlooked and ignored annoyance. I don't regret having played it one bit.