A Brief Comparison of Oblivion and Morrowind
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So, what do you think I'm going to write about today? That's right, on the well-worn, overused, and already annoying topic. I will compare Oblivion and Morrowind. We have seen this already dozens, if not hundreds of times. But every time, I want to say, it's done in various isolated categories, like "Ah, the atmosphere of Oblivion isn't the same!" or "Graphics doesn't matter at all!". I have never encountered a complete comparison of these games anywhere: neither here, nor on forums, nor on websites dedicated to these games. And it wouldn't hurt to have one. Naturally, in this post, stones, rays of evil, denials, and a lot of other things will fly towards me, BUT! I'm not imposing my opinion on you, and I judge relatively subjectively, as I consider Morrowind to be the best game in the series (though I haven't played the first and second parts). But here, I will try to provide objective arguments, comparisons, and judgments, and I will also strive to compare objectively. I haven't figured out all the criteria by which I will compare these games yet; I will be thinking of them in the process, adding/removing some of them. I will compare only the original games - WITHOUT ADD-ONS! And yes, I DON'T WANT TO START A HOLY WAR HERE!, I just had some thoughts that I quickly want to write down before I forget. I'm doing this to at least use and justify the 5 posts that I'm given per day :)

So, let's begin:

The first thing I'm going to compare - is architecture:

Morrowind: Here we are presented with a whole ensemble. I will list it: there are cities under the wings of houses (Hlaalu/Telvanni/Rhoda), settlements with imperial architecture (this includes forts, villages like Seyda Neen/Ebenglard/Caldera), temple settlements (the capital - Vivec, as well as Molag Mar), and we can't forget about the various scattered Ashlander settlements (settlements and camps, as well as separate tents of outcasts we encounter). This could be the end of it... But we must not forget about the ruins and the abandoned places. These include the Daedric shrines built by the ancestors of the Dunmer before the first coming of Nerevar and the like, Dwemer cities in ruins built by an extinct race, and Dunmer fortresses serving as citadels for the great houses, as well as Velothi towers, which currently serve as shelters for mages/necro-mancers/and all sorts of other evils, but I can't tell you who and when they were built :)

Oblivion: I want to say right away: I will often mention in my review of Oblivion that its creators got lazy. Let's start, the creators of Oblivion got lazy with architecture. Why? Because they didn’t come up with anything new. What does the architecture of the cities of Cyrodiil resemble? That's right, the architecture of Western/Northwestern Europe from the 14th to the 18th centuries. Judge for yourselves: what do the castles of the lords-rule of cities look like? And what do the shrines and temples of the cities look like? They hardly differ from Notre-Dame. The two cities that I can highlight - are Imperial City and Bruma. Imperial City, solely because it's all made of stone, and Bruma because it's all wooden, except for the towers, walls, and temple :) Also in the capital's surroundings, we stumble upon villages, again little different from those we saw in history books (except for their cleanliness and tidiness). Let's move on to the ruins and other attractions: these are Ayleid ruins, I won't hide it - beautiful, elegant and original, as well as Imperial forts. The forts... I don’t know how the developers positioned them on the map, but from a fortification standpoint, they are positioned badly :) When there’s a mountain nearby, and the fort stands next to it in the lowland, that’s not right. And another thing: it's unclear where the inhabitants of the fort lived; it feels like their builders calculated that soldiers would take 15 minutes to run through the fort's maze after the alarm bell rings.

Second - character names and NPCs. No, don't think that I'm so picky to criticize the names given by the developers, but there is one little thing: in Morrowind, even the most notorious criminal has a name, even bandits associated with famous personalities of Vvardenfell are encountered. What do we see in the fourth part? The vocabulary of the criminal parents in Cyrodiil regarding names is quite limited: brigand and marauder. One could assume that these brigands were raised in orphanages, so we should be glad they weren't called by numbers (1st, 2nd, 007), like some known villains :)

Third - flora: here I won’t even say anything, you all already know perfectly well. Mushrooms and trees are not comparable.

Fourth - fauna:

What creatures inhabit our island? These are the pesky cliff-riders, kagouti, guar, nix hounds, and even the static silt striders, as well as familiar crabs and rats from real life... In general, we can assume that we are in some Jurassic period.

Who inhabits our metric? Yes-yes, the developers of the game again got lazy and did not bother to invent animals. They just took them from the real world: wolves, bears, lions... oh yes, also goblins and demons, why not shove them in the game?

Fifth - factions. Here again, there’s not much to discuss; Morrowind kills Oblivion in this criterion IN BOTH NUMBER AND QUALITY! But it’s not all unambiguous; two guilds particularly pleased me in Oblivion: the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood. The Thieves Guild had a final mission with accompanying quests directly before it, while the Dark Brotherhood had an unhappy ending and unpredictability. Well, yes, we all felt sorry for killing the brothers in the guild. But Morrowind simply delights us with the variety in the choice and assortment of houses, guilds, and factions, and it cannot be said that all quests are monotonous and boil down to "go there, bring that!"

Now a bit about gameplay:

Fast travel: Morrowind - silt striders, we all remember the phrase "why walk when you can ride a horse?" Although the horse is somewhat peculiar, it sounds realistic and allows us to get from point A to point B. What do we have in the Imperial Province? Fast travel! Now we only need to click the mouse, and we are not afraid of any goblins, demons, and all sorts of other creatures, plus it’s free! And also, now kindhearted quest givers in the guilds make a mark on the map for us, so we don't trample through forests and swamps in search of the necessary cave, ruin, and the like. "Casualty?" - you might ask, - IT'S THE MOST OF IT!

Next: character leveling/skills. Leveling hasn't changed, with the only difference that we can now learn from teachers no more than 5 times per level, and the number of skills has decreased... "What is this done for?" - you might ask, - CASUALITY! I also think it’s worth mentioning level scaling (the surrounding world develops along with you: goblins turn into Daedra, and leather armor into glass and Daedric.) I think you can already answer to this...

With this, my brief comparison ends. Thank you all for enduring this text. Of course, I didn't bring anything new to you, but I hope I at least gathered your scattered thoughts into a bunch and correctly formulated what you have thought about many times :) Write your feedback, suggestions, complaints, opinions, and comments on the topic or not :)