The Elder Scrolls series is one of the most well-known western RPGs in the games industry. While it has been around for many years, it enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity with its third entry Morrowind. Morrowind lets players explore a vast world in first-person with custom characters that could be played in a wide variety of ways.
Of course, The Elder Scrolls has become synonymous with RPGs like Morrowind, but the series' third entry still has done many things better than Oblivion or Skyrim. There are many fans of the series that tout the game as their favorite, and that like to revisit it every now and then. Morrowind's memorable NPCs and hardcore mechanics have given it a unique place in the series. Thankfully, for newer fans that want to visit the game for the first time or fans who want to mix the experience up a bit, there are a number of fantastic mods to bring the game closer to modern standards.
Better Clothes
Better Clothes likely does not seem as though it would have a big impact on Morrowind, but it can increase a player's immersion immensely. Players spend a lot of time with NPCs in Morrowind, and making them look better makes that time much more enjoyable while making the game's characters feel more alive and natural as well. This makes Better Clothes an easy recommendation for anyone wanting to play Morrowind in 2021.
Run Faster
Run Faster is a mod that many fans of later games in the series will want to consider. Morrowind is infamous for its slow movement and the pace of its gameplay. While this can certainly be some of its charms, and it can be increased depending on how players level up their characters, it can be a big deterrent for some players. Run Faster solves this by simply allowing players to set the movement speed of their character. This way players can get the experience they want while exploring Bethesda's fantastic open world.
Morrowind Rebirth
Morrowind Rebirth is an overhaul mod that reinvents Morrowind so that returning players can enjoy a new experience in the game they know and love. The mod is impressively comprehensive. It adds entirely new features to the game, new enemies from throughout the series, re-balances many weapons and aspects of the game, and updates the game's locations so that returning players have new things to discover. The mod is still a work in progress, and Morrowind Rebirth even just recently got a massive new update. Its developers do recommend that new players enjoy the base game before exploring Morrowind Rebirth, and the mod isn't compatible with all other mods for the game, but it is a must-download for fans of the game looking to feel like they did when they first played it.
Tamriel Rebuilt
Tamriel Rebuilt is a massive mod that aims to add the region's mainland to the game. The mod hopes to expand the game's world to be even bigger while maintaining the original design and intent of Morrowind. So far, the mod includes a region that is even bigger than the map in Oblivion and features over 350 new quests as well as new weapons, armors, spells, books, and items. The mod is building the mainland using an extensive study of lore found throughout the series and has entirely reconstructed cities and dungeons from what they have found. The mod even restores some of the content famously cut from Morrowind.
Morrowind Comes Alive
Morrowind Comes Alive is for all the players that find Morrowind's age showing primarily in the lesser number of NPCs present in its cities. The mod adds over 1200 NPCs to the game's world with randomized appearances and integrates them into the game's leveled lists. It even simulates the characters traveling around the game's world to different cities and conducting business so that players will run into familiar faces as they travel through Morrowind. The mod makes the game's cities and world feel more alive and active, which some players may be looking for after the release of Elder Scrolls Online's Morrowind expansion.
Morrowind Enhanced Textures
Morrowind Enhanced Textures helps the gameplay better on modern hardware by increasing the resolution of the game's textures. Without the mod, the textures often look blurry at higher resolutions, muddying the great artistic work on display throughout the game. Morrowind Enhanced Textures is a great way to make Morrowind look more modern without changing its original design or intent. Most of the textures have had their resolution quadrupled, but some textures have even been upscaled up to 16 times to make them ready for 4k displays. The resolution increase feels great throughout the game and allows Morrowind's many breathtaking locations to look just as beautiful now as they did when the game first releases all those years ago.
Speechcraft Rebalance
Speechcraft Rebalance attempts to adjust one of Morrowind's more frustrating mechanics. Especially at early levels in the game, trying to get NPCs to like the player more can be incredibly frustrating thanks to randomized reactions and a single failed attempt, tanking the player's efforts with little recourse. Speechcraft Rebalance fixes this without completely changing the system to allow players to recover from making an NPC dislike them while keeping the Speechcraft skill valuable for those who chose to level it up. Morrowind's Speechcraft system has always been one of the game's more frustrating aspects, and this mod helps players get through it to discover what made Morrowind such an instant classic at release.
Rise of House Telvanni
House Telvanni is one of the standout factions in Morrowind, and Rise of House Telvanni expands the player's interactions with them to be even bigger. The mod adds a lot to the questline, including entirely new quests that give House Telvanni the opportunity to gain more political power. Or, the player can decide that House Telvanni misses its opportunities, allowing players to experience the new quests without impacting the game's vanilla political structure while still being able to sink even more hours in Morrowind.