The Elder Scrolls Online is heading back to Morrowind, and the team at ZeniMax Online Studios has a new video all about the inspirations taken from the classic RPG. Part one of the “Return to Morrowind” is out, and the two-part series reflects where ESO is heading and what the team is taking from the past.
In The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, the game opens on you being freed from being imprisoned, and the game doesn’t just fill in the blanks for you. You get to Seyda Neen and things are weird, and the people are brusque and not exactly rolling out a welcome for you.
Loremaster Michael Zenke lays it out, “Morrowind has a very specific aesthetic to it,” he says, and “the first thing that hit me…was just how real it was”. Project Art Director CJ Grebb compares it to when the children enter Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory for the first time, with “creativity and imagination on display in all directions”. The weirdness of the world and its features, from the giant mushrooms to the creatures, is still clearly memorable.
With those impressions, it’s not surprising that the I team remains inspired by the game. One of the legacies lies in creating your own player character with a depth of options, something that still remains in ESO. It’s also not surprising that, for some, the game was formative in their own journeys into game development.
Necrom, the next big chapter, will be out in June, and by now if you’ve paid any attention to The Elder Scrolls Online in recent weeks, we’re headed back into Morrowind. Being able to explore the Dark Elf culture, the places and secrets, and the room that going back to a familiar place in new ways offers.
For more, head to The Elder Scrolls Online.
