Eleidon’s Ward is just one of many hidden artifacts on the island of Morrowind. Tower with an impossibly high ceiling? Yeah, there’s a dungeon up there. Grotto underneath Ebonheart? Take some excellent armor off a deserter. Zelda breath of the wild zelda full#Ĭave full of bugs? Daedric dai-katana hidden behind a suspicious wall. Crab on a deserted island? Yeah, you can talk to it. Giant bug? It’s your main method of transportation. (By the way, all the Morrowind images in this article are from an installation running the best mods 2018 has to offer. In Breath of the Wild, every bit of exploration pretty much leads to another Shrine, with another short puzzle to overcome and another Spirit Orb obtainable afterward. Get four Spirit Orbs, you can increase your stamina or life meter.

It’s a solid feedback loop, but not as intrinsically motivating as Morrowind’s exotic rewards.

After the first few hours in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I stopped thinking “I wonder what’s in here” after stumbling on a Shrine. Some games found a decent middle-ground- Fallout 3, The Witcher 3, Assassin’s Creed: Origins, and others use placeholder icons for points of interest until you discover what’s there. But even these don’t force you to engage with the world on the same level as Morrowind and Breath of the Wild. Scenery is just scenery, even in a game as incredible as The Witcher 3, free to be ignored until you’ve reached the next question mark on the map. Let people explore! Let people get lost! Let the world be a character, not just filler. Bottom lineĭo I think it’ll change? Will The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild influence open-world games going forward in a way Morrowind didn’t? I don’t know.

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