I am a Morrowboomer, kinda. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was my first ever Bethesda game. Running on the Original Xbox with its blurry visuals, warbling framerate and extremely long loading screens, the original Morrowind was my introduction to the world of Tamriel, and a game that no other RPG—Elder Scrolls or otherwise—has ever managed to recreate.

That’s not just nostalgia talking, although I do have an unlimited amount of nostalgia for Morrowind, so much so that I jumped to buy the expensive Collector’s Edition of Elder Scrolls Online’s Vvardenfell expansion the day pre-orders went live. After cutting through the nostalgia, though, there’s still nothing that makes me feel the way Morrowind feels, and I really wish there was.

After arriving at Seyda Neen with good ol’ future-ghost Jiub, Morrowind almost immediately throws you into its world without much of a care. You are, well, you, and you should probably go and see this topless guy in his house in Balmora, or not, whatever you want. You’re thrown into a world, forced to make a build that will likely be atrocious, and asked to make do.

For modern gamers, Morrowind is a ball-ache of a game. It’s combat is based on clunky dice rolls, you move like you’re wading through a thick river of molasses, and everyone is fugly. And yet, as you stroll from Seyda Neen to Balmora (after stealing Fargoth’s money because he is not only fugly but also annoying), you’re met with a serenity that few other games ever attempt to recreate.

In this Elder Scrolls game, you’re allowed to get lost. There are no compasses to guide you, only a journal, a world map and road signs. It’s an RPG about discovery, and part of discovery is getting turned around. You didn’t take that left towards Arkngthand and now you’ve encountered a different quest or a new dungeon or a new enemy.

This sense of discovery is core to every system in Morrowind. You’re encouraged to create your own magic, enchant your own gear, swallow four litres of potions so you can sprint and jump from Balmora to Vivec, or even straight to Red Mountain. While Skyrim always boasted “see those mountains, you can climb them”, Morrowind does so without boasting—it’s as open a sandbox as a Bethesda game has ever been, albeit with considerably less simulation than the modern games allow.

Unlike Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Starfield, Morrowind is a game that I feel I not only can learn, but need to learn. In my fourth playthrough of the game, I realised I knew exactly how to walk from Seyda Neen to Balmora, find Casius Cosades, walk to Arkngthand, grab the Puzzle Box, and return without checking a map, without reading a sign, and without even consulting the journal.

In Fallout 4, a game I’ve likely put as much time into as Morrowind over the years, I still get lost in Diamond City, I still get turned around in Mechanist’s Lair. In Starfield, a game I’ve played 200 hours of, I can barely find my way around Neon, but I know every twist and turn of Vivec because I didn’t have that compass to guide me.

“Getting lost is the only place worth going to” is a quote someone said at some point, and that’s how I feel about most RPGs. Having to fumble around The Citadel in Mass Effect 1 made that location far more memorable than the simpler-but-cooler recreation in the admittedly much-better second game, but getting lost is part of the adventure.

The island of Vvardenfell is a magnificently alien landscape filled with hidden tombs and ancient dungeons, and getting lost is the best way to appreciate it. I feel like Starfield—for all of its faults—did at least manage to have some sense of discovery, although it was largely ruined by its procedural generation. Nevertheless, exploring Earth without a compass, finding iconic landmarks, and scanning new flora and fauna did at least scratch a bit of that itch.

I never expect Bethesda to try and hook into Morrowind’s open-world design ever again, although it would be nice if The Elder Scrolls 6 did design pathways and signage and gave players the option to play it the “Morrowind Way”, but I do hope that the game gives me a similar sense of discovery.

I think Skyrim is a fantastic game, I’ve never soured on it like many of the online grifters have in recent years (it’s so buggy, urgh that engine, who cares?). With that said, I do hope The Elder Scrolls 6 back peddles a bit on its simplicity. Make magic something I need to learn and think about; make enchanting a challenge, make me care more about its world.

Anyway, this isn’t a piece about Bethesda-At-Large, but just Morrowind, and I’ll leave with this. Morrowind isn’t the best Elder Scrolls game for everyone. For many, it’s too obtuse to click with them, but I think every RPG lover should give it a try, especially as the game turns 24-years-old later this year. Ugh.