I was too young for Morrowind and started at Oblivion, but yeah, it’s the Elder Scrolls games 100%. At the time, to me (age ~9), gaming was jumping and gunning around blocky worlds full of fake doors and imagining how cool it would be if GTA felt like an actual world instead of a blocked-out setpiece full of people whose only thoughts were to walk around, drive, or fight each other.
I started Oblivion and it was insane. I could go in nearly every house, I could have conversations with everyone, I could walk around picking up whatever objects and stealing stuff, then break out of jail when I got caught, I could get inducted into an assassination cult (even if I was really bad at lockpicking and struggled to get in the front door), etc. It was mindblowing and those sorts of features are why I prefer Bethesda titles even to these major titles everyone loves like Witcher 3.
Also Morrowind. The systems of that game blew my young mind, and I was far too dumb to notice most of the jank.
I was too young for Morrowind and started at Oblivion, but yeah, it’s the Elder Scrolls games 100%. At the time, to me (age ~9), gaming was jumping and gunning around blocky worlds full of fake doors and imagining how cool it would be if GTA felt like an actual world instead of a blocked-out setpiece full of people whose only thoughts were to walk around, drive, or fight each other.
I started Oblivion and it was insane. I could go in nearly every house, I could have conversations with everyone, I could walk around picking up whatever objects and stealing stuff, then break out of jail when I got caught, I could get inducted into an assassination cult (even if I was really bad at lockpicking and struggled to get in the front door), etc. It was mindblowing and those sorts of features are why I prefer Bethesda titles even to these major titles everyone loves like Witcher 3.
This is 100% my experience too. My mind was blown when I saw what you could do in oblivion.