Out of Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind...this is the most immersive of the three.
So I started playing Morrowind and yes the graphics are dated...even quite ugly now by todays standards but they don't effect the game play at all and if you can suck up the dated graphics and play this game through you'll find that this is the most immersive elder scrolls of them all....even more than Skyrim.
I played through this game so many times and I've never been able to do everything or go everywhere. The thing that makes Morrowind unique is that morrowind is divided up into houses so if you join one house you can not join another because they are rivals. The guilds are rivals with each other...so if you join the fighters guild you may not be allowed into the theives guild. If join the empire's legion than you may be disliked my certain Dark elves who hate the empire. Join the church of the empire means you can't join the church for the dark elves...etc. This is what makes Morrowind so special, unlike Oblivion and Skyrim where you can join every guild and play every quest with one character you can not do that with morrowind. I don't remember how many times I played through but I still never managed to join all the different factions and do their quests...
This game is packed with quests and they are not random like Skyrims.
Also with Morrowind is that the level cap is higher than Oblivions pitiful level 48. I was near level 70 in morrowind and I could have kept going. There are more variety of weapon styles to specialize in such as spears, axes. This makes for a more varied customization of class.
If there is one thing about Morrowind though that makes it a little bit tough is that Speech craft is one of the most important skills and one of the hardest to raise until you get it a certain level. The easiest way I found was to find a guard and occasionally you can keep talking to them and raising your speechcraft..it's a rough road and takes time but it's a must. People in Morrowind will not like you or give you any information unless you have a good speechcraft. So I stress it's important to make this a main skill!!!
Some of the things that hurt Morrowind other that graphics is the combat is clunky and poorly animated. It's not a fault of the game but a fault of the time it was made in.
Also keeping track of your journel is more difficult in Morrowind. It can be a little hard to remember what missions you have to do if you accept to many and don't complete them. It's best to completer missions as you get them. Also mission directions are mostly given to you in converstation. There is no green arrow that tells you Here is you objective. You have to read the text and figure out where to go..This can be frustrating but I solved the problem by googling morrowind maps and finding some really good interactive maps online that helped me find my destinations. I'd suggest you do the same or you could get lost and frustrated.
Anyone who played Skyrim will recognize the dwarven ruins now empty and full of the same dwarven mechanical guards. They originated here and I was happy to see them back in Skyrim...seems like no one still knows where the dwarves went.
The GOTY also includes some bonus areas. It's been awhile but the best feature about this is that there is cooler armor and the merchants give you a lot more money for you loot than back in morrowind. So if you need to sell items than enter the expansion area. The issue I had with this though is that the areas they added as expansions have a really high nasty freeze rate....so save often.
Anyway I could go on but it would take pages. For those of you looking for a truly immersive Elderscrolls experience, you want to flesh out this world more and don't mind horribly dated graphics and bad fight animations than I suggest playing Morrowind. Listen to my advise and you should have a good time.
Another thing about Morrowind that must be stressed is that enemies are a pretermined level. Unlike Oblivion where the monsters you encounter in dungeons change as you go up levels they do not in Morrowind(except outside). The enemies in dungeons are a set level so you do have to level up before going into dungeons. If they are too tough...come back later.