https://openmw.org/2023/openmw-0-48-0-released/
The OpenMW team is proud to announce the release of version 0.48.0 of our open-source engine! Grab it from our Downloads Page for all supported operating systems. So what does another fruitful year…
I started my very first actual play-through a two or so weeks ago. The combat mechanics take the most to get used to as it's a weird mixture of seeing fighting animations that just don't at all match with what's actually happening (it's roll-of-the-dice system, basically). But once you give yourself a bit to get used to it —and level up your super weak starting stats— it can actually be a ton of fun. I'm certainly having a blast with it, at long last :).
I play while having uesp.net open alongside the game, as I do need to take a peek to figure some stuff out every now and then. There's great joy to be had in getting some rough route description from a person and trying to figure out how to actually get there, but at times these are so vague, inaccurate or needlessly convoluted that I just wouldn't have been able to figure it out without the wiki's help. It is very likely that this is a "me" problem though, I just tend to have trouble not zoning out or being confused when a simple ask for where a store is results in a Tolkien-sized description somehow involving all four compass directions(!?), while being in the town in question already.
I installed a handful of mods, but kept it to a relative minimum and "vanilla plus" setup. "The modding game" is just not something I like doing, it feels way too much like debugging, which I already do plenty of at $DAYJOB. I would recommend just picking a few before you start a real play-through though, as some might not play nicely with an existing save but their positive impact can be quite substantial to have. Mods like Tamriel Rebuilt, Patch for Purists, Expansion Delay, Remiro's Groundcover, and and Beautiful Cities of Morrowind are ones I would personally highly recommend, along with a few voice related ones too (Idle Talk and Quest Voice Greetings are ones I am using) to get a little more variety in what is being said.
Enabling the "Real Disposition" mod is quite nice too, if you can stomach people really not quite liking you as being the "outlander" that you are. I picked the lightest "base" variant of that mod, which gives just a bit of a negative starting bias, more closely matching with how they greet you anyway.
Ultimately I'd say it's worth trying it out, but only if you're able to get used to its inherent jankyness. It'll never quite feel like a modern game as some of its gameplay mechanics are just so very different from what we'd expect these days. If you're able to look past that though, at least based on my admittedly limited (I'm about 14-15 hours in?) experience, it's quite a beautiful and interesting world to get lost in.