While developers by now probably opening champagne, seeing how well received this chapter was by new and old players both, I must add some unpleasant observations. In some way I feel reluctant to start the discussion as I do like this chapter and all the new implementations of it, but at the same time I see a problem of underdeveloped design which must not be ignored. There will be a lot of pictures (for those of you who don't like to read).

First of all - Necrom and it's assets are great. The location, the layout, the furniture, the unnatural rocks and sigils on them. A perfect example on how to perfectly recreate something from the collective imagination which some of us fueled for 15-20 years now.
The Apocrypha is also great, but it's not a subject of discussion here.

What is NOT great, however, is the zone Necrom surrounded by. On many levels of world design. Let's explore them.
1. It's way too much like a Vvardenfell. Preparing for this post I've spent some hours capturing all the Morrowind zones in the game to draw a comparison.

Stonefalls and Deshaan are poor man's Morrowind - they combine attributes of Morrowind from TES III, but in lesser quantity (less flora types, less fauna types, less architectural styles, less fractions). But there is NO WAY you mix up those 2 zones, EVEN with them using 1 insipid architectural style. Let's take a look.

Stonefalls:
Deshaan:
Now let's have a look on Telvanni Peninsula and Vvardenfell. I've devised a little game mixing up the pictures of both locations so you can try to guess for yourself which is which. Some are harder to guess, some are easier. Sad to think that most likely even the game designers themselves will have a trouble distinguish the 2 zones:
2. No new creatures for the zone. Zero. 0. Yes, I'm aware of mind terrors, and they are terrific, BUT they are from Apocrypha side of the Chapter (and even there they are the foreigners from another plan(et), let's say). No new weird insect or reptile or a new thing entirely for our dear Morrowind is sad. But what puzzles me is why we didn't get the undead specific for dunmeri. Aren't dunmeri like their ancestral tombs and undead guardians? And isn't it the chapter about the whole damn city-wide-ancestral-tomb of the whole Morrowind? So how, prey tell, we wound up having 0 bonelords? Or bonewalkers? It's not like they are not-unique-enough, too unsavory or too generic. So how? I have no reasonable explanation whatsoever.
Some pictures of aforementioned creatures from TES III concept art:



3. Copying the style of Vvardenfell makes it less unique. While some parts of the zone look more or less fresh thanks to the 3 new mushroom trees and bigger mushroom tree density than anywhere else, the general look has very Vvardenfell-ish impression, which hurts both zones. Telvanni Peninsula and Vvardenfell could both now be considered weaker versions of each other, depending from what point you look. From my point of view it could've been easily avoided with making their new mushroom trees more prevalent and bigger than shrooms from Vvardenfell. Was it saved for Firewatch area which was scrapped with year story model? Questions, questions.

In any way, is this really a good design philosophy, to copy all the assets of a previous zone, add a bit more diversity and call it a day? Will it become a norm, as long as there is a class you can forget yourself in, or other important change, unlike card game inclusion/companions? Say what you will about High isle/Blackwood years, but despite their irrelevant (or low relevant) gameplay additions all their assets were unique, and they added a lot of new creatures. High Isle/Firesong added 6 new I could think of, 7 if you count humanoid spriggans.

To end on a good note I'll leave some good Telvanni Peninsula (also, this was said a hundred times, but this name is so tragically uninspired) screenshots: