Somewhere in the mid to late 2000s, Bethesda got really good at making RPG side quests. I love Morrowind to bits, don't get me wrong—it certainly has the best main campaign Bethesda's ever done—but something hits different with Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout 3's consistently excellent side stories.
Morrowind often just sees you clearing out a cave or collecting a macguffin and returning it for a reward. That's fine enough, and these side quests can't all be Shakespeare, but the name of the game in middle-period Bethesda is variety. Take Fallout 3's standout The Replicated Man. This mission sees you sleuthing through the inhabitants of Rivet City like a post-apocalyptic Rick Deckard, trying to determine which of these citizens is a human pretending to be an android, all at the behest of a morally dubious employer. It's well-written and intriguing, with a mix of gameplay options, as well, combining dialogue, exploration, and light combat and culminating in a defining, if pretty clear-cut, moral choice.
