The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

The Good

The first thing that strikes you about Morrowind after a few hours of play is the sheer enormity of the game world. There is a LOT to do, but the game starts you off with very little clue about what to do. For some gamers (like myself) this may be a dream come true in gaming: a huge world to explore and complete freedom to do as you please. For other gamers (like a few friends of mine), this is a complete gaming nightmare. "You mean I have to wander around for hours and explore and talk to people just to figure out what the point of the game is?!?!?" Yes, you do, but if you can appreciate that sort of depth in an RPG, it is truly a wonderous thing to behold.

Let us talk about the degree of that depth for a moment. When I say you can do as you please, you really can. Feel an item at a shop is too expensive? Steal it (if you can get away with it). Don't want to help the arrogant noble woman find her way across the mountians? Don't bother. In fact, you can just kill her and steal her clothes if it strikes your fancy. Don't feel like coughing up a handfull of gold every time you want to stay at your favorite inn? Murder the innkeeper and his guard, and stay there free of charge as often as you please. All these actions, of course, have consequences. You have a reputation rating, based upon your actions, and that rating affects how NPCs in the game will react to you. Most people won't want to talk to 'Entorphane the notorious outlaw', but will be much friendlier to you if you don't make a habit of running around killing people and generally wreaking havoc.

So what is the point of this game, you ask? Well, you are a stranger in a strange land; a prisoner granted an unexplained and unexpected pardon from the Emperor himself. Soon you find yourself working for the Blades, the Imperial spy network, and the story unfolds from there. In addition to the Blades (the so-called 'Main Quest') there are a large number of other factions, guilds, and mafia-style family houses you can join the ranks of. All of these other factions have a fairly large number of missions to perform, given to you by various faction leaders scattered all around the map. You can do them or not, the choice is up to you, but as you complete missions for the various factions, your rank in those factions rises, eventually allowing you to vie for their leadership. By the end of my game I was the head of the Mages and Fighters guild, and ranked very high in a family house and several other groups.

A wonderful and somewhat unique feature of 'Morrowind' is the ability to create custom magic spells and magic items. You can enchant almost any item you find with any spell you know (if you have a high enough enchatment skill), allowing for the creation of just about any custom magic item you feel you may need. The process is somewhat confusing at first (thanks to the somewhat lacking manual), but once you figure out what is going on, it's awesome. Want a ring that allows you to breathe and see clearly underwater while you are wearing it? That's cool, just make one, or go to an enchanter and pay (a LOT) to have one made. It's a marvelous feature, that later in the game especially, allows you to create a wealth of magic armor, weapons, and so forth, all with precisely the effects you wish them to have.

The skills system in this game is great as well. It's very simple, and very effective. You have a skill list and all characters have the same skills. The difference lies in what you choose for your primary and secondary skills (which level up faster) and your tertiary skills. Every time you use a given skill (hit an enemy with a sword, cast a spell, pick a lock, etc.) your skill goes up a bit, eventually rising to it's next level. When you raise 10 primary or secondary skills by one level, your character's overall level increases, bringing along with it the usual upgrade in hit points, magic points, and so forth. It's a very well thought out system, that ends up allowing you a tremendous amount of freedom to mold your character into precisely what you want him or her to be.

It must be said also that graphically this game is most impressive. Look at the water. It looks freakin' real, I tell ya! The sheer amount of detail in the game is amazing. Everywhere there are plants and fungi you can gather (for alchemical purposes, if you want to make potions). There are dozens of caves, tombs, and ruins scattered all over the map to explore and loot for treasure. The weather and time of day changes gradually and you make your way around. Sunsets and sunrises are truly beautiful, sandstorms are amazing to look at, and rain storms look and sound like real freakin' rainstorms.

**The Bad**

The game is not without flaws, some of them glaring. The worst offense is the journal that you keep. It is cluttered, disorganized, and confusing. When you are running missions for the Theives guild, the Fighters guild, the Morag Tong, House Hlladu, the Mages guild, the Blades, the Imperial Cult, the Temple... whew, you get the idea... things can become confusing. All of the relevant information is there in your journal, but it may as well not be. The journal is organized chronologically... period. There is no option to sort between quests completed and quests outstanding, no way to separate Mage Guild quests from tribal quests, or what have you. If there is a mission that you received a long while ago, and you need to look it up for the details, you will sometimes (especially late in the game) have to flip through literally hundreds of pages of the journal to find the relevant information. I have to give a big 'boo' to that tremendous lack of foresight by the developers, who obviously knew the depth of the game they were creating, yet failed to devise a method to effectively sort through that depth.

Another complaint has to be the spell/magic items list. Much like the poorly organzied journal, these important spells and items are placed on one very long list that you have to scroll though every time you want to select a different magical effect. It's tedious and irritating, and should have been made easier.

It must also be said that the combat system leaves a lot to be desired. By default you press the attack button and will swing your weapon in a manner that is dependent upon how you are moving your analogue stick. There is a most powerful attack for each type of weapon, but attacking this way feels awkward (to say the least), uncomfortable, and frustrating. I opted to select in the options menu to 'always use best attack', which always attacks in the most powerful style for any given weapon. Sadly, this greatly simplifies the animations for each weapon, as you will ONLY attack in one specific way (i.e. your dagger will always thrust, your hammer will always strike downward, etc.) The other problem with combat is the complete lack of feedback regarding enemy damage. You can hack away at a guy (or monster, or what not) for days, and see no change in his appearance, no indication of how badly he is injured. This diminishes the ability to use strategy in battle, because if my character is badly injured I need to know how the other guy is doing before deciding if I should finish him off or run away. One may argue that hit points are not displayed in real-life combat, but you can tell by how much the other guy is bleeding and missing limbs how well (or poorly) things are going.

There are a few other minor gripes I have about the game. NPCs are almost always in the same spot, standing around, night or day. It is as if you are the only person in Morrowind who moves around much. There are also a few bugs relating to event timing and NPCs that can cause them to disappear entirely and permanently. There is no abilty to annotate the map, which is unfortunate considering the size of the map, and the HUGE number of places you need to find and remember the locations of. Having to walk all over a virtual world can kinda suck at times, especially early on when a few cliff racers can send you to your death over and over and over and over again, when all you want to do is get from point 'A' to point 'B'. There are modes of quick transportation available, but you can't get everywhere from anywhere, and you'll have to 'change busses' quite a bit. The final complaint I have would be that your character can become immensly powerful relatively quickly, making killing most enemies a matter of a few sword swipes (especially if you have created a really powerful magic sword). Oh, and pop-up can be distracting, considering the games otherwise top-notch graphics, but that is really just a minor complaint.

**The Bottom Line**

'The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind' is a game I would consider a must buy for any gamer who prefers a PC-style RPG over the turn based Final Fantasy style crap that keeps being turned out for consoles. It's a very deep and satisfying RPG, if you can get into it, and are willing to spend some time with it. It can probably be completed in about 40 or 50 hours if you rush through, but it took me probably closer to 200, and that is where the real pleasure in this game lies. There is so much to do, so much to explore, and so much to learn about the virtual world that you are inhabiting, that taking your time and taking it all in is the best way to approach it. If you are looking for a unique roleplaying experience, this is your game.

The Good
The Elder Scrolls franchise has always been one of debate. Some love it others hate. With it 3rd installment Morrowind, we find a game that not only lives up to it’s predecessors, but surpasses them. This was the best of the series until Oblivion that is.

“Each Prophecy Is Preceded By The Coming Of The Hero, If They Fail To Appear…”

Morrowind opens with a somewhat cryptic montage. You awaken from your dream, or was it a vision? To find that your are on route to Morrowind, the newest province of the Empire, it is the continent of the Dunmer, or the Dark Elves. You have been released by writ of the Emperor himself. You have been instructed to travel to Balmora, and report. Of course you do not have to. That is the point and fun of Morrowind. You can play 100 hours with out ever completing “Main Quests”. Or just breeze through the campaign and finish under 40 hours.

The main plot, should you choose to except it, is very good and very well written. It involves you being the reincarnation of The Nevaraine, an ancient hero of the Dunmer. Upon his death Lord Nevar, said he would return again when his people needed him most. That time is apparently coming. As Dagoth Er, is also being resurrected, he means to crush Morrowind under his heel. And is a former friend of Lord Nevar.

The story is filled with twists and turns. As you try and fulfill a ancient prophecy. And the conflict between The Nevaraine and Dagoth Er, is the classic Hero/Villain conflict. The plot is very rich and has everything. Prophecy, revenge, betrayal, conflict, and everything in between.

Who Are You?

Character Creation in Morrowind, is astounding. You have control over everything. From your race, there are 10 total. Your class, there are tons, and you can create you own Multi-class, by mixing and matching, or by using the editor. Speaking of the editor, Morrowind, for the PC includes a Tool Set disc. With this you can create quests, classes, weapons, structures, and even NPC’s. It is incredibly easy to use, as even I was able to use it, and I have no experience whatsoever designing games.

Leveling up is handled a little differently than most RPGS, as you do not gain EXP. Instead you learn by doing. If you want to be a master thief, you must pick locks, a swordsman, you must use your sword, or ply your other various trades. It makes for a more realistic gameplay experience, but may turn some players off.

“Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting….”

Combat in Morrowind, is visceral, and can be great fun. With various implements of destruction, you can slash, stab, and chop your way through various enemies. Blocking is a passive skill, which sort of sucks, but what can you do? The real fun is when you do battle with humans and humanoids, as dueling a fellow swordsman is more fun, that cutting down a monster.

Crime and Punishment

Will you be a model citizen, a thief, or even cold-blooded killer? However beware, unlike some “open-ended” games. Ahem, GTA. Crime can gain you actual punishment. From jail-time, which can lower your hard-earned stats if you gain a long sentence. To banishment. Or even death.

But remember, it is not a crime if you are not caught.

When It Comes To Graphics This Game Steals The Show

The visuals in Morrowind are excellent. The continent of Vvardenfell, or Morrowind. Manages to look alien and realistic all at the same time. As tall trees and enormous mushrooms, fill dense forests. Strange and familiar creatures wander the landscape. Small villages and monolithic cities abound, as well as dark dungeons and tall mountains. The human and non-human inhabitants look real alike. The lighting effects excellent, the sun lights the sky and depicts realistic shadows, as does the glow of the twin moons. The changing time of day and weather also effects the look of the game. And the torch-light cast on your avatar looks stunning.

The sound and music is excellent as well. Combat sound effects are loud and reverberate. Voice overs sound great. But are not that common. Monsters roar, and spells sound eerie. There is lack of ambiance, but that can be solved by downloading a quick add-on.

The music steals the show here. With an epic score composed by videogame maestro, Jeremy Soule. The tunes range from, epic, heroic, to frantic as your engage in combat.

The Bad
The Bad and The Ugly

Well, the leveling system, is not for everyone. And Bethesda could have taken measures to make the world seem more populated. But this is a flaw in most games like this.

It can be very difficult getting started, combat will be very hard, and the game can overwhelming. Yet towards the end the game is too easy. Other balance issues abound.

The game also tends to very buggy. But at least updates are common.

This game has fairly low system requirements considering how impressive it is. Yet still may be too much for some systems, and others may have trouble getting it to work properly, despite the fact that they meet all the system requirements.

Passive blocking is the bane of this game. Why do you have no control over your shield, and weapon when it comes to blocking? At least Oblivion remedies this.

The Bottom Line
In the end Morrowind, is a fun, and addictive RPG experience that over comes it’s many flaws. And user-created content just adds to an already huge game. Live another life and have fun exploring and adventuring in the vast world of Vvardenfell.

The Good
The world is huge and beautiful. In fact its so big you often get lost, but to your pleasant surpise in the middle of nowhere you find ruins, tombs, or people. Speaking of the people there are over 1,000 NPCs you can interact with in the world. over 20 cities to go to, many books to find for pre-story and more story for those people who like RPG's a lot. Plus 13 factions to join and do missions for, 10 races to choose from, over 21 preset professions or create your own! The possibilities in this game are limitless and although you might feel like "what do I do now?" when you first start because there is no guided main mission. There does exist a main mission which happens to be the hardest in the game, as well as 1,300 other missions to do. So clearly you can see that the team has worked really hard on this game. Most impressively in all the text you come upon in the game, I haven't found one typo.

The Bad
Travelling in the game can get kind of cumbersome because the means of transport are limited (silt riders, mages guild, spells, game addons) unless you want to walk. Because the world is so huge, you kinda wish you had a horse but that would mess up the whole game for many reasons. The huge city of Vivec is too huge in my opinion, I've gotten sick of walking up and around the huge buildings, but the rewards of what's inside the buildings almost outweigh the walking distances. The journal and map could be better, but that is fixed in the expansion packs.

The Bottom Line
This is a great RPG, if you like RPG's you'll love this. If you don't "like" RPG's you'll like this game. It's worth just to look at even the sky is beautiful.