The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Moby ID: 6280
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Freed by the decree of Uriel Septim VII, the Emperor of Tamriel, a lone prisoner is transported to the province of Morrowind. It seems that the strange dreams this prisoner has been having lately may have a connection to equally strange events occurring there. The protagonist is given a simple assignment: join the Blades, a secret organization whose goal is to protect the safety of the Emperor. This leads to a discovery of an ancient prophecy and an evil scheme concocted by a powerful deity whom the protagonist alone is able to stop.

Conceived in the tradition of the Elder Scrolls series, Morrowind is a fantasy role-playing game with a vast world open for exploration. After being released from a prison ship at the shores of the island Vvardenfell, the protagonist may do more or less what he or she wants: follow the main quest and solve the mystery of an ancient prophecy, join any of roughly a dozen guilds and rise in their hierarchy by performing duties, or simply explore the gigantic island with its stylistically diverse cities, hundreds of dungeons and tombs, ancient ruins and mighty fortresses.

Morrowind uses a two-stage skill system. The hero’s primary stats (strength etc.) increase with each level gained, while secondary abilities improve by use – for example, the more often the character jumps, the more proficient he or she becomes in the Acrobatics skill, etc. The action-oriented fights are simple exchanges of strikes or spells, until one combatant dies. The enemy's hit points and condition were not originally shown; however, at the request of customers a health bar was added for enemies as part of the first upgrade patch.

The protagonist's race and gender, but also his or her reputation influence the reactions of NPCs. If a character’s sympathy for the hero is low (rated on a scale from 1 to 100), he might refuse to answer questions; if it is high, the player will get more detailed information and better bargains in shops. Most quests involving other persons can be solved by persuasion, pick-pocketing, or simply by force.

The game's NDL 3D game engine is powerful in drawing wide, detailed outdoor landscapes as well as complex indoor environments. Transitions are not fluent; houses and dungeons must be loaded upon entering.

Spellings

  • 上古卷轴III:晨风 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 上古捲軸 III:魔捲晨風 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

118 People (80 developers, 38 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 89% (based on 83 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 283 ratings with 23 reviews)

Bethesda software has come up with the single greatest game ever...

The Good
I don't know how they did this, how long it took, and how much effort was put in it, but I do know, it is the best game ever.

When Arena was released, it tried to break away from other RPG's and distinguished itself. It could have been great, but Bethesda failed to make it fill its potential. A while later, Daggerfall came. It could have been great, but the graphics and stability pulled it down. And now, Morrowind has arrived, and boy is it good! The game features some of the best graphics ever seen, along with a very impressive array of races, characters and quests. But still what astounds gamers is the size. You can explore Morrowind to its greatest. You can follow the main plot, take some side plots, or join a guild and perform duties. Or you can just do anything you want. The hundreds of items and weaponry is very impressive, and the detail put in the game is simply amazing.

The Bad
The only thing I didn't like about this game was the character build. Polygon placement in coordination with the "spine" (as i call it) build makes some characters move stiffly, and it looks rather stupid.

The Bottom Line
Nevertheless, this game is a must have for gamers, whether you like RPG's or not, this game is a must.

Windows · by ThE oNe (180) · 2002

The best singly player RPG to-date.

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.

Windows · by Thiago Oliveira (85) · 2003

Breathtaking

The Good
Not what I liked, more like what I loved. I personally put in over 2000 hours in this game (not including modding). The great thing about this game is that you don't have to follow any line of quests, you can just do whatever you feel like, and if you feel like doing the main quest, or side quests, do as you please. The graphics are unbelievable, even today, nearly two years after it came out. Not to mention the size, unbelievable. It's hard to get a grip of how huge Vvardenfell is, but get a grip. The beauty in the world is amazing. Some people say that the NPC's are dull, and that they should be doing stuff. They do do stuff, walk around, thats the NPC's job, to do nothing but maybe give you hints to what to do, thats why they're non playable. And some do, most don't, but considering the hundreds of npc's, and by hundreds I mean over 1000, it is truely remarkable. And if they dont like the games way's, it comes with an EXTREMELY powerful editor that is fully compatible with 3D Studio Max.

The Bad
The bad, well, with a game with so much goods, things can go wrong. You have to read a lot in this game, as would be expected with the size of the world, and the limits on a cd. I think that the game could have had them talking about most things if it were on multiple disks, which most huge games are. Reading doesn't bother me much, but it may bother others. Another thing that bothered other people, but not me much was the inability to do much when you start out. Virtually any animal can kill you, and you can't hit anything, and most people in today's world are used to GTA and games that you start out with abilities, and don't gain or lose any of them. But you have to earn your way to the top of the world in this game, and I love that. The cool part is, that technically have unlimited levels. In one of my characters i'm level 232 (and i'm 1000 in another, but that time i used the console). Other than that, there's not much wrong with this game.

The Bottom Line
This game is, to me, the greatest game I've ever played, if your into games with freedom, then this is for you. Think of it like this, its GTA, except with a much bigger world, more NPC's and a better story, but with swords, spells, and that D&D flavor....... buy it today...

Windows · by Zac Anderson (2) · 2004

[ View all 23 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Add Game Group karnak1 (22) Dec 24, 2012
Morrowind vs. Oblivion Unicorn Lynx (181780) Jul 26, 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Content

Morrowind is told to include 3244 NPCs, 316.042 hand placed objects, 480 billion possible characters to create and play, 150 billion spells by using spellmaking in the game, and six full sized novels worth of text.

Creature differences

Some monsters and creatures went through drastic visual changes from Daggerfall and Battlespire to Morrowind. First, the type of khajiit are the same as those presented in Redguard, while the Dremora were turned from fair-skinned, horned demons to black and red-skinned demons. Harpies were replaced with (visually at least) Winged Twilights, and other monsters such as the slaughterfish, orcs and others remain much the same, though much better looking in true 3D.

Graphics

Ever wonder why Morrowind can run at such a slow FPS sometimes and why the game is notorious for making even expensive, fast systems (as of 2004) seem slow? The answer is simple; polygons. While playing the game you'll encounter vast areas full of people, objects and architecture. All these are made from polygons and require the videocard to process them. Morrowind has possibly the heaviest counts of polygons in a single video game, most likely surpassing every game before it and still with a vast number more than contemporary games.

References

There is a single daedric crescent from Battlespire hidden in Morrowind, but getting to it requires some work and initiative (it isn't a part of any main or faction quest), or access to a hint guide.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2002 – #9 Best PC Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2003 (Issue #148) - #3 overall in the "10 Best Games of 2002" list
  • Computer Gaming World
    • April 2003 (Issue #225) – RPG of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2002 - PC RPG of the Year
    • 2011 – #14 Top PC Game of the 2000s
  • RPG Vault
    • 2002 - Game of the Year
    • 2002 - Role-Playing Game of the Year

Information also contributed by calavera, Jason Musgrave, ShadowStrike and WildKard

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by NeoMoose.

Xbox One added by Kennyannydenny. Xbox Cloud Gaming added by Sciere.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, -Chris, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, OFoglada, Shoddyan, Sciere, Aubustou, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack, Kennyannydenny.

Game added May 10, 2002. Last modified March 28, 2024.