The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

"While in town, a baker gives you a sweet roll...."

..... one of the opening lines of Morrowind before you're thrust into the complex world of Nirn. Filled to the brim with magical elements, and thousands of years of lore, it feels incredibly satisfying trying to educate yourself in the ways, and it seems like an accomplishment learning how to read and write Daedric. But does this necessarily make it a good game?

Graphics
So, everyone ALWAYS complains about the graphics of Morrowind, calling them "ugly" and "repetitive". While the latter is true, it is justified, and the former... well, when it was first released, people were crapping their pants over it's real-time shadows and incredible world. I have to say, the environments ARE repetitive, and a lot of the island you will traverse over (called Vardenfall, which I will call it from now on) will be in the Ashlands, which is particularly friendly with ye olde Copy and Paste. A lot of people have called them ugly, but I like to think otherwise. They can be particularly boring, but outside of that, there really isn't much problem. There can be quite a bit of slowdown, but not much if you've a good machine. Everything is rendered on your character. If you equip an amulet, you can see it around your characters neck. If you strip an enemy to nothing, they'll lie there in their underwear (which you cannot strip, if that's what you're thinking =P). The characters generally have repetitive faces, and the character creation is nowhere near as advanced as the sequel, Oblivion, but it suffices. You choose a face, and your hair, with about 10 or so different models, and that is it. Speaking of Character creation, each Race has their own bonuses, and each Class will have bonuses. You must also choose a Birth Sign, which gives you a special power or two that you can use once per day, and generally, some passive bonus.
8/10

Sound
The Sound. Well, Morrowind, has an amazing soundtrack, in my honest opinion. There are seven different exploration tracks, and while it might seem a little repetitive, they're about 3 minutes long each, and all very epic. The characters, well, a few of them have voice overs, which I find very crisp, but the rest, you have to read through their dialog. Fortunately/unfortunately, it is quite detailed, so you might find yourself either loving or hating the conversations. The sound attacks are half-decent, nothing too special, nothing too bad. The sound attacks are generally a sound of whether or not you hit, and the enemies generally have their basic repertoire of grunts and squirming sounds. Obviously, they're gonna wanna hit you. The basic villagers, despite not having voices for their dialog, will, when you walk near them, mutter something at you, and when you fight with them, they will taunt you. However, the voice is the same for each race, and only depends on gender, and their disposition towards you.
10/10

Gameplay
The combat. Well, it is either a blessing, or a curse, depending on whether you like being able to hit your enemies or not. For some of us, it can simulate inadequacy with a weapon, or just plain stupidity. Some like it, some do not. Basically, depending on how high your skill with the weapon you're using is, and a certain element of luck (determined via a dice roll), you will, or will not hit your enemy. Early in the game, you may find yourself missing about half your attacks, but if you pump up your skill in that weapon a bit, you should be fine off. There are three different kind of attacks, and you can set whether or not you want them to be done randomly, or only the weapons strongest attack. The latter takes a little but of the fun out of the game, in my opinion, but for those frustrated with the system, and just want things to "die already", then that is the option to go for.

The magic is a similar way; depending on your proficiency in that school of magic, you will have a chance to cast the spell, and the less it will cost. Initially, you're going to fail pretty much everything, unless it is from a scroll, birth power, or item, which guarantees that it won't. The spell animations aren't much different. A touch spell will make a few pretty colours, and that's it. If the touch spell does 1000 points of damage, it'll look the same as if it did 10 points of damage. The only difference I know of, is that a spell with an area of effect will have a larger area of effect depending on the points. Regardless, it is quite spectacular shooting a fireball off the top of a mountain, and watching it explode and create a dome of flame, and is definitely something you should do once you grow bored of the game.

The sneaking/thievery, can seem pretty crooked at times. There are a lot of glitches in Morrowind, and sometimes, when the symbol down the bottom left sees you can't be seen, you actually can. If you pickpocket someone, and it says they can't see you, it doesn't mean you won't be caught (they can still feel you), but that's not what I'm talking about. Sometimes, if you're just standing still in sneak behind a person, and you can't see them, they'll eventually turn around and say their "Greetings" line. However, stealing things is generally pretty easy once you are a higher level, or have found a Chameleon spell, which brings me to my next point. There is a difference between Chameleon and Invisibility. Invisibility will only let you move around, and if you do anything else, the Invisibility is broken. With Chameleon, you are Invisible no matter what until the spell runs out.

The experience system in Morrowind is different from most games. Instead of getting experience from quests/killing monsters, you must level up your skills. There are a lot of them, and they range from Long Blade, to Alchemy, to Athletics (Running, Swimming) and Sneaking. They are raised by doing what that skill is. For example, to raise your Hand-to-Hand skill, punch your enemies instead of using a Long Blade, and it'll raise. You must choose your major skills at the beginning of the game. Once you have leveled up ten Major skills (it doesn't have to be all of them. For example, if Long Blade and Athletics are two of your major skills, you could level up Long Blade three times, and Athletics seven times), you must sleep in a bed. Once you've done so, you must distribute your points to your stats. It seems hard at first, but you'll soon pick it up.

The world interactivity is enormous. For the Armouring skill, it will let you repair your equipment, for Enchanting, it lets you Enchant equipment with magical effects, for Alchemy, it lets you create potions, for Security, it lets you pick the locks of doors ,and so forth. You can talk with pretty much everyone, and so forth. In some situations, you can also talk your way out of fighting, which can come in handy, but don't expect to be able to pull an Arcanum and complete the game without fighting one battle. You can read the books, and they generally have storylines, and are great reads if you're into books. There's thousands of them too, and some towns even have bookstores where you can further engage yourself. Another neat touch is you can wear clothes under your armour, and robes over. What this means is, with clothes under your armour, you can enchant the clothes AND your armour, so it could give the effect of wearing two sets of armour! Not only this, but if, say, there are gaps in your armour, like, a hole in the back of your greaves, you can see your clothing underneath! This can seem overpowered (the enchanting effect), but it's one of the many great things about Morrowind, and you can feel satisfied, walking around, knowing you can kill anything with the click of a mouse. Second of all, with the Robes, you can enchant them as well, but it also adds a little flair to your armour. You might be wearing strong armour, that you think looks hideous, but you can put a fancy robe over the top, and kill in style.

The world is littered with dungeons, shrines, caves, and towns. First of all, for the towns, there are several Architectural styles, and these are generally repeated for most of the towns. For the Shrines, there are quests for the "Gods" of the world which you can do, which adds more interactivity, instead of just "being there". Lastly, for the all of them, you can find Artifacts, and special weapons you can't find anywhere else. One example is in a specific cave that I'm not saying, as not to spoil your game, you can find the mighty Artifact Chrysamere, which is talked about in several books. You can get this right from the start, so if you feel like it, you can grab all the mighty artifacts, and become an amazing fighter in an hour. Unfortunately, this ruins the feel of the world, so only do this once you become bored with the game / have beaten the majority of the game.
10/10

Quests:
Morrowind has an enormous amount of quests (more so than it's sequel, Oblivion), and it is unlikely you'll find them all in your first go. As a rule of thumb, talk to everyone. Every time, as far as I know, how at least one quest in them. There are thousands, and they range from basic "Deliver this package to my friend in this town" to the more complex "I know my friend is cheating me, so find out where he's keeping his money". There aren't too many ways to complete each quest, but the rewards are substantial, so questing can actually be worth your time, unlike many other RPGs, where they just seem to be there for filler. A lot of them can be pretty repetitive, but fortunately, there should be enough to satisfy you.

There are several guilds, and three houses. You can join as many Guilds as you like, but some will overlap and conflict with each other. For example, as a member of the Fighters Guild, you might be required to kill someone from another guild, who I'm not going to say, which will get you kicked out of said guild, meaning you cannot complete their quests. As for the Houses, they are all opposed to each other, and you can only join one. Fortunately, they pretty much adhere to the three basic styles of play (Televanni being the Mages, Redoran the Fighters, and Hlaluu the Thieves). The plots are pretty engrossing, and I found myself wanting to find out what happened next. The Main Quest is also there, but I lost interest. It's not that it's bad, but rather, that it takes a while for it to really pick up. Not only that, but you can probably complete Four Mages Guild quests in the span it'd take you to complete one of the Main Quests. Lastly, the Main Quests are significantly tougher than the Guild/House quests, so you are pretty much compelled to play how and when you want, and to tackle the Main Quest at your own pace, and when you feel like it.
9/10

Replayability/Playability:
Morrowind can be a bit hard to get into. For one, the world is massive. Not as big as some games, like Elite, or Daggerfall (the latter being the prequel to this game), but you do move slow. I won't lie, at early levels, you can really move like a slug, and it can be off-putting. You need to be patient for the game to really shine. It is a world complex with lore and fat with detail, but, it can be stuck up and un-approachable. This isn't like Tekken where you can just pop in the CD, choose a fighter, and be delving straight into the fun. It requires hours and hours of precious gameplay before you can finally dive into the game, but once you can do so, it will be an incredible experience.

As for Replayability, Morrowind has three main styles of gameplay, as mentioned throughout this review; the Fighter, the Mage, and the Thief. Playing through the whole game with a new mindset can be fun, but the real beauty is exploring the world, looking for rare artifacts, reading books, talking to the locals, and undertaking their quests. It is a world where you can easily beat the main quest (In fact, it is possible to do so in 7 minutes and 30 seconds), but takes hours and hours of play to really feel you've accomplished everything. And when you've done that, there's mods. Morrowind comes with a free program called the "Construction Set", and this will allow you to edit, and modify the world as you see fit. Heck, if you've got enough time on your hands and know it well enough, you can create your own world. You can do simple things, from placing a new sword in the game to creating islands populated with towns and new quests. There are enormous amounts of mods out there, and I'd recommend that once you're done with the basic game, you go out and download some for your entertainment.
10/10

Overall:
I'd call this a definite buy. If you're a fan of the RPG genre, and having a couple of hours to spend, this can be a very in-depth, fun game. However, if you don't have that sort of time, and prefer something more casual to play, look somewhere else, for Morrowind is not for you.
9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/07

Game Release: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (US, 05/02/02)