"A Veritable Paradise for many Rpg fans!"

Elder Scrolls III ventures where not many RPG's have dared go in the past. Other Rpg's have set plotlines, world maps which we must spend perhaps a minute deciding where to go then simply maneuvering our character to its destination, or simply clicking an icon which symbolizes our next stop.
But Elder Scrolls III is very much different, its fully three dimensional world is fully traversable, with tiny winding pathways and intricately designed cities. It can take a long time to walk between towns and provinces, which adds to the awesome Role Playing experience. It isn't necessary to follow any plotlines in the game, you could have a heck of a lot of fun simply raiding the many caves, journeying to the most beautiful places in Morrowind or perhaps just gazing at the awesome looking moons and stars.
Graphically Elder Scrolls is impressive, the world itself is massive, to travel from one end of Morrowind to the other would take perhaps an hour on foot. Well rendered monsters, landscapes, scenery, cities, structures, items and people all contribute to a superb Rpg experience.
Graphics Overall : 9
Elder Scrolls has few songs when compared with other Rpg's. The songs it does have however, are nothing short of fantastic. A great booming theme tune greets us at the title screen. And songs such as this set the mood well. The tunes, although repetitive, do not make the ears bleed after hearing them a few dozen times. And this is a valuable quality in such a large game as Elder Scrolls III.
The sound effects themselves are very well done. Voices of Npc's sound realistic, and express emotion successfully on virtually every occasion.For example... Ordinators (a type of city guard) will speak in a foreboding manner to those they dislike, and sound genuinely scary with their hissing voices. During battle your character will cry out in pain and frustration when struck by an enemy, these vocals too sound extremely realistic, and contribute to the overall feel of battling toe to toe with the monsters and animals of the land.
The sounds of battle are also nicely done. Monsters will grunt, screech and roar and humanoid opponents will often shout threats. These battle vocals sound very fierce, aggressive and real. Every type of weapon in the game (there are many) sound authentic, from the firing of a crossbow bolt to drawing/sheathing a long sword. Spells are not accompanied by the muttering of words,but the spell sound good effects, though there are a lack of differing spell noises.
Every other sound effects sounds as expected, and another nice touch is that when your character walks across different surfaces, the sound of his or her feet against the ground differs.
Sound Overall Mark :- 8
Gameplay wise Elder Scrolls is fun, as the game is played in first or third person, its almost feels like playing a sort of Quake III set in Medieval times! And this is not a bad thing, the first person views emphasize your role, and allow you to see all the inhabitants of Vvardenfell close up, from the evil monsters to the friendly townspeople. As there have been pretty much none 1st/3rd person Rpg's prior to Elder Scrolls III, it is a great new system which enhances the gameplay experiences in a much beneficial way.
Questing makes up a portion of the fun you can have in Morrowind, and there is certainly no shortage of quests at all. Though some quests are quite bland and boring, most lead on to bigger and better things.
As is the case with many Rpg's, combat is a large factor in the gameplay, and the game creates a fun and involving combat system, it won't blow you away...While it isn't possible for your enemies to be decapitated or get scared and drop its weapon and run for the hills, its still a fairly fun experience, which remains exciting throughout the game.
The land of Morrowind is full of secrets and tombs and many other wondrous places stocked full of valuable treasure, these too make up a fair sized portion of gameplay. Its a great pleasure to explore these places, and many of the places you can visit successfully create atmospheres that reek of suspense and tension.
Gameplay Overall :- 9
The game itself has many many hours of playing time, even a fast gamer would find it very difficult to virtually do everything there is to do in Vvardenfell in under sixty or seventy hours. Thanks to the huge variety of skills and many places to discover and visit, the game lasts for a long time. Also the many spells allow for a couple of hours of experimenting and testing just by themselves!
The replay value of Morrowind is pretty good, and it is surprising how many new things and mini-quests that can be discovered with each new character created!
Long Lasting/Replay Overall :- 9

As with most games, Morrowind has its fair share of bugs, many of the environments have clipping errors, and a few of the landscapes are not clipped at all! (Though these are areas not critical to ordinary questing/travels) Another rather odd glitch occurs on characters with a good acrobat skill (85+). When jumping into the air, attacking monsters simply turn around and pretend you do not exist! Also the game tends to crash a lot (particularly on slower systems)
As a whole however Morrowind is a fairly stable game, and its bugs and glitches are only a minor hindrance to the gameplay.
Overall Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is a well made, unique game, which combines the up close and personal style of the First Person Shooter genre, with the mystical,engrossing and addictive style of the Role Playing game genre very well indeed.
It is well deserving of my final score. A nine.
As a final note I recommend all RPG fans, whether you be a veteran or a newcomer, to buy this game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/27/03