"Gorgeous, but shallow and cold"

I'm a big fan of roleplaying games, so Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, seemed to be right up my alley. I "oohed" and "aahed" at the brilliant screenshots at the back when it was released, but sadly, I did not have the system to run the game at the time. Scroll forward two years, and I have a brand new system, and a friend who, rather conveniently, had just finished the game. Thus, I delved into the world of Morrowind for a few weeks, going in awed, but coming out rather unimpressed.

Graphics: 9/10
The first time you see Morrowind, you can scarcely believe your eyes: long rolling hills, multi layered skies and stars, crooked trees and old bridges. It's the fantasy enthusiasts graphic dream come true, and this is where Bethesda put most of its money. After you've stepped off the boat into the initial city, you'll spend hours just admiring the scenery. Well, at least I know I did. From start to finish, Morrowind delivers graphics that surpass any RPGs that I've ever seen.

Some complaints have been made over the character models, but I think they fit the game's design. Seeing the talent the game artists have, I can't help but think that the sometimes blocky character models were a compromise so that systems wouldn't get bogged down too much. Game menus are great and well-designed, despite being a little hard to navigate in the start. A well deserving 9 out of 10.

Sound: 6/10
Jeremy Soule is a very talented man, and seemed uncapable to me of delivering a poor soundtrack until Knights of the Old Republic was released. This one is no exception, its execution is pretty much flawless, it's the integration that is the problem. The sound directors asked Soule to create 16 themes, one main theme, eight walking themes and seven combat themes. These last 2-4 minutes each. No unique themes exist for the various towns, and the combat themes vary randomly with each encounter. Thus, music-wise, Morrowind becomes pretty much a blur: walk into a city, and it's just buildings in Morrowind, where it could have had a unique character if it had a theme to support it. Get attacked by a big nasty fellow? Same combat theme for him as for that rat you killed a few minutes ago. The compositions themselves are mostly soft, even the battle themes, but well orchestrated and produced. Though a little more intensity could be wished for in the combat music, this seems to fit the game's sleek graphics.

When you start out playing, the music adds to that wondrous "Morrowind initial shock", as I like to call it, but then becomes grating and repetitive, through no fault on Jeremy Soule's part. Due to the lack of identifiable themes and constant recycling of the tracks, the music becomes annoying and grating. Sound effects are a mixed bag, but are generally well recorded and mixed. Some get on your nerves (beasts), others are pleasing (walking sounds, ambient). The sounds of crashing waves, chirping birds and forest creatures is an absolute treat, and really adds to the initial shock of the game, and actually stays impressive. A special nod must go to the voice acting, which is sparse but well used throughout the game. Bethesda finally got round to hiring people who were actually actors and not friends and family, and it shows.

Gameplay/Story: 2/10
This is the game's pitfall, and it's a very deep one at that. Having grown up with classics like Baldur's Gate and Ultima 7/8, who both featured immersive and engaging gameplay, this title just didn't cut it. True, it's as open-ended as they come, but this doesn't necessarily result in interesting gameplay. Ultima VII, that let you do almost whatever you pleased, succeeded because you cared for the Avatar and the characters around him. By having a central character with a story, your surroundings, quests and NPCs meant something to you. Morrowind lets you "create that story", but all this results in is general apathy as you stroll the wasteland to deliver messages and infiltrate egg-mines. Why should you care? The much-lauded open-ended gameplay was for me a severe flaw.

The story is as generic a RPG story as I've ever seen. Some have called the story fascinating and complex, but I did not find it to be so. It's delivered in dialogue so mind-numbingly dull that even an avid book-reader like me failed to read it. I just skipped dialogue as fast as I could where I would usually have read every word. Characters themselves are no more interesting: They are not characters as much as they are plot devices, who stand at the exact same spot 24/7, ready to give you 20 generic responses everyone else in the city has, plus one unique response which is the key to getting that one item you must have to forward quest A to stage B. Where I can find myself discussing characters in Baldur's Gate 2 with my friends, quoting lines and doing impersonations, Morrowind never, ever, never once presented a memorable NPC.

Combat is Diablo revisited: find enemy, let enemy attack you, click mouse until enemy dead. Repeat. Strategy is pretty much non-existent, as none of the scenery allows for the kind of smart moves even hack'n slashers like Diablo allowed. Enemies in the wilderness are regenerating, meaning that they reappear at the same spot again and again. With the travelling you are going to do in Morrowind, this will become a huge annoyance. <POSSIBLE SPOILER>There is especially one creature that almost threatened to ruin the game for me in this respect. The Cliff Racer, a prehistoric bird of some sort, appears in enormous quantities as you progress in levels. As you near level 8 and 9, you cannot walk 20 seconds without getting attacked by one or three of these. To add to this, they emit a sound that at first pierces your ears and then begins to incite anger in you. The game developers even admitted they made too many of them! </POSSIBLE SPOILER>

Morrowind features semi-realistic distances, meaning that a trek to the far north may take 15-20+ minutes of walking, a long time when playing a game. This is all nice and fine, but as you cease to be amazed by the graphics and have heard the same tunes over and over again, it becomes a chore. Ultima IX, which featured sort of similar graphics, managed to reduce the amount of time spent trekking across empty landscape (apart from regenerating monsters) to a minimum, and filled the scenery with detailed NPCs, interactive buildings and mini-stories. Apart from the cities with identical NPCs, most of the things that dot Morrowinds landscape are egg-mines, dungeons (that are invariably too difficult for you unless you happen to be really lucky) and ruins (that will almost certainly kill you unless you are a very high level).

Skills and combat proficiency increases proportionally with the number of times you do a certain thing. I found this to be a nice and realistic system, but somewhat skewed, as I found myself getting disproportionate skills to what I'd initially chosen. As the game progressed, I found myself "threadmilling" (maxing out skills by repeating something an obscene amount of times), which is never a good sign,

Final Verdict: 5/10
Morrowind is a very front-loaded game. To start with, you are taken aback by the beautiful scenery and music, as well as the degree of freedom you are given. But this freedom never translates into the immersive gameplay the game advertises. Rather, it becomes more of a glossy magazine illustration: dazzling visually, undeniably pretty to look at and listen to, but with nothing beyond what you see and hear. Give it a try, I'm sure you'll disagree with my review initially, but I can guarantee you: after a few days of playing, you too will be chugging along the vast empty scenery, disenchanted with a game that promised adventure, freedom and magic, but ended up offering only repetition and the gameplay of a first-person shooter.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/19/04