The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

"It Took Six Months to Beat, But It Cured My Hate of RPGs"

Introduction

Games do not have to be too brilliant to satisfy my desire to play them. As long as you give me a good shooter and justify why I need to lay waste to every being in the galaxy then I am totally going to like the game. I am in no way a fan of role playing games and never was big into the whole Zelda thing or got bored easily if my success in a game depended on surviving random attacks by evil spirited monsters strewn about the country side. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind definitely converted my interests. Not only do you get to play in the first person with a weapon or fireball spell in hand, you get the great enjoyment of free roaming around the country side with absolutely no real urgency to complete a particular quest. Morrowind does something that really puts RPGs on an entirely different playing field. As an avid player of first person shooters I am relieved to not be stuck in a third person perspective and I am simply blown away by all of the many different options that you have in this game.

Story

The story to Morrowind is very detailed and interwoven with bygone prophecy, history, and folklore and I can see where any freak of nature would just by into this stuff. For me I am not so interested in how to figure out what era this king died and this story occurred, but it goes without commending the developers with taking their time in coming up with a story line. I love a good story line in a game and also one that is original, but this game not only gives you a great story line but goes off the deep end to provide you BOOKS in the game to let you take a break from hacking some poor old widow to death and reading up on the history of where you are. Not that I would hack a poor old widow to death in this game, but it is possible. The story's main quest is actually very simple in that you are the chosen great warrior who has come to save the world from all of the evil going on-still a typical RPG type of concept, but it goes all out to give you a reason not to call it anything but typical. You will run into all kinds of different people that are all unique save for the guards and soldiers that mill about. All of these people have stories though and the game is intricately interwoven with small tasks that you can complete for people. The game ultimately leads you on a very long, but very rewarding journey and hands down this is THE greatest RPG I have every played.

Game Play

So what is not to love about being in a free roam map with tons of stuff to do (or not do) and having the ability to play the game in whatever fashion you want with little consequence of your actions affecting the outcome of the game? There is something for everyone in this game whether you are into going around and becoming a mass serial killer or if you are one of those crazy people who actually would find some reward in finding and exploring every tomb and cave in the game. First of all you start the game off awaking as a prisoner on a boat that is docking in small fishing village and here you decide what you want to be, how you want to look, what your attributes are, what your name is, and what type of fighting style you want to have. There are a variety of options to choose from. Your main quest is easy to keep track of but there is a lot of difficulty in staying alive. As is with every RPG you encounter deadly monsters that attack you every inch of the way but the good thing is that you can either run away to safety in a town or city or work your way up to be able to defeat the creature. There are also guild quests to take part in to help you boost your character and there is a primitive transportation system to allow you to get to town to town although this is sort of time consuming and you will have to walk to any other important point on the map. The whole inventory system is very easy to use and you get to buy and sell items that want or find and also develop potions to rejuvenate your health, magic, and energy bars as well as create spells. There is just so much to do in this game that it is not even funny to explain it all. Just buy this game now.

Sound/Graphics

The music is memorable and so are the graphics. I had no idea that the Xbox could hold up to such a game. Unfortunately the graphics are so good that the poor Xbox froze up on me a few times due to the loading of frame rates. However the scenery and detail is simply astounding. I cannot get over the many hundreds of unique characters that you run into in this game. Of course they are not all unique when it comes to sound. Most have the same voice or will say the same things over and over which makes conversation a little dull, but usually you will encounter small quests as well as stories to go along with these run-ins as well.

Replay Value

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind features a full 100% replay value that out performs any RPG that you have ever played. This is the longest game that I have ever played for one. I was pulling 18 hours in one semester when I started playing this game of September of '06 and finished this game in February. I did not entirely finished this game, the six months actually refers to completing the main quest. So you see, Morrowind is not a game you can beat in one sitting. This is a game that you could take with you into hibernation. There are so many things to do in Morrowind that boredom can lead you to do some pretty interesting things. You won't get bored with this game, because you will find something fun to do such as go exploring or start hacking up the local townsfolk. Otherwise you get an incredible game just with the main quest alone so be prepared to be amazed.

Final Recommendation

Must buy. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is a superb RPG and it does everything to convert us heathen shooter fans into the best of the RPG players. The game offers more than any other game on the Xbox and is way ahead in the RPG genre. There are not that many flaws to this game beyond loading screens and just this being a very time consuming game, but it still is better than Oblivion which tried to correct what it thought were flaws with this game. I do not think this game could be any better than it is because it more than surpasses my expectations of the typical RPG. This is the first Elder Scrolls game of the series that I played and you do not have to have had played the first two (which are available on PC) to enjoy this game as there are plenty of books that you can actually pick up and read in this game. Morrowind crafted a role playing fan out of me and I definitely look forward to more works by Bethesda.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/12/08

Game Release: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (US, 06/06/02)