The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition

"Thinking about getting this game? Wondering PC vs. Xbox? Well, you have come to the right place."

Welcome to my review of Bethesda Softworks' The Elderscrolls III: The Morrowind. Let me start by saying that I am fully qualified to review Morrowind as I have spent extensive time playing both the PC and Xbox version. I got Morrowind for my PC shortly after it was released. I was immediately hooked and after about a month, I considered it one of my top five favorite games, but something went wrong. I believe it was how easy you could “cheat” by modifying your character that ultimately sucked the fun out if it for me, that and PC gaming is about as fun as having a red hot poker shoved in your eye. While the ability to edit and install user created mods is something that most PC gamers would say is an advantage, I feel it ultimately waters down the game and, for me, kills all the fun I could have had playing the game as it was intended. There is so much to do already that the added mods and ability to edit lead to me doing nothing but starting over constantly. I eventually stopped playing Morrowind for the PC.

I don't know why it took me so long to finally get it for my Xbox, but I am glad that I finally did, even if it was months too late. I am glad to say that Morrowind has once again made my top five list.

The Basics
Morrowind is an extremely open-ended RPG that essentially lets you do what you want, when you want, and this freedom is very daunting, often you can't decide what to do next, and when you do decide, you hardly ever get it done without getting sidetracked first. There are hundreds of side quests available outside of the main quest. You could easily put in a hundred hours of gameplay and not touch the main quest. All in all, if you have the attention span, and you are a completionist like me, Morrowind offers months of gameplay. With all race and class choices, the replay value is endless. I have been an orc warrior who wielded a long sword and wore heavy armor, a dark elf magic user who wore light armor, and my favorite, a wood elf archer who wore no armor at all. You are only limited by your imagination.

Graphics
Morrowind's engine is four years old, but it holds it's own despite that. The backgrounds look wonderful; however, they suffer from terrible draw in. While the draw in is bad, it never really bothered me. The character models are the worst part. They look pretty archaic, but once again, I didn't care. The framerate is steady for the most part, but can slow down if it is raining, or if there is a lot going on in a small area. I know it sounds like the game looks like crap from how I have described it, but trust me, it is a great looking game for the most part.

75/100

Controls
Simple, yet functional, there is virtually no learning curve for Morrowind's control. It took me about two minutes to get used to them. Everything is mapped out very well onto the Xbox controller. I have only one complaint. While it is easy to switch weapon to weapon and magic to magic, you still have to access the menu for things like potions and lock picks. My character being a thief, I constantly have to go to the menu to switch to my trusty lock pick. It isn't a big deal, but it would have been nice to somehow set it up so you didn't have to do that. An automatic map button would have been nice too.

90/100

Story
I always hate going into the story when I write reviews, and I hate reading about the story in other people's reviews, so I will spare you and give you the extreme condensed version. The game begins on a ship with your character recently released from prison. You are dropped off in Seyda Neen, a small port town on the continent of Vvardenfell, at the request of the Empire. Once you are off of the ship and are done picking your class and race, you are told to report to Caius Cosades, a spy for the Empire, and a shirtless skooma-head (the game's equivalent of crack), in Balmora. The story revolves around a prophecy, reincarnation, slavery, drugs, betrayal, and all that good stuff. There is a lot going on, trust me. The best part is how and when you decide to tackle the main quest is up to you. Tip: Don't sell the package! I do it every time. If you do happen to sell it on accident, for the love of god, remember where. I had to start over once because of that.

95/100

Immersion
In an RPG, I think this is the most important category, and Morrowind is one of the best games I have ever played in that respect. You can easily lose yourself in this game. I find myself feeling sorry for the slaves and people I steal from (and that would be anyone who has something valuable), unless it is “the man”, then I stick it to them every chance I get. You can even turn into a vampire or werewolf. Once you are a werewolf, you are required to feed every night, and people can't see you change into you wolf form, or they will hunt you down. It gets that cool. The story sucks you into Vvardenfell and the depth and freedom keeps you there. Hours of your life will pass with you scarcely noticing. Once I have completed the game to my satisfaction, I am turning into a werewolf and eating everyone. I can't wait.

100/100

The bad stuff
Along with what I have mentioned before, there are a few other problems that keeps Morrowind from perfection. Occasionally weird things occur with textures not appearing on screen. I was walked to Pelgiad, a small town close to Seyda Neen, only to find it missing. I had to save and load the game to get the building textures to pop up. A rare occurrence, and easily fixed, but one that shouldn't ever happen. Another problem is with the two expansions. While they add possibly a hundred hours of gameplay in themselves, a portion of it is spent loading. The load time is just over a minute. Luckily, once you are playing, if the game ever needs to load, it is ten seconds or less. That first one is just hard to sit through.

The final verdict
Obviously any RPG fan must play this game, and for the $29.99 price tag, it shouldn't be missed by anyone. I played my first video game in 1987 when I was five, and in those intervening seventeen years, I have played only a handful of games I have enjoyed more. Morrowind truly is one of the best games I have played, I just love it that much. The funny thing is, as much as I love it, I can't give it as good a score as I would like because of some issues that, to be honest, didn't bother me at all, but would probably bother a more casual gamer. I have put countless hours into both the PC and Xbox version and overall, I would take the Xbox version every time. The ability to download mods, create your own mods, and edit the game state is nice, but for me, it took so much away from the game that it actually decreased my desire to play. Trust me when I say that this game is long enough that some crappy cloak mod or some "go here, kill that" quest that you could download for the PC is completely unnecessary, you will be entertained for a long time without the mods. The majority are crap anyway.

The bottom line is you should do yourself a favor and go get this game now, you are wasting precious game time.

Final score: 89/100

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/04