The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition

"Djmyxx Review: Nineteen Years is Worth the Wait for This"

Nineteen years. That's how old I am.

Fourteen years ago, I held a family computer controller in my hands. By some weird chance, or fate might have stepped in, I finished Super Mario 3.

Gaming, my favorite pastime: when the buddies away, when the girlfriend's sleeping, when there's no tripping for gym and biking, when the call of nature needed no heeding. You'd always catch me in front of a pc or console wasting the day (or night) away playing video games.

There were those that have stood out from the rest in my mind... Final Fantasy VII (and its wonderful story and tragic moment), the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series (the strategy and empire-building game for all insomniacs), Counterstrike (and the never-ending wave of kill sprees and sniper battles loved by Phalanx), and many more have stood against the obscurity brought about by time.

These games however pale in comparison to what I deem to be the most complete, most addictive, and not surprisingly, the most impossible game I've ever played. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Game of the Year Edition) for the Xbox.

The Elder Scrolls series had its roots from early PC gaming with cult hits Arena and Daggerfall. Morrowind is the first ES game for the Xbox console. The game is set in Morrowind (duh), a tiny geographical speck that's part of the ever-growing Empire (which you'll be familiar with if you played the first two games). You are a prisoner, hand-picked by the Emperor to serve a nearly-over-the-top purpose. Of course you don't know that yet, after all, you're just a common person just about to realize his destiny. After all, like most role-playing games, starting out as an errand-boy often leads you to saving the world from a catastrophe. I can't delve too much into the game's story since its better for gamers to just find it out on their own (it's quite obvious though).

The coup-de-grace for Morrowind isn't your main goal however; it's how you get there.

From being able to create your own character (race, gender, attributes, etc) at the start of the game up until its end, you are given TOTAL (and I mean TOTAL) freedom. That means you can choose to be good or bad (though there's no LS/DS stuff like that of Knights of the Old Republic) just by your actions, you can loot stuff from houses, use skills to charm or steal from people, explore dungeons and tombs, kill everything on site, even resist arrest and so much more!

Aside from the main quest given to you, you can eventually find a dozen guilds/societies that give out hundreds of orders ranging from simple errands to starting a full-scale guild war. Some guilds for instance, the Tribunal Temple, wherein you have to make pilgrimages to the Shrines of Vivec the God scattered all over the land just to prove yourself; the Imperial Legion, which lets you work for the Empire doing good, soldierly deeds; and the Morag Tong, is an assassins guild that gives you writs of execution (sort of like a get-out-of-jail free card) justifying your murder/executions mafia style. On top of these, there are hundreds of quests that are given to you by common folk in the towns/areas you visit (or shouldn't visit, mind you).

Character creation goes much deeper with the skills you can give to your character - aside from the usual strength, speed, etc., your character can have specialties in 20 or so skills. Examples are Block (auto-defend and its strength), Speech craft (the art of persuasion and intimidation), Mercantile (for all you Ragnarok addicts who chose to be blacksmiths), Light Armor (higher points in this will make your defense higher wearing light armor instead of heavier ones), Endurance (be able to carry more weight and have more stamina), Marksman (those who fancy playing as an elven archer from Lord of the Rings would want this) and many others.

As with several RPGs I've played, magic spells can be created out of scratch, and in conjunction with your skill affinity, some may indeed make you the ultimate spell caster. Melee combat is as always important, and Morrowind has its share of over a thousand weapons you could find, take, and even enchant. Of course if worse comes to worse, simple mano-e-mano works nicely if your hand-to-hand skill is good.

Monsters are somewhat of a shortage in Morrowind as there are few strong ones around (except for the occasional brutal armor-wearing thugs who gang-up on you), but are nevertheless a great addition to a fantasy RPG. Expect to see lots of ghosts and skeletons hanging around in dozens of tombs that lie about, and demons known as "Daedra" inside HUGE cult shrines.

Transportation however is a huge problem in the game, as it only presents you with silt-striders (Morrowind's giant-bug subways... don't worry there are no lines), ferry boats, Magic Guild teleporters, and if you have it Mark & Recall potions/scrolls/spells. The game gives you huge ground to explore, as if you walked from Los Angeles to London... and it definitely kills when you have an escort mission.

I've been talking about Morrowind the whole time so now I should tell you about the Game of the Year Edition's features... well... two expansion packs. Yep, Bloodmoon (in the island of Soltsheim, fighting or becoming a werewolf), and Tribunal (the walled-city of Mournhold face to face with gods), both good, long games in their own rights are also included in this single CD game.

Probably, the first time added to a video game, is having the ability to kill a major character in the main quest, and still be able to finish the game using a back-path. And after you finish the main quest, however far you may have been into the game in terms of side quest and exploration, the game doesn't end there and you can continue where you left off.

*Sigh*... I guess a review will not be enough to contain all that could be said about this game. It's as limitless as limitless can get, with all the infinite possibilities presented to you. Mystery, magic, quests, people, loot, enemies, everything in this game is interwoven to give gamers the most complete and immersive experience ever. This is the role-playing game every other one should adhere to. Nineteen years of gaming is worth the wait for this.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/27/05