The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition

"If You Can Get Past The Bugs, And Are Patient Enough, You're Good To Go."

Morrowind is a game made by a company called Bethesda (but you already knew that), and the size of the map you play on is good enough to be that of an MMORPG.

Alright, this will be the first review I've ever written, so I will make my opinion on it as straightforward and to-the-point as possible.

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|8/10| Gameplay (careful, this one's gonna be big):

I'm trying to be as unbiased as possible about this. The gameplay itself is not as simple as some people say; you don't simply "go around, killing things, and healing." The gameplay is actually easy to get used to, but has those advanced features for people who want them.

This game is all about freedom. You can kill anything (or anyone), you can go anywhere, steal anything, rob a whole shop. The world is at your fingertips and all you have to do is level up your character enough to grasp everything in it. You can also play this game any way you want to. At the beginning, you will get several options for what to make your character into. You will be able to choose between several races, then your specialization, favorite attributes, then your Birthsign, which will affect your abilities in certain ways, and 5 major and 5 minor skills (from a list of about 50). Major skills get a nice boost, minors get a small boost. It's all up to you. You can make a thief build, warrior build, you can make any kind of build you want.

Then, the leveling up system is pretty simple, but it takes a good bit of time just to get to level 2 (well, depending on which skills you chose). The good thing about that, though, is once you get enough cash, you can start investing it into leveling up your major and minor skills, and you can pretty much get to the max level easily and quickly just by using trainers, which is highly convenient, and further goes with the freedom aspect.

Next, we have quests. I can't even count how many quests this game has. If you divide them into three, they would be the "main" quest (that's what it's called, although it's not really referred to as the main in the game), the Tribunal Main Quest, and the Bloodmoon Main Quest. These quests themselves will take you at least 300-400 hours, because you will need to level up before you take on the harder parts. Along with these quests, there are quests that you can do for guilds, mainly the Thieves Guild, Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, Morag Tong, and you can also choose from one of the three Great Houses (Hlaalu, Telvanni, and Redoran). There are also hundreds upon hundreds (at least) of miscellaneous quests to do. Hell, about 1 hour in, I guarentee you will probably stumble upon a random person with a miscellaneous quest.

I estimate it will probably take you about four months to complete everything (no joke), because you'll constantly be abusing your freedom and stealing things, killing people just because you want to, etc, which is very fun.

Now, I'll discuss a few of the bad parts. Mainly, the bad parts are the glitches, some of which aren't really glitches, some of which are. For one, I will guarantee that you will start getting lockups at some point. That is usually due to your file size, but, as you advance into the game, you can't really do anything about it. There will be lots of lockups, as I said, and I can guarantee you that much, which is why I suggest having several files per character handy, and saving often (I usually save every ten minutes or so). Of course, there are also several glitches you can use to your advantage, and, there are other glitches, but lockups are your main worry; there are also glitches which can be hilarious (such as finding a slaughterfish half-trapped inside a mountain).

Finally, the freedom. Of course, I wouldn't consider freedom a problem, usually, but you have to be careful in this game. For one, you're going to have to find something to do, instead of someone telling you to do something, which can be overwhelming for a newbie, extremely. You're going to have to take the responsibility for who you kill. If you kill a quest person, you have two options: reload a save, or just not be able to achieve final rank in that faction/receive reward for the quest. And if you steal something that was for a quest, same thing. Of course, you should still, above all, savor your freedom, and do whatever you want, but be wary, and try to keep unique items instead of selling them, because many are for quests.

|6.7/10| Graphics:

Graphics are pretty crappy. They make Morrowind what it is, though. The trees don't do anything in the wind, and there isn't any wind that you notice until you're in the middle of an ash storm (might be called something else). Of course, though, everything is reasonably detailed, and it still looks pretty nice, although rain goes through when you're under a building that isn't in a loading point. The water looks very nice, but enchanted items are like stupid.

|8.5/10| Sound:

The sound itself isn't what's really remarkable, or the quality of it. The thing that really stands out to me are how the characters talk to you when you pass them by, and it depends on how much they like you. For a game made at the time during which it was made, it was awesome. As for the rest of the sounds, they are quite realistic, and stand for themselves. The music never really gets tiring and puts you in a nice relaxed mood, so that you can think better.

|10/10| Story:

You can create your own story, but the story for the main quests are very good, and fleshed out, with so many things to do, and quite a bit of interesting information, but you don't have to read any of it. You can just get to the main deal. You can set your mark in people's hearts by doing quests for them, and so on. There's not much to say about it, but the story is very good.

|8/10| Replay Value:

There is so much to do, and so many builds you can try out, or you can roleplay. However, this game is so big that replaying feels quite daunting to me (and, I'm sure, to most people).

10/10 Extra Content:

An extra division. The extra content really deserves this rating (although I wish I could give a 194/10), because there is an insane amount of it. Hundreds of well-written books and stories, all interesting to read, all at your fingertips. There are also several homes you can use, and so many characters with interesting backgrounds, and things you can learn from them. You can also enchant, with several types to make, and name your enchanted items for anything. There are an insane number of spells, and you can make new ones, if you want. There's a lot more stuff, but, when you see how much extra stuff there is in this game, it will simply overwhelm you, and you will start to appreciate it to no end.

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Overall, this is a great game, that takes a while to get used to, but, once you do, it will be fun, and you will ALWAYS have something to do in it that you haven't done before. I definitely suggest buying it, because there is nothing you can do in the time of a rent.

Note that, if you want a linear experience, you will go to hell and die when you buy this, and you will probably hate it, but, if you can conform to its freestyle style, then you will love it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/23/05