The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition

"Addictive and superb"

I'm not a particular big fan of RPGs but I must say I was addicted from the moment I started playing Morrowind. It has a lot of great gameplay elements that make it a unique and interactive experience. Though The elder scrolls III is a great game, this version, that being the Game Of the Year edition, has content from the PC expansion packs, Bloodmoon and Tribunal adding an additional 100+ hours of gameplay.

Story: 8.4 - The Elder Scrolls III plants the player in a world known as, Morrowind, hence the name of the game. You are actually a prisoner and the ruler of Morrowind see's you playing a large part of history in this land. The games story unravels as you play and if you really want to get into the games hard to follow story and learn the history, it requires lots of reading and talking. Most gamers are not out for a text hunt, so those searching for a deep and rich plot may want to avoid this game. The game lets some of your story play itself depending on what Guild you took role in, what factions you choose and many other things. Even if you go free lance the story really isn't all that interesting. But I did take the time first time round to learn most of Morrowind story, it's actually really good in concept but it has nothing to hold your interest, while your busy leveling up your skills and doing job's all around the giant free world.

Gameplay: 9.0 - Morrowind consist of many miles of open world for the player to move about gathering gold, weapons, skills and whatever else that may lay about in the game. Right from the beginning you get to pick a character race, an orc or Nord or even a high elf, and there's more than that. Once you have money you can outfit your player with many various weapons like axe's, maces, claymores, sabers, crossbow's even projectiles like blades of all types and knifes, it's all great. You can also choose any clothing or armor for you character, things like shirts, pants shoes, to armors like helms, gauntlets, shoulder irons to shields of all kinds. Your character can also learn magicka as well, buying spells in a lot of different forms such as summoning something or attack spells, it works easy and is quite fun. The more deep you go in the land of Morrowind, the better things get as long as you keep busy. There are several jobs ranging from your main stream missions to guild missions and side quest even random favors! That's what I love about the game, and the world is free to explore, open jungles, ton's of different towns, islands, dungeons even mines and tombs hidden everywhere. You play in either the first or third prospective in combat, while this is nice and all, the battle system is slightly bland, a puff of blood is really the only way to tell if you made contact but it get pretty intense otherwise. Morrowind is just amazing and it holds a good 400+ hours of solid gameplay, it's quite literally the biggest game ever in recent years. If you choose to do every quest and max out your stats then the time can rise up to 600+ possible hours of gaming. Then you're going to want to experiment with other races and classes, it's not only dripped in replay value but it's insanely addictive. Let's not forget the Expansions, one of them offer an trip to a kingdom that was only mentioned in the standard edition of Morrowind and the Bloodmoon adds an icy giant island in the upper regions with extra quest and the ability to transform into a werewolf. The expansions add extra quests, weapons and outfits. Overall Morrowind GOTY is a great RPG.

Graphics: 7.5 - The world is in great detail and the levels are all great to look at but the games draw distance is poor and the fog gets annoying after a few hours. While most will be able to ignore this bland visual setup, the flat textures make it harder, but I will credit that it looks fine at times, like the water effects, those are great. But the frame rate can also be an issue, the frames dip whenever it pleases which can be bad if you're in a serious fight. This and other small flaws in the visuals really suck, but in most cases the game is too good to dismay that. The lighting is certainly done well and the First person weapons look awfully good, in most cases at least. Some of the magic spells look lame as well, but they work so good its okay. The models on some enemies I will say are a bit ugly as well, but the gameplay is so solid it really doesn't matter.

Overall: 9.1 - The game is a fun and addictive experience, I loved the feel and I just keep replying, this is a game of the year game for a reason, so go find out why, in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/06