The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Added August 11th, 2003 by Final Sniper

Introduction:

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind released for the Xbox on June 7th, 2002 and was automatically deemed the ''First Real RPG for the Xbox.'' It's other role-playing competitors, the abysmal Rise of Perathia and other trivial titles didn't even begin to match the overwhelming greatness the Elder Scrolls radiated and boasted. So, what is the highly acclaimed Morrowind? It is the fourth installment in the popular Elder Scrolls series that began in 1993 with ''The Elder Scroll: Arena.'' Arena did quite well for itself, accumulating praise from fans and critics alike. Well, the Elder Scrolls series is back with its next-generation installment named Morrowind.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind takes place in the world of Vvardenfell under the Empire called ''Morrowind.'' Vvardenfell is a vibrant, rich and exciting world filled with different ethnicities and cultures. The fine lines of Vvardenfell's regions and areas are highly defined, some towns will be engrossed in what citizens of ''the Empire'' call outlanders, some towns however will resent them and just want to go on with their life. I was eagerly awaiting this game for a long time, and finally it has come! As soon as I got it, I popped it into my Xbox, and started playing. From the first hours of play time, I realized that this RPG wasn't like any others out there. This is pure original exploration and gameplay. Of course, with today's systems, this game has amazing graphics, and cool sound effects. I've never played the two games that came before, but this is a great introduction to the series. The game is HUGE, and almost everything you imagine can be done, I mean, you can buy a item or steal it. Like real life, if you steal and get caught, you're going to jail, so that's exactly what happens. When Morrowind came out, it totally smacked my expectations of what a game could be up-side the head. Never has a game provided me with the sheer epic scope of that in Morrowind. Console-oriented gamers may confuse my definition of epic and think I am talking about the scope of the game's story, as it is referred with most console RPGs. But no, do not make that mistake. When someone calls a Final Fantasy or a Dragon Warrior epic, it may be due to their respective stories, but when you call Morrowind epic, you're talking about it's world. Instead of a linear, go-where-you're-told story of many a console RPG, in Morrowind is instead replaced with an open-ended, do-what-you-want life. Gone are the spiky-haired, melodramatic, whiny lead characters, replaced in Morrowind by you. Gone are the lifeless towns, characterized by single traits among them, in Morrowind given life, recognization, worth in their whole. Morrowind is basically living another life, anyway you want to live it. You can create your character any way you want it. You can be an elf that pickpockets people, to a heroic woman that vanquishes evil across the land, or even a fish person that dives for pearls, and sells them to earn a living. You can even go as far as being a mass murdering dark elf. Basically, you can do almost anything in Morrowind. With that said let's get to the review:

Gameplay:

You see, Morrowind's story is only as good as you put into it. Morrowind doesn't tell you how to do your business, but gives you the opportunities and tools to find out and delve into this world of theirs and make the story good. You're not forced to read anything or listen to anyone, but the more you do, the better the rest of the game gets. You can literally find hundreds of actual in-game books with pages and pages of entails into the history, civilization, lifestyles, towns, people, and places of Morrowind. Almost any insignificant thing in Morrowind is given significance and worth in the writings found across the land, every book you read gives you even more incite into something you would have no idea would even be worth giving a second look otherwise. If it hadn't been driven home yet, let's put it in dead center; Morrowind is a living, breathing, world. Everything in Morrowind weaves together so, so well, threading you into it's vast expanse. You really come to 'learn' this world of Morrowind, through books, through traveling, through battle and trade, everything in Morrowind is so well defined as if it were an entire game in itself. Traveling really feels like traveling, you'll often find yourself traveling for days (in-game time) when going by foot from one town to another. Fighting actually takes work, if you want to be any good in fighting, you actually have to train with each weapon you want to use and actually do well with it, not just rely on a weapon's attack rating. Everything feels like an entirely new aspect of game play, all of it coming together to make this world come alive, and make you feel more like you're playing in the game than any other game before it. And that my friends is the beauty of Morrowind. This game lets you play it how you want to play it, not how you're directed to play it. If you want to be an honest, law-abiding warrior, you can. If you'd rather fancy yourself a master thief, robbing and back stabbing for your self-gain, go right ahead. Want to live the dangerous life of a wealthy contraband trader? Yes sir. Powerful sorcerer? You bet'cha. This is just but a tiny example of the vast array of life-styles you can live in Morrowind, or of course, you can live them all. This is what makes Morrowind so unbelievably good. It's the unprecedented freedom you're given, the ability to make of yourself what you wish, and do as you please. Now with the insane amount of ambition that went into this masterpiece, you may be asking yourself how the game can possibly keep itself contained and balanced. Well rest assured, they've got Morrowind thought out to the nth degree. Despite the insane freedom, all that you can do aside, the game still manages to keep everything in perspective and never makes you feel like you're 'cheating' the design. How does it do it, you ask? Well, whoever designed the stat-system in Morrowind really did an excellent job, as the stat-system always keeps your character in check. For instance, if you've been a warrior during your entire game, despite being able to slaughter nearly anyone you so choose, if you suddenly get the urge to work on your magic skills, you're magic abilities are still at square one. So even if you're exceedingly powerful in one craft, you're still going to have to work your way up if you want to be good in another. That doesn't mean of course, that if you're in a clinch while wielding your magic, that you can't just pull out your sword and mop up the place again. No, the system doesn't make you drop one style for another, but instead welcomes you to become proficient with as many skills as you like. Morrowind has obvious strengths and weaknesses. The most obvious weakness is the game's lack of a true storyline. This mostly is due to its open-endedness, a real double-sided sword. On one hand, you have this incredible and rich world of culture, faction and exploration, allowing the player to do what he or she chooses. On the other hand, you have a main storyline that can easily be neglected for the other various side-quests of the game. Other weaknesses include frequent game crashes in later-end game, journal system complexity and corrupted quests due to the fact you can kill your quest-givers or people who are involved with quests without even knowing they are related to the quest.

A large subject I would like to touch on is the primal aspect of Morrowind's combat system. It seems like that the developers, Bethesda Softworks, were so engrossed with writing books, texts, making enticing quests and rich textures that they forgot a critical aspect of any game: Action. Morrowind generally has a weak combat system; it is simple with little involvement. Your character cannot parry, dodge, et cetera or do any of the nice intricacies most ''combat rich'' games allow you to do. It is basically hack-and-slash at its worst. However, with my play of over four hundred hours, the combat system really isn't too much of a disappointment - I have come to enjoy it - so don't fret. Another very annoying problem in Morrowind is the very slow loading times. When you die so many times and have to look at the same loading screens most of the time, it can really get frustrating. Now to Morrowind's good side, Morrowind is an extremely rich game. And I don't mean that money-wise. The game has very defined cultures and noticeable problems. The game isn't set in a world where once the bad guy dies everything turns perfect. There is a rather large slave trade in Morrowind, slaves are mostly composed of sub-breeds of Khajit, a beast race, but do include other races like sub-breeds of Altmer (''High Elves''), Reguards (Native-like people) and even Orcs. Another noticeable aspect is the conflicting guilds and the laziness of the ''Imperial Legion.''

Morrowind's main storyline centers around killing Dagoth Ur, a devilish Lord that used to run the Sixth Great House. In a catastrophic and turbulent war, Dagoth Ur made the regrettable decision of betraying the ''Good'' guilds. Because of this, the Sixth Great House was overrun and Dagoth banished to the Red Mountain, in which he has slowly manifested into the Dark God. Your mission, obviously, is to go through a series of tasks and learn about the Sixth House and other prophecies the primal clans of Vvardenfell have. Through encounters with acclaimed Spymasters and even the God-King Vivec himself, you will eventually be lead to Dagoth Ur and wage war with him. When encountering an enemy wandering the landscape, or when you attack an NPC (or one attacks you), the game’s battle music begins playing and you have the option to either fight or beat a hasty retreat. Battles are controlled no differently then in a first person shooter; you just use a crosshair to lineup your attack and then swing your weapon at the enemy. There is a stamina meter that must be monitored, as you inflect less damage the lower the meter gets. The amount of damage you inflict and your hit percentage is dependent on your skill level for the weapon you are using, so it is always wise to carry something you are well-practiced in. Whether you are using a sword/shield combo, a battle-axe, bow and arrows or spells, the fighting in Morrowind is easy to perform and complements the rest of the gameplay remarkably well. Your first experience in the vast world of Morrowind is a humble one. You awake aboard a slave ship that has just landed on the island of Vvardenfell. The slave traders inform you that they have been ordered to set you free, and you are unceremoniously released from captivity. Upon exiting the boat you are greeted by a fellow who asks for some information, and this is where you chose the name, race and sex of your character. You have a wide assortment of choices when choosing your appearance, so you really feel attached to your personalized Morrowind alter ego. After this is done you are sent to the local record keeper, and there you make more important decisions such as your class (ie – fighter, mage, ranger, or even a custom class) and skills you would like to specialize in. When this is finished you are told to go meet up with a man in the neighboring city of Balmora, but whether you choose to do so is completely up to you. At this juncture in the game you could literally spend 50 hours of gameplay time just wandering around doing odd jobs for various guilds, stealing goods for money, or anything else you feel like doing, without ever even talking to the fellow you were told to go meet. That’s the beauty of Morrowind. The way the game unfolds is based entirely on your decisions and you are never pushed in one direction or the other. Of course, if you want to complete the main story of the game you are going to eventually have to talk to that man in Balmora, but there is never a time when the game forces you to do so. All the side quests offered by Vvardenfell’s great houses (the political factions on the island), guilds and inhabitants equate to hundreds of hours of gameplay time apart from the main quest. This immensity is simply unheard of with console role-playing games and makes Morrowind something truly special.

The way statistics and leveling up are handled in the game is relatively simple, yet surprisingly effective. Your character has dozens of skills such as longblade, heavy armor, athletics, speechcraft, etc, and in order to increase the capability of these skills you must continually use them during gameplay. Like the rest of the gameplay in Morrowind, the way you go about gaining levels is entirely up to you. Some people may reach level 20 by using mostly fighting skills like axe, medium armor, archery, etc, while others may reach level 20 by using only thief related skills such as sneaking, trap disarming and lock picking. There are also trainers located in the various cities throughout Vvardenfell that can raise your skills, for a price of course. This ingenious system of skills and leveling-up is a refreshing change from the linear Japanese RPG style of preset level gaining, and truly allows your character to grow as you see fit. Just because Morrowind allows you the freedom to do as you will, don’t think that there aren’t rules and regulations on the island Vvardenfell. Go ahead and steal all you want from somebody’s house, but just don’t let them see you do it or your crime will be reported to the authorities. The same goes for murder and assault (though you are free to defend yourself when attacked), and the only way to remove your criminal status is to pay off your bounty or go to jail for a certain length of time. Jail isn’t the best option in the world, because during the time of your imprisonment the skills you worked so hard at leveling-up actually LOSE experience. If you get caught performing an excessive number of crimes, it is entirely possible to run up a bounty on your head so high that you could never hope to pay it off. If you become too much of an outlaw you’ll find yourself attacked by town guards where ever you go, and life can get a bit difficult. Luckily, there are certain shady individuals in the thieves guild who can remove bounties from your head at half price, so it pays to have friends in low places.

Morrowind can be played with either a first or third person perspective and uses an intuitive Halo-esque control scheme that makes traversing the vast island of Vvardenfell a breeze. Both the left and right analog sticks are used simultaneously for walking, looking and strafing, while the ‘L’ and ‘R’ triggers are used respectively for jumping and attacking. There are a few extremely negligible issues with the controls, as you can sometimes find yourself getting ‘caught’ on objects in the environment. You might just be jumping along, trying to build up your acrobatics rating, when suddenly you find yourself stuck on the side of a building or something other obstacle. Usually you can wiggle and jump enough times to escape from this unscathed, but I did have to restart my game on one occasion after getting stuck this way. I attribute these minor glitches with the sheer immensity of the world you are exploring, as it would have been near impossible for the folks at Bethesda recreate every situation that will arise during gameplay. These issues only come up about once every five to six hours, and I stress that they take absolutely nothing from Morrowind’s stunning gameplay.

Graphics:

Now getting into the graphics; it quickly becomes apparent that yes, the ambition of the game has taken a hit somewhere; in the aesthetics department. While technically Morrowind is extremely impressive, sporting an absolutely monumentus world, with sprawling, huge towns, ruins, mountains, oceans, and even a fully dynamic weather system, the game still looks by and large, very dreary and mundane. While this does offer some great atmosphere, a good deal of the time it is just plain ugly. The character models are also nothing to revel at, especially your own character, who (in 3rd person view, as opposed to the default first person) animates like a stick of celery with limbs. Morrowind's frame-rate is also problematic. While generally working fine, it can often get jumpy enough to get you dizzy, and when mixed with muddy textures and pop-up that becomes a constant in the distance, the nauseam can get to you. Last, but not least, the game has some pretty bad collision detection as far as jumping and running into things is concerned. The collision detection during a fight is great, but jump into a wall and you'll be trying to get off of it as the rat behind you gnaws at your feet. Though the game's low point is in the graphics and technicalities, the game play utterly eclipses the downfalls of the graphics to a point where the graphics are almost meaningless. All of the various environments on Vvardenfell are gorgeous, and that is a big motivation to explore new areas of the island. Grasslands, swamps, desolate wastelands, craggy mountains and more all await you during your journeys, and there is always something new to behold just over the next rise. The towns in the game are masterfully designed, whether it is the small fishing village of Khuul, the medieval castle town of Ebonheart, or the majestic and awe-inspiring city of Vivec. The architectural design in the game is always exceptional and varies widely from region to region, so you will most likely find yourself falling in love with one particular town or area on Vvardenfell.

The water in Morrowind has to be the best ever in a video game, as it undulates and reflects the light exactly like it would in real life. It is quite amazing to see raindrops create hundreds of tiny ripples on the surface of a lake or bay during a downpour. While I am on the subject of rain, I should mention that the environmental effects are also quite extraordinary. As you are traveling, you will often be able look up and see ominous dark clouds slowly move in, cover up the sun, and unleash their fury. The sandstorms are also very believable and your character (and NPCs) actually shields his/her eyes with an arm while walking into the wind. Even the starry night skies can captivate you with their slowly moving quasi-aura borealis and multiple moons. And the sunsets…ah, the sweet, sweet sunsets. Let me just say that standing on the castle parapets of Ebonheart, while watching the fiery red orb of the sun dip into the ocean’s waters is quite possibly the closest you’ll ever come to a having moving experience from a video game. Truly remarkable.

The only low point of Morrowind’s visuals is the character models. While they are quite detailed, their animation quality is often much too jerky. This is especially noticeable when watching an NPC walk from a distance, as their animation is made even choppier than normal in an effort by Bethesda to keep the framerate up (which apparently worked because the framerate stays very solid). Thankfully, it is not something that hinders your enjoyment of the game, as everything else is so absolutely beautiful. The good news is there are many different character types in the game, so you won’t see an excessive number of recycled models during your travels across Vvardenfell. Also on the positive side is every single piece of clothing or armor you don actually becomes visible on your character, so you can personalize your appearance to your heart’s content.

Audio:

Recovering from the graphical low point somewhat, the game picks up some points in the sound department somewhat. When you are attacking, or casting magic, there are usually only one or two sound bytes for each action. So when you fire your bow and arrow, no matter what you hit, the same sound byte will always come up, making it difficult to tell if you scored a hit or completely missed. However this is a small flaw, which is easily overlooked as all of the dubs (voice-overs) are extremely well done. The sound of the weather sounds almost as good as it looks, it really helps bring you into the game. While the game honestly seems to have barely a half-dozen BGMs in total, they just fit the game so well that you never seem to get tired of them. The atmosphere they provide definitely adds to the whole experience as well. The sound effects in the game are also generally top notch, from the wide range of weapon clashing sounds and monsters, to the huge array of high-quality spoken dialogue (especially from your character --cliche grunting never sounded better!). Though I still have no idea where they got the sound for the jump. The sound value of Morrowind is controversial. Those who have a 5.1 surround sound setup are in for a treat, as this game boasts the best distinct spatial separation of effects and voices I've ever heard. While it has static, repeating theme song that you could almost murder yourself because of, it also has a huge library of sounds and clips that are played dynamically if the NPC, or Non-Player Character, likes or dislikes you. For example: Bivale Taneran might say: ''What do you want, Outlander?'' when her favor towards you is 56, but at 100, she might say: ''It is a pleasure to see you, outlander!'' The game also pairs a good sense of dramatic atmospheres with tranquil atmospheres; the music is soft and sweet when you are in non-hostile plains and cities, and it begins to speed up and become more up beat when you are in dungeons and hostile areas. Although there is little music variance in the game and although enjoyable, it's gets repititive. But they could've done more with this, quite easily.

Controls:

The controls in the game are pretty solid, very easy to pick up. Didn’t get the manual with the game? Well during the loading time the game will teach you most of the basic controls, and as you play through the game (mostly the beginning) the game will teach the controls to you. However after you see the loading screen controls several times, it begins to get boring and tedious, but that’s a different section. The first noticeable thing about the X-BOX version of Morrowind is its simple controls. You open doors, crates, urns, baskets, et cetera with A. You equip your melee weapon with X and ready spells with Y. You attack, spell or melee, with the R control on the back of your Xbox controller and jump with the L control. The white mini-button opens your journal, a comprehensive compilation of all the quests you have been requested to complete followed by text messages of if you have or have not completed them. The black min-button allows you to rest, which rejuvenates Magicka, Health Points and Fatigue. Movement controls are similar to Xbox's highly acclaimed ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' and are a charm to use. Morrowind is best place from a first-person perspective so its no wonder all of its control schemes are like those found in Halo. The left analog controls movement while the right controls the aiming reticule and your view. Morrowinds makes use of every available button and then some! Some commands like switching weapons without using menus are wonderfully done. Just press a trigger and press a button. You got a different weapon. It really makes fighting enemies a breeze because some enemies can ONLY be killed by specific weapon types. Spells can also be quick selected this way and for spellcasters, it’s probably even more valuable than the weapon select since Morrowind has an infinite amount of spells you can create. It’s very intuitive and you’ll get the hang of it before an hour is up at the most. One minor gripe I have with the game is its slow speed. Even if your speed stat is maxed out, you’ll still move slowly. Perhaps, more tweaking is needed here since you’ll spend most of your time walking from town to town due to the huge world of Vvardenfell.

Replay:

The replay value of this game is insane. There are so many different guilds and factions to join, people to kill, and things to steal; two games should never be the same. Unlike most RPGs, this game allows you to pick your race and your starting attributes, so right when you start a new game, you can make it different. Beyond that there is also tons of different spells to learn, and armor and weapons to find and master. Hell even if you do manage to do every mission in the game, you can always go on a genocidal killing spree, which is rather fun to do I might add. With all the different things you can train your character to be, not only is a replay enjoyable, but I recommend that anyone should do it. You can train your character to be many things, from a warrior to a thief. Both of which take a lot of game play and training to become good at, but the path of a thief is easier at the beginning. One thing is that everything in each mission will relatively be in the same place, this excludes characters that walk around here and there. All of the characters will be found in the same areas also, which takes away some of the fun, but the game is so friggin long you may just forget where each character or item was in the first place. If that wasn’t enough, you can alter your armor and weapons with different magic attributes. Then you have custom spells you can make, it all depends on your alchemy skill which is increased various ways.

Summary:

In the end Morrowind stands as a landmark game, not only for RPGs, but also for video games in general. I urge anyone and everyone even remotely interested in role-playing games to check out it out, as this style of nonlinear gaming simply cannot be experienced with any other console RPG. Morrowind is a wonderfully huge experience that will take dedicated gamers some time to finish. And with all of the options available, no two trips through the game will be the same. Even with all of the flaws, the game is an excellent adventure for anyone who's looking for a nonlinear game set in a world that they can live in. People who don't care for PC-style games may be turned off by the open-endedness of this game, or by the large amount of text that you'll read. If you can look past the minor gripes mentioned, you should feel rewarded by such a large adventure. I'll even go so far to say that Morrowind is a reason to buy an Xbox for, especially if you don’t own a computer fast enough to handle the PC version of the game. You may find the game a bit slow and uninteresting at first, but before you can blink you'll be playing 14 hours a day and waking up in the middle of the night with skooma (the narcotic drink of Morrowind) cravings. And be warned, before you step foot into this epic world say goodbye to all your friends, family and loved ones. Tell them they won't be seeing you for a few months. If they ask why, tell them you are going on vacation. This won't be that far from the truth, because you'll be taking a long trip to the land of Vvardenfell, where you're the hero and anything's possible. All in all, Morrowind is an unbelievably good game but even under these conditions, i must warn to buyers that this game is not for everyone. A casual gamer would most likely find it boring but if you'r into RPG's and play it long enough, you will find what makes this game such an enjoyable experience. I don't think I can recommend this game enough, though I must stress, if you're planning on getting this game, you had better plan on putting a TON of time into it. And when I say that, I say it because you WON'T be able to put it down. Social lives, girlfriends, school, work; they'll all be damned when Morrowind's crack-laced disc of love is put into your big black box. So, if you have an Xbox and you want to pick up a game that can give you 30 hours of fun, or 300, Morrowind is definetly the game for you. It has consumed me, and it will consume you! Although Morrowind may not look too good or sound perfect, it’s still a good game. An epic main quest and side quests that offer more play time than most RPGs, Morrowind will keep you playing for months. Overlook it's somewhat drab wrappings and you’ll find a gem that brilliantly shines underneath. There's enough game here to keep you busy for months. If you like the game, you absolutely will get your money's worth, a dozen times over.