The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind Review (no fat)

Game Description

Morrowind is the long awaited sequel to the critically acclaimed Daggerfall, and the next installment in the Elder Scrolls series. It is set in the massive region/island of Morrowind, which has been touched on briefly as a region of Tamriel in previous incarnations. Morrowind is the home to the Dark Elf race, and they make up the majority of the world’s inhabitants. The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind is an extremely open game, allowing the player to either follow the storyline from major plot to plot, or simply to go ‘rogue’ and head off to explore dungeons, slaughter townsfolk and steal property. There is as ever an extensive guild system, with rankings, special quests, privileges and magical items.

As with each Elder Scrolls game, the player begins as a nameless convict, who, due to circumstance has escaped or been released from imprisonment and begins with a clean slate. What you do, where you go, and how you affect the world around you is up to you.

The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind Gameplay

Morrowind, as with previous Elder Scrolls games, starts from an interesting premise. You have no history, no story. You are starting a fresh life, and everything you do from here onwards is your own choice. As you play, you can choose to take on quests from villagers, guilds and NPCs. Some of these help the overall storyline progress, unfolding a series of dark betrayals and dark magic.

The player travels through the game world on foot, fighting off monsters, bandits, undead and generally unpleasant creatures. There are plenty of large dungeons to explore, magical weapons, huge monsters and spells to play with – There’s certainly no shortage of things to do. The NPCs in Morrowind’s towns and cities are responsive, and can often provide information, a handy opportunity for pick pocketing, or an impromptu murder.

The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind features city-to-city transport, but is still vast, and there are huge areas of exciting and otherworldly content to find. The world is littered with ruins, extensive dungeons, NPC camps and cities, and abodes of werewolves and vampires. Watch your step.

The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind Combat

In keeping with previous titles, Morrowind features a first-person, mouse-driven sword swinging combat system. Archery and ranged combat have come a long way too, and are very accessible and fun to use. Launching arrows and fireballs into the stomach of an over flying monster is much more effective than trying to hack it apart as it dives at your head. Often enough, it is difficult to cope with multiple enemies, and you tend to get stunned a lot at lower levels by monsters with large weapons or lots of strength.

The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind Character Development

As with previous Elder Scrolls games, character development and advancing in level focuses around the player using his or her primary stats. For example, if upon creating my character I decide that I’d like him to be proficient with a long sword, then that becomes a Primary Stat. To level up, I must use my long sword skills enough to raise my ability with it, as well as my other primary stats.

Apart from that oddity, character development and profession work ‘normally’, that is, points are earned and can be distributed between various stats at every level. Interestingly, there are limits on what you can wear/use – only how well you can do so depending on your stats - Theoretically it’s possible to wield an immensely powerful magic sword at level one (providing that you have the strength to move with it), but to lend some realism, your character will not be able to operate it too well.

The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind Audio

The game features an impressive, uplifting musical score for the carefree traveler, and some very dark and moody soundtracks for the dungeoneer and combatant. Grunts of pain and clashes of shields fit perfectly with the game’s visuals and atmosphere and really add to the amazing environment.

The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind Visual

Morrowind is visually stunning. The graphics are still superb, and the atmosphere of the game is breathtaking. Enormous native creatures resembling giant fleas grace the skylines, stagnant swamps lay at the bottom of rocky mountains, and sandstorms blind the player as you travel the weary roads from town to town. Visually stunning, and again, extremely immersive.

The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind Summing Up

Overall, Morrowind is very impressive. It’s huge, immersive and dynamic world should certainly set any RPG fan drooling. However, it’s a little too big, and too much. Traveling between towns and dungeons takes more and more time, and it becomes increasingly tempting to ditch the main storyline in favor of succumbing to a werewolf bite and spending your time hunting unwitting peasants. The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind is immense, but it feels a little more like an experimental demo for a finished product.

The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind Price

Morrowind currently retails at $19.99 for PC and $17.95 for Xbox.