Below are user reviews of Elder Scrolls III : Morrowind and on the right are links to professionally written reviews.
The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for Elder Scrolls III : Morrowind.
Column height indicates the number of reviews with a score within the range shown at the bottom of the column.
Higher scores (columns further towards the right) are better.
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User Reviews (101 - 111 of 244)
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Very, very, very, very, very BUGGY!
1
Rating: 1,
Useful: 3 / 5
Date: May 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User
Absloute [junk]! Opened this game up it wouldn't even read on my HD. It was missing a data.cab file on the main CD and on the Contstruction set CD my CD ROM couldn't even read the disc and gave me a message to call some guy at Bethesda complete with his extension number (and yes my CD ROM is working just fine it reads every other disc I own without a problem). I would NOT get this game till the ant hill of bugs obviously infesting it are worked out.
~~READ THIS~~
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 3 / 5
Date: June 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User
Do you own an Xbox, read this...
As opposed to many cross-platform games, the Xbox version of Morrowind is almost identical to the PC version (laughing at Mac owners). Here are the pros and cons of each version...
-PC
--PROS
---Game performance is dependent on your system
---Patches and mods already available
---You can always cheat a PC game
---Ability to pirate for friends (tisk tisk...)
---Many control devices available now, along with key binding ability
--CONS
---Game performance is dependent on your system
---Game is affected by computer problems
---PCs are much more unstable than the Xbox, unless you only use software made by your computer manufacturer
---Loading time (not a big deal for anything over 1Ghz)
-Xbox
--PROS
---Full realtime raytracing and shadow mapping (oooh)
---Loading time very fast
---Simple Halo-style controls
---Very reliable and stable system
--CONS
---Patches and mods not available until Xbox internet becomes available
---Different input devices not available until Xbox internet available for device driver download
Frustrating!!!
1
Rating: 1,
Useful: 5 / 13
Date: June 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User
The graphics are really impressive when it works. Three words of advice for those of you who haven't bought it yet: Crash, Crash, Crash. When you pick up certain Items; A message appears and states "Your game will Crash Now" click OK and the game crashes. I don't find the humor in scamming people out of hard earned money.
Not worth the money
3
Rating: 3,
Useful: 5 / 13
Date: June 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User
Reviewed on 1Ghz P3 256Meg ATI Rage 128 video - all at or above recommended hardware.
This is an open ended RPG game meaning there is no well defined plot. It is large, but sparsely populated with anything interesting. You spend most of your time walking around either at either a slow or very slow pace.
Graphics are very much like Heretic II except they run VERY slowly (around 5-6 fps). Collisions and crashes are very common. Fortunately quicksave is fast. Sound is good and some of the weather special effects are good too.
The user interface is abysmal - two examples.
1. There are 9 seperate steps required to open a locked door with a lockpick. You know the door is locked, you know I have a lockpick, why can't you assume I'm going to use it when I click on the door?????
2. The same button (space) is used to talk to a person and to take an object. At one point instead of talking to someone I accidently took the vase in front of them and got attacked by everyone in the room as a thief! Stupid design!
You'll run into a large number of NPCs in this game who are uniformly and identically rude event when you're doing them a favor. It's boring and annoying.
In summary, this game is like writing your Phd thesis during a thunderstorm. Rather tedious and you'll want to save your work frequently.
Buy Serious Sam II instead. It's half the price and twice the fun!
Morrowind doesn't run, don't buy this game
1
Rating: 1,
Useful: 8 / 27
Date: May 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User
Not only does the game not run, but Bethesda's tech support offers only the opinion that my video card might not be correct (all my hardware meets or exceeds the specifications on the box, incluidng my NVIDIA video card), or the notion that I should reinstall Direct X 8.1. I have reinstalled Direct X, both from the Morrowind CD and from Microsoft's site; the game still doesn't run. When asked to either offer a repair that will make the current game function, replace the defective game with a functioning one, or refund my money, tech support doesn't even respond. This is not a game or a company that you want to do business with.
If you want a game that works out of the box: DONT BUY THIS
1
Rating: 1,
Useful: 3 / 6
Date: May 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User
If you've played many pc games in your life no doubt you are quite used to buggy games that don't work of the box. It's something I guess we better get used to as more and more games are shipped out in this sorry state. I guess it's too much to ask
for a[n expensive] game to actually work correctly.
One of the best game worlds I've ever played in, but...
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 2 / 3
Date: August 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User
Let me start out by saying I love this game. Bethseda creates such a deeply engrossing, dynamic world that has a million different dimensions. The island of Vvardenfell drips with history, politics, theology and depth. No world has captured my imagination like the world of Morrowind. The world is very beautiful. You'll see in many reviews that people criticize Morrowind for being very "grey" and "boring." Vvardenfell *can* be very dark and sullen, that's true. However, the land reflects the spirit of the people that inhabit it. The Dunmer(Dark Elves) who live there are a race of very serious, humorless, often xenophobic, yet proud and strong people who are at their cores survivors. It would fit then that the land in which they live is not entirely a land of color and sunshine, but one that reflects the spirit of the Dunmer themselves. This is where the beauty of Morrowind can be found. If Vvardenfell were one big colorful fairy forest, the Dunmer would seem very out of place.
However there are flaws to this game, espicially when it comes to the game mechanics itself. The game does have it's fair share of bugs and the combat system could be better. The spell system is very cool however, as you can create your own spells to your specification, combining effects as you see fit. As a previous reviewer criticized, it does seem very pointless when you work your way up to control a guild because you really can't do anything with it. The music is beautiful, but when you hear it a million times it loses it's magic. They could have made more character models so we didn't have to see the same ones all the time. As far as the models being ugly, they're not that bad. Most of the people that are complaining about ugliness are probably just upset because they are used to playing games where everyone looks like a supermodel and the women have huge breasts, like EQ. But, as said before, this game is not perfect.
Then why do I give it 5 stars? Because the aforementioned good points and the storyline make all of that up for me. Most people who criticized the storyline never actually got very far into the game, sadly. Personally I didn't like this game at all when I first played it. But as soon as I got far enough into the game, the world and the story drew me in and I fell in love with it. This game is not for everyone, that's for sure. But if you immediately hate this game, don't give up on it just yet. Give it time and then make your decision. At least then you'll have an informed opinion.
Incredible game worth the price.
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 2 / 3
Date: September 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User
I got Morrowind on a whim after reading some good reviews. I was impressed right from the start and it only got better.
Morrowind, simply put, does everything right for an RPG. Most everything about the gameplay seems natural. Skills for example increase based on usage rather than using arbitrary skill points. I really enjoyed the amount of freedom the player has in almost anything the player can do. From enchanting custom items, to the methods used to complete quests or even not do any quests at all and just wondering around leveling up. The range of options made available to the player is amazing. You are not "required" to do things a certain way or even do anything at all. I played the main quest from start to finish. Then I started over and chose to ignore it and joined another faction. There was still plenty to do and see, and some things I didn't see the first time, with out having anything at all to do with the main quest or story. I still feel like I have only done a tenth of what there is to do in this game. This is a massively single player role-playing game.
One thing that stood out was that Morrowind has a unique look and feel. This comes from having a large and original story. Nothing is based on D&D rules. Races and characters all fit in to Morrowind's elaborately crafted world. You can spend a lot of time studying the many books in the game to just learn the history of Morrowind. This is all represented with some impressive graphics. Visually the game is very appealing. My favorite is the sky at night. You can see very detailed stars through the wisps of animated clouds that nothing at all like a skybox. You could write a book on the many fine details found in the game that all help it seem living world and not a static backdrop made for the player.
If the game has flaws it's that there are still some things that seem unfinished. There are too few ambient sounds, making most places oddly silent and empty. The number of monsters to fight is limited to a dozen constantly reused models. NPCs will stand around in the same general area day or night. Enter a diamond mine and you find miners but you will never see them mining anything. These things detract from what is otherwise a very immersive game. It seems odd that these things could not have been improved before release.
Yet these things in no way stop it from being a very good game with a seemingly limitless number of quests to do and a huge range of options for the player.
Best game I've played in a long, long time....
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 2 / 3
Date: May 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User
You wanna know just HOW good Morrowind is? The day that I bought the game I had gotten up WAY too early, and it had been a VERY long day. Nevertheless, I started playing at 10:30 at night, and didn't stop until it was lunch time. And I picked it up again right afterwards, playing late into the night. I EASILY put in sixteen hours of play within the first day that I owned Morrowind.
Incredibly immersive, the game grabs ahold of you from the very start with the finest character creation setup I've ever seen.
EVERYTHING in the game is free for the taking, so long as you can run fast enough... bowls, spoons, weapons, gold. If you think you can defeat the guards, you can try right ahead. I know of at least one instance where a shopkeeper had an item I desperately wanted but could not afford. It was a fairly isolated area, so I killed him off and ransacked his shop. After I hid his body, no one was the wiser, and I never got caught. (of course, when I tried the same trick in the Mage's Guild, every mage in the building threw down on me, busting out with spells, swords, and summons. I was dead in seconds.)
This open-endedness extends throughout the entire game. You can literally do whatever you want in a beautifully rendered world that reacts realistically to your behavior. Stop reading. Now. Buy the game.
(One caveat: have a good system. I have an Athlon 1.3 gHz, with 256 MB RAM and a GeForce 4, and I have to run in 800x600, with choppiness still noticeable in some places. Fair warning.)
Phenomenal plotwriting, riveting gameplay
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 2 / 3
Date: July 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User
I absolutely LOVED the Tribunal expansion for Morrowind. Some fans complained that the expansion was too "quest-orientated" and provided little opportunity to explore the backcountry. Well, I guess I've always loved the quests and hated aimlessly searching the outback for some obscure landmark, so Tribunal's mechanics suited me just fine.
Tribunal provides many features to enhance your Elder Scrolls experience. Most notably there is now an enemy lifebar, making gameplay much easier and enjoyable. Also, enemies and quests are generally considerably more difficult, and should be pleasantly challenging to the average player who has completed the original game's main quest. Also, now vendors have more money and you can sell some of your more expensive loot.
These are all nice features, but the "killer app" of Tribunal is the same as what set the original game apart from the competition: phenomenal storyline and plot-writing. The plot of the original game was so detailed, immersive, and epic that I often described Morrowind as not a game but a work of fine literature, in the same league as Lord of the Rings. Morrowind's storylines were known for their ingenious and unpredictable plot twists as well generally innovative dramatic development. That said, the plot for the main quest of Tribunal exceeded even that of the original game. If only Hollywood hacks had this kind of creativity and ingenuity; Tribunal is digital poetry. You will be drawn into a web of intrigue that will gradually build in crescendo until an absolutley shocking and thrilling climax that left me speechless, staring at the screen with a gaping jaw. It's similar to the feeling one gets from watching the season finale of your favourite prime-time soap, the kind full of shocking revelations. The surprise appearance and my subsequent killing of a certain end-game character (whom I won't spoil for you) was one of the most thrilling gaming experiences of my life. If all game developers took the same effort to loving craft the plotlines of their games, the movie industry would collapse.
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