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Flawed, but very much worthwhile nonetheless

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 21 / 21
Date: January 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I recently fired this game up again after having been lured away many, many months ago by broadband (and the resulting opportunities for Counter-Strike and the like). My first go-round with Morrowind had suffered from choppy framerates and blobby textures owing to my antique 3D card; my new Radeon card has made these issues neatly disappear, and the game now feels like a revelation.

Morrowind's flaws have been neatly dissected by innumerable reviewers: chief among these being the steep system requirements (on the PC, at least), the NPCs with their repetitive canned dialogue (which, as often as not, betrays a disappointingly blithe ignorance of ostensibly earth-shaking plot events), the small selection of background music, and the lack of urgency in the main plot.

Those things all bugged me in my first short bout with the game, back in July, but for whatever reason, this time I don't really mind at all. The game's virtues have made themselves much more apparent, especially in contrast with a lot of the stuff I've played in the interim. One of the biggies has to be the character advancement system. The creation system has gotten a lot more attention in reviews, and yeah, there's a vast constellation of starting options - from race, gender, and appearance to birthsign to skillsets - but that's par for the course, at least in Yanqui RPGs. But it's in the process of building your guy or gal up that the game really shines; every few-point improvement in your scores is actually noticeable, instead of merely theoretical, yet at the same time it's balanced so that you don't achieve the massively OTT levels of world-shattering power ("oh, look, another thirty-foot hellspawn") endemic to most other RPGs.

MORROWIND's gameplay itself is superb, with solid, intuitive first-person controls, manageable click-and-drag menus, and an unobtrusive HUD. The combat is particularly nice: unlike a straight RPG, you'll actually need quick reactions and a steady mouse hand, but (luckily for the club-handed among us) your character's numerical weapon skill is still a bigger determinant of his ability to hit an enemy than your prowess at punching a lot of buttons really quickly. It's an elegant hybridized system that allows for a lot of spontaneity and freedom - and it's always nice to be able to escape a losing fight by, for instance, vaulting off a bridge into a ravine, or hiding behind a boulder, or levitating out of reach.

The graphics are lovely, from the huge variety of architecture - Western half-timbered houses, yurts, giant ziggurats - to the monsters, many of which are genuinely scary, to the little details such as the dozens of different-looking shirts, pants, and shoes available to the fashion-conscious player. The graphics also play into what I really like about the game - the idea that, instead of having all the most memorable bits spoonfed to you in a pre-scripted event or plot twist, you have the freedom to experience your own. Like the other day, when I was exploring a desolate, mountainous coastline during a dark night and looked up to see a forty-foot-tall statue of a goddess overlooking the sea, just as she was sihouetted by the light of the newly-risen sun behind her. It's neat knowing that that's a moment that's purely my own - other players might have seen it, but not at the same time or in the exact same way.

Lastly, I love MORROWIND's atmosphere. It's not perky and poppy and pink-haired like a Japanese RPG, but it's not stolid and Tolkien-generic like a D&D or Might and Magic game, either - it's something new, for once. The Elder Scrolls gameworld is standard fantasy-medieval, but this takes place in a weird, gloomy corner of it, like the Elder Scrolls equivalent of Eastern Europe or the Middle East. We've got a distant Western empire (with a strong Byzantine flavor) ruling over an ancient and resentful people who do their best to stick to "the old ways"; most of the game's story emerges from this culture clash. There's lots of politics and paranoia, and while there is a main villain, there's no real clear-cut "force of good". And while MORROWIND has neither a well-characterized and understandably-motivated villain like Jon Irenicus in BALDUR'S GATE II or a larger-than-life fanbait champion like Sephiroth in FF7, its main nemesis feels genuinely vile, using as his weapons diseased beasts, mummified Oriental-style vampires, infectious plagues, and the very weather itself. The atmosphere is reinforced by the dozens of readable books in the game world which you can browse at leisure; many of these are texts giving you a better overview of the history of the Elder Scrolls world and the backstory of the principal MORROWIND characters, while others are merely well-written, entertaining, and often witty fantasy short stories that would not be out of place in a real-life publication.

On balance, MORROWIND is, like its predecessors, far from perfect - but vastly entertaining nonetheless, and well worth the time you'll invest in it.

WHY Are You Playing This Game?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 24 / 26
Date: July 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

... Morrowind is NOT a hack and slash CRPG like Diablo or Dungeon Siege, and it was never intended to be like those games. Morrowind is primarily an adventure game, and as one, it sets a new standard for the genre.

The goal of this game is not to wear out your thumb hacking and slaying, the goal of this game is to allow a gamer to step into a massive world filled with adventure and places to explore, ruins to wander in, items to examine... to learn, to test, and to enjoy the game for many weeks, if not MONTHS.

The game is not designed to be over in 20-40 hours of gameplay.

Morrowind is simply an incredible accomplishment. I play the game an hour or so a day to relax, and expect to be doing so for a long time. It seems as if every region I enter has a hundred new things to try out and explore - its not just hack and slay and run errands, there are real stories here that play themselves out if you invest the time and effort.

Yes, it is easy to get lost - but good. And yes, your character grows strong and doesn't die a lot unless you do something stupid - but you're not supposed to die a lot in this game. Killing lizards is not the goal, unraveling storyline after storyline is. And in this, the game is awesome, and well worth the pricetag. I doubt if any game I own can return as much gaming bang for buck as this game does!

A True Virtual World

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 67 / 105
Date: November 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The Elder Scrolls 3 continues the Elder Scrolls tradition of providing a true fantasy virtual world for you to create an alternate life in. Set in the exotic island of Vvarvendell, the developers have truly defined an entire culture, with such nuances as clothing, housing styles, food, and architecture being unique to each game region. You can do anything you want, from running a mercantile business to being a mass murderer. Be a powerful mage living high in your own tower, or be a shadowy thief jumping across rooftops at night. Create your own spells from scratch, concoct mysterious potions, enchant your own weapons. It's totally up to you. In addition to all this, Morrowind ships with the easiest-to-use game editor to date, allowing you to create your own game content such as quests, characters, items, spells, and sharing them over the net with your friends. You can't go wrong with Morrowind!

Great role-playing game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 20
Date: July 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

"Morrowind" is a wonderful game. Except for the mediocre combat, this game is everything that a role-playing experience should be. There is no multiplayer game (thank goodness), which means that all of the attention goes into single player. When I think of great RPG's, I think of "Fallout", "Baldurs Gate 2", and now "Morrowind".

What makes this game so great is the huge world of Morrowind, and the unbelievable attention to detail. There is a lot more to this game than just being beautiful to look at. You could wander around in Morrowind forever, off of the path of the main quests in the game. There are countless little side quests and miniature areas to kill monsters and pick up loot. I spent probably 10-15 hours simply wandering around the first little town in the game before beginning the main quest. Every room has a bunch of little objects in it that you can interact with. If you want, you can pick up books off the shelves and read them, or you can pick up little knickknacks, like the silverware . Most of the books are non-essential to the game itself, but they are entertaining to read, and they add depth and flavor to the game. The NPC's have more to say than the usual computer game NPC's, although they do repeat themselves quite a bit (that happens in every game).

The role-playing system for this game also presents endless variety. There are a lot of different character classes to choose from, and many different character abilities. You hone your skills by using them, or paying someone to train you, instead of the usual system of assigning skill points. If you want to develop your character a certain way, you have to use those skills as often as possible, even if it means the risk of getting killed. I played a character with a bow and a melee weapon, so I made sure to keep switching back and forth between the two weapons. I also made sure to include magic and backstabbing, so that I could keep my magic and sneaking skills up to par. Paying someone to train you is expensive, but you can make it cheaper by getting on their friendly side in some way.

In the spirit of a true RPG, there are different ways to solve every problem. "Morrowind" offers seemingly unlimited replayability. In one example, I needed an expensive item from a shop to complete a quest. So, I mixed up a telekinesis potion, and then stole the item off of a shelf from a distance so that I wouldn't get caught.

The interface for this game is very good. Pop-up tool tips provide information wherever you need it, and it only takes a few mouse clicks to get most tasks done. The only problems with the interface are the tiny, microscopic inventory icons. The inventory icons in this are game so puny that you can't tell what anything is without moving the mouse pointer over it. A sword looks like a dagger, and a bow looks like a tiny stick. A gauntlet or breastplate just looks like a little blob. This is a neglected part of the game.

So, that leaves us with combat -- the weakest part of this game. One of the problems with combat is that there seem to be only about 10-15 different types of opponents to fight in the game. The combat does have strategy built into it -- you have to fight with your character's strengths. For instance, I had a weak melee character, so I got through tough battles by summoning beasts to fight, and then picking off the enemies from a distance. However, the visual and sound effects stink. The enemy has a health meter, but there is no indication of how many hit points of damage you are doing. Your character simply pokes or hacks away at the enemy with little chops or stabs. A hit doesn't look any different from a miss, except for the little red cloud that poofs up for a moment (I assume that's supposed to be blood?) You don't see the weapon actually make contact with the enemy. The only sounds that come from a hit are a cheesy "smack" sound and maybe a moan from the monster. The hit sound sounds like something you would hear in a cartoon when someone gets hit with a pie in the face.

Another downer with the game is the lack of voice-acted dialog lines. The only voice acted parts of this game are greetings and battle taunts. That's why there are no memorable NPC's in this game at all.

In my opinion, this is a can't-miss, 5-Star game for those of you who just love role-playing games. "Morrowind" is not a "something for everyone" game though, so if you are not a big RPG fan, then you might find it to be kind of dull.

Read System Reqs Before You Buy!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: December 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Overall: A fun, buggy world to explore at your convenience!

TECHNICAL:

-- Computer needs to EXCEED minimum requirements.
-- Buggy. Crashes often, even with patch.
-- Patch available at Bethesda's website.

With a p2 450mhz, I can't play the blasted thing on my pc. Unlike many other programs where a minimum requirement isn't really minimum at all, it appears that Morrowind MUST be played on a computer that doesn't just match these mins, but exceeds them.

How so? I've now attempted to play this game on four different computers (three of which exceed the min reqs)... the game crashes at least once a session (which, for me, is usually about 3-5 hours) no matter which computer I use.

GRAPHICS:

-- Pretty scenery. Incredible weather!
-- Player has choice in Character's wardrobe. (Okay. That as a perk may simply be a "girl" thing)
-- Character graphics aren't up to par. (Good but no where as good as the scenery)

Ooo. Pretty. You'll read a lot of other people with more informed opinions tell you about the graphics so I'll keep this part short. Graphics on here are pretty nifty. Weather looks *incredible*. I swear, the first time I saw twilight in Morrowind, I actually stopped playing for about 5 minutes and just watched. For a moment, I could have sworn I was outdoors in a place far, far away. :-)

SOUND:

-- Music is good but very monotonous
-- Stereo sound gives you a chance to determine where a particular sound (footstep/animal/whatnot) is coming from

GAMEPLAY:

-- Quake-like battles
-- Go anywhere. Do anything. Just be prepared to face consequences of your actions.
-- Like a MUD: you decide which quests, if any, you choose to do. There is a major story arc but it takes quite a while to present itself and even then, doesn't even seem to be SO much the focus of the game.
-- Construction Kit: using Bethesda's hard work as a foundation, you can make your own plugins (add a race! Add an area!) and actually circulate it on the internet. Cool beans.

Battles are more akin to first person shooters than standard RPGs. I've seen a few other reviews where people have trashed this aspect of the game, but I thought it was pretty cool. I guess it all depends on how you feel about Quake.

Basically, you are set loose upon this world. What you do with it is up to you. This can be EXTREMELY frustrating if you prefer to have a set story arc (such as if you love the firm structure of Final Fantasy and can`t imagine being thrown into something and stumbling onto quests by chance).

CHARACTERS:

-- Customize your character from the gender, class, race, and more!
-- True free will. You are free to be noble or a brute or otherwise!
-- Classes are extremely customizable. (Is that even a word?) So much so, in fact, that class seems to become more of a title than an actual career that binds your character.

I suspect they spent a bit more time doing the scenery than working on the characters. Nothing really to gripe about, but I thought I'd mention it.

FEMALE PERSPECTIVE:

-- Yes, you *can* play a female!
-- NPCs respond to a female char.

One huge frustration for many people who like to play female chars is that many games ignore us... or treat our beloved femme as though she was a male. In Morrowind, Bethesda widens the female perspective quite a bit. It isn't as in-depth as one would hope it would be in a RPG, but it beats the pants off of many games out there.

CONCLUSION:

Morrowind is a heck of a lot of fun. Bethesda aims to create a truly RPG-friendly world and they succeed. In fact, one could even argue that they succeed so well that this world starts to become a little less like fantasy and more frustrating like real life. Eeep. *grin* With a little more work, this game could have actually been worthy of 5 stars, but, in the end, the bugs and problems in gameplay set this puppy back so far that it was this-close to getting a three.

a nice surprise

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 21
Date: November 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I wasn't terribly impressed with Morrowind when it first came out. I think I was a victim of all the hype and expected the world from the game. Months have passed and on a whim I bought this expansion pack. Going back to Morrowind has been a gas. They've fixed the issues with the journal and I find myself really enjoying the game.

The expansion pack fixes issues and adds enough content to make this a really compelling game. I'm back in Morrowind and recommend this to anyone.

If you bought the game when it came out but found it under whelming, it's time to go back and give it a second try.

An anti-social gamer's new RPG addiction

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 19 / 21
Date: March 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Morrowind has quickly become my favorite RPG, primarily because I am not required to team up with anyone in order to play. I don't enjoy games that I have to play online, with other people. I like to play at home, by myself and do whatever I want with my characters and my game, without offending anyone or thwarting the plans and goals of other players. And I don't have to deal with those tiny chat windows in many online RPG's today. I hate that.

Morrowind is rich with impressive graphic detail, subplots, and interesting NPCs to interact with. I also like the fact that the player is not required to follow preset timeline or graduated set of "quests" in order to play the game. If you don't want to do the main quest, then don't. The game doesn't care. I did play to fulfill the main quest, but I completed many subquests along the way. Remember, unlike a lot of games, this one doesn't restrict where you can go based on level of experience, so you're perfectly capable of getting into conflicts your character can't possibly survive, which makes the game much more realistic. After all, nobody keeps us from getting into trouble we can't get out of in the real world, do they?

This leads me to my one complaint about the game. By the time I got around to finishing the main quest, my character was so experienced and powerful, that the final fight with the character that every NPC in the game is terrified of, was child's play. So, play! Forever, if you like, but if that main quest is your foremost goal, don't wait too long to finish it, or the anticlimatic result may disappoint you.

Better than Tribunal

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: June 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game should have been the first expansion pack. It makes Tribunal look like a joke. True, the game is a little buggy, but not as much as Morrowind was when it first came out. A good gamer saves often. It has lots of new enemies, weapons and armor. You can even influence the growth of a large mining settlement while you watch it grow from the ground up, and get your own estate there.

Graphics: They haven't changed much, but the addition of snowfall is a nice. It isn't like the ash storms, the snow can be blizzard-like or it can be big slow falling flakes, which makes the scenery look great. Some of the Nordic armor looks very sharp also.

Sound: Well, no great changes here. I haven't noticed any bugs either.

Story: In this expansion pack you can work for the enemy for a while, or stay with the good guys. The story has a point where you are infected with the werewolf disease automatically (instead of trying to become a vampire in Vvardenfell by fighting them and getting lucky), then given a choice to either become a werewolf or become one of the "Skaal".

Being a werewolf is different than being a vampire because people will treat you normally as a human, but at night you turn into a werewolf and people will try to kill you wherever you go. After 6 hours you will become a human again. A nice twist to this "infection" is that if anyone sees you turning into a werewolf, you will be known by everyone as the beast and attacked whether you are in human form or not.

This expansion is a great buy for fans of Morrowind.

This baby needs to fly!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 22
Date: May 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Heres the computer I ran it on: Athlon T-bird 1.4, GF2 GTS 64meg, 256megs system memory.

How much do I like this game? I just ordered a GF4Ti4600! Max out that credit card baby so this one can fly!

Anyway, on the system above at modest settings and 1024x768 screen res it runs smooth as glass inside buildings. Mostly smooth in wilderness areas of the game. Somewhat choppy in cities such as the glorious Balmora. I bought the GF4 to fix all that. My hard drive is probably a bit fragmented (defrag before installing) so I did notice a lot of choppiness during access but it wasn't limited to this. The HIGH sound setting also caused a lot of choppiness (turned it to LOW and it smooth out in wilderness). I thought the object detail was better than any game I've played. There's so much variety I was looking in all directions. (Spoiler?) I found a ship that had run aground and I just about freaked. The water looked better than expected (much better than GOTHIC) on the above system (GF4 wil better better, hee hee hee). It's great looking down on Odai River from Balmora's city wall - give it a try! The characters in the game are nicely detailed and numerous. Love the funny torches they carry at night. A few favorite things are the weather effects (2 words: sand storm), amazing sky textures (nighttime clouds with star pattern underneath), awesome detail indoors. Morrowind of overflowing with RPG goodness. Just trying out the missions and walking around will help you escape your normal dull life (assuming you didn't just win the lottery or something). Let the complainers play Dungeon Seige or Diablo.

Now, here's the things I didn't like so much. The giant beasts you travel on were striking. However, the travel process is instant. I'd love to travel in real time on the back of that thing. I like realism! I ain't in no hurry! Show me all of it! Also, many of the early creatures in the game are a little disappointing. I guess it'll take time to get to the good ones. Rats, leeches and crabs were not too interesting. By far my biggest gripe has to be combat. Ultima underworld, Daggerfall, Gothic (heck, even FTL's Dungeon Master)...these games got it right. Variety in swings is so important. Also, you need to know when a hit is a good hit. Put a splat of blood and even a number to show how good it was. Something visual! Sound effect indicator too. I also thought the sounds overall were a mixed bag. For example, I didn't like the jumping sound. Most is very good on HIGH setting. Also the music is perfect. Nice job Jeremy Soule!! Reminded me of Titanic or Lord of the Rings.

Well, I'm ready to play some more. This game is worth the trouble. Certainly some of the problems will be addressed in a patch. In the meantime this game is still grand! It's worth upgrading for as it is. When that GF4 comes nobody will hear from me for a looooooooong time!!

Morrowind is vast and beautiful, but also quite shallow.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 25 / 33
Date: July 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The game world is large, with hundreds of quests, and probably the most beautiful graphics I've ever seen in a game. The "scenery" is particularly good, though monster/NPC design is not particularly creative or impressive.

Excellent graphics like this can't be ignored, and they certainly do add to the ambiance and the "immersive" quality of playing, but the "gameplay mechanics", the things that actually determine how the game PLAYS, are woefully lacking. Melee combat is boring and repetitive, while using magic in combat is cumbersome and frustrating because of the user interface. For the most part, fighting consists of simply clicking your left mouse button until your opponent is dead, and swilling a potion for healing, when necessary... there's really no strategic element, nor do you really need good reflexes. It's just stale.

But the shallow and unsatisfying gameplay doesn't stop with combat. Indeed, one of the intended "strengthes" of the game is that there are many different objectives and usually a few different ways you can go about achieving that objective... either through combat, or diplomacy, or thievery. The gameplay of thievery is little more exciting or challenging than combat. Locks are relatively easily defeated, especially with the ready availability of scrolls and spells which do an excellent job of popping locks, and trapped chests and drawers are a joke... not only are they unimaginative, they come in only two varieties: fire damage and poison damage, and both are easy to recover from... a trap will only go off once, and traps are never "hidden", you always know it's there, and they won't be set off by attempts at lockpicking or trap disarming, regardless of whether or not you're successful... there's no "spice". But a lot of the time, you don't even NEED to defeat a lock or trap to steal what you're looking for... there's really no fun in burglarly because it's so easy and boring.

The "diplomatic" aspect of the game is similarly lacking. Basically, getting into a person's good graces involves repeatedly "admiring" them, and making judicious use of the game's Save/Load feature. Sometimes you'll have to do a favor for someone or respond to their dialog cues correctly to get the response you want out of them, but it really doesn't require much in the way of intelligence or cleverness... it just requires some patience.

As for the quests... they generally have nothing to do with one another, and are neither emotionally engaging, or intectually stimulating or intriguing, with maybe a few exceptions. The main quest is pretty interesting. However, the vast majority of quests fall into three or four different categories, and once you've done that type of quest, you might as well have done them all due to the lack of meaningful variety.

Same goes for the dozens of tombs and ruins. There are two types of ruins (Daedric and Dwemer) and tombs. Once you've seen one of a given type, you're pretty much seen them all... ruins of a given type all have the same types of monsters/enemies, and there aren't really any puzzles or challenges that are unique to a given dungeon-type area. The only obstacles to your advancement in these areas are: enemies (boring, due to the lame combat system), locked/trapped doors (boring, due to the ease with which they are defeated) and pits/lava/water, which, at best, may challenge your sense of direction and timing. Though with the right spells, potions or magic items (and they're all pretty easy to obtain), these obstacles present no difficulty. That's probably one of the more annoying things about the game... defeating your obstacles is more about preparation and less about skill and wit. Stock up on a few potions and a couple magic trinkets, and you breeze through the game.

And said potions, spells and trinkets are not difficult to obtain... you obtain the vast majority of such things (as well as most armor and weapons you'll be using) from merchants at pretty low prices... not from "adventuring" or "questing". If you know what you're doing, or if you get a little lucky towards the beginning of the game, there is quite literally almost nothing to look forward to in terms of character advancement/improvement (skills, equipment, ect.)

You would think with a game with so much content in the form of quests, dungeons, and raw surface area, the replay value would be immense, but as I've said, most of the game is "more or the same". Though there are several different "classes" you can choice from, there really is a lot of "blurring of the lines" between the classes to the point that you don't really increase your mileage that way either.

Finally, this game is very demanding on your system's hardware and is pretty unstable (as of July 2nd, 2002). I have an Athlon XP 1700+, a GeForce3 Ti200 and a gigabyte of DDR memory and though performance is tolerable for a low-action RPG like Morrowind, frame rates are far from being smooth in most areas, and there is really very little I can do to improve them (I have shadows shut off completely and the view plane set at about half... changing resolution doesn't seem to effect performance). Also, there are annoying pauses which occur every minute or so that last about a second. And the game crashes a lot. I crash to desktop every 15-60 minutes, and my system is adequately cooled, not overclocked and running under a fully patched Windows XP with extraneous services and programs disabled and the latest graphics/sound/motherboard drivers for my system... I've tried to troubleshoot it various ways, but nothing has so far helped. I also had save game information corrupted once.

One nice thing is that they include they include a toolset that you can use to change game content or add your own, and though the tools are quite robust, they are also complicated and require an investment in time to learn that most players don't have. If you want to world build, Neverwinter Nights is probably a better choice since that way you can not only build your own world, you actually have the oppurtunity to play and DM in the world you've created with other people.

So, my recommendation is, don't buy the hype on this one. It's perhaps not a terrible game, but it's severely lacking in some (what I feel are) very important areas.

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