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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!

A great role-playing game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 35 / 37
Date: June 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game for those that are wondering: I've seen all these great fantasy games, like Everquest, Ultimata Online,and other things, but what should I get? I try one and it is disappointing! I was one of those people until I saw Morrowind. I categorized The Elder Scrolls 3 into 4 things.

1) Graphics. I really haven't seen better graphics on a computer game in all my life. If you have a good graphics card, the weather, thunderstorms, swamps, and water will simply blow you away. The sky looks like real life! Clouds move, also. Your character squints when looking at the sun. There is shading and polygon figures. I repeat, I've never seen such graphics in my life.

2) Realism. This is one of the most enjoyful parts of the game. There is a good storyline, no extremely powerful artifacts, spells, armor, or weapons. There is an insane amount of items you can find. People walk away from you when you're naked. People treat like kings when you wear majestic clothes. Weapons wear out after long use. Gaurds carry torches at night, some bad NPC's sneak around, and people are more suspicious. Clean out realistic.

3) Combat. There are tons and tons of creatures that roam the world of Vvardenfell. You can attack in three different swings, chop, slash, or thrust. Daggers are good at thrust, swords at slash, and axes at chop. There are dozens of weapon styles, and you can learn them all. Magic is also an interesting concept. There are hundreds of spells. In addition, you can create your own spells by mixing them. You can enchant items to make them, strong, you can use critical hits when sneaking, and another array of devasting ways to destroy monsters. This is an exciting combat game.

4) Freedom. There are no guidlines to this game. There is a storyline, but you do not have to follow it. You can be a roaming hero, a sneaky thief, a great spellcaster, or all three! Following the storyline is very fun, but you don't have to. I find this game most fun when I just roam the hillside, looking around for adventure. There are thousands of off-road adventures, caves, dungeons, and seperate storlyines that you don't have to get involved in, but would enjoy trying.

I strongly advise that you get this game if you are looking for a real quality role-playing game. Do not have doubts in Elder Scrolls. It will simply blow you away.

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!!

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.

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.

Morrowind is quite simply breathtaking...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 24 / 25
Date: June 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

It surprises me that I'm seeing all these bad reviews. I don't understand how you cannot be impressed by this game. Anyhow, just a reminder... Morrowind has some fairly steep system requirments. If you have a low-end PC, then theres no way your gonna get any enjoyment out of this game.

Graphics 10/10: I've played it on two systems... one with a Geforce 2 Ultra, another with a Geforce 3. And I've seen plenty of shots of this game on a Geforce 4. Believe me when I say that this game is beautiful. Everything is so detailed... the side of a brick house, the ground, everything. But my god, just look at the water. No game has ever showed such realisitc water effects like Morrowind has. The character models are also very nice.

Gameplay 7/10: A lot of people have been complaining about Morrowind's combat system... and I definently can see why, however, it's still enjoyable enough for me. You can fight with a variety of weopons, ranging from swords to daggers to bow an arrows, etc. It can be a bit dull, however, as far as I'm concerned... it's good enough for me.
Then, theres the other aspects of the gameplay such as traveling, joining guilds, talking to people, doing quests, buying items, and trying to become better at different things . Morrowind is a game where you choose what you want to become by doing what you want to do. For example, if you wanna steal items from a store without being noticed, then you need to become better at sneaking around and being quiet. If you wanna be better in combat, then you must get stronger, more agile and faster. You get the point. It's a great system that offers freedom to the player. Then theres the guilds. This, I admit, is a bit flawed. The idea is cool, but basically it just consists of doing quests for your guild and gaining money in the process. But hey, it's a easy way to gain quests.
What really amazes me about Morrowind is how I can travel and just be amazed by the beautful landscapes and long, neverending land. I know you heard this before but you should here it one more time... Morrowind is HUGE. VERY huge. If you ever wanted to live in another world, then this is probably the closest your gonna get for a while. It's THAT amazing.

Sound 9/10: Fine and dandy. The voice-acting is pretty good and definently isn't anything to complain about. The sound effects from weopons, running, everything... it's all there and it's good.

Music 9/10: I simply love the music in this game. It's very well done, however, the only problem is that there isn't enough songs. Considering that this game has hundreds of hours worth of gameplay, I would of hoped for a little more songs. But still, the quality is great, so can't really complain there.

Control 8/10: The controls are completely configurable. As far moving around and fighting. It CAN be a *little* sluggish. If only the battle system was improved upon.

Story 3/10: You see, there really is no story... and that's where Morrowind fails. Because while the world is insanely huge, theres just no story to keep some people interested. Basically your a guy that gets dropped off at a town and you control his life from there. That's why a lot of people find Morrowind to be "bad". However, for me, I could really care less. The sheer freedom I have in this game is amazing, and it is still keeping me totally hooked.

Replayability 10/10: You want replability? How about hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay. Yeah, if you can like Morrowind like a lot of people do (including me), you'll get totally hooked and keep coming back for more every chance you get.

Overall 10/10: I love this game, period. No matter what you say about it, theres no denying how impressive it is. Morrowind is definently not for everyone... and I really mean that. But theres just so much to like here. So if you think you'll be able to enjoy Morrowind, then PLEASE, buy it! Don't wait, buy it now.

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!

Finally, a good CRPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: May 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Many CRPGs seem to substitute combat on rails for an actual experience. That's fine for plot-thin games such as Dungeon Seige or Diablo: there's nothing wrong with hack-n-slash-fests. However, Morrowind doesn't railroad you onto a particular course, and the freedom is refreshing.

This game does require some work on your part to get it up to speed. Upgrading my motherboard and video drivers easily doubled the framerates of the game, and greatly increased its stability. Morrowind apparently taxes your computer drivers in weird ways.

The game itself is refreshingly open, with many quests, many of which you seem to stumble into. The world is very detailed, and seems very real.

With the plug-in world architecture and the construction kit, people are already producing plugin modifications to the game. Wish you could move unrealistically fast (ala FPS games): there's a plugin for it. Want combat to be more difficult? Yep, there's several plugins out there. Want to create a new land filled with dungeons, intricate of quests, new NPCs, races, and monsters? Well, some plugins already out there do some of this, but you're welcome to create your own.

Overall, I've been very impressed by this game. I can approach the world of Morrowind at the speed I want to, and I am not attacked by hordes of monsters everywhere. I appreciate the use-to-improve skill and level system. Morrowind isn't for everybody. But for people who enjoy experimenting and playing in a realistic world without being an omniscient or mostly-powerful diety will enjoy this game.

Expect limits. They exist.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: June 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I'll be the first to admit it; Morrowind has a few problems, albeit minor ones, that can hamper gameplay. Primarily, it chugs on virtually any computer that you can find, primarily due to a problem in the game's animation; hopefully, they will patch this, and it should dramatically increase the speed of gameplay.
However, the biggest problem is that people simply expected way too much from the game. If they wanted to make a fully-interactive game featuring interacting guild politics, a completely changable world, etc.; then it would take five times as long to make and be spread out on 4 CDs. As it is, they've made a sickeningly addictive game that only took 1 CD. The world is enormous, yes; but travel is not impossible, and the landscapes are dull only because the land is supposed to be dull. One reviewer mentioned the lack of beautiful landscapes and bustling marketplaces and such...personally, I've never seen a game that could do all of that convincingly, and if they decided to do a game of that caliber on this level of detail, we'd be septuagenerians by the time they're finished, and it'd be decades behind in game technology. As it is, they had to compromise somewhere, and they opted for a large but not infinite world, a 'lite' political system, a moderately customizable and enjoyable combat system, jaw-dropping graphics, an enormous level of character customization, and basically, in all honesty, the best they could make in any reasonable amount of time. If you want a game that encompasses everything that an RPG should ever have, that has far-reaching effects that are felt by all relevant NPCs and actually change the real world, then all you've got are pencil-and-paper RPGs. No computer game right now could conceivably offer those options, because a system like that is far too open-ended to efficiently produce. However, given that there are limits as to how a game can portray a world, this is just about as good as it gets (although, to be honest, its predecessor had a little more interaction, albeit lacking in originality and graphics and substance). While it may not be perfection, it is quite simply the closest *any* all-encompassing CRPG has ever come to it. 'Nuff said.

Amazing-with the right computer

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: January 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is incredible. It's not "bug-ridden" as some claim, just an absolute resource hog. Make sure to have a fast P4 processor and PLENTY (over 512meg, I recommend a gig) of RAM with a good video card. I originally had a P4 1.4 with 256 meg and this game was so slow and crashing to desktop constantly. I hated it. Now I have a P4 2.4 with 1 gig RAM and an nvidia GeForce 4...THIS GAME ROCKS. But only if your machine is up to the challenge.

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