The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
July 18, 2002
The key to a world beyond our imagination is held within the first true RPG to come to the Xbox. Elderscrolls III: Morrowind brings everything with it from the highly acclaimed PC series that has been in development long before Microsoft entered into the console universe. To play Morrowind is to surrender all consciousness of this world and enter a place to which even you as a character initially do not belong. This ambitious title had many lofty promises to keep: you’d be able to play it however you wanted to, go anywhere, do anything. You’d choose your own adventure and see everything through the eyes of the character you created. These promises are answered with authority, allowing gamers to follow the main story line or branch off onto any of the numerous side quests. Now every RPG of this style touts being open-ended, but fall very short. With beautiful scenery, thousands of quests, smooth gameplay, and quick loading, Morrowind successfully envelops you with its creative world. Boasting over 200 hours of play, it easily attracts the hardcore RPG player, but in return will tend to alienate many beginners to the genre.
Bethesda’s epic adventure makes an almost flawless transfer to the Xbox which admirably handles the PC’s beefy requirements with only the Construction Set absent and leaving only a few minor items to be desired. Using Halo-like controls, handling your character is easily adapted to. Still, at times, in more densely populated areas, the game tends to lag if only for a moment, and NPCs scattered throughout the game are somewhat quirky in their movements, which are miniscule anyway, tending to encompass a lot of standing and doing nothing. While this detracts from total immersion into this fictional land, it is easily dismissed. Playing like a genuine RPG, experienced players will have little difficulty moving from the PC chair to the couch in front of their televisions to engage in this unbelievable journey.
Landing on the island of Morrowind, you are quickly faced with the most important question: who are you? These next few decisions will determine either hours of exciting adventuring or a quick trip to the return isle of your local game store. Truly, the key for experts and novices alike to enjoying RPGs of this nature is to pick a character that you honestly want to be. Bethesda presents you with three options to making this crucial move: picking out of a pre-designed list of over 20 different classes such as archer, thief, and barbarian; answering moral questions and having your class chosen for you; or the most challenging, create your own. I must recommend that if you are new to RPGs, ignore the third option. More often than not, you will either frustrate yourself trying to pick the best combination of major and secondary skills, or not feel yourself identifying with your character, making it very difficult to become involved in the setting and culture of Morrowind.
Now you’ve chosen who you are, right down to your hairstyle, and you’re left with the message: “You’re now on your own. Good luck.” Let the adventure begin. The scenery of this world is absolutely gorgeous to say the least, and may cause you to just wander around at times to view it all. Weather effects ranging from an early morning mist to torrential downpour to the orange haze of the sky before dark, allows Morrowind to achieve a realism rarely, if ever seen.
Unfortunately the music is not as memorable as the scenery. You would think that the size of Morrowind would require more than a 5-minute orchestral soundtrack. Instead, the theme of percussion and strings repeatedly resounds in your ears. Luckily the characters’ voices are more varied and well done, differing for each race and individual. Their greeting (or rudeness) differs according to what their current attitude is towards your character. Most of the other sounds heard are generic with few dramatic surprises.
Questing is the major aspect of this game, and to keep track of all your assignments, you are given a handy journal. Unfortunately, this little treasure can feel like an awfully long burdensome list of to do’s. With no quick tab or list of current quests, referring to your book constantly gets tiresome. Warning to casual gamers: don’t quit too long or you’ll find yourself a bit lost when you return to find that you can’t remember what you were doing.
Another aspect of Morrowind that is both great, yet not so great is the experience system. What’s great is that Morrowind finally doesn’t cripple characters who aren’t fighters. If you want to become a better thief, then by all means go pickpocket someone or sneak into his or her house and steal stuff. To increase as a mage, join a guild and seek to buy training from a fellow guildsperson. By practicing your major and secondary skills, you gain experience instead of having to fight your way to improvement. But even when you increase your skills, it is hard to find any noticeable change in your character’s abilities. Constantly finding weapons, armor, and artifacts is one of the core appeals of all role-playing games and the real method of creating the ultimate class in Morrowind. Because of the length and size of Morrowind, ignoring the fact that all classes can see trapped doors and chests and continuously bribing the same character rewards different results is easily done. To focus on these minute details is to miss the big picture of the entire game as a whole.
Combat tends to be a bit awkward and poorly constructed. While Bethesda gives you three melee options, fighting boils down to just hack-and-slash recklessness with only a dull “thwack” to indicate how much damage you have inflicted. You won’t have any idea if your sword gives 5 or 12 damage, or just how close you are to sending your adversary to the grave. Visual signs of damage would have added more enjoyment to this lacking aspect and wouldn’t have detracted from the realism of the game.
Morrowind does have its drawbacks, but it is necessary to emphasize the fact that playing the game is certainly rewarding, especially with the number of quests available.
With a number of dungeons to be explored and various factions offering immediate membership, you are constantly given new objectives to spur you on whether it be a simple find and retrieve mission or a complex one requiring a number of steps to achieve your goal. Since there is no time limit on these quests, you have the affordability to just sit on an assignment that requires distant travel until you find yourself in that area. Traveling and exploring Morrowind is easy enough depending on how dangerous you want to be with your life. Walking between establishments has its own rewards, but for quick and safe traveling, there are stilts (huge flees) that take you from place to place for a small fee.
Offering plenty of bang for the buck, replaying Bethesda’s epic title is almost a non-issue. If you’ve beaten the game, then you’ve probably missed something, so starting again is almost like playing an entirely different game. With its beautiful scenery and complete open-endedness, Bethesda’s title leaves you with a couple hundred hours of losing yourself in this incredibly detailed world called Morrowind. There are a few minor gameplay issues that are easily overlooked because of the high achievement that this game represents. Being the first of its kind, Morrowind’s originality carries the weight of a couple little bumps and bruises such as fighting and quest tracking.
Overall, if you’re new to the RPG genre, be hesitant when buying this title because it is a bit much to chew on, but if this is your piece of pie then don’t wait for someone else to take it. Don’t let anyone else tell you their adventure, take Morrowind and make your own.
CVG Report CardThe Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
Rating: B+
Platform: Xbox
E-Mail This Article 
Print This Article