Gaming

Having never played any of the Elder Scrolls® series before, I came to Morrowind with only a bare minimal of expectations and thankfully I found myself pleasantly surprised.

One of the selling points of the Elder Scrolls series (or so I have been informed) is that of freedom in an extremely detailed and highly interactive environment, and Morrowind delivers in this respect with style.
The land of "Vvardenfell" (the island the game is set on) is absolutely enormous, and is riddled with dungeons, towns, and cities. You can spend "literally" days exploring and you'll still be finding hidden valleys and lakes.

Unfortunately contrary to the sheer size of the game world, the scenery is somewhat limited and you kind of get the feeling that you've seen it all before, even when you're exploring an entirely new region.
This is where the expansion packs "Bloodmoon" and "Tribunal" come into play, with new scenery, textures, models, items, creatures, flora, fauna and storylines, but I'll get to those in a minute.

Morrowind:

As I said before, the Island of Vvardenfell is enormous and fortunately so is the world it is set in. The back-stories associated with the game are suitably detailed, if a little long winded. At times you'll find yourself torn between absolute awe and utter frustration as a new character and/or institution is introduced every thirty seconds and you'll occasionally find yourself struggling to keep up. The games logbook doesn't help much either, being that it is not at all user friendly. The developers just seem to expect you to remember when and where you received each of the billions of quests that you've been assigned, either that or they expect you to do everything in that "just so" order so that you can clear up any loose ends before moving on.
Also poorly conceived is the way many of the quests are realised. As stated before, one of the main selling points is the freedom to do things as and when you like, but with this comes a consequence as you are sent on quests with a bare minimal of information and expected to work it all out for yourself. For the experienced RPG player this won't pose much of an issue, but new-comers to the genre will probably find themselves resorting to the quickest resolution, by killing a key character, or going straight for a key object, missing most of the intricate story in the process.

Another key issue is that your freedom of movement is somewhat restricted in what seems to be a poor design choice.
As you trek across the island of Vvardenfell you'll more than likely encounter mountain range after mountain range, valley after hillside, all of which are used to force you in a certain direction, thus giving you the impression of a larger world. If it weren't for the mountain ranges you'd probably be able to walk across Vvardenfell in under fifteen minutes, but due to the huge obstructions it is more like thirty. While this isn't a huge issue, it is still somewhat annoying, primarily because most of the island looks very similar so navigating the hordes of valleys becomes a chore, rather than a pleasure.

Still on the subject of poor design choices, the fogging used to avoid scenery popup and slowdown in frames-per-minute is a little too close for comfort and you'll have great difficulty seeing more than a couple of dozen feet ahead of you in any direction. It's not so bad, seeing as it was probably unavoidable, but it is still somewhat frustrating, especially when you climb up one of the many, many mountains just to admire the scenery and find that you can see bugger all.

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The main quest of Morrowind is tragically somewhat boring, although far from tiresome. You'll play it to its resolution, but it certainly won't leave much of a lasting impression. Much better are the host of side quests, which usually involve advancing your standing within one of the three main guilds (Fighters guild, Mages Guild and Thieves Guild), but there are so many more associations that you can ally yourself with, more than I can list in this review.
Unfortunately, most of the side quests don't really have much of an impact on the game world, and really you're just completing one quest to earn the rights at completing another, but for the most part they are enjoyable and you'll often get a sense of achievement for completing each of the quests.

More problems develop with the trading method utilised. Many of the traders you'll encounter in Vvardenfell have very little money to trade with, and most of the time you'll have to swap an expensive item for cold hard cash AND a load of useless tat just to break even. This means that you'll be traipsing from one store to another, spending hours trying to empty your inventory of all the useless shite that you picked up from that trader who only had 250 gold on him. This soon becomes extremely tiresome and later on in the game you'll more often than not just decide to leave the seriously expensive items where you find them, because you just cant be bothered to deal with all the tarting about at the nearest trading post.

Since we're already complaining about stuff, I think it is high time I brought up the subjects of music and animation.
Well, as regard to the animation... it is somewhat lacking. The character models look a little dated as it is and as you see them waddling along in a sort of "lazy nazi" march it becomes nigh on comical. Still it does the job, and you soon get used to it.

The issues I have with the in game music, however, are nothing to do with the quality, for the choonz have been composed by the king of RPG music Mr. Jeremy Soule, and they reflect his usual professional polish. No, the issue I have is with regard to the "quantity", being that there are probably (I wouldn't know, I haven't actually counted) about eight tracks.
The music is dynamic (being that it changes to reflect the currant situation) and the two states that dictate the situation are "normal" (nothing much happening) and "combat" (take a wild guess). Dynamic music, in my humble opinion, was a huge mistake here as the world of Vvardenfell is tightly populated and combat scenarios pop up every few seconds as you travel across the main map, thus the music jumps from one track to another with alarming regularity and you never get the chance to settle into a mood. Worse still is the fact that the music never changes to reflect the environment, so while you're exploring a deep, dark, moody dungeon, you're listening to exactly the same track as you were when you were talking to that mage back in Balmora (one of the largest towns in the south west of Vvardenfell)... a bit of a mood killer then.
Lastly, as I said before, there are very few tracks, so after the first hour you'll have heard them all three times over... and then a few times more... and so on and so forth and frankly, they began to annoy the hell out of me after about hour ten, so I turned them off... which is bad...

Moving swiftly on, there are dozens of skills to upgrade during the course of the game. Instead of the usual points system (you get points to add to certain skills) the skills develop as you use them. For example, if your character is using iron bracers and a cloth cuirass (chest plate), then your heavy armour skill will upgrade every time you get hit on the forearm, while your light/un-armoured skill will upgrade each time you're hit in the chest.
There is a points system, however, with regard to your characters physical attributes (strength, intelligence, willpower, etc) and these are tied in directly with your basic skills. The whole system is far to complex to get into here, but simple once you get to grips with it.
Another pants point is the fact that skills and attributes "cap" at 100 points. What this means for you is that your character can only develop so far before levelling up becomes essentially pointless (actually impossible). Worst of all is the fact that you'll level up seriously quickly, and many of Vvardenfells creatures will not be able to keep up. Thus you'll be hacking your way through the game and you'll barely find yourself being challenged at all, even if you pump up the difficulty setting.

Although level capping is disappointing it is not the "be all and end all". You won't be stopping the game, as there is still a lot to do.

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Bloodmoon:

Which is where the Bloodmoon expansion pack comes into play. Easily the shining jewel in the Morrowind crown, Bloodmoon adds hour upon hour of gameplay.
Set on the Island of Solstheim, a few miles north of the Island of Vvardenfell, Bloodmoon follows two main quests, both of which are a blast to play through.
One involves the development of a new mining community called Raven Rock, which you play a direct part in. As you progress on this quest the mining community will develop and grow according to your decisions and you get the very real feeling that you are actually making a difference to the world.

On the primary, and more exciting, quest, your role is to discover what has happened to the imperial commander of Fort Frostmouth, set in the south of the island. This mission takes you on one hell of a journey, which will leave you questioning who to trust (including yourself).

The island of (Solstheim) has easily the most stunning scenery in the game, which contrasts quite starkly with the semi-tropical climate of the original island of Vvardenfell.
The island of Solstheim is a suitably arctic setting, with frozen wastes, temperate zones dotted with smatterings of snow and vast ice flows to the far north. As you travel you’ll often encounter the new weather effects like snowfall and violent blizzards, the former setting the scene perfectly and the latter being delightfully depressing.
Also included are new creatures including Wolves, Spriggans (odd looking tree-hags) and Polar Bears, all of which fit in with the icy setting perfectly, but by far the most exciting addition to the Morrowind bestiary is that of the Werewolf.

Not only are the werewolves of Solstheim the hardest thing since the invention of the brick, adding immeasurably to the challenge, but they're cool looking too, and even cooler is the fact that you can actually become infected with the Lycanthrope condition [become a Werewolf], which opens up an entirely new facet to the gameplay.

With new weapons, armour, side quests and characters (not to mention creatures, scenery, flora and fauna), the Bloodmoon expansion will keep even the most hardcore RPGer busy and intrigued for days, if not weeks.

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Tribunal:

While not as exciting (or as large) as the Bloodmoon expansion, Tribunal goes some of the way to adding to the world of Morrowind, including several side quests, dozens of new creatures and even more flora and fauna.
The main quest is enjoyable, although far from challenging, but you will still feel as though you have achieved something once all is said and done.
The new armours and weapons are ok, but you'll probably not find much of a use for them, being that you will have already capped your character days ago, during the main Morrowind quest and you'll more than likely have found your favourite weapons and armour.

The only real issue with Tribunal is that the main improvements cannot be carried through to the Island of Vvardenfell and the main quests. The addition of mercenaries (which you can hire) and pack animals (that can carry all your pointless crap that you have no intention of using) are a great idea and go some of the way to fixing a couple of the cons associated with the original game, but the fact that you cannot bring them with you when you continue on with the rest of the game is a real problem and makes the new additions somewhat pointless to be honest.

Finally:
Over all, Elder Scrolls III (GOTY) is a huge game and well worth the horrendous effort it takes to get into. Any of the issues (some large, some not so large) that develop during the course of the game are easily lost in the toughly absorbing and rewarding environment.
If you're looking for cheap and easy thrills then the ever evolving, work for reward ethic of Morrowind is probably not for you. But if you’re looking for a nice long adventure, with thrills and spills along the way, then you probably won't find much better.

96/100

Damn good, with only a few niggling issues. If you want the best the XBOX has to offer then go pick up a copy of Morrowind GOTY today.
Nuff said...

Notes: If this review was of interest, look for the upcoming [sequel] Elder Scrolls: Oblivion preview, coming soon to MonstA Productions.