The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Xbox Review (Second Opinion) @ Gaming Target

Written by Ryan Smotherman on July 11, 2002

Second View: Epic, huh? Hah, epic doesn't even begin to describe thisЕ

I hope I don't bore too many with tales of my youth, but here goesЕ Back in the late 80's I got my first real dose of what is now known today as the traditional console RPG. What was that game called? Dragon Warrior was the title, and hooked I was. Since I was still relatively young (maybe 7 or 8) my imagination had yet to be totally gobbled up by this thing we all refer to as television, and Dragon Warrior really had it running wild. My friend, who owned the game, and I would get up in the morning and play it for hours, then we'd go outside in a nearby woodsy location and pretend we were going on adventures; you know, killing slimes and whatnot (sad, isn't it?). Ever since then, though, I've yet to play a game that brings back those same feelings of venturing forth on dangerous quests, battling monsters, and doing what ever I wished. That is of course till I got my hands on Bethesda's long awaited PC/Xbox title, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Unfortunately, while Morrowind excels in many categories, it also falters in some important ones that keep the game from becoming a true classic. But don't get me wrong, Bethesda delivered on all their promises and cranked out an astounding RPG that all Xbox fans have been waiting for.

First and foremost, regardless of what I said above, Morrowind is definitely not for everyone. Unlike the Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy titles, Morrowind isn't your traditional console RPG where you have a set path and story, as well as turn based battles galore. Morrowind is without a doubt one of the most hard-core, PC titles around, which is why it's very odd to see it running on a console. Instead, compared to what you'd find on a УnormalФ console RPG, Morrowind throws you into a massive, unknown world (and when I say massive, I mean massive!) full of hundreds of locations, real-time battles, and hours upon hours of gameplay.

Once you boot up the game and create a game file you will find yourself aboard a slave ship headed for the small town of Seyda Neen. Upon arrival you are released (by order of the emperor) and able to name your character, choose a race (from the 10 available, each which offer their own specific attributes), choose your gender and look (you can only mess with the face and hair), and finally you pick your class and abilities. There are tons pre set classes to choose from, each of which falls into 3 main categories Ц stealth, combat, and magic. So if for example you like combat, you'll be able to choose between things like a barbarian, crusader, knight, etcЕ The same applies for the stealth and magic lovers, a variety of classes are available, each which offers their own special abilities and skills. From then you'll pick from a number of birth signs that also grant you a special ability. Additionally, the developers included a set of 10 questions that you can answer instead, and from what answers you give to them determines what kind of character you get. After you get your character created, which as you can see can be quite a task in itself, you are then released into the incredible world of Morrowind.

Okay, I'm going to sum up Morrowind very quick like. Basically, Morrowind is an extremely Уopen-endedФ RPG that lets you do whatever you want when you want. That much should be known already. Now, since we already have one highly detailed Morrowind review up on the site, I figured I'd go a different route when talking about the game. So I decided that I'd list and describe the top 3 good things, and bad things, that make up The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Enjoy.

Top 3 Positive Things
1). So Much To See and Do
It is said that Morrowind covers the equivalent of 10 square miles. Doesn't really sound like a lot. But when you factor in all the locations that fit into those 10 square miles you will then begin to respect the game's size and scope. Quests in the game fall into 2 categories Ц main quests and side quests. Of course, in order to actually be able to beat the game, a main quest is needed, there, and appreciated, but if you really want to dig deep into Morrowind, you'll probably be spending the majority of your time on the side quests Ц the miscellaneous quest you can get from certain people, or you can receive quests from what seems like billions of guilds and factions you can join. The quests are really what make Morrowind what it is. They come in a huge variety and are quite rewarding (too bad it's hard to keep up with them because of the lackluster record keeping). But, of course, this is Morrowind and you're free to do as you wish. If questing isn't your thing you can just roam around the incredible world as a loner/thief, or you can become a regular Jack the Ripper and roam about murdering random people and taking their goods. The choice is yours.

I really can't stress enough the fact that Morrowind is huge. There are literally thousands of locations strewn about the many cities/towns and wilderness areas (where you can always find a nice cave to explore, and usually die in). I don't think I'd be going out of line by saying that Morrowind is possibly the biggest game ever created, one that could easily take hundreds of hours away from you life; especially if you want to see and do it all. Hell, if you wanted you could just go around reading the various history books scattered throughout, and that alone could occupy hours of your time. And in the end, the hugeness is really Morrowind's greatest aspect.

2). Character Development
Probably my favorite part of Morrowind is the way in which your character levels up, as well as all the goodies you can find to equip your character with. Usually in RPGs you are given a certain overall number of experience points that, when at a certain, set number, will promote you to the next level and randomly add points to certain aspects of a character. However, in Morrowind, you actually level up your abilities by using them. For example, if you run and jump a lot your speed and athletics will increase. If you use long blades and wear heavy armor a lot (like me), your ability with those will also increase. But at the same time, if abilities go unused you will never get better at that specific skill. Once you've increased a certain number of abilities, your character will then go up a level, allowing you to permanently increase your overall stats, like your strength, magic, or endurance. The whole concept itself is really simple, works well, and is the most logical I've ever seen. Let's just hope other game developers start to catch on.

Morrowind also offers the player countless items, weapons, apparel, and magic to equip and use; everything from your basic cup or bowl to a super sword or magic spell. Trying to find the best of the best is really an enjoyable, never ending experience. I also enjoy how in depth the armor system is. You can pretty much equip every part of your body with the use of helmets, body armor, gauntlets, boots, shields, etcЕ Adding to the detailed nature of the game is the fact that each item in the game has a number of factoids to go with them. The weapons tell how much damage they can do with each different strike, each piece of armor has an armor rating and weight, and the spells tell what they do and for how long. Additionally, each weapon and piece of armor is breakable and must be repaired on occasion, and just so you know how much everything is worth, everything in the game carries a set value.

3). Purdy Visuals and Beautiful Sounds
While the Xbox version of Morrowind is littered with graphical anomalies, including some ugly drops in the frame rate, very noticeable draw-in, and some undesirable character models, the game still manages to be quite beautiful (and way better looking than anything my PC could pull off). The environments and environmental effects really save this game on the visual front. While most of the environments in the game sport a bland, earthy color and tone, they are very well detailed and look good overall. All the towns in the game are unique in their own right, such as an early town in the game, Balmora, which is separated into east and west sections by a small river. Furthermore, everything in the game is handcrafted and placed, and this is what really gives Morrowind it's own unique look and feel. Environmental effects like the occasional rain and dust storms do present themselves throughout your adventure, and if you're lucky you'll even run across an incredibly impressive thunderstorm. The lightening and corresponding boom made me jump on a number of occasions (yes, it's really that cool).

One of the most impressive visual effects comes in the form of daily cycles that the game is constantly going through. Every time of day, from morning to night, is realistically recreated and it does a find job in convincing you that you're actually going through actual days. Early in the morning you'll notice there's still a dimness in the air and you can almost feel the morning dew, when afternoon approaches the sun is usually high up in the air blazing down at you (best sun effects this side of Halo), the sunset conveys that orangey, beautiful haze we've come to expect, and at night you can look up into the sky and see actual constellations and moons. Like I said earlier, this game does have a lot of graphics problems, but they are more than made up for, and if a game has you stopping just to stare at beautiful scenery, you know they did something right.

As for the audio, it'd best be described as a combination of an enthralling, if someone short, orchestrated musical score, with some decent sound effects and average voice acting. The voice acting is kept to a bare minimum, so it's really not that big a deal, but the music and sounds could have been more varied. However, you should really enjoy what is hear (okay, that's just sad).

And now, time for the 3 things that keep Morrowind from classic statusЕ

Top 3 Negative Things
1). You Call This Combat?
If I were a member of the Morrowind development team I'd be kicking myself at this moment (after I got done counting my big stack-o-money first). The combat more than anything really hurts Morrowind overall. First I want to talk about what I consider to be another small flaw in Morrowind that effects combat Ц the fatigue meter. The fatigue meter is situated below you life and magic meters and it runs down whenever youЕ well, do just about anything. Unless you move at the normal, and quite unbearable, walking pace your meter will be sucked dry within minutes. So you always have to worry about the meter when walking around undiscovered locations since enemies can pop out of nowhere and fatigue is a must in battle. If your meter is low and you're trying to battle you'll find that a very small percentage of your attacks will hit, and you must always carry potions with you that restore your fatigue in these situations. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but always have to open up the inventory menu to drink a few potions does become bothersome while in the midst of a heated bout.

The combat itself is just really done poorly. You have 3 basic attacks Ц slash, thrust, and swing -- and each weapon has a certain power level for each type of swing. When you run into an enemy all you do is start slashing away and hope you land some hits. Very little strategy or skill is involved here (blocking is automatic and drains your fatigue when successful). And to top it all off, you don't even have any idea how many hit points enemies have in the game, nor can you see how much damage you are actually doing. Needless to say, this can be a tad frustrating. I mean come on; this is 2002, shouldn't this be a pretty basic thing in RPGs these days? There is a little hope that the combat can be made better. This Xbox version was designed to allow plug-ins on down the line, so the recent PC patch that includes the sorely missed enemy HP meter, and also displays how much damage you're doing, might find it's way to the Xbox eventually.

2). Artificial Intelligence
It's really sad, that with all the meticulous work that went into bringing this amazing world alive, it's all somewhat brought down by the A.I. Now, since the combat system in the game is so primitive, I'm not talking about the enemy A.I., I'm talking about the hundreds of non-playable characters you'll encounter throughout your adventure. First off, you'll notice that the NP characters don't really go through any actual daily activities. They just walk around or stand in one spot all the time. They don't sleep, eat, use the bathroom (which there are none) -- nothing. Also, when it rains they just stand there in it; they could have at least had them go inside and find shelter. While including a lot of these features could complicate things, Shenmue has shown us that this has, and can, be done successfully. On a positive note, the game does sport an interesting feature known as disposition. Every character in the game has a certain disposition towards you, and it determines how much they like or dislike you. This can be raised, or lowered, by using a number of persuasion techniques (admire, taunt, intimidate, or bribe), and just by being friendly or buying things from them. This feature is also exploited in some parts of the game. For example, one fighter's guild quest in general gives you the task of securing a codebook from a certain person. She won't talk to you about it unless your disposition is high with her, and if it's high enough she'll just hand it to you with no questions asked.

Some would say that my complaints about the A.I. qualifies as nit-picking, but I find it really hurts a game that has a pretty substantial focus on immersing the player in the whole world and experience.

3). Too Much To Do?
While I may be contradicting myself with this final negative, it is a valid point. Some players may just plain find Morrowind too big and too overwhelming for their tastes. I know for me personally it took a good while to get into, and many times I found myself beset by the game's vastness, as well as the freedoms I had. Gamers accustomed to playing your traditional console RPG are used to usually always being told where to go and what to do, where as in Morrowind you will be creating your own adventure to your liking, and unfortunately, many gamers just might not be ready for such a huge task. Intimidating is a good word I use to describe the game.