Good old Morrowind. Probably the deepest, most involved non Massively Multiplayer RPG in recent history. For those of you unfamiliar with Morrowind, it put you in the shoes of a political prisoner, released on the island of Morrowind with orders to report to a spymaster. I won't spoil the plot for you, but I'll just say that your character is far more than a mere political prisoner. Tribunal is an expansion for Morrowind, and does requre that Morrowind be installed to run. Tribunal is a seperate story arc from the main plot of Morrowind, but Tribunal's story will have a major impact on future installments of the Elder Scrolls series. Anyway, without further ado, here's The Patented Action Snark Rundown of The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal.


Do we have spoilers?
WE HAVE SPOILERS THE LIKES OF WHICH GOD HAS NEVER SEEN, USUL.

Plot: If you didn't catch the above warning, I'm basically giving away the entire plot of Tribunal right here, so be forewarned.

Tribunal sort of randomly inserts itself into the Morrowind storyline. With tribunal installed, at some point in time, your character will be attacked by assassins. Your character notes this, and says the attack should be reported to the nearest guard. Speaking to any guard will lead you to Ebonheart, and from there to the city of Mournhold, on the mainland.

A bit of quick sleuthing will lead you to discover that the ninjalike assassins are members of the Dark Brotherhood, a shadowy tong with headquarters somewhere underground in the sewers and caverns beneath Mournhold. After tracking down and wiping out the Dark Brotherhood, you really get into the meat of the plot. All of the storylines on the main quest in Mournhold revolve around the temple of Almalexia, the resident Goddess in Mournhold.

As the layers are peeled off slowly, it becomes apparent that things are not well in Mournhold. King Helseth Hlaalu is raising an army in secret to attempt to overthrow the Temple of Almalexia, and take Mournhold for himself. However, the king's goblin legions are the least of Mournhold's troubles.

About halfway through the quest, the city comes under attack from a group of really ugly biomechanical constructs called Fabricants. According to Almalexia, these fabricats are the creation of Sotha Sil, a god who lives deep underground in a clockwork city, and is forever tinkering away on his creations. It appears that Sotha Sil is a bit cracked, and has decided to destroy Mournhold out of ennui.

However, (Here's the really big spoiler....) after fighting your way through the clockwork city, and standing ready to engage in battle with Sotha Sil, you find him only a lifeless corpse. Apparently, he was murdered by Almalexia herself. Almalexia has gotten a bit cracked over the years, and the entire fabricant attack on the city was just part of a twisted scheme of hers to cement her hold on Mournhold. With the power of Sotha Sil's creations, and the Nerevarine (you) pledging their undying devotion to Almalexia with their dying breath(see where this is headed?), Almalexia could cement her hold upon the people, and bring king Helseth to heel.


The plot follows in the footsteps of Morrowind's plot, being well done, and having some actual depth. There's a lot of political intrigue in Mournhold, and the plot is much more dense than Morrowind's is. In Tribunal, pretty much every schmo you run into on the streets will have quests for you to complete. Overall, I'll give plot a 8 out of 10. It's well done, and actually makes you want to play further, just to see what the next twist is. However, you spend a lot of time playing Junior G-Man, running around talking to people, trying to get information. That gets kind of boring.



Graphics and Sound Both are top notch. Not a lot of huge changes here, as Tribunal doesn't stray too far from the nest. Morrowind's graphics and sound were excellent, and Tribunal follows in it's footsteps. I have some likes and dislikes about the Arcitecture in Mournhold. The aboveground city is very nicely done, and is a pleasent change from the alien looking arcitecture of a lot of Morrowind's villages and towns. The sewers below the city however, get a little old. They're basically the exact same tileset, with few changes. This makes them seem absolutely endless. Overall, I'll give graphics and sound a solid 8 out of 10. They are a worthy addition to Morrowind's world, with a few flaws.

New Features: Gameplay is identical to Morrowind, so I won't waste breath talking about it here. The biggest thing one will notice about Tribunal is it's difficulty. I have a stable of some pretty downright awesome characters, and the best among them (A level 40 imperial fighter) was still hard pressed to finish Tribunal, despite having maxed out almost every stat, and using about the best gear in the game.

If you're looking for a challenge, Tribunal is it. No more of this 'the game is worthless after you hit lvl 15'. Tribunal will take a level 15 character and turn him into hamburger. Now, the whole of Tribunal isn't that difficult, but to finish the main quest, you'll need to have a very mighty character.

Also new in tribunal is some nice journal and map features, which also carry over into Morrowind. You have the ability to leave notes on your world map, so if you find a daedric shrine that provides espescially good hunting, or a dungeon you're not powerful enough to clear out, you can make note of it, to return to it later.

The journal has also been updated. It now has an added option of listing all active quests you have, which is a very handy thing. One of my biggest pet peeves about Morrowind was the fact that if I left a quest active, and then came back to it at a later date, I had to page back through 5 quintillion pages of junk in my journal to find out what the quest was about.

Also, there are plenty of new goodies to be had in Mournhold. Each armor class gets a new set of never before seen armor. There are also about 5 new monster classes, and loads of new weapons. (You have the opportunity to pick up some really awesome gear as Tribunal progresses. A lot of heavily enchanted armor and swords will be dropped into your lap by the time you've gotten most of the way through Tribunal.) The new armors are a welcome addition, though they still leave the Medium Armor class the weakest of the three. (Let's face it, no medium armor out there is as useful as glass or ebony/daedric armors.) Overall, the new features of Tribunal get a very good 9 out of 10. New and useful features and equipment are always welcome, and the good stuff Tribunal brings to the table more than outweighs the bad.



Overall: This is actually a very good add-on to the main Morrowind plot. It's a seperate story arc, but it leaves me wanting The Elder Scrolls IV to come out, so I can see what happens in the aftermath of the events of Morrowind and Tribunal. The new features are very handy, and more powerful weapons and gear are always welcome. Also, the difficulty level Tribunal can scale up enough to make the game a challege again for those of you with power characters out there. The only thing that keeps me from giving Tribunal a 5 star rating is it's price. $30 is pretty steep for the content and features of Tribunal, espescially considering that the modifications to the map and journal are the only things that couldn't have been done in a free, downloadable plugin. If you've chewed through all of Morrowind, and are still hungry for more, Tribunal just might be the thing to sate your appetite.

Recommended: Yes