some_guy5's Full Review: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind for Xbox
Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls III for Xbox is a fantasy roll playing game. I think it is the best roll playing game I have ever encountered. I also think it happened to be the first roll playing game for the Xbox and it is a very tough act to follow. I have all kinds of things to tell you about it so read on…
As I was going through and thinking of the various aspects of this game I realized to my surprise that it wasn’t actually getting stunning scores from me. This is puzzling to me since I really love this game and years after buying it still think it is one of the greatest games I have ever played. I think the resolution to this mystery is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The graphics may not be all that great (especially by today’s standards), the sound may be muted, the gameplay may be buggy, but when it is all said and done this was one of the most fun games I have EVER played, and on top of that I played it for endless hours, and still had more to do, before I even decided to try it again with a different character. I would like to go ahead and get the sound and graphics scores out of the way so I can talk about what makes this game great.
Graphics: B
Understand that the B grade is adjusted back in time to when the game was released. I think the graphics may be pretty darn bad by today’s standards, but they didn’t write the game by today’s standards. In some ways I think the graphics are downright genius. There is a huge variety of buildings and plants and races of people and mountains and, (hang on, out of breath), dungeons and wilderness and monsters and overall I was impressed at the variety and detail on each of these things. I was so pleased to leave town for the first time and see the various flowers in different colors and notice the rendering on things like rocks. That was my first impression. Over time the graphic design seems to wear a little thin. You realize that all creatures of some races look exactly the same, other than their clothes. You realize that you are seeing the same things over and over, in regards to people, places, plants, etc. I will say that they did give their cities some unique character. In some cases that character was kind of stupid, but it was unique. (I am thinking of a certain city built vertically like a step pyramid with concentric levels where the only visual difference is who happens to be standing around on each level. Not my cup of tea.) My last comment on graphics is a bit of a plot ***spoiler*** so skip to the next paragraph if that bothers you. After, I am guessing, 100 hours of gameplay I finally got to face the evil god who is the lynchpin of this whole story. Now playing this game is a big commitment. After my huge investment I was rewarded with a fight against the worst looking evil boss I have ever seen in any game of this generation. You fight this god, Dagoth Ur, who looks like a stick figure with a golden bottle cap, or maybe a gold coin for a head. After all the time and effort I put in to this I think they could have done a little better with the climax. In my opinion almost every other thing in the game looked better than Dagoth Ur.
Sound: B
Overall Morrowind is a pretty lonely sounding game. A lot of the time there just isn’t going to be much in the way of sound. There is limited dialogue (I imagine because the rest of the game is so vast there wasn’t a lot of room for sound, but that is just my guess) and most of what dialogue there is gets repeated over and over. Often you are alone with the sound of your footsteps. Oh the Morrowind theme will kick in now and then for a couple of minutes and then you are back to your solitude. So far the B grade sounds a bit generous right? Well there are some intangibles I really liked that boost the grade up a bit. Going near some running water will reveal a pleasant and remarkably accurate tinkling water sound. What if you are out exploring and the wind kicks up? You guessed it. Accurate and gratifying wind sound. These may seem minor, or like a given, but in the utter silence their effect is magnified and the quality appreciated all the more.
Gameplay: B
The real gem of this game is the gameplay. For that reason I cannot believe I am giving it a B. There are a couple of major issues that knock this grade down so lets get those out of the way first so we can talk about what makes this game truly great.
BUGGY AND LONG LOAD TIMES
The first is, it is buggy. Boo! I know. This goes kind of hand in hand with the long load times. You need to save often because you never know when the old Xbox is going to lock up. On the other hand you don’t want to save often because it takes a while. The farther you are into the game the longer it takes. So now you know, you are going to have to have some patience to play through Morrowind. You will need to wait through normal load times at best, and reload after the game freezes up at worst.
FIGHTING ENGINE
The second point I consider a negative in gameplay is fighting. This is a roll playing game but there is still some tasks related to fighting other than telling your character to go fight and watching him or her do all the work. You can hack, slash, thrust, well what it all seems to boil down to is that you will often stand toe to toe with someone and trade blows. You hitting the buttons, aiming etc., actually doesn’t determine if you hit or not. The roll playing effect rolls a “dice” and adds or subtracts from that based on your attributes, equipment, and so on to determine a hit and damage. Certain weapons are better at certain kinds of attacks, but when it is all said and done I think it is more tedious than fun to try to remember what attack to use with each weapon. You can turn this option off and let the Xbox handle that for you. If you find it fun, leave it on. You are still going to stand toe to toe and wail away in either case. The exception is ranged attacks. You can get to a remote location and soften them up with some ranged attacks while they run you down. If you are really lucky or good, you can get to a place they can’t get to and just blast away until they are no more. I often used this tactic when fighting someone generally too tough for my level. The road to Arkingthand ruins was guarded by a necromancer who was just out of my league, as became readily apparent after a few attempts to do him in. I set myself up as far away as my spell would reach and let it fly. As he ran me down I backpedaled and let spells go until he caught me. After that it was a matter of standing toe to toe and bashing on each other (with me healing myself frequently) until I finally got the better of him. I had to employ this same method at the entrance to a Daedric shrine. That guy had a bad attitude and his equipment just looked so cool that I couldn’t walk away. I would peak out from around the corner and let him have it with a spell and run away, repeatedly. He was way too tough for me but I eventually wiped that look off his face and got some nice equipment.
I consider most of the gameplay elements to be simply genius and just tons of fun. I am pleased to discuss those now.
BUILDING A CHARACTER
So you arrive in the belly of a prison ship and what now? You need a character. You can take a quiz where your answers will determine a character or you can choose to do it yourself the hard way. I chose to do it myself and the first time I played I think I lucked in to the best combination of character and attributes. Each race is better at different things. Some will have bonuses for fighting and others will have bonuses for magic and penalties for fighting and so on. I chose a Dunmer who is a sort of jack of all trades but master of none. You get some minor bonuses and no real penalties. The fact is that the start of the game will be a lot easier of you are good at fighting but the game really requires you to do almost everything at some point, so you might want to avoid incurring any serious penalties in any of the skills. Take your time here and think about what you want. You might be stuck with it for the next few hundred hours.
MAGIC
Magic is something I consider a mixed bag in Morrowind. On the one had it is clumsy to use. You can map spells to certain buttons, but this only going to get you a few hot spells. To access the others you will have to drill through menus, which is tedious and you will have to do it a lot. On the other hand using magic in the game is necessary and fun. Enchanting your first item can be a blast. Launching a flame at an enemy is particularly gratifying. Capturing the soul of a powerful creature can either gain a powerful soul gem, or mounds of cash of you choose to sell it. Towards the end I was conjuring a powerful creature just to kill it and capture its soul. Using magic is great, I just wish they had found a way to make it easier.
GAINING LEVELS AND LEARNING
In its most simple form, you get better at things by doing them. Running, jumping, and swimming will all have a beneficial effect on your character. Fighting will make you a better fighter over time. Using magic helps you get better at using magic and repairing armor will, you get it. Alternatively you can pay for training. Instead of just playing the game and waiting for your attributes to go up as you play you can give someone money to make you better at some things. Some NPCs are better than others and will be able to train you at higher levels. I opted not to spend money on training for the most part the first time through. However, I think it may be necessary in same cases. The game is going to require you to be good at certain things in order to advance the plot. Some of these attributes may be things that you haven’t spent much time on up to this point. So the answer is to run out and find someone to train you up. You need to get better at certain things in order to level up. Your character will have selected (or have selected for him) primary and secondary attributes. Getting better in these attributes is how you level up. Additionally, the guilds are going to require you to have skills in the attributes related to their line of business. To gain ranks in the guilds you will have to gain skills in those things, in addition to performing tasks.
EXPLORING THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD
The real attribute that makes Morrowind the best RPG I have ever played (counting Fable) is the vast open world. You can advance the plot line, or not. You can literally do whatever you want. The world is BIG and full of side quests, places to explore, and things to do. After hundreds of hours of playing I looked up a walkthrough guide on the net. To my surprise I saw many, many side quests that I not only didn’t perform, I didn’t even know about them. If you enjoy the game it can be almost as endless as life. Join the fighters guild and perform their tasks. Rise through the ranks and become a master. Are you tired of that? Because there are several other guilds you can join. Guild life not for you any more? No problem, play along the games main plotline for a while. Tired of the structured play? Head out into the wilderness for some old fashioned exploring. Some of the coolest items in the game are found by running around the world aimlessly. Is the lack of purpose bothering you? Check your journal. Chances are you have a multitude of uncompleted side quests to cherry pick interesting ones from. Are you stuck in a place you just can’t beat? Come back later. You get much, much more powerful just by playing the game. Show up later (ala superman after he gets his powers back at that roadside diner) and teach those guys the meaning of the word respect. Do you feel like you have done everything in the world you need to? Are you tired of it? Create a new character with a different race and skill set. The game will be different this time around. Plus you will know some tricks by now that may make you a bad @ss pretty fast. Do you finally feel like you know everything there is to know about Morrowind? I bet someone else knows more. Look up a game guide and maybe your jaw will drop open like mine did at all the things I DIDN’T actually do.
***Spoiler***A Cheat (if you want it) ***Spoiler***
If you are playing along the main plot line you will end up in the city of Balmora pretty fast, and you will visit it often over the course of the game. If you want to get good at all kinds of things quickly, and this is cheating on several levels, then follow this advice. This will save you from jumping constantly, running around aimlessly, swimming back and forth and other mundane exercises as you try to improve various skills. In Balmora make your way to the Mage’s Guild. I chose to join right away. Make your way up to the second level. I mean the one above ground level since the ground floor may be the second level if you are counting the basement. There is a desk up there with various stones in it. These stones can hold souls. Better stones can hold more powerful souls. They are relatively cheap when empty and very expensive depending on what quality of souls are within. If you don’t mind being a dirty thief, you can steal the lot of them out of this desk when no one is about. In order to get caught stealing someone has to see you. They range in value, but one is VERY expensive. Don’t try to sell the dude in the mage’s guild his own stuff. That is a no no. Make your way to another magic shop (transport is available right in the guild for members) and unload it. You will have enough moolah to train in all manner of skills until your heart is content. Well, you will have a TON of money, especially for a beginner so do whatever you want with it. I think this takes some of the fun out of it, but I used this tactic the second time I played through in order to skip some of the more mundane tasks I didn’t want to perform again.
Value
Is there a grade better than A+? Morrowind is hands down the best value in gaming I have ever come across or heard of. The game is retailing these days for about $20. If you kind of like the game you could be paying about 50 cents an hour for entertainment, much better than going to a movie. If you love it, you could be looking at a dime or so per hour for quality entertainment. If you really, really love it, you’ll end up paying a penny per hour for something that you will really enjoy. Of course, the question is can you afford all that time for a game? Do you want your children playing that much?
Conclusion
This game is wonderful. Morrowind is very fun, and the fun lasts for almost endless hours. Vast is a word that applies more so here than in any other game I have ever played. The sound may be less than excellent. The graphics are less than stunning. The fact is that the concept behind this game is brilliant. Even with the bugs I cannot bring myself to give it less than 5 stars. This is probably the longest review I have ever written and I still feel like I have more to say. Oh well, I will leave some of it for you to figure out yourself.
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