LaughingTarget's Full Review: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind for Xbox
...and what a good thing that is.
Normally, when I have been waiting for a title to come out for a long period of time, it tends to dissapoint me. I've been waiting for Morrowind since, well, I think January 2001. Long time, long time, so I was a bit scared. So, being my PC is easily one of the worst in any of the developed nations on Earth, and in the lower 1/5 percentile of third world nations (well, not THAT bad), I waited the extra month for the XBox version, which I heard actually runs without the need for a 2.5 GHz monstrosity.
So, anyway, some background info. Morrowind is an action RPG. That means that battles are in real time yet are still stat based. So, it hardly matters that you can hit a guy on a dead run from across the map with a sniper rifle since hitting anything is completely stat based. It plays a lot like Halo in combat controls, except no grenades and the weapon changing scematics are a bit more complicated. Well, on to the meat.
Wow, that is pretty
While Morrowind is not the most visually stunning game I have seen, its world is what really brings this up to God-hood. Everything is in the details. The variety of places to see is what makes Morrwind visually stunning. From standard medieval towns and castles to large mushrooms and even a huge building made out of a crab shell. From swamps to rolling grassland hills to desolate wastelands with red dust blowing across. People mill about in towns and beasts dot the countryside, going about their daily business.
Characters are somewhat well modeled, probably PC version of medium detail, but the weapon and armor visuals takes the cake. From Chitin armor to the super powerful Daedric stuff, from an iron dagger to the Kraegnac magic short sword, its the variety of visuals that is mind blowing. You simply cannot understand the meaning of beautiful until you see an Argonian (lizard guy) dressed up in a full set of glass armor. Absolutely chilling sight, especially with the chameleon spell on. Even details like a wake in the water when wading through push the limits.
There are a few flaws, though. The texture work is a bit sub-par and tends to get blurry at a distance from the character and the animation is pretty raunchy. There is also a minor slow-down in some areas, most noticably in Azura's Cave when you get there. Mostly its smooth graphics, with the occational skip as it drops into the high 20's in frames per second (my guess anyway).
This world, no, the game in its entirety is HUGE!
The offical strategy guide for this thing, apart from being 370 pages, states the world is around 10 square miles. I think that is a bit conservative. On a typical trip from Kuuhl to the Urlishaku camp, which I did on a regular basis during the game, took about 15 minutes of running time with a pretty high speed rating, about 5 points off maximum, and that, if you look at the included map, is only about two inches out of 40. That is also a relatively straight line. Most trips take you around unpassable mountain ranges and through winding roads, which increase the travel time. Fortunately, there are spells and giant bugs to ride around if needed.
Now, there are other parts of this game that are huge, not just the world itself. Take my quest for example, I have completed about 67 some-odd quests, including the main quest line, took me about 182 hours, and I have still yet to even FIND where all 400, yes, 400 quests are. This kind of game gets my type of gamer jumping for joy. Something truly worth the $50 purchase.
Super Open-Ended
Yes, Morrowind is completely open ended, and technically doesn't really have an end. The game simply plops you off a boat, puts your through some extensive character creation, gives you basic controls, then pushes you out the door. There is a main quest line, but I have found out I can easily beat the game without having to resort to playing this way. Whatever you want to do, go ahead and do it. Guy vital to a particular quest, or even the world itself? Kill him, go for it. I killed one of the main demi-Gods in the game, got a message that I have just caused a rift in the destiny of the world, and a load of odd stuff started happening. No more do you have to worry about a party dragging you about, a limiting story that forces you along an exact path, or even a random NPC blocking your way that you cannot simply kill and then loot his rotting corpse. Vendor have a nice weapon, but your short on cash? Hack him down where he stands and take it.
Consequently, this can be a major turn-off to most console gamers, especially those that get their RPG fixes from Final Fantasy. My brother is a good example. Before he got into the mode of the game, he wandered aimlessly looking for purpose. He was looking for some NPC to push him the right direction, some clue as to where to go next. This is not a structured RPG, but more of a true RPG, one that doesn't limit you to the story THEY want to tell you, but one that allows you to create the story yourself. The Final Fantasy crowd has a hard time with this since there is no clear cut purpose. No "this is what to do, this is who to kill, and this is where to go" mentality that gets very confusing. I found myself, even well into the game, getting confused from time to time as what to do next until I realized I could just do what the heck I wanted to.
So lovely, open endedness is the best.
Customizabiltiy
No two games are alike. Each character you create is different, drastically different. There are 11 races, 21 classes to chose from. But, say, those classes don't tickle your fancy. OK, just chose a set of skills, slap a name on it, such as Uber But-Kicker, and then march out into the world, proclaiming your profession. There are also some great item and spell creation engines. Want a spell to open up any door? Just find a mage who can make spells, set it up that way, and call it whatever you want. Same goes with weapons and armor. Think that Daedric Katana you picked up could use a little more punch? Well, find an powerful monster, cast Gem-Feeder on it, kill it, take the full soul gem to an enchanter, slap a bunch of spells on that sucker, and away you go. Or, heck, even enchant it yourself if you're good enough.
And what is the most wonderful thing about this? Everything stays. Yes, that spell, that sword, or even a piece of paper your dropped in the woods 30 minutes into your game and find 200 hours later stays. XBox hard drive rules.
Some Bugs
There are some minor bugs. One is your mini-map. Sometimes it will just go dark through areas you have explored. The game is a bit slow to clear out the cache, so it stays that way for a bit, and you can sometimes miss important things like doors to Dwemer ruins. Also, when I was running around in the north-east area of the island, opening the big map would cause a crash of the system entirely. Not good at all. Or a bug where I jump and open a door at the same time that causes the game to think I just dropped from the sky, hitting me for a ton of damage. Guess that goes with the territory of the size of the game.
Not Alive.
The characters in this game are about as alive as Ash Vampires, not at all. Most NPCs are just information dispensors, they repeat the same given line over and over again and have the same dialogue trees to work with. Even key NPCs don't have much variety, and don't even get annoyed when you keep asking the same question over and over again.
Of course, the odd names don't help either, but I guess a name like Arkinthad or Assermench are OK when you have to come up with easily over 10,000 fantasy names for people and places, but gets confusing quite often.
NPCs don't sleep, shops don't close at night, and there aren't even children running around. Hardly a living, breathing world here.
Idiot AI
Monsters run at you, even if you are a level 35 warrior who just took down a god and he is a rat, to attack and die, or run around aimlessly screaming for you when you are invisible. Then there is the rare following quest. An NPC will follow you for some reason or another, but when they do, they are complete dunces. The NPC normally choses the direct line method of following, so if you run around a rock, they get stuck running INTO it. Or if you are going over a hill, they might get caught in a location so they just run back and forth across a line. They attack monsters aimlessly, even though the creature will mop the floor with them.
Bottom Line
Apart from a few problems, Morrowind is going in the right direction of what an RPG should be. Huge, open ended, do whatever the heck you want to game, yet still keep the epic storyline intact. It does have some bugs, and the AI is pure idiocy, but the game is fun none the less and is well worth the time for anyone who can seriously call themselves an RPG fan.
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