I first encountered Morrowind shortly after it appeared for rental at my local game library a couple of years ago. Not normally being a fan of first person perspective RPG action, I was a little hesitant. I looked at the screen shots on the back of the box....It really didn't look like a me sort of thing, but there was nothing else of interest and it was only $5 for a rental over the weekend so I took it home and I loved it so much that it was soon the top of my Christmas list. I actually felt rather guilty when I was presented with all the bangs and whistles of the Morrowind: Collector's Edition with novel extras, but since the game was so special it felt right to have all the trimmings, even if it did cost a loved one a little bit of extra cash.

Firstly, how do I describe Morrowind? Well, basically it is the third in the Elder Scrolls series of RPG's after Arena and the bug-ridden, but grossly under-rated Daggerfall. Oh, one other thing – it could quite possibly be the finest game I have ever played on the PC and the finest computer role-playing game I have experienced on any gaming platform ever. High praise indeed – and justified.

To begin, let me just say that Morrowind is BIG. To borrow from Douglas Adams -- You might think its a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts compared to Morrowind.

You start the game as a penniless, unclothed slave who has, for reasons unknown, been released under his own auspices onto the Imperial Colony of Vvardenfell (better known to “outlanders” as Morrowind). You disembark your transport ship at the town of Seyda Neen, where you are briefly greeted by a census worker, whose questioning forms a rather neat departure from the normally soulless task of creating a character. Once you have decided who you are, it's time to chat to the imperial representative in town, who directs you to travel to the town of Balmora where you are encouraged to meet up with a contact – and that's it. You are on your own.

I wandered the gloriously beautiful region in and around Seyda Neen for close to an hour. The graphics on display in Morrowind were for the time, second to none and still stand strongly today. The pixel shader used on the water and the weather effects are quite simply stunning. With a powerful video card it is possible to crank the view distance right up, creating an incredibly detailed and immersing world, lovely to behold. How wrong I was about first person perspective – Not only could it work for RPG's, it should be the new standard!

In addition to the graphics, a further beauty of Morrowind is that it is completely open-ended and unlike so many RPG's on the market today, is not linear in any way whatsoever, other than plot progression and mission progression. During my early explorations I spoke to many non player characters and gained several side missions. I wasn't compelled to head off toward Balmora as I had been instructed – I was on my own. An early mission had me hunting down a group of bandits who were holed up in a nearby cavern. Entering the cave I was stunned at the realistic way the cave had been designed. The very start of it was typical RPG fare – flat rooms with rough walls, but overall not very cave-like, but once I was truly inside it was all sink-holes and drop-offs too jagged and steep to negotiate without the scaffold of crude wooden steps and platforms its occupants had constructed. The inside was just as gorgeous as the outside with realism and detail every place I looked. Little did I know at this point that this was just one of hundred upon hundred of caves, tombs and dungeons littered throughout the new world I was discovering.

After a bit of adventuring in and around Seyda Neen I decided I would head to Balmora as suggested, but I didn't take the “Silt Strider” transport service (Transport aboard what looks like a giant long legged flea which for a price moves you between distant locations) I had been told about, but decided to walk off in the direction a sign had indicated Balmora lay. Along the way I encountered another town which I explored briefly and a few nasties who were dispatched with ease using my pride and joy – a broadsword I had acquired from the now-dead bandits from the cave. One of the few complaints I have about Morrowind is the simplicity of the combat. It is basically a case of clicking the mouse button to swing your weapon, with the option to swing in one of three different directions depending on which way you move the mouse.

A long walk later I walked through the gates of Balmora. I opened the map screen and I was shocked to discover I had hardly moved on the world map – this place was HUGE. I did a bit of exploring and stumbled upon the mage guild. Despite being a Crusader class character, I was able to join, because in Morrowind the different character classes do not define who we are, they simply set a basic starting point. My crusader might have started weak in all but restoration type magic, but there was nothing preventing me from delving deeper into the assorted other disciplines of the occult.

Soon I had also joined the fighter's guild in town and both my new guilds were sending my on missions all over the countryside and I had still not even gone to meet my contact! I didn't feel like I had to – I just went with the flow and had a blast. The world was so huge, so full of people and things and objects and possibilities and it was mine – I was free to go wherever whim took me. I wasn't going to be herded in some tour-group style procession through the game – I was UNLEASHED and if I could help it, Vvardenfell wasn't going to know what hit it! Little did I know, these two guilds were just two of a dazzling array of varied organisations I could join and progress through the ranks of.

The sound is quite sensational, with ambient sound, area effects, voice acting all brilliant and a original score which could quite easily come straight from some Hollywood epic. This Collector's Edition comes with a cd of the soundtrack which I initially laughed about, but have since found quite enjoyable to play quietly in the background while I work on essays for university. It is really understated, yet magnificent. I almost always turn the music off when gaming, but for Morrowind I simply turned it down until it was background noise. Still there, still great, but not blasting away to the detriment of everything else.

While Morrowind is replete with that which is brilliant, it does have a few slight shortcomings. As with all open-ended RPG's where the character is free to roam (Fallout 1 and 2 leap to mind) you eventually get to the point where your character is too powerful for the game to be much of a challenge. Early in the game I was delighted with every single item I discovered, but once you are powerful you find yourself lugging all manner of stuff around and the shopkeepers simply aren't rich enough to buy it all off you. By the time I decided to follow the main quest, some months after starting the game, my character was so powerful I killed most of my enemies in one or two blows. Happily, the exploration factor is one of Morrowind's strongest points, so I still had a ball.

Combat magic is perhaps a little weak. Even with great magical ability in that area, it was always more effective for me to just go up and thump my enemy with a sword rather than try fireballs which seemed to barely singe their hair.

Game play also suffers from the occasional brief lock-up (about 1 second) as data loads when you move around the massive areas. It isn't too much of an imposition and it is infinitely more desirable than huge load-times with a moving progress bar killing the atmosphere.

These few gripes aside, everything else about Morrowind is sensational. In addition to the fully customisable characters I already mentioned, spells may be customised and designed, weapons, armour and clothing may be specially enchanted and tailored to your own needs – just about anything you could want is available through a player skill or through a tradesman.

The back story and plot are fascinating. This is a world is rich and detailed with unique histories created for every important facet of Morrowind. As with Daggerfall, literally thousands of books may be found and examined – you sometimes even come upon libraries containing hundreds of volumes which can all be physically read. This level of detail in a game is a rare and wonderful thing indeed.

In addition to the previously mentioned cd, the Morrowind Collector's Edition comes with a book detailing some of the concept art that went into the game's creation and a figurine of one of the guards from the city of Vivec – an Ordinator. Not much for me to get excited about, but nice to have all the same.

Morrowind is quite simply the greatest role-playing game ever to see the light of day in digital format. This is a true role-playing game, not one of your soft-core menu-fests where 90% of the roleplay involves choosing which way to respond in conversations, but a good old fashioned game of intrigue, exploration and, ultimately, reward. If you have never spent a good 100 hours exploring the delightful world that is within this masterpiece, you are seriously limiting your life experiences.

Recommended: Yes