TL;DR: Morrowind is a really good game and you should buy it. Choose the Game of the Year edition over the standard edition. Here's a quick video that will tell you what you're in for.
Where have the years gone? Long before
“Game of the Year” was a worthless title applied to whatever game
happened to push the most units it was given to a few select games as
a mark of merit for being beloved by all. Morrowind was one of the
first games to win the right to have a Game of the Year release but
unlike most Game of the Year releases it contained two entire
add-on's that previously were only seen on the computer. I feel
nostalgia as much as the next man or woman so for the sake of
fairness I've made a point of playing Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind
in succession so that I could make note of improvements to the
mechanics and problems that may arrive from other changes. I doubt
many who play the more modern Elder Scrolls games have had the luxury
of enduring the first two games (Arena and Daggerfall) which although
having great story didn't have the most intuitive game mechanics. If
anything Morrowind can be considered a bridge between the traditional
d20esque mechanics of the first two games and the more action
oriented mechanics of Skyrim.
No matter how many times I poke him with my pike he doesn't turn into a blood explosion!
This game is obviously broken.
If you find yourself getting angry at
games where you physically see your attack connect but the game tells
you “It missed” or “It hit for 26 points of damage” then
Morrowind is not for you. Seriously. You have no reason to continue
to read this review because there is no way I could convince you to
like a game that heavily utilizes mechanics that you don't like.
In The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind
places you as a prisoner being transferred to Morrowind under orders
to do a job for the Empire to earn your freedom. (Spoilers Begin)
After numerous encounters with imperial agents and cultists you learn
that you are the Neverar the reincarnation of an old Dunmer hero who
is destined to save the the Dunmer people from a cataclysm. (End
Spoilers) Unlike your typical JRPG or WRPG you are not restricted to
completely the main story quests and the game does not end once you
complete the main story if anything the most enjoyment in Morrowind
can be gained from the many side-quests and side stories. You are
free to adopt any playstyle you want, be it the stealthy rouge, the
burly barbarian, or the Wizard with an awesome beard best of all who
you choose to play as has no impact on your ability to fully
experience the world, a warrior can still join the Mages Guilds, a
Thief can still join the army, and a cold-hearted murder can still be
the hero. It cannot be understated how much choice is offered in
Morrowind.
You can even be a lizard with a taste for fashion!
Despite the amount of choice in the
game there are a number of downsides. One of the biggest downsides is
that with access to so much choice it can feel overwhelming at times
and depending on your play style it can be easy to feel like you are
making great gains with minimal effort. Depending on what version of
the game you play the amount of debilitating bugs can become a great
nuisance. Imagine if you would, you're walking through a new town and
you decided to talk to one of the townspeople to glean some amount of
useful information. Well as luck would have it the moment the
dialogue box opens you are accused of murder and everyone in town
subsequently swarms you and starts to mass attack you. Which might
suck, just a little bit. Those bugs can get pretty cray cray, but if
you buy the Game of the Year version it will come with several
patches built in that fix a majority of the problems.
See that bucket? Yeah. Jump at the wall next to it and you can phase through it and break the game.
Morrowind handles immersion in some
pretty classy ways. Have you ever wanted to be able to pick up
virtually any object no matter how worthless and carry it around with
you? Well you can do that. Imagine, if you would Conan the Barbarian
lugging around a sack of 100+ pillows. You can do that, but with most
any practically worthless item. To accompany your OCD ways Morrowind
accompanies most of your actions with a masterfully composed
orchestral number like my personal favorite “Nerevar Rising”:
That song sounds familiar you say? Well
as it so happens its been used as the basis for a recent very popular
Song called the “Song of the Dragonborn”. Yeah, THAT Song. Kind
of makes Bethesda seem a tad unoriginal recycling old numbers by
adding different instruments. Its highly unlikely that you'll dislike
the soundtrack if you are already a fan of the newer or older Elder
Scrolls games and if you are a newer fan who has not played the games
then know that the two songs I've provided are considered the most
iconic of their respective games and more or less set the bar for
their scores.
Morrowind has not aged all that well
graphically, the character models and movements seem incredibly
archaic when compared to todays standard and can easily be considered
an eyesore if you aren't already used to the graphical limitations of
previous generations. I mean, even back when the game came out I
found the walking animations kind of jarring. For some reason
(probably the limitations of the Xbox) the walking animations are
prone to stuttering so it looks like everyone in Morrowind is trying
to get a grant to patent their silly walks. There also is little in
the way of character model variety and you will encounter many NPC's
who look identical, sometimes even in the same town!
Because everyone totally has a unique look about them.
I can assure you that most of the games
flaws come from gamebreaking bugs and graphics that just haven't aged
well. The world itself is large and you can wander where you want,
quests are plenty, and if you feel so inclined there are crafting
mechanics that allow you to enchant armor with magic and you can even
create new spells by combining spells you already know. YOU. CAN.
CREATE. NEW. SPELLS. If that isn't one of the coolest things in a
game I don't know what is. Sure, you can craft armor or weapons in
some games but can you create entirely new spells by combining the
effects of of other spells? No. Very, very few games implement such a
mechanic due to how potentially gamebreaking it can be. Now when I
say gamebreaking I mean that by combing certain spells you could
potentially create a spell that could easily one shot most of the
games enemies with little to no effort.
Cool people create spells that calm enemies down while setting them on fire.
Seriously though, what do graphics and
choice matter if the mechanics are bad? Morrowind has its share of
problems due to how inaccessible the mechanics can be. For a person
who is more used to the quick-fire action games or the modern era its
likely that the d20 chance mechanics will confuse and baffle most new
players until they get a good grasp on how much luck and chance play
into everything. From the outset of the game you are given nothing
but vague directions to a town and you are left to fend for yourself
which can be difficult if you don't understand how important
disposition is to bartering and information gathering. Hell raising
your disposition can be a herculean task to anyone who just wants to
go around hitting things till they become dead, without proper points
in speech most people will either dislike you or not particularly
care about giving out info to you. The world itself is large and the
map isn't terribly intuitive when it comes to helping you find
locations what more fast travel wasn't a thing so you have to walk
(run) to most places unless you can fend a ferryman or Stiltstrider
(more or less giant bug taxis) that will take you to the location you
want to go to.
They seem perfectly harmless.
Another problem the game suffers from
is faction relations and how it plays into immersion. So every single
enemy and NPC has a script attached to it that tells it whether or
not it should attack certain people or things. For the most part a
majority of NPC's are set to only attack animals and will never
attack other NPC's even if they are bandits or assassins. This can be
a pretty big problem early on if you happen to wander into enemies
who are beyond your skill and you hope to find a guard to help you
out. Even if you are in the middle of town and a cultist attacks you
the guards will just look you in the eye and say, “That sure does
suck, glad its not MY job to keep the riff-raff out of town.”
Akatosh forgive you if you get caught jaywalking though.
Suffice to say Morrowind is a very good
game and I highly recommend it, unfortunately its only a good game
for those who are interested in open RPG's that use outdated
mechanics who like a compelling story of gods and elves and want to
be a barbarian mage who fights using the fork of horridation.
Morrowind has its share of problems but they really only add to the
charm of the game as you explore and alien world. Buy this game, you
won't regret it. Morrowind is a completely different beast from
Oblivion and Skyrim but its a beast that you can tame and ride around
like a goddamn dragon rider.
Oh. Did I neglect to mention that Morrowind's expansion packs are as awesome as they are huge? Yeah. Bloodmoon and Tribunal add many new elements and factions to the game along with entirely new areas with new characters and weapons and shit. Seriously. This ain't none of that "Dee-el-see" trite that publishers are pushing where you spend $20 on damn horse armor and shit. No. You buy the Game of the Year edition and you get both of those expansions integrated into your game. So if you have the option grab the Game of the Year edition over the standard edition it will add werewolves, new spells, and so much neat lore to the game that it's practically a crime to not choose it.
