An RPG That Will Draw You In Like No Other (The Elder Scrolls III - Morrowind (PS))

Member Name: Guile176

Product:	The Elder Scrolls III - Morrowind (PS)
Date:	29/04/03 (279 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Deep as can be

Disadvantages: Slightly shoddy combat system

(Note: Whoever the idiot was that added this, added it as Playstation software. This
title was never released on the PS1 or 2, only the XBox and PC. This is a review of
the XBox version.)


When most console gamers think of an RPG, they think of titles like
Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger. RPGs such as those consist of long
and in depth storylines and a cast of memorable characters on a
journey to defeat an evil in the land. For most PC gamers, RPGs are
a little different. Rather then focusing on long plot lines and
character development, most PC RPGs have taken a slightly more
realistic approach to things. Things tend to be much more open ended
and are more reminiscent to pen and paper RPGs such as Dungeons &
Dragons. This of course is not to say that console developed RPGs
don't feature any type of open ended gameplay or that PC RPGs lack
in a great story or memorable characters. There's just a general
different feel to RPGs developed for each. This of course may be due
to the fact that most console developed RPGs originate out of Japan
and most PC ones are developed here in the US.

Anyway, it seems that a little developer by the name of Bethesda is
attempting to bring the PC RPG experience to console gamers with
their Elder Scrolls series. The game of course is none other then
the 3rd chapter in the series called Morrowind. Now, this is not the
first time a PC RPG series has been ported to a console. The first I
can recall were the old Might and Magic and Ultima titles on the 8
and 16 bit consoles. Back then though, RPGs didn't have even clo
se

to the following they have now.

In Morrowind, you have been released from prison by the Emperor and
sent to the port town of Seyda Neen. From here you are informed to
meet up with someone from the town of Balmora and work for them.
From this point on, the story is pretty much yours to shape.

Although there is a main quest here, the main draw of Morrowind is
its openness to shape things the way you like. Want to be a blood
thirsy murdered? You can. Want to be a Champion of Justice? You can
do that if you like as well. Players are allowed to join several
different guilds around the world of Morrowind. Joining guilds opens
up a countless number of sub quest and other bonuses that i'll
mention in abit. You of course don't have to do these quest if you
don't like.

The world of Morrowind is very much like the real world. In it,
certain people will like you more then others. If a person likes
your character, then its more likely that they will give you the
info you want when you speak with them. If a person that likes you
happens to be a merchant, then you'll get lower buying prices and
higher prices for goods you sell them. On the flip side, if your
disliked then the chances are that things wont go over easy with you
with that character. So, what can you do if a character doesn't like
you want to improve relations with them? Well, you can either choose
to admire, taunt, intimidate or bribe them. Choose carefully though
since choosing the wrong option will actually decrease the amount
the person likes you.
<
br>
Unlike most console RPGs, the world in Morrowind is extremely
realistic. The landscape is absolutely huge. It simply takes forever
to walk from one end of the world to the other. However, some towns
have paid transport to other towns. This may be far quicker, but by
doing so you can't explore the areas between your destination. You
never know, you may stumble upon a hidden cavern that contains alot
of valuables.

Like the landscape, the towns of Morrowind are simply amazing. Some
are simple and small fishing villages while other are large cities
with countless homes, guilds and businesses. Some of these can take
hours to fully explore.You can enter any home or building you like.
Some have multiple floors. Everything has a lived in and used look
to it. You'll find common objects such as pots, spoons, books, forks
and plates all over their homes. And if your really hard up for
cash, you can steal any of it you like. Of course, make sure no ones
looking or your crime will be reported. If you must steal something
and people are around, then make sure you use either an invisibility
potion or spell first. That's the best way to get what you want
without paying.

Ok, so what about characters? If your expecting a big memorable cast
of faces like in the Final Fantasy titles, then your going to be
pretty disappointed. The people in Morrowind are fairly 2
dimensional. You'll never come across anyone with quite the
personality of Minsc from Baldurs Gate or Rikku of Final Fantasy.
While I do wish Bethesda could have done a little more
with the
<b
r> characters here, its not really that bad and doesn't really bother
me any while playing.

For your main character, you get to design them. You can select your
name, face, sex, race and character class. If you don't like the pre
made classes then you create one of your own with your own
specialties and stats. It all up to you.

Stats can be increased either by purchasing them from certain
characters, or by using that skill. For example, the more you use
your lock picking ability, the more your security skill will rise.
The same can be said about various weapon and magic types.

Also, there's no real party gathering or anything like that here.
For the most part you going at it solo. You will occasionally come
across and be asked to fight along side another character.
Situations like this are pretty few and far though. This is really
sort of a good thing though considering the AI on the NPCs (None
Playable Characters) is pretty much near brain dead.

The AI is pretty much the only real major flaw that I found in
Morrowind. Enemies, guards, townsfolk. Their all dumb as nails. You
watch in amazement as they run into walls and are too stupid to turn
around. The highlight of the games AI in my journey though the game
has to have been in the Ghostgate area. I was inside the structure
and the guards apparently weren't too happy that I was dressed in
their armor. So they began yelling and chasing me. I really had no
choice but to run anywhere I could to get away because I wasn't
quite strong enough to t
ake them on. Well, I jus
t so happen to run
into a room with 1 door that only opened outward. With me on one
side and the guard running blindly into the door on the other side,
I was trapped and was forced to load from my last save point.
Remember to take full advantage of the save anytime feature in
Morrowind. Save often.

Ok, now for the fighting. Fighting is all done in real time combat.
Aside from magical abilities, you have 2 different types of strikes
you can do. The strength of each strike is mainly dependent on the
type of weapon you have. For example, if you were using an ax, a
swing move with it would be far more damaging then a thrust. Also,
be very careful before rushing into a fight, if your not familiar
with the type of enemy your about to encounter, save your game
before rushing in. Also, make sure you have a weapon equipped that
your character is skilled in. If your not very skilled with using a
short sword and your taking on a strong enemy, then you'll find
yourself missing the enemy far more then your hitting them. This
will also fatigue your character pretty quickly as well.

Like in real life, you'll need to rest. Resting will restore your
life, magic and fatigue. The amount you recover is dependent on how
long you choose to rest. Also, when your characters ready to advance
a level, you have to rest. Once you rest after a level gain, your
allowed to assign up to 3 skill points in your stats. Want to make
your character able to carry more and hit harder? Put more points to
your strength. Want speed? Set more points to speed. <
br>
Finally y
ou'll need to keep all your equipment in shape. Every
weapon and piece of armor has condition points. As they wear out,
weapons and armor begin to lose their effectiveness. To fix it,
you'll either have to find a blacksmith in a town or attempt to fix
it yourself with special items.



Graphics 8.5:
Rating the graphics in Morrowind is pretty tough. On one hand, this
game was developed around a PC. A PC obviously has for more RAM then
the XBox. To port this game over they had to squeeze the massive
amounts of RAM required for the PC version into the XBox's 64 megs.
Anyway, i'll break it down to the good and the bad.

First the good. Like I mentioned, this game is very vast. I've never
seen areas and towns this large in any console game before. Each
area is packed with extreme detail. You'll see all sorts of trees,
mountains and lakes. The water looks simply breathtaking. It almost
looks real at times. Other cool things include day to night
settings, various types of weather conditions like rain, fog and
sand storms. Your characters appearance will change depending on the
type of weapon and armor their equipped with. There's so much to
like about the graphics in Morrowind.

Along with the many great graphical features in the game, there's
alot of not so great things about the graphics. There's some weird
graphical glitches like polygon seams and texture shifting. There's
some slight jagged edges in some of the textures that sort of give
it the appearance of a first generation
PS1 game at times. The

animation can be a little jerky at times and the collision could use
some major work. There's also a little pop up as well. Nothing
really that bad though, and given the vast size of everything and
how many polygons are being pushed its pretty acceptable.

With all the graphical flaws you may ask why I gave the graphics an
8.5? Simple, this game was designed from the start as a PC game and
to take advantage of PC hardware. With the RAM limitations, we
should be lucky that the game came out looking as good as it did.
And I know there's those Square freaks out there talking about how
Final Fantasy X on the PS2 had none of these graphical problems.
Well, Final Fantasy X was designed to run on PS2 hardware and not a
PC. The area size and amount of textures in Final Fantasy X wasn't
nearly as much as what's packed into Morrowind.


Sound 9:
I really liked the sound in Morrowind. The music reminded me alot of
the movie like score in Baldurs Gate. Sound effects and voices could
have used a little more variety but overall they still sounded
great.


Control 8: The control was a little less then perfect but still
overall pretty good. Controls are fairly responsive and not really
that difficult to master. The problems mostly come in with the games
rather poor collision detection. I really think Bethesda could have
done a little more to improve it some. Still, it control pretty
well. Hopefully they'll improve this aspect if they ever make a
sequel.


Overall I really
loved playing Morrowind. Its succeeded
in drawing
me into a gaming world like no game has ever done before. I would
highly recommend Morrowind to anyone looking for a great RPG or is
looking to be introduced into a PC RPGs. A word of warning though,
expect to spend a good deal of time on this one. There's countless
places to explore and side quest to accept. There's easily over 100
hours of gaming here if you choose. A well designed piece of
software and one of the best i've played in a long time.

Summary: