Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind

Reviewed by: Mi|amber
Genre: Action/RPG
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Date Reviewed: 19/6/2002

The Elder Scrolls III - Morrowind by Bethesda Softworks has been a long awaited game, with teaser screenshots having been available for quite some time. Bethesda has been making RPG games for many years and Morrowind is their latest and greatest. The first thing you notice about Morrowind is the absolutely superb graphics. They are first-rate and are the best I have seen in any form of first-person game, let alone an RPG which are renowned for average, and often below average, graphics.

The character models are impressively well modeled and varied, and each has their own name and personality. Their lips and face move convincingly when they talk, and their walking animation's are realistic and based around the creatures general shape. A lizard based creature walks differently to a human or Elven creature.

The buildings are fantastically well done, often with several levels above and below ground, with stair cases joining the different floors. Buildings in cities interconnect with bridges. Cities are split into suburbs (for lack of a better word) and their look reflects their function. The rich merchant sections have bright coloured posters waving in the wind and the general area looks prosperous, and the slums are dark, dingy, with closely spaced buildings and a decidedly seedy clientele. Guards are commonplace in the rich and middle-class suburbs and are not so common in the poor and dangerous areas.

The landscapes are well done, and flow nicely, with trees, rocks, flowers, grass and fences. You cannot climb up steep slopes, and transitions from land to water are seamless, as are transmissions from external areas to internal areas. There are loading screens at points, but they are short, only a few seconds at best. I should probably mention that the game is 3D.

The impressive graphical nature of Morrowind has a big drawback, you will need some rather impressive PC specs to play Morrowind at a decent framerate. I can't help feeling that my XP1700 Processor and GeForce 4 Ti4400 video card are merely adequate. The stated specs are a 800MHz processor and a GeForce2 GTS video card as minimum. I would really not like to play Morrowind on a system with those specs.

The only real issue I had with the graphics in Morrowind is the combat. It sucks! Combat is limited to a simple hack and slash motion. Click the mouse in conjunction with the cursor keys to execute your combat, A click by itself will thrust with a sword, fire an arrow from a bow, or cast your spell. Used with the cursor keys the sword will slash left or right, but that is it. Compared to the rest of the graphics and animation's in the game, combat looks positively childish.

The music is of course great. What game nowadays does not have great music. Music tempo changes with the game, slow portions of Morrowind have slow music, and combat has fast paced music. The voice acting of NPC's (non-player characters) is great, and varied, and for the most part suits the creature that speaks. However, most dialog in the game is done via dialog boxes. Click on the item that you wish to talk to the NPC about and the text will display in the dialog box. Relevant items are highlighted for easy location and reference.

No review of an RPG game would be complete without a talk about the stats system. The stats system in Morrowind is the most complex and involved that I have ever seen, there are literally dozens of stats for your character that are all inter-linked in various ways. Your agility, for instance, has a direct effect on how well you can run, climb, and even fall. Swimming around for a while will help raise your agility, as will jumping over low walls. Swinging your sword, or combat will help your strength of course. You can also ask certain NPC's for training, but they will charge you a fee in gold, based on your current level of the stat you wish to train in. Lower levels of a stat will only cost you one or two gold pieces, but higher levels will cost you a small fortune. You have the ability to influence NPC's to get more information or better deals on items and training. Your influence upon the NPC depends on your charm, but you have threaten them, you can flatter them, and you can of course bribe them - but beware, if your not charming enough in your flatter attempt, you might actually lower your influence level over the NPC as they might detect your insincerity! Combat in the first few hours of the game should be avoided (I found out the hard way) until you manage to get your character built up to a halfway decent level. After all, you were a prisoner at the start of the game - that's all of the plot element I am going to give away!. At the start of the game, during your release from prison, you have to choose a character class, and name for your character. You get to answer some questions from your parole officer, and your answers determine what your character is, and his/her personality traits.

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Table of Contents -------------------------------- 1. Overview 2. Conclusion -------------------------------- More