The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

[Zephie-chan]

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Console: Personal Computer (PC) / XBox (officially imported)
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Released: 2002
Reviewer: Kamui Shoten

Unlike all my other reviews, I am going to look at this game from a different, more critical point of view. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind takes place in its own time and space, but exists in a world without guns; your sword and armor decides your fate in battle.

You wake up on a prison ship; you have just been released from jail under the order of the Emperor of Morrowind himself yet you, nor anyone else, know why. You’re able to pick your form from several races, including Orc, Dark Elf, Nord, and Imperial (there are others, those are only listed a few).

After you meet with the head man in town you’re able to select your abilities in three ways; you can answer the mans questions to automatically pick your class that best suits your personality, you can pick from a list, or create your very own custom classes.

Unfortunately, this is pretty much the only high point in the game as its slow moving in terms of pace and generality. First you must travel to the down of Balmor to speak with the man the Emperor instructed to train you. He tells you to join a “gang” and advance in the ranks. This includes the Hlaalu Knights, Balmor Fighters, several Imperial establishments around Morrowind, etc. (I cannot remember them all, as a matter of fact I don’t really remember if they’re actually called the 'Balmor Fighters'). Then you must go back to him and then he’ll send you an what seems like thousands of missions, and along the way you’re supposed to pick up on some terrible evil and stop it: Basic RPG cliché, but well disguised.

It is a new vision and version of RPG, I can tell you that. While its graphics are not the top notchery that you see in AVP2 or some of the Star Wars games, it is certainly nowhere near pushover status. For such a damn large game (it would take literally a half a day to get somewhere far. Time is as if in real life. If an hour passes in the game, an hour passes in real life unless you had some kind of teleportation magic, or super running boots/magic scroll) its extremely well done and really detailed down to last pebble in the river stream.

The fighting is utterly boring… I use that phrase with passion. All you do is basically get in its face and hack them to f-ing death, no real fun there. If you’re a mage, you spend three hours loading and saving just trying to keep out of the enemies range enough to cast a damn spell without them hitting and killing you in one swing of his/her/its sword.

Though, if you’re able to stand all of the boring fighting, and just sit down for a while and travel, and travel, and just kick back you just might find it addictive. You can join a Thieves Guild and get to the underground places that you normally couldn’t get to. Oh, did I mention the fact that you can steal things…? One of the highlights of the game; I stole most of my armor. I do this because money is really hard to come by unless you go through dungeons, taking everything down to the pottery and bribing the Pawnshop until you likes you 100%, then selling everything at a rounded off price.

So if you can get around this, go through the long, long storyline, and still have lots of addictive fun then I’m sure you’ll like it. There are many, many things to do so don’t put it down unless you’ve tried everything. It can become addictive, trust me; I know. Oh, and sometimes you can kill people and get away with it.

Some of my armor came from casting Poison on an elite guardsman, paying the $40 fine from attacking him each time. Then when he dies I strip him of his armor and clothing and dispose of the body. Ha ha ha! A truly remarkable game down deep inside, and just might be worth your time if you want to just kill some time or someone...

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind