The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition

Bethesda is scummy. Sadly they keep removing the previous game I bought from the store, and adding it again (the same game!). This means GOG can't match the game ID with the one in my library. I always have to double check with all their games to make sure I don't double purchase. Check first, before buying.

Morrowind. Here I am, only having completed it now. 48 hours, if OpenMW is to be believed. I will never forget it. But is it a good game? Yes, But I don't think it's some timeless masterpiece with nary a flaw. Far from it. Lots to say, but reader attention span is limited, so I'll be short. Let's run through the good stuff, yes? Something new around every corner, an exploratory smorgasbord Bethesda became known for. The art direction carries the 2002 graphics and animations. The world woven is something unique, an interplay of distinct cultures as told through quests, ruins, and esoteric books written by a living god. Try to capture that one's soul and turn it into a hilarously useless pair of pants. It's good fun. You can even complete the main quest afterwards. But. You aren't doing that all the time, are you? I won't criticise highly subjective stuff, like quest markers. Let's talk about the moment-to-moment gameplay. Early on, you fight the fatigue system and a horribly-communicated accuracy system, and what little magic you can cast is unusably unreliable. Even Daggerfall didn't have spell failure chance. And that's with your trained skills, even. Point is, what works in a tabletop RPG does not in a 3D first person RPG. Ask a Morrowind veteran what to do to mitigate the early suck. No first-time player would know to do what they suggest. Blinding Speed, anyone? That's just it, really. So much basic stuff simply does not work how you would expect it to. The effectiveness of enchanted items vs spells is but one example. Leveling is another. There are many more examples. And later? It's so easy to break the game on accident, let alone the myriad ways you can do it "properly." And what if you don't? You get what is frankly a very dull, basic experience, chatting to walking Wiki pages that are most of the NPCs, and pushing the simple mechanics to their limits. Their depth is, frankly, an illusion. It's still a good game in spite of it all. But be warned.

This may be a bit premature as I'll only be dabbling with the game until Skywind is complete but let me just say this game is incredible in terms of scope, ambition and things to do. I still remember playing it on the OG Xbox for many many hours. What made it so great? It certainly wasn't the combat which, especially when compared to Skyrim or Oblivion, was frustrating as Oblivion (eh?). It wasn't the races you could play as. It certainly wasn't the cliff racers. But for some reason this game gained a legion of fans, myself being one of them. And now, many years later, I can safely say that the appeal of the game was the freedom. Morrowind was huge. And the possibilities were grander than Red Mountain. There was so much to see, so much to find, so much to sell, so much to learn. It was one of the largest games I've ever put my hands on. Now, a decade later, the land of the Dunmer has pulled me back. Being available without DRM (try buying it elsewhere without it: You can't) and the plethora of mods (player created little additions you can add to the game to enrich/improve it) make this game one for the Video Game Museum. The game is not without its flaws, of course. The combat system, baleful to you, fresh out of Syd Neen (spelling?) is merciless and clunky in comparison to Oblivion and Skyrim. The graphics are outdated (thank Vivec for Skywind's team. Hopefully they can finish soon). But the world of Morrowind, the books, the cities, the hermits, the Daedra, the mystery of the Dwemer, Corpus and Skooma... all the things nerds like me who like immersive gaming experiences care about, it's all here. Get this to experience a truly massive game.

Morrowind represents the middle of the Elder Scrolls universe in multiple ways. It was the third game in the main series, it’s probably the third-best looking entry, and it’s the third time in a row you start the game captured by someone, even though you’re supposed to be the “Chosen One.” (Seriously, will there ever be a game in this series where you DON’T get captured and locked up before the game even begins?!) While unmodded versions of this game haven’t aged well, when it was first released it marked probably the biggest leap in technological ability ever seen in the series. It was also the first Elder Scrolls game available for a game console. Bethesda evolved from Daggerfall’s “paper doll” characters to the more refined character models here in Morrowind (even though they move like marionettes). Plus, the game map isn’t insanely large. However, that wasn’t always the plan. Originally, the game was supposed to include the entire province of Morrowind, but technical limitations forced developers to scale down to include only the island of Vvardenfell. Which is why Ebonheart is in such an odd location. Gameplay-wise, it’s cool to just be able to wander around the island, but the map HUD is unusable at best. The game also uses the “dice roll” attack system, so you can hack at an enemy for 10 minutes straight but only actually hit them twice. Even if you set the game to always use the best attack, it doesn’t mean every hit will land. Also, there are parts of the main quest near the end where you have to do pretty much the same thing over and over again, just for different groups. It gets pretty mind numbing. There are ways to improve your experience, though. You can mod it to look better, make cities larger, and even travel to the mainland. Using the OpenMW engine can help, too. But even these enhancements can only improve the game so much.

Word... I bought this game on disc quite a few years back & could never totally get into it, due to the many issues, such as horrible combat, lack luster drab boring atmosphere and graphics, boring ugly NPCs and many game breaking bugs. Its always amazed me to read all of the slobbering positive game reviews about Morrowind being so great...a Masterpiece, yeah right! Anyway I was bored the other night and started thinking about whether or not Morrowind could be fixed, so I began checking out all of the Morrowind MODs, both on Nexus and ModDB and thought, "gee I wonder if these would actually fix some or most of the issues that made this game less than enjoyable?" Short answer is yes they helped a lot. The community bug patch, Morrowind rebirth, better bodies, better faces, better dialog, better textures, better hit boxes during combat...a worm no longer kills you...and you can actually hit them on the first try WOW! All of these improvements went a long ways toward making the game more fun and and enjoyable for me to play. But, even so, despite what others may say, in my opinion anyway, it's still nowhere near the best or most enjoyable game ever created. Wait until it's on sale for around 5 bucks or less and then you won't be kicking yourself too hard for wasting 15 bucks just to try it out for yourself. Also sales are nice if you just want a digital copy of the game.