The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition

I never got deep into this one back in the day because of the annoyingly realistic feature that running makes your character tired. While Morrowind does appear to be a world best explored slowly, that patience only really pays off in reading through the lore. Walking - literally walking - around the countryside will get the player bored and/or frustrated and the character delayed and/or killed. HOWEVER - the GOG version comes the TES Construction Set, which is a program that you can use to mod the game (look in the folder where the game is installed). I used it to make running no longer tire out the player character (with some help from forums), and suddenly the game made a giant leap from unplayable to a pretty standard Elder Scrolls game. If you don't mind the old graphics, Morrowind's ... unique ... aesthetic (i.e. mushrooms, bugs, and ash), and you're looking to play more Elder Scrolls while we wait for Bethesda to descend from the mountain with Elder Scrolls VI, buy this on sale. Play it vanilla, mod it to pieces (I personally recommend giving yourself the ability to fly via the levitate spell effect), or select from the work produced by the large modding community. You can make it feel very much like Oblivion, or just turn it into your own crazy sandbox. (3/5 because some assembly required)

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.