First of all, Morrowind's strongest point is its replay value. With ten different races, twenty-one different character
classes (and the ability to create your own class), a huge world with an incomprehensible number of quests, Morrowind
had me hooked for months! The best part was, of course, the fact that once you have beaten the game you may go back and
replay it as one of the other three major character types (the types: magic, stealth, and combat). Due to the fact it is
an RPG (role playing game) you can bet it has a outrageously complicated system of "leveling up." The system includes eight
major abilities which to raise you must have leveled up ten times in your major or minor skills (you choose these from a list
of skills that includes magical abilities such as conjuration skill, combat strengths such as long blade skill, and stealth skills
such as speech craft; there are twenty-seven in all).
The first town you enter in the beginning.
Next, Morrowind has an excellent atmosphere to it. When you are in the Bitter Coast region you here the frogs in the pools of muck,
in the Ashlands constant storms of ash fly across the land, and in the Ascadian Isles you must swim from place to place and risk being
attacked by carnivorous fish. The towns in cities vary in architecture which adds to the surroundings and the ruins of civilizations
past are haunted by ghosts. The music is excellent; when battle comes it changes and quickens. The creatures and people you fight are
all expertly modeled as well as the surroundings.
A battle with the locals; cliffracers.
Third, your varying enemies also make Morrowind great. From the cult worshiping long dead Gods to the near harmless cliffracer, there
are forty-eight different types of creatures and hundreds of NPCs (the other characters in the game). And for once in a game you can't
be so trigger happy; once you kill someone they are dead for good and who knows, they could have been mission critical. Anyway, there
are other ways to get what you want then killing: you can use your speechcraft skill to try to flatter them or your sneak skill to
be a pickpocket. In the end, you want to avoid killing innocents anyway because if you are seen you get a bounty on your head... not good.
What can happen if you get a bounty.
Also, Morrowind has a fairly good storyline. There is a major quest which involves the rising of the "6th house" or many other quests
which have their own storyline. Peoples motives exist; less simply evil characters and more characters you just don't know if you should
trust.
Morrowind also has an amazing online community; strange for a single player game. The major advantage to having PC version of Morrowind
(I would not even consider getting the X-Box version) is the player created mod. A mod is simply a modification made to the game by
some other player looking to add to the game. With the outrageous number of mods out there, I figure if the online community stays
together there is almost an unlimited amount of play time you can get from this game.
Now for the downsides. Yes, even Morrowind has downsides I am afraid... Probably the most annoying is the bugs you find everywhere in the
game. Now I am not saying that Bethesda could do much about them (due to the large size of the game)... but they are still annoying. Another
thing about the game that isn't too big but I doesn't fail to annoy me is clipping problems (clipping deals with the walls and objects going
through them). For example when you kill something sometimes it will fall directly through the wall so half of it's body is hidden. Also, rain
finds it's way through any surface in as long as it is considered outside. Probably my biggest problem with the game is in the end combat
comes down to clicking at an enemy; no skill whatsoever.
Some of the amazing rain mentioned above.
In conclusion, THIS GAME IS A MUST BUY! the good by far outweighs the bad. A word of caution: this game has the tendency to become more
then just a game, it becomes an obsession.
Good Morrowind links:
- Offical site here.
- Good news and modding site here.
- Good hints and FAQ site here.
- Good tutorial on how to use the construction set here.
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email me; it cant hurt. peteoburito@hotmail.com
