Review Morrowind

[Andere]

This is one of twins: the other is "Review Oblivion", http://forums.uesp.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=20372

Give your own opinion of Morrowind. Its goods and bads, what you liked / didn't like. Whatever... not really for discussion of mods, more for vanilla... but that's relative.

[dennis]

Ahhh Morrowind. I've been playing for 8, I guess almost 9 years now, and most of that time was spend wandering around trying to figure out how the game works.

I can still remember coming home from school to watch Dragonball Z. Anyone from the US remember Toonami? You know how they used to do little video game reviews in between shows? One of them was Morrowind, and all I can remember hearing is how "the continent was so large, it could literally take you days to travel across." I think I was hooked right there.

My first experiences with the game were... confusing. My only experience with RPGs up to that point was Final Fantasy, and I soon found Morrowind to be nothing like that. So I did what I'm sure the majority of new arrivals did... take out my fists and start wailing on Fargoth.

Death was common. Frustration was constant. But something kept bringing me back. Even though I couldn't kill a Scrib for beans, I got such enjoyment out of simply exploring Vvardenfell that the rest of the game didn't even matter. I think for the first four years of playing, I never even heard the word "Neravarine."

Somewhere around 2005 I figured out how to level up... and it's just been getting better since then.

[Avron the S'wit]

Did you know, Morrowind is, what, almost 9 years old now? It's hard to believe that there's a game that can still get so much attention after almost a decade of existence, but there's plenty of truth to be found in that sentiment: Morrowind is a great, great game.

Nowadays, sure, the vanilla graphics aren't that great - they pale in comparison to the modernish wonders of Oblivion, sure, and I'm certain Skyrim will make it look like some strange, ancient thing pulled out of a time capsule. People that play TESIV first tend to find it unpleasant, though I'm sure they have the same bias that Morrowind players have about quest and story quality. But there's good reason for this, too, because the story and quest of Morrowind - untouched, unmodded, straight out of the box - is so fantastic and gripping that you can't help but finish the game and go, "Wow. Wow." It's got plenty of juicy lore and the PC is instantly a part of it, without being told what, exactly, is the right way to examine the story behind Morrowind, and I think that's the best part. You really do play the game making your own conclusions.

And yes, Morrowind is Oblivion's meaner brother: not necessarily bigger, but he's tough enough to kick you around the schoolyard twice without batting an eyelash. Your skill levels are more important than in Oblivion, in that if you only have a 5 in longsword, you'd be lucky to wield one and hit a mudcrab. But I think that's realistic, too. Skills take lots of practice to develop technique and methodology. And the quests are tough where nothing is handed to you, the map is large (with no fast travel or markers), and sometimes it feels like you're playing Mountain Hiker Deluxe, but Vvardenfell is just so damn fascinating and pretty that, honestly, how can you complain?

Here we are, all these years later, still talking about how great Morrowind was...and I'm sure we'll keep on talking about it for a while yet.

[Syn]

My personal advice.

http://forums.uesp.net/viewtopic.php?f= ... 00#p352700

Other useful topics for beginners.

http://forums.uesp.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=20339

http://forums.uesp.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=20371

http://forums.uesp.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=20364

[jaxawier]

Vanilla,or like I played the first years with only what was available at bethesdas download-pages,the dlc´s and patches,on pc.

Great world,great quests,great all over
Joking aside, the main quest was really good,trying to find your way wasn´t always so easy resulting in some cursing done in the private,not here mind you.There was some tedious moments where you had to escort someone way out in the wild,I dont like escort missions in vanilla,at all,in the end it all sorted out just fine giving a good feel both in morrowind and expansions too btw.

Tried all houses and I usually go redoran my self,it gives a good feel doing the right thing,alternatives isn´t so nice,thieves or necromancers in the others,of course playing a bad character the other houses suits perfectly

Fighters guild works out ok most of the time,there is a quest or two that comes to mind that was hard to find the first times,two exactly,and even today when I know where it is,it takes a while to find it,luckily you don´t need to do both to get to the top,annoying bosses get sorted eventually so it ends good.

Tribunal Temple have an awesome ending,but that 7 graces is a hassle.Imperial Cult has its moments but to much fetch that,bring this there as well.Thieves guild works for sneaks,total waste if you aint,hard to complete some quests too if you aint.Mages guild has its moments to,including an escort mission,don´t like those at all,purely annoying.

All in all,to much fetch that,deliver this,kill mudcrabs,escorting services that is a major hassle,but the rewards more than compensate for those,graphics is pretty enough,and there is at least one breton face in vanilla that is usable,quite fond of that face actually,thankfully since one is seeing that face over and over again in a long time.

[bran]

i too have been playing morrowind for about 8 years the only rpg i played before morrowind was the final fantasy games and dragon warrior

i spent the first year getting my head kicked in by mudcrabs and the like. but i kept coming back to it

i like how morrowind doesnt hold your hand basically after the intro it was basically heres the world do whatever. you lose that in oblivion you really dont have to worry about dying so much in the first couple of hours like you do in morrowind

i remember walking around and seeing a nice little "ruin" never saw a daedric ruin before in the game all i had was a dagger and maybe an iron cuirass i go in there and got obliterated good times

[heratik]

Having only played Oblivion, I was thinking of getting Morrowind to fill the gap before Skyrim is released. But it sounds kind of hardcore. I imagine, having been wrapped in cotton wool by Oblivion and the Fallout series, I will find myself on the receiving end of many a pasting at the hands (claws) of lowly mudcrabs

Convince me otherwise

[Cactus]

We'd have to lie to you. Morrowind is hard and at first you probably will die a lot. You have to get used to it. But from a person who was introduced to TES through Oblivion and then later moved to Morrowind, I can tell you it's worth it. The game is truly incredibly.

[jaxawier]

Having only played Oblivion, I was thinking of getting Morrowind to fill the gap before Skyrim is released. But it sounds kind of hardcore. I imagine, having been wrapped in cotton wool by Oblivion and the Fallout series, I will find myself on the receiving end of many a pasting at the hands (claws) of lowly mudcrabs

Convince me otherwise

there is a topic in the wiki (uesp) for oblivion players coming to morrowind,might come in handy.
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Morr ... on_Players

ordinary (x-box,vanilla) there is two things to watch out for,your magicka since it doesn´t regenerate,and your fatigue which is far more crucial in morrowind regarding your chanses in successfully do your actions=casting spells,hit with a sword and such.
on pc I don´t play without a magicka regeneration mod.Playing without it I would probably do the atronach thing.

besides it is part of the fun in morrowind getting whacked by enemies and later return and do the whacking your self when you have grown stronger,since the levelling system isn´t like oblivion that works (most of the time,there is a few exceptions)
So even very late ingame you can get whacked if you get into areas where you are basically to weak to visit,specially when the enemies gang up on you,for example in daedric ruins,sewers in mournhold or out in the wild in solstheim.
May have to change tactics,train a bit or a lot,doing other things for a while,then return when you are stronger and with better equipment,good thing quest in morrowind is rarely time-limited.

[heratik]

there is a topic in the wiki (uesp) for oblivion players coming to morrowind,might come in handy.
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Morr ... on_Players

That looks kinda scary lol, I don't know if am ready to get that deep.

If I do get it, you'll be sure to see me on these forums asking for advice A LOT!

[Sidhejester]

Having only played Oblivion, I was thinking of getting Morrowind to fill the gap before Skyrim is released. But it sounds kind of hardcore. I imagine, having been wrapped in cotton wool by Oblivion and the Fallout series, I will find myself on the receiving end of many a pasting at the hands (claws) of lowly mudcrabs

Convince me otherwise

Oh, you'll receive a pasting by many other creatures, too. It keeps you humble. On the positive side, the more you run away, the faster you can run away. (Yeah...my athletics and acrobatics leveled up much faster than anything else.)

But the pastings are totally worth it. I love everything about the game. One of my favorite things about Morrowind is how accomplished you feel when you finally manage to complete that one quest or one dungeon, and you can walk out battered and beat-up, clutching your precious shinies that you fought down there for...

...and then you get pasted by the cliffracer that lay in wait until you used up all your healing.

(Okay, I love almost everything about the game. I hate cliffracers.)

[Andere]

@heratik: Morrowind's not bad, in any way. But this is, actually, a thread for reviews... please look for another thread for your questions, or why not start a new one, if you feel for it?

But I recommend walking / running / jumping / strolling around in Morrowind. It's sure worth it!

Cheers, m8.

[Alu]

Even though I've been playing Morrowind for just a bit over a month, I can give a review that definitely won't ever change.

It all began with a friend who changed his internet provider, being unable to join me in the MMORPG we used to play for quite a while. We still communicated via ICQ, which he has on his mobile phone. And there it was, when he told me about Morrowind. "There are too many quests. Too many people. I can't seem to finish this certain quest, because I need a book I sold long ago - no idea WHERE I sold it. Guards attack me, because I wear their uniform, which I stole in one of their locations. etc. pp." This sounded great enough for me to order it immediately. I was a bit confused at first because I thought I ordered the German version. But oh well, english can't hurt. And so my adventure began...

To me Morrowind is, what a true RPG should be: Raw and in many aspects just realistic. You start with nothing, been thrown into a world without knowing where you are or why you are here. You are being guided by some authorities, getting an idea about the basic menus and functions, being told your first rough directions where to go and what to do. But that's it; you leave the census office and are on your own - no idea where or how to earn some gold for armor and weapons, no idea where that "silt strider" might be, no idea about anything.
There, let's talk to that man over there, Fargoth, maybe he can help us. A ring? Wait, I found a ring, maybe it's his - let's be nice and give it back. Then after walking around a bit, there is that gigantic insect standing near town. A Boss? That early? Drawing the stolen Dagger from the census office and bravely (or cowardly?) running towards the beast and hitting its legs. Nothing happens, and it doesn't seem hostile, now what? Lets climb the big rock sand see if it can be hurt on its body. Said, done. And there's a woman standing atop the rock, telling me that this is a silt strider. Awesome, now let's get going to Belmira. Oh, it's Balmora, alright. To Balmora, good madame!

And the game just kept on being full of surprises, moments of scare, of excitement, of joy, of everything. All thanks to the really great story -of the main quest and probably every other quest in the game- and all the additional lore brought to the player in form of books, people's tales. It just keeps on being interesting at any point of one's progress.
In fact it is so interesting, that in some of my game sessions, when I really wanted and needed to learn about morrowind and its people, I did nothing but 3 or more hours of reading. Reading and maybe a bit of walking. Reading books, reading scrolls, listening to people giving advices to me, telling me some Morrowind, telling me about diseases, weapon types and their trades etc.
Whenever someone gives me a quest I carefully read their instructions especially regarding locations; "Go north until you see ... then turn east and walk around the mountain ... then head west until you see ... to your left." That's just so much more real than "Go to ... *marked in map*"

I grew frustrated about slavery quite early, when I visited a smuggler cave somewhere between Seyda Neen and Balmora and saw them caged in, almost naked and with these bracers equipped, strolling up and down in their little cell. Somehow this moment managed to awake a kind of robin hood-motivation in me; I wanted to free them all, no matter what it might cost (especially since I played a Khajiit). So I wandered around this cave, killed every single member of this scum gang and finally was able to free these poor slaves and "bribing" every single one of them with 100 Gold so they would be able to enjoy their new-found freedom a bit more.

I could endlessly continue like this. And that just shows how well Morrowind plays with people's sense of justice or appeal to their sympathy or disgust towards NPCs by simply filling these NPCs with a bit of well made backgrounds, their own stories and so on. Also it can manipulate a first time player's sympathy towards whole factions - example: I heard so much, what I intepreted as negative, about the Temple, that I generally was against them. Whenever I saw one of them, telling me to "hurry this up" because they "don't have all day to stand and talk to" me I just thought: "You better be glad that there are guards around, I would love to try out my new sword." Even today, being a member of the Temple, I still don't really like them.
Apart from this, the sheer amount of skills makes one curious to fool around with it, try it out, test it and play with it. No matter if it is useful for one's class or not. The game just invites to try everything as every skill is "accessible" at every moment of playing.
Still having neither been to Read Mountain to face Dagoth Ur, nor have I been at least once to Solstheim, but beaten the Tribunal expansion (don't want to spoil, but: The last two bosses were incredibly hard!) I can just imagine what I yet have to experience. And I can't wait to actually see all that I've missed or not seen yet.

But to all the Goodness, there's of course some major disturbance.
It's not the grafics, personally I love the vanilla grafics. They're so stylistic and unique, especially the faces of all of Morrowind's inhabitants.
No, it is the perspective. I simply get seasick after playing a game in first person perspective for a while. And this clashed very badly with the general awesomeness of this game at the beginning, as I had to stop every 15 minutes. Meanwhile I got used to it a bit and can play maybe 90 minutes straight, but still...
There is only one first person point of view-game I have ever encountered which didn't get me seasick: Metroid Prime (I usually am a console player, I just own 5 PC games and 1 mmorpg). No Idea why
Since this is just a personal Issue, I think Morrowind makes an almost perfect game, moving it up to Rank 2 in my personal "Best Games ever"-Charts.

Regards,
Alu

[Andere]

Thanks Alu, you might apply a job as Bethesda PR-person.

[Eltee]

I love everything about that game, but...
CLIFRACERS!!!

[Vermundr]

Having played Morrowind on the xbox but later traded the cd for something else because the text was unreadable on the tv-screen.
I then started with Oblivion and have spent hundreds of hours in Cyrodiil and just now started on a adventure in Morrowind on the PC, much better than on the xbox.
It's hard, harder to find certain locations but much more fun when you find them, you got to use your brain when exploring.
The atmosphere is alien, the Dunmer have their own culture and is kind of xenophobic, (though they are courteous to me)
the storyline is also interesting.

I like it!

[Travalanche]

Okay, I would just like to say that it has literally been the most enjoyable gaming experience I have ever had thus far. I played it back when I was around 13 years old after getting it from Christmas from my older cousin and after posting a question as to whether I should play it again on or not on these forums Akiraka suggested that I should and I do not regret it at all!!!

I started off picking a slightly modified Khajiit barbarian build that I named a Berserker, I added alteration, illusion and such because I like to be able to use non combat spells that are helpful such as levitation, magical lockpicking, and water walking/breathing. I also picked Sneak for obvious reasons because I love being sneaky lol. But anyways I have been playing it daily for around 6 hour or more per day on my Xbox GOTY version and have been doing basically every quest I have come by and collecting a ton of are items and putting them in a creepy mansion infested with curpus monsters in Ald'Ruhn. I can safely say that it is superior than Oblivion, at first I hated the walk animations but after hitting around level 12-15 or so they looked much better and I could run far faster, I have actually already hit level 25 but sadly the best weapons and armor I have are a set of full glass "minus the boots cause I'm a khajiit" and a Glass Claymore called the Magebane which is really good and helps me kill casters, I also have a Deadric Katana but it weighs over twice as much as the claymore and has less reach and the same damage so I don't use it.


My build is pretty funky though, I have Maxed Endurance, 90 Agility, 82 strength, 88 agility, 53 willpower, 74 speed, 83 personality, and 51 luck but it really doesn't matter because I MAXED MY Endurance asap! Well I'm off to finish my Thieves guild questline, then it's time to do my last few main quest missions cya.

EDIT: Also I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope that Skyrim is as good as Morrowind, I have been watching many videos on it and it seems to be somewhere between Oblivion and Morrowind depth-wise.

[Andere]

Travalanche's topic merged here. "Morrowind never dies!"

[ladamyre]

I was a big fan of Sir Tech's Wizardry 7 & 8. So when I saw this game on the shelf I had to buy it, and I've never regretted it. Morrowind makes those two old 386 and 486 games look all the more primitive. Kinda like Super Mario Brothers on the old 8-bit Nintendo.

I'll never forget (and it keeps on scaring the crap out of me) waking up from a rest and hearing, "I HAVE YOU!" and turning to find a guy in what looks like a fremen stillsuit throw a dart at you and then start whaling away with a dagger. (Tribunal)

Or opening a door to hear a witch on the other side yell "You N'wah!" and come to try and kill you for invading her crib, all full of goodies. I find it hilarious to hear that, yes, there are uncouth people in Vvardefell that use the N word too.

But best of all is the Construction Set. I know there aren't (IMO) any good tutorials on how to use it, and creating items, meshes and textures requires the use of other tools. But being able to go in and modify an existing structure, move the table that's obstructing, or add lights, even give yourself a slave, has got to be the greatest idea any game developer has ever had.

I've wondered if Bethesda thought they made a mistake, so much content can be added through the hundreds of plug-ins out there, that they thought it hurt Oblivion sales. But I was gratified to hear they are pleased with what the modding community has done with Morrowind and Oblivion and have given us a new version of the CS with Skyrim.

Morrowind... what's not to like?

[mcjordalini]

Ahhh Morrowind. I've been playing for 8, I guess almost 9 years now, and most of that time was spend wandering around trying to figure out how the game works.

I can still remember coming home from school to watch Dragonball Z. Anyone from the US remember Toonami? You know how they used to do little video game reviews in between shows? One of them was Morrowind, and all I can remember hearing is how "the continent was so large, it could literally take you days to travel across." I think I was hooked right there.

My first experiences with the game were... confusing. My only experience with RPGs up to that point was Final Fantasy, and I soon found Morrowind to be nothing like that. So I did what I'm sure the majority of new arrivals did... take out my fists and start wailing on Fargoth.

Death was common. Frustration was constant. But something kept bringing me back. Even though I couldn't kill a Scrib for beans, I got such enjoyment out of simply exploring Vvardenfell that the rest of the game didn't even matter. I think for the first four years of playing, I never even heard the word "Neravarine."

Somewhere around 2005 I figured out how to level up... and it's just been getting better since then.

My exact experience .. I started playing it when I was 8 years old lol .. Somewhere around then. I had it for the Xbox and wasn't much of a PC gamer besides Diablo II and it's expansion (Lord of Destruction), but Morrowind was great .. I remember when my friends older brother got me Umbra, I was pretty excited to go wail on the citizens of Balmora. I then questioned why I always attacked that city, so I eventually killed people all over in Pelgiad and even attempted Vivec (got my ass handed to me lol). After playing that character I decided to try role-playing the game and get immersed into the game. It was pretty awesome .. I played a Robin Hood kind of thief character .. Generous and giving, but stole from the a** holes (including from guilds that hated me). Great game and love it ... Been playing Elder Scrolls since !

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

Morrowind.... is, in plain words, astoundingly awesome.

The way you play the game is... capturing. You get a lot of freedom. You could try and get full Daedric armor, try and vanquish all the cliff racers on Vvardenfell(impossible), you could go on a killing spree, you could drown a billion times. I can't explain it in words... It's awesome.

[Sparking]

I just registered solely for the purpose of voicing my opinion on this game. It'll probably be my only post since I still want to discover Morrowind's world for myself and I'm not done yet.

Anyway... I'm fairly new to Bethesda and Western RPGs in general. I played Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas. I liked New Vegas the most and liked Oblivion the least (but it was still good).
I've been getting into older games lately, gems I've missed, so I thought "why not try Morrowind? It gets a lot of praise so it should be good."
I managed to get the Xbox version for a good price, I originally wanted the PC version but the controls of the PC scare me off... I've always been more of a console gamer and I'm not very good at adapting in general. Not to mention I'm no good at computers in general either. Looking back, maybe it would've been a better idea to go with the PC version, maybe I'll rebuy the game for PC but I'm not too sure about that yet.

Anyway... for those who don't like to read: Morrowind is a great game with many nice moments.
As for the long read... there have been some cool moments I had with this game, like finding a glass Halberd (which is currently my best weapon), getting lost in Vivec, cautiously exploring Red Mountain territory with potions for blight and normal diseases, getting my butt kicked in a few Daedric dungeons, enjoying the farm-like setting with all the betty netches close to Vivec, being cautious while fighting the bonewalkers since they'll probably decrease the amount of items you can carry if you aren't careful which is really nasty (pretty much equal to a game over for me)...

I personally think it's superior to Oblivion but not in every way. I'll start with the more negative stuff: I still miss the graphical detail Oblivion had... in Morrowind the outside world feels a little empty sometimes compared to Oblivion and so do the cities, camps and towns. The graphical detail helped a lot in filling that emptiness.

I also don't really like how the music is used in this game. I like the music of Morrowind better than Oblivion's counterpart, but it's a little unfortunate how the outside world, cities and dungeons all share the same music. They could've made new tracks for the dungeons. Sometimes it sounds out of place. Maybe for the cities too.
I did notice how there's a higher chance of getting peaceful music in the cities and so on, while in the wilderness there is a higher chance of getting more adventurous, epic music. But maybe that's just me.
I've been considering using custom soundtracks by using my laptop, but I still haven't tried it.

I'm also not sure if the console conversion was all that succesful... It's playable but there are some issues, framerate could be better for example and the loading times are really long.

The rest of the game is great... the world is very interesting. Even though I can't help but feel the world is smaller in sheer scope compared to Oblivion, the locations, the lore and the aesthetics really fascinate me a lot more! I even read a good amount of the in-game books, I can't say I was interested in that stuff in Oblivion. The gameplay is also nice, I like how everything is stat-based including combat and how it doesn't hold your hand as much as other games do. I remember dying quite a bit in the beginning. Saving a lot really is key here, if you die and don't have a recent save file, tough luck! However the sense of progression I feel in this game is great. I also like how I have pretty good attributes (90 strength and 101 endurance) and I still have weaknesses (magic attacks) and can still die if I'm not too careful against certain opponents.
I haven't finished the main quest yet but I can say I'm more interested in it than I was in Oblivion's.

It was (and still kind of is, because it requires your time and dedication) a hard game to get into for me, but I'm liking it a lot. I think it's safe to say that after more than 9 years, this is still a great RPG, which makes it even more impressive than it already is in my opinion. Who knows I might try Arena or Daggerfall one day but that's a little too far in the future for me to consider this.

Anyway, that was about it for me. Not a fully-fledged review but it should be good enough.

[ladamyre]

Trust me Sparking, Arena and Daggerfall are nothing like Morrowind. You will be disappointed, unless the sheer lure of going someplace you've never been before outweighs the primitive settings.

Oh, if you do decide to go PC, you can have all those great Oblivion graphics and then some. It's a major undertaking and will require some poking around forums to better understand some of the stuff it needs, but it's called the Morrowind Graphics and Sound Overhaul and has a bunch of well balanced plug-ins that make the game (IMO) outshine Oblivion. The website for the project can be found by typing "MGSO" into the Google search engine, and it has a lot of helpful FAQ's.

You'll need a 3 Ghz processor and nVidia GeForce 8 series GPU or 2x7 series (SLI) or better.

Don't be a stranger.

[OblivionDuruza]

My experience with Morrowind was actually because my old computer couldn't run Oblivion, and I was just so hooked on the Elder Scrolls that I needed to have a TES Game to play. So I went online and purchased the Morrowind GOTY Edition, and I'm where I am today as a result.

At first the game felt older and less advanced than Oblivion, but it was what i had, so I got into it. I think that I actually linked having more skills, and I very much liked the diversity between different races in the game. I was captivated by the vistas, the places, the architecture and the great outdoors. I was a little underwhelmed by some of the combat and a little annoyed at how slow the PC runs, but most of all, I was ensnared by the vibrant and far-reaching faction system, in particular, the Great Houses.

I think I really fell in love with the idea of Houses, with the Dunmer culture and with the entire clash of alien and familiar, with the native Dunmer populace and their Imperial lords. Although I was an Oblivion baby, I soon found that there were many aspects of Morrowind that I preferred, many of which I've mentioned above. So despite its shortcomings, I found myself raving about Morrowind to the friend who had introduced me to Oblivion, and I found myself sinking more and more hours in, and eventually stepping foot into the world of modded Morrowind, and its endless possibilities.

That's just a small taste of my Morrowind journey, but I think it sums up Morrowind as a game. Despite its age and its out-datedness, Morrowind holds many wondrous secrets within, just waiting for the player to discover. Its graphics may not be truly advanced, but they have character and charm, something that doesn't even work on Oblivion's engine, as demonstrated by Morroblivion. And most of all, Morrowind created Vvardenfell and its occupants, in such a way that it was different to Cyrodiil. I can't quite place it, but something about this game just makes it special, and it's something that anyone who hasn't should definitely take a look at.