Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Review

Overall Rating

I first encountered Morrowind when I bought a new graphics card circa 2003. Back then graphics cards weren't quite the monsters they are today. I went from a GeForce 2 straight to a GeForce FX 5200. Morrowind came bundled with the graphics card but for a long time I didn't touch it - thinking RPG's were only for the ranks of the ultra-geeks with degrees in computer programming. But it sat at the top of the "must have" RPG games in the back of PC Zone for months and months on end, and so eventually I thought I'd try it out. The first time I played it I was up most of the night exploring the wonder that is Vvardenfell. Never had I experienced a more absorbing, other-worldy sense as I walked through a completely open world without boundaries. Fast forward to 2009 and I'm still playing it. The criticisms about "poor graphics" are obsolete and invalid thanks to the MASSIVE online modding community. In a testimony to the sheer love people have of this game you can still easily find plenty of user created mods for it, ranging from improved character heads, to the awesome texture pack mods that change and dramatically improve the look of the entire WORLD in the game. The game itself is completely open-ended. You can play at your own pace and in your own style. AI often stumbles particularly path-finding. Often cliff racers, pterodactyl-like creatures, will take an age to finally fly down to attack you, and you can go away and make a cup of tea waiting for them to come down. As expected in most RPGs this game uses a series of stats, and these can be improved throughout the game, either by practising a certain skill and getting better at it (increasing your points) or by simply paying someone to raise those numbers.
There are endless quests and side quests. You can also join several Guilds which is interesting as some are pitted against eachother, and you can actually be a member of several at once.
The replay value of this game is pretty much endless, because fans have made so many quests, and also made entire new villages. Basically I think this game could take me into retirement. A word of warning though. Due to it's antiquated Quake 2 engine it can become quite tempramental and does tend to crash on modern systems. It's ability to run at ALL can get knocked out by, I have discovered via a thorough process of elimination, the codecs contained in some modern games. As such you should choose extremely carefully which games to install with your Morrowind. However I'm running Xp Pro with SP3 and it is running like a dream - albeit with crashes now and again. Ensure you save OFTEN, as the game is quite fragile. But to throw your hands up and say "all that sounds too much fuss" is to lose a real 'experience' of a game. Games like Morrowind do not come along often, and RPG's of this calibre do not come along often. Sure it's been long-since surpassed in terms of graphics but the fact that it was released in 2002, and is still having mods made for it as recently as this year, should tell you everything you need to know.

Members' Comments onelevation's Review

• larryjordin on 30th Sep 2009

  I guess you already said the words I want to say (LOL). At the very least, this is a very good review. You nailed every good points of the game and I absolutely agree.
  Overall this game just got me overwhelmed.