You awake, prisoner?
Because Irreverend Opinions is about to enter the province of Morrowind.
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The Blurb
A staggering quest of epic proportions, you begin as a vision-touched prisoner aboard a boat, sent from the capital of imperial Tamriel to the remote, swamp-and-desert island of Morrowind. An incredible journey of discovery, betrayal, deicide, vengeance, and conquest spreads out from there.
Open world game with heavy RPG elements and storyline.
The Good
Very well-polished game with the old "Daggerfall" Kirkbride lore touch, which is to say "you can drown in the world's content". The plot is sublime, with hours of invested time needed to complete it, with epic proportions matched only by juggernauts of the gaming industry. The engine allows for an incredible amount of flexibility and freedom - you can spend time to become any kind of character you would desire, and there are multiple paths to get to the final plot.
Detail is given to pretty much everything in the game, and if you are a curious explorer, you can get lost in the environment. Despite the outdated graphics by today's standards, the sheer level of content is overwhelming, and sets a standard that is sadly unmet since. The musical score matches the scale of the setting, and fans of the game will instantly recognise the strains of Morrowind's soundtrack - along with the pang of longing that it will bring.
Bethesda kept to it's normal tradition of making the game extremely moddable, and even supported the game well past the three expansions they released for it; more quests and equipment has been released officially simply to enhance the game that little bit more, and if you wish to mod it further with extra content, the Nexus holds a lot of quality content.
The Bad
The UI is often confusing and convoluted*, with bizarre choices for default keys (E to jump, space to interact) and there is often a lack of explanation for terms and controls. The melee interface is not intuitive, and for modern gamers will feel lacking for the effort you need to take.
Modern players will be more than slightly turned off by the very aged graphics*, and the sound effects are somewhat lacking*. The plot does not often leave much explanation for steps needing to be taken, which can leave confusion and frustration in it's wake. Almost everything in the wilderness wants to kill you.
As usual, Bethesda's game engine is less than stable; an official set of patches are available to counter this.
* Suggestions to alleviate this are listed below.
The Ugly
Cliff racers. The begging elf in Tribunal.
Suggestions
Players will likely want to download and install the unofficial patches, and the code patch, to stabilize the engine; then the Morrowind Sound & Graphics Overhaul to improve the quality of the UI, default sounds, and graphics somewhat. Following that, the official content patches add extra content, and the Tamriel Rebuilt project will add even more to the sandbox you have to roam in.
After all of that, if you care to do some more modding, the game world is, proverbially, your oyster.
The Summary
9/10 for this one, simply because the sheer amount of content and effort they put in overcomes a good portion of the poor graphics, the bugs, and poor UI choices they made.
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This review is hosted for archival and backup purposes; the original can be found on Steam.
