I've been slowly working my way through this game's main quest for just
shy of three years now (you can check out my pretty much abandoned
attempt at chronicling that here),
and only really got in gear to finish it recently when it dawned on me
that we're only four months away from the next Elder Scrolls game coming
out. I didn't want it hanging over me when I dove back into that world.
The funny thing is, despite "beating" the game, I've barely scratched
the surface of what's available, especially if you include its two
expansions. I finished the main quest, I made some advances in a couple
guilds, I did a bit of side questing, but there are entire factions I
never interacted with and whole regions I didn't really explore. This
series is known for its hugeness, and Morrowind certainly doesn't
disappoint in that regard. I'd like to at least finish the main quests
for the expansions at some point, but even if I don't, I sank a lot of
hours into the game without coming close to running out of stuff to do.
Comparing Morrowind with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the
sequel that came out four years later, it's easy to see what was
improved and what took a step back in the name of user friendliness.
Most of the gameplay in Morrowind feels pretty archaic at this point -
you still have the ability to wield a variety of weapons and magic
powers, but it's more awkward to select what you want to use, and the
combat itself is amazingly archaic. There are a few different attack
types, but all they seem to do is provide different advantages based on
the type of weapon, and fighting someone (or something essentially boils
down to repeatedly clicking on and hoping the numbers say you got a
hit. There can be a lot of planning and strategy in one of the more
difficult encounters - rarely have I put as much thought into what
potions or scrolls I'll use before I rush into battle in other games. It
still feels kind of crummy though, especially when 2002 really wasn't
that long ago (though it was closer when I started playing).
This gameplay simplicity is felt in the quest design as well. There's a
richness to Morrowind's world, with many different groups representing
very different ideas, all having opinions about each other. Most NPCs
have a ton of dialogue, unvoiced and occasionally shared but well
written, and you can find out a lot just by asking. As far as the quests
I actually did though, all of that flavor didn't have much impact on
what I was actually asked to do. You spend your time tracking down
monsters, recovering items, and talking to people, and not much of gets
more interesting than that. I didn't find much as instantly compelling
as the more memorable quests from Oblivion, where you're solving a
mystery or being transported to another plane of existence. I won't
complain about the fact that the quests hold your hand a lot less than
in the sequel, because pretty much everything you need to know is there
to find if you're inquisitive enough. There's no markers telling you
where to go on the map, the journal is more of a log on what you know
than instructions on what to do next, and you can only jump from one
part of the map to another by paying someone to transport you. It can
lead to frustration if you just want to get things done without puzzling
out yourself what comes next. But it's not really a game for people who
have no curiosity, the whole point of the game is sort of to uncover
things at your own pace.
The presentation of the game is acceptable, though it's hard to say how
it fared at the time. Other games definitely run smoother with better
quality visuals, but Morrowind gets a lot of credit for its scale. As I
mentioned the voice acting is limited to brief snippets when you
approach a character, but it works well enough to sell the setting, and
the music is nice without being too explosive, plus it's useful when it
changes up to let you know when an enemy is near. The sound effects are
pretty basic, but they're also functionally useful. Unfortunately the
game is pretty messy technically. Even though it came out years ago, it
still has stability problems, crashing more often than you'd like for a
game that could stand to autosave a bit more often. There's some
awkwardness in the game engine too, with lots of NPCs and monsters
having difficulty finding their way over to you. Cliff Racers are
already incredibly annoying, when you combine that with the game's
troubles getting them to fly to you correctly, you have one of the worst
game enemies of all time.
In any case, I wanted to get a taste of Morrowind, the predecessor of
one of my favorite games ever made, and in the end I definitely got
that. I didn't find it to generally be nearly as fun to actually play
for hours on end, but there is something unique about the game that I
think I appreciated. The main quest is certainly more interesting from a
conceptual perspective than Oblivion's, for a start. Just wandering
around a city at night, looking up at the vivid sky of
Tamriel, searching for the next person who will help you keep moving
forward, you realize the great job they did creating a sense of place
that most games even now sometimes struggle with. I would love to see
the detail of Morrowind enhanced by enjoyable gameplay like Oblivion's.
Hopefully The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim can come close to doing that this November.
