Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC, XBX)
by Susie Vee

Now, we admit that we’re not the first in line to put on our tunics for the local Renaissance Fair. In other words, deeply involved sword & sorcery role-playing games have never been our bag, baby.

It’s not that we have a chip on our shoulders about RPGs, (our 40-odd hours of FFX should tell you that), it’s just that the pencil and paper origins of so many “PC” style RPGs is an acquired taste.

If you’re not hip to our lingo, let’s just say that often times, years of programming effort goes into a game engine designed to perfectly mimic the effects of rolling some 20-sided dice and referring to some high school kid as the “Dungeon Master.” Trust us, it’s all best left in the past.

However, when we heard about an upcoming game called Morrowind, our interest was piqued. For years, we’ve been hoodwinked by game companies promising us “immersive” worlds and “non-linear” gameplay. In the end, most of the time we’re stuck trading box A for magic item B so we can get key C to get through the next door.

But keeping track of the game’s development for several months, we started to believe the hype, and we began clearing our calendars for some quality time on the land of Morrowind.

Despite the fact that it’s called Elder Scrolls III, you don’t need any prior knowledge to play Morrowind. We have no idea what happened in the first two games, but it’s a safe bet it had something to do with and elves and orcs and stuff.

Loading up Morrowind, we start out on a ship headed to a small town. We’ve just been released from prison and will no doubt soon get sucked up into some kind of grand adventure. Going through the local customs office, you choose your race, gender, face and hair. There’s a ton of variations available, and while you may not be the prettiest orc on the block, you can customize your appearance a great deal. A few minutes later, you choose your “class” or profession. You can choose from a list, answer some goofy questions and have one chosen for you, or mix and match skills to make your own.

Despite a few references to you as “he” in some of the early text, the game works well if you create a female character, and we even met a charming rogue who offered us a kiss.

Choosing a class basically just gives you a set of stats to start out with in categories like Strength and Intelligence, and skills in things like sorcery and different kinds of weapons. From there, you can develop these different skills any way you want, emphasizing some and ignoring others.

Now, you’re out on the street, and free to roam absolutely anywhere you want. There’s a huge continent that would take hours and hours to traverse, and many cities and dungeons to visit. You can talk to almost anyone, and ask them questions about a varied list of topics.

Talk to the right people and you’ll pick up the threads of the game’s main story arc. Or you can put that off until later and just go adventuring for a while. Plenty of people will be happy to give you jobs to do, or you can just go hunting outlaws.

If all that violence turns you off, it’s fairly easy to avoid too much bloodshed, at least for the early part of the game. You can make a living buying and selling goods, haggling the best price from different traders. Even better, whenever you use a skill, like haggling or persuading someone, you earn points towards improving that skill.

Combat, and you will find your share of it, is a mixed bag. You never really get the feeling that you’re really in control of your character, since much of the action is decided by the game’s probability engine. So slick mouse moves won’t do too much for you, it’s more about managing your resources and spells.

Graphically, Morrowind looks great, but requires a fairly muscular system to run smoothly. The game world is highly detailed, if somewhat sparcely populated. But it’s so huge, we’re amazed it all fits on one CD.

The game has its fair share of bugs, including some annoying mid-game crashes, we'd advise you to save often. We’re told a patch is in the works, so keep an eye out for one. You can also download “mods,” both official and user-made, that can add new characters and items to the game. An editor is included on a second CD if you’re in the mood to design your own dungeon.

The Xbox version is exactly the same game, but graphically is not as crisp as a high-end PC. The controls translate well, and hopefully the bugs are few and far between, since patching a console game is tough.

Morrowind is such an ambitious project, and works on so many levels, that we can easily recommend it to non-RPG fans. Just be prepared to invest some serious time. By some estimates, the game can take 200 hours to complete.

SCORE: 10