The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Ready to do Battle

Unquestionably, the most anticipated role-playing game this year is the third installment of the Elder Scrolls series, Morrowind. Judging from the latest build that Bethesda has sent our way, it looks like the third time may be the charm. It wasn't that Daggerfall was necessarily a disaster, but it was buggy, and only catered to a limited group of role-players. Morrowind plans to change that by offering the player a wider range of quests and abilities, while still maintaining a main storyline and a more stable game.

Morrowind is the land currently dominated by the Dunmer, or Dark Elves. Through a period of four hundred years, the Dunmer has seen their power overthrown, and the injection of several different races unto their land. The people form groups, trying to establish a level of power within the land. This is all happening while a mysterious curse called the Blight is rapidly spreading, killing everything within its path. Your journey begins on a prison ship. Performing various duties gives you the chance to earn your freedom. This is where the game stops being linear, and allows you to do whatever you want. While the main storyline is always available for you to complete, in no way are you obligated to do so at any time.

A New Breed of Monsters Await

One aspect that you can't help but notice in Morrowind is the graphics. Utilizing the latest technology, Bethesda has managed a world that is full of objects. The towns and forts are massive in scale, which can also be entered to show off some indoor architecture. Morrowind has some really impressive textures, and the terrain is modeled so realistically, that you never get the sense that you are walking on a flat plane. Yet I see a potential problem with the many boulders in the game. If by chance you happen to travel into a ditch surrounded by rocks, your inability to climb or jump onto the rocks means you are pretty much a sitting duck. One thing I noticed was that to keep players from getting lost, you will find signs placed at various intersections pointing you in the direction that you may need to go. The game is also in real-time, and the game effectively displays different times of the day. The nighttime is definitely my favorite, because the star and moons illuminate the land very realistically. If you have been out camping before during a full moon, then you got a good idea on how Morrowind looks at night. That's not to say that other parts of the day aren't equally impressive. While the skies haven't reached that ultimate level of realism, Morrowind looks to have some best skies on the PC.

With skies, comes weather, and does the weather come in force. So far, I have only witnessed two different storms. Before I get into how the storms are, I should point out how you can tell the storm is coming. Like in the real world, the land becomes very cloudy and dark. So you have plenty of time to find shelter, but once the storms come, there is no escaping it. The rain looks so realistic, not necessarily by how the rain looks, but how much of the rain comes down. Now if you head to a nearby river, then you can see the rain impact the water. You won't see that traditional splash that you usually see in other PC games, but the rain drops actually create a ripple effect when it hits the water! Speaking of water, the water in Morrowind is very impressive looking, and almost looks good enough to drink. Almost. However, the wind storm is a different story. I can't recall a game that has a real-time wind storm, at least not in this magnitude. Perhaps calling it a storm is a bit too subtle, because in reality it looks and feels more like a tornado. Visibility drops down to zero, and the wind blasts through and past you at an alarming rate. You will even notice objects flying past you in all directions (no cows or bathtubs in case you were wondering). Yet from this build, the effects do not seem to affect the player or the creatures in any way.

Page 2: NPCs, Dungeons, and Guilds. Oh My!