PDA

View Full Version : Morrowind Pre-reveiw (IGN)-(pc)



DZNUTZ
05-13-2002, 11:23 AM
(POSSIBLE MINI_SPOILERS..not bad imo..but bewarned diehards)

May 10, 2002 - I would have preferred to have a review of Morrowind for you, by now. So would my congenial editor, who has threatened to rescind the all expenses' paid, month-long vacation to Tahiti that everybody knows journalists who write for IGN enjoy (on a bi-monthly basis). But this game has such a richness of detail and understated, non-linear "find me if you can" attitude about its contents, that I ended up taking more time just in order to fully report back to you with the true flavor of the game. That will be showing up early next week. For now, let's focus on some general impressions.
Morrowind is the third product in Bethesda Softworks' Elder Scrolls series. Your main character (played in first person; there's an option control for third person, but combat is nearly impossible that way) has been kidnapped, and all their worldly goods stolen. Against expectations of being sold into slavery, you're dumped in the port village of Seyda Neen, in the land of Vvardenfell. Character creation is ingenious from a roleplaying standpoint, as a series of guards and a local official walk you the process while supposedly registering you. You're also offered three means of selecting your profession and skills: directly, in effect designing a whole new character class; choosing from a pre-existing class (Morrowind offers twenty-one), or answering a series of ten questions about hypothetical conduct. Another officer gives you a packet to deliver to a colleague in Balmora, a larger city located at some distance. With that, you're on your own.

Players of Daggerfall or Arena (and I gave both of them positive reviews, years ago) will already have some understanding of what to expect out of character creation. You don't create a thief, a fighter, or a mage, but a template comprising twenty-seven skills. Of these, five are major, five are minor, and the rest are miscellaneous. All are rated on a scale up to 100, with major skills usually receiving values in a range between 35 and 45 at the start of a new game. Skills advance with use, major skills the fastest of all; so the configuration of your skills determines in large part the path they'll follow in their travels through Vvardenfell. That, and their race, birth sign, and sex, all of which offer modifications, special advantages, and occasionally a penalty or two. Since enchanted items are available for purchase (and you can get more made, or do it yourself), even the least magely of characters need never completely lack for spells, while a sorcerer can learn heavy armor without fear of casting penalties.

The lack of immediate quests may daunt the average player of standalone RPGs, but there are tons of them in Vvardenfell -- according to the developers, more than three hundred, and I wouldn't doubt it for a minute. I've started a few characters who have joined several of the ten major factions in the game, and there are more than enough quests to satisfy anybody. Typically, a given guild provides nine or ten quests, some bringing material rewards, all supplying advancement that gives better benefits. (For example, Imperial legionnaires acquire free, improved upgrades to their armor -- and the final rank of legionnaires get some really neat Chyrsamere and Lord's Mail. Not the kind of stuff you find at Sears, I assure you.) What's more, you'll find that there are other guild branches in some of the bigger cities of Vvardenfell who will advance you as well, offering their own selection of quests that range from acquisition to theft to sabotage to guarding to that old standby and favorite of RPGers everywhere, cold-blooded murder.

But wait: in some cases, Morrowind offers multiple methods to achieve a given quest objective. So you don't really want to wax that lady barbarian for an artifact she possesses. Maybe her chainmail and Nord background remind you of starry nights long ago spent practicing high-impact aerobics with Sonya the Snake. Or possibly the way she twirls her four-foot, two-handed blade as though it were a dagger impresses you. Whatever; perhaps you could do a little investigation and find out if she's got a quest, too, and make a little deal. Or maybe you could use your speechcraft skill, or a charm spell, to buy the artifact. Or maybe she's got a weakness you could exploit; or the person who gave you the quest has one, instead. This is one of the more impressive achievements of Morrowind's developers, the way they've come with alternate schemes to get ahead, based on different character configurations of skills.

There are also quests associated with areas of the game -- such as a missing tax assessor in the village where you start. And there are plenty of additional locations that don't involve quests at all, but are simply fun places to go, with the promise of combat and the potential for treasure. There are huge dungeons in Morrowind, but also three- and ten-room caves and mausoleums, where rogue gangs and undead hang out. Or maybe you'd like to make a little money? How about gathering the four pieces of an alchemical set, and locating some of the recipes involving more than seventy possible ingredients? You could sell the results, or use it yourself. Or consider pearl-diving. The waters are infested with slaughterfish, but the oysters are willing. There are also some shipwrecks down there, awaiting exploration.
Of course, there's also a main quest path, but nothing prevents you from ignoring it for as long as you'd like. That, in turn, is just the kind of game I like best, and in a gameworld like Morrowind's Vvardenfell, I have no compunction in wandering everywhere to see what lies beyond the next beautiful horizon.
The graphics really require an excellent system (Bethesda Softworks recommends 256K MB RAM, a high-end video card, and 800 MHz or faster Pentium III); and even then, there are periodic freezes as the game loads new data. However, the results are worth it. This is easily the most beautiful game I've ever seen. (Though in their day, Might and Magic III and Ultima VIIa came close.) It is also one of the most interactive. Click on a plant alongside the edge of the road or a mushroom growing on the side of a tree, and you'll be able to take a sample for possible alchemical use. Some creatures fly, and on a sunny day you can get a sense when you're about to be attacked if a shadow starts growing larger around you. While you can't move or throw objects, the engine does support a marksmanship skill that includes arrows, bolts, and various handheld missiles.

What I've seen and used of the elaborate spell system is good, and there's a nice implementation of stealth skills that permits selective pickpocketing and shoplifting with greater ease for lesser items. My few negative impressions of Morrowind center mainly at this point around the generic character of the dialogue. What people say on many popular subjects merely repeats what others have already said, and that gets old, fast. It starts to fossilize after some NPCs, who have limited ability with the local common language, suddenly become very literate as they repeat the material you've heard, yet again. I'd also have preferred seeing more NPCs dole out information according to their personal disposition to you. While those who truly hate you withhold a lot and those who love you will provide a great break on prices, everybody in between is pretty much lumped together. This, and the dialog problems already referred to, gives them far less personality than such brilliantly written figures as your party companions in BG2 or many of the figures you meet in Planescape: Torment.

I'm not suggesting that hundreds of NPCs be written with that kind of clarity, but I've only encountered one NPC thus far who could claim to really stand out in a crowd; and to tell the truth, he told my character to take off his pants. We don't need a lot of folks like him in the game (and the whole thing was handled amusingly), but I could have done with a few more.

That aside, I keep coming back to what I find addictive and replayable in Morrowind: its nonlinear, quest-filled world, and its rich content just waiting to be discovered. Make no mistake, this one's a keeper, as you'll find out in greater detail when my final review arrives in a few days.

-- Barry Brenesal

Xtopia
05-13-2002, 11:34 AM
Cool, very cool! I can not wait for this game!!!!!!!!

Dre
05-13-2002, 11:58 AM
That was cool but I stopped reading after a few paragraphs because of the spoilers (i.e. character creation). DZNUTZ, and everyone else for that matter, do you think you could indicate it when a posted review/preview has spoilers in it? Maybe in the thread title itself??

Thanks

DZNUTZ
05-13-2002, 12:03 PM
sorry dre...i didn't think the "spoilers" were to bad..i'll go ahead and edit it.

Dre
05-13-2002, 12:07 PM
Originally posted by DZNUTZ
sorry dre...i didn't think the "spoilers" were to bad..i'll go ahead and edit it.

They probably weren't.. but for peeps like me that are awaiting this title with the utmost anticipation, even knowing minor things that happen in the game is kinda annoying since I want to experience it first-hand and be surprised.. know what I mean?

Thanks DZ