Video Game - Morrowind (2002)

Overview

For those that enjoyed my nostalgia filled love-letter to Daggerfall last year here is the lowdown on the sequel.  The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

The third installment in The Elder Scrolls saga takes place far to the east in the hostile land of the Dunmer (or dark elves as we ignorant outlanders call them).  Having been left unsatisfied with the largely random worlds presented in Arena and Daggerfall the developers at Bethesda decided to focus their efforts a much smaller landscape where everything was planned from settlements to wandering bandits.

Plot Summary

The third era of Tamriel is drawing to a close.  After the events of Daggerfall the Emperor Uriel Septim focuses his attention on the dunmer and once again sends a lone champion to act out his will.  This time however his chosen hero is but a lowly prisoner whom is taken by sea to the east.  To Morrowind.

In this land of political and religious strife, ancient grudges and racial prejudice our hero must rise above the odds to end a menace that began centuries ago.  The hero will encounter conspiracies, traitors, zealots, daedric lords and even living gods during their quest to save Morrowind and ultimately the whole of Tamriel.


Gameplay

Morrowind was the first game in the Elder Scroll series to use a full 3D graphics engine (the gamebyro engine).  The game is played very much like it's predecessor except that the skills have been both cut down and organised (into the combat/magic/stealth categories we know in Oblivion and Skyrim).

Morrowind is the first game in the Elder Scrolls series to use the WASD type controls and also introduced new windowed menus and a new magic system.  It was also the first (and so far the only) main Elder Scrolls title to remove the fast travel option from the game, leaving the player to either hike across the land or pay for transportation.

As with Daggerfall your skills and attacks are checked using a die roll type system unlike Oblivion or Skyrim where you automatically succeed at everything and your skill just makes you succeed "better" than you would without it.

Morrowind often comes under fire for it's combat system.  I can understand why players of the later titles may find it frustrating but as a long term RPG fan (tabletop and computer) this is perfectly natural to me.  Due to limitations in game animations a "miss" is not executed ideally.  In reality that would represent your opponent dodging, rolling with the blow or deflecting your weapon using armour.

What I will say is this.  In later titles a low weapon skill equals low damage.  You can hack at an enemy 50 times with a blade, spray blood everywhere and they are not even phased.  I find this just as unrealistic as the idea that you may have misjudged a blow or simply got unlucky and scored nothing but a flesh wound.

Built into the random roll when you swing your weapon are many factors that you don't see.  What is your opponents agility and what defensive skills to they possess?  How good is their armour and do they have any defensive buffs?  All this is done while you press and hold your attack button.  To be abrupt I'd say this level of RPG mechanic doesn't interest the casual gamer.  Morrowind is a genuine role-playing game from a time when RPG in the description actually meant something.

Combat aside, one of Morrowind's greatest replay assets it the comprehensive and potentially game breaking magic available to the player.  As with anything in this game you have to work at it.  There are magic items in the game that can give you a massive edge.  Even better you can quest out and make your own.  This becomes an adventure that you the player have set upon yourself.  That is the mark of a truly non-linear RPG.


Graphics and SFX

An aspect that seems to come up now is how dated and old Morrowind is.  Being a fan of Daggerfall this is no problem for me.  I can understand how the angular and low res imagery may be a little off putting but I'd hardly call it a deterrent.  A few gamers out there need to toughen up!

 The town of Balmora in the vanilla game

If you really can't dig 2002 3D graphics then another strength of Morrowind comes into play which is the vast cult following that it continues to hold.  These are all very clued up gamers and modders that have worked on this game for years.  There are HD texture replacers, graphics overhauls, updated sounds and all sorts out there to make the game look a little less dated.

The town of Balmora with overhauled graphics

Conclusion

I won't say Morrowind is perfect.  There are many flaws in the game that you will discover as you play.  There are also many strengths.  A truly fleshed out world of strife and hypocrisy was given to us in Morrowind.  An alien and hostile land of swamps, ash wastes, mushroom towers and bizarre creatures awaits you in this game.  For all it's HD prowess I've always found Skyrim to look rather dull and bleak in comparison.

Anyway borrow your friend's nostalgia goggles or install some texture mods and give Morrowind a go.  Don't be discouraged if you fail at first.  This was the last Bethesda game that actually made you work for your victory.

I give Morrowind a solid 8/10 for the story immersion and creativity if nothing else.

Video Game - Daggerfall (1996)

Overview

With all the excitement attached to both Skyrim and the Elder Scrolls Online I thought I would post a review of the game that introduced me to the world of Tamriel.

Daggerfall was released in 1996 by Bethesda as a follow-up to their 1994 game Arena.  Instead of attempting to continue in the entire continent, the game takes place in the Iliac Bay, the coastal regions of High Rock and Hammerfell.  This makes the game slightly more focused than Arena with more emphasis on the politics and powers controlling the region.

Plot Summary

The City Of Daggerfall is under a curse, haunted by the spirit of the late King Lysandus and his army of ghosts.  No one can walk the city by night for fear of the curse.  The kingdoms are warring and betraying each other in their bids for power while the savage orcs and sinister necromancers prepare forces of their own.

Eager to keep his hold on the Iliac Bay, Emperor Uriel Septim VII secretly sends a champion on a course for Daggerfall to investigate why King Lysandus' haunts his former kingdom.  However, as the ship nears Daggerfall a supernatural storm leaves the hero shipwrecked and stranded in a coastal cave.  With only basic equipment and beginner's luck you must escape and fulfill your role as the Emperor's champion...

Gameplay

Daggerfall is an early first-person RPG which uses a rather basic 3D engine similar to Doom or Duke Nukem.  The controls more-or-less default to the type used in Arena which are awkward and clumsy.  However unlike Arena you can customise almost every function.  Players of the later Elder Scrolls games will find they are able to achieve a layout similar to Morrowind or Oblivion.

So with your newly configured controls you can escape the first dungeon and set out in the world.  As with later Elder Scrolls titles, this is open ended.  You can pick up quests in towns or guildhalls, which often result in you delving into a dungeon and completing an objective inside.  When you first start, there will be no dungeons on the map apart from crypts.  You find dungeons by taking quests, looting maps during your adventures or sometimes you get a location as a quest reward.

There are literally thousands of locations in the game, from tiny hamlets and way shrines to huge walled cities.  Sadly there is a lot of repetition and random content.  The guild quests are totally random and generic.  On the other hand you can take work forever, unlike later games where rising in the ranks basically means you stop getting quests.

An important part of the game is of course the dungeons.  In Daggerfall they are big.  Really big.  Many players complain about this as you frequently cannot find the quest location and you may never find your way back to the surface again.  It can be frustrating but it also makes the dungeon a truly daunting environment.  Unlike the later games when a dungeon meant two or three caves linked together, Daggerfall has dungeons akin to your old D&D maps.  There are still websites that offer help with Daggerfall and they give a few hints on dungeon crawling for this very reason.

The combat system is very much like a tabletop RPG would be.  Your stats and skills give you a semi-random chance to hit something.  The enemy has an automatic dodge roll.  The same system was later used in Morrowind and is often disliked by people who play Oblivion or Skyrim.  Personally I prefer this system for the RPG experience.  I will go more into this when I review Morrowind.

One thing to note is the game is sadly very glitchy.  Depending on which version you have it can be very hard to complete the main storyline due to crashes and corrupted saves.  There are plenty of bug fixes on the internet though.

Graphics and SFX

Sadly this is probably the reason why many people will never play Daggerfall.  The basic 3D engine uses fairly repetitive textures and flat bitmap sprites for enemies, NPCs and scenery.  Even back in 1996 the graphics were fairly low resolution.  The game has always been sold on depth and vastness rather than it's graphics.

The in game sounds are okay if not a little generic.  Many of them will be familiar as they seem to be from a public domain source and are used in many games.  Some of the creatures sound rather creepy though, such as the snarling vampire and screaming skeleton (which gets annoying quickly).

One rather interesting fact is that Daggerfall actually contained nudity (okay so it was blurry 16-bit nudity) and was originally going to have some adult content.  None of the other Elder Scrolls games have attempted this so blatantly.


Conclusion

Old and clunky but still very playable.  Daggerfall has an air of hidden politics and a genuine sense of vastness to it.  The game can be genuinely challenging and you are not lead by the hand at all.

With the bugs, glitches and low res graphics (even for it's day) I'll give it a 8/10.