Rating: 
Summary: Should've saved my money & bought Dungeon Siege
Review: I bought this largely because of all the rave reviews, thinking it would be much like Dungeon Siege, only better. (I played the DS demo). There is no demo available for Morrowind so I decided to take the risk. Beginning play is excellent as are the role playing aspects of the game and the graphics are fantastic. However, action/fighting is and should be an important dynamic in an RPG game and this is where Morrowind falls short. After a while, the game becomes agonizingly slow and rather boring due to the lack of decent combat aspects of the game. Like another reviewer before me said, there is little or no skill required and movement is limited. Also, you will find that you will walk yourself to death. I found it very disappointing, given the hype.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Buy RPG
Review: Morrowind is the most enthralling RPG I have ever played. There are endless possibilities for the character to act on, and the game has the best graphics I've ever seen. There are probably thousands of characters, and equally as many unique weapons, scrolls, and special items. This game can provide hundreds of hours of playing time. Along with the construction set, this game should be worth, in my humble opinion, upwards of two hundred dollars. A totally awesome game.
Rating: 
Summary: A step in the right direction for RPG's
Review: Morrowind is an engaging game. Right from the getgo, the detail will amaze you. You pick your character from a dozen or so races and choose from 21 classes. You can even customize your class and make say a sniper or ninja.I have heard some people say the story is shallow; I disagree. There are numerous plot lines. You will find individual characters in the game have different motivations. A tax collector has gone missing. You find him crying out his last dieing breath as he collapses to the ground later in the game. His journal reveals that he felt alienated by the townsfolk while he researched a flying spell. Why is he dead? The townsfolk hated him for collecting taxes. Could someone have murdered him or was he killed by a monster? I found him in the dark of night with a torch in hand. I must admit I was quickly turning in all directions half expecting something to jump out at me! These events are a very small details in the major story line. You will find little stories like this everywhere. The combat interface is both simple and complex. You have a choice between 3 different attack modes each with different speed of attack and damage. I have heard people complain about this fact although I can't understand why. The vast majority of games out there, you click and monster dies. In Morrowind there IS HUGE STRATEGY involved in combat. I enter a cave to save some captured slaves and a rougue dark elf feels my arrows as I snipe from behind some stalagtites. It is very difficult to hit him as he darts towards me to engage in hand to hand. The sound effects of his taunts and war cries add to the suspense. When he approaches me I switch to my halberd. I find that the most effective attack, the stab, is often interrupted if the dark elf's quicker dagger gets me. I back up and switch to a chop or slash attack to interrupt his own attacks. At times the dark elf will retreat himself, or dart past me to get at me from behind. I am constantly moving around to try to get the combat advantage. Each of your opponents will have different attack methods and you have to adjust accordingly. The experience points for this encounter is realistic. I will become more skilled in the armor I am wearing or the weapon I am using, plus the regular magic point and hit point increase. Morrowind's speach template is better than most games. You pick up keywords from those you talk to and ask others about them. Exactly the same as Shadowrun for the Super Nintendo system. The only drawback is that it is too much. I have spent hours just in the first town! The huge amount of polygons from toadstools, trees, ferns, bushes, hanging moss, and characters/monsters led me to game pauses, long load times, and choppiness. This was with a 32meg graphic card and only 128megs of Ram. Playability increased as expected when I put in a second 128 ram chip and a 128meg graphic card. If you want fast gameplay, look elsewhere. If you want depth and replayability look here
Rating:
Summary: Great role-playing game
Review: "Morrowind" is a wonderful game. Except for the mediocre combat, this game is everything that a role-playing experience should be. There is no multiplayer game (thank goodness), which means that all of the attention goes into single player. When I think of great RPG's, I think of "Fallout", "Baldurs Gate 2", and now "Morrowind". What makes this game so great is the huge world of Morrowind, and the unbelievable attention to detail. There is a lot more to this game than just being beautiful to look at. You could wander around in Morrowind forever, off of the path of the main quests in the game. There are countless little side quests and miniature areas to kill monsters and pick up loot. I spent probably 10-15 hours simply wandering around the first little town in the game before beginning the main quest. Every room has a bunch of little objects in it that you can interact with. If you want, you can pick up books off the shelves and read them, or you can pick up little knickknacks, like the silverware . Most of the books are non-essential to the game itself, but they are entertaining to read, and they add depth and flavor to the game. The NPC's have more to say than the usual computer game NPC's, although they do repeat themselves quite a bit (that happens in every game). The role-playing system for this game also presents endless variety. There are a lot of different character classes to choose from, and many different character abilities. You hone your skills by using them, or paying someone to train you, instead of the usual system of assigning skill points. If you want to develop your character a certain way, you have to use those skills as often as possible, even if it means the risk of getting killed. I played a character with a bow and a melee weapon, so I made sure to keep switching back and forth between the two weapons. I also made sure to include magic and backstabbing, so that I could keep my magic and sneaking skills up to par. Paying someone to train you is expensive, but you can make it cheaper by getting on their friendly side in some way. In the spirit of a true RPG, there are different ways to solve every problem. "Morrowind" offers seemingly unlimited replayability. In one example, I needed an expensive item from a shop to complete a quest. So, I mixed up a telekinesis potion, and then stole the item off of a shelf from a distance so that I wouldn't get caught. The interface for this game is very good. Pop-up tool tips provide information wherever you need it, and it only takes a few mouse clicks to get most tasks done. The only problems with the interface are the tiny, microscopic inventory icons. The inventory icons in this are game so puny that you can't tell what anything is without moving the mouse pointer over it. A sword looks like a dagger, and a bow looks like a tiny stick. A gauntlet or breastplate just looks like a little blob. This is a neglected part of the game. So, that leaves us with combat -- the weakest part of this game. One of the problems with combat is that there seem to be only about 10-15 different types of opponents to fight in the game. The combat does have strategy built into it -- you have to fight with your character's strengths. For instance, I had a weak melee character, so I got through tough battles by summoning beasts to fight, and then picking off the enemies from a distance. However, the visual and sound effects stink. The enemy has a health meter, but there is no indication of how many hit points of damage you are doing. Your character simply pokes or hacks away at the enemy with little chops or stabs. A hit doesn't look any different from a miss, except for the little red cloud that poofs up for a moment (I assume that's supposed to be blood?) You don't see the weapon actually make contact with the enemy. The only sounds that come from a hit are a cheesy "smack" sound and maybe a moan from the monster. The hit sound sounds like something you would hear in a cartoon when someone gets hit with a pie in the face. Another downer with the game is the lack of voice-acted dialog lines. The only voice acted parts of this game are greetings and battle taunts. That's why there are no memorable NPC's in this game at all. In my opinion, this is a can't-miss, 5-Star game for those of you who just love role-playing games. "Morrowind" is not a "something for everyone" game though, so if you are not a big RPG fan, then you might find it to be kind of dull.
Rating:
Summary: Robust world, flexible character development
Review: Morrowind has a very rich world to explore.
I will mention briefly that the character choices, armor, spells, potions are all excellent in their robustness.
There is a central plot to follow, but you can more or less ignore it if you want.
My only complaints about the game are that your character will develop fairly slowly, levels only come with a lot of hard work, and the graphics are not cutting edge by any means.
However, for me, a roleplaying game is all about flexibility in character development and being interested in the world, and Morrowind definitely has all that.
Rating:
Summary: Morrowind is vast and beautiful, but also quite shallow.
Review: The game world is large, with hundreds of quests, and probably the most beautiful graphics I've ever seen in a game. The "scenery" is particularly good, though monster/NPC design is not particularly creative or impressive. Excellent graphics like this can't be ignored, and they certainly do add to the ambiance and the "immersive" quality of playing, but the "gameplay mechanics", the things that actually determine how the game PLAYS, are woefully lacking. Melee combat is boring and repetitive, while using magic in combat is cumbersome and frustrating because of the user interface. For the most part, fighting consists of simply clicking your left mouse button until your opponent is dead, and swilling a potion for healing, when necessary... there's really no strategic element, nor do you really need good reflexes. It's just stale. But the shallow and unsatisfying gameplay doesn't stop with combat. Indeed, one of the intended "strengthes" of the game is that there are many different objectives and usually a few different ways you can go about achieving that objective... either through combat, or diplomacy, or thievery. The gameplay of thievery is little more exciting or challenging than combat. Locks are relatively easily defeated, especially with the ready availability of scrolls and spells which do an excellent job of popping locks, and trapped chests and drawers are a joke... not only are they unimaginative, they come in only two varieties: fire damage and poison damage, and both are easy to recover from... a trap will only go off once, and traps are never "hidden", you always know it's there, and they won't be set off by attempts at lockpicking or trap disarming, regardless of whether or not you're successful... there's no "spice". But a lot of the time, you don't even NEED to defeat a lock or trap to steal what you're looking for... there's really no fun in burglarly because it's so easy and boring. The "diplomatic" aspect of the game is similarly lacking. Basically, getting into a person's good graces involves repeatedly "admiring" them, and making judicious use of the game's Save/Load feature. Sometimes you'll have to do a favor for someone or respond to their dialog cues correctly to get the response you want out of them, but it really doesn't require much in the way of intelligence or cleverness... it just requires some patience. As for the quests... they generally have nothing to do with one another, and are neither emotionally engaging, or intectually stimulating or intriguing, with maybe a few exceptions. The main quest is pretty interesting. However, the vast majority of quests fall into three or four different categories, and once you've done that type of quest, you might as well have done them all due to the lack of meaningful variety. Same goes for the dozens of tombs and ruins. There are two types of ruins (Daedric and Dwemer) and tombs. Once you've seen one of a given type, you're pretty much seen them all... ruins of a given type all have the same types of monsters/enemies, and there aren't really any puzzles or challenges that are unique to a given dungeon-type area. The only obstacles to your advancement in these areas are: enemies (boring, due to the lame combat system), locked/trapped doors (boring, due to the ease with which they are defeated) and pits/lava/water, which, at best, may challenge your sense of direction and timing. Though with the right spells, potions or magic items (and they're all pretty easy to obtain), these obstacles present no difficulty. That's probably one of the more annoying things about the game... defeating your obstacles is more about preparation and less about skill and wit. Stock up on a few potions and a couple magic trinkets, and you breeze through the game. And said potions, spells and trinkets are not difficult to obtain... you obtain the vast majority of such things (as well as most armor and weapons you'll be using) from merchants at pretty low prices... not from "adventuring" or "questing". If you know what you're doing, or if you get a little lucky towards the beginning of the game, there is quite literally almost nothing to look forward to in terms of character advancement/improvement (skills, equipment, ect.) You would think with a game with so much content in the form of quests, dungeons, and raw surface area, the replay value would be immense, but as I've said, most of the game is "more or the same". Though there are several different "classes" you can choice from, there really is a lot of "blurring of the lines" between the classes to the point that you don't really increase your mileage that way either. Finally, this game is very demanding on your system's hardware and is pretty unstable (as of July 2nd, 2002). I have an Athlon XP 1700+, a GeForce3 Ti200 and a gigabyte of DDR memory and though performance is tolerable for a low-action RPG like Morrowind, frame rates are far from being smooth in most areas, and there is really very little I can do to improve them (I have shadows shut off completely and the view plane set at about half... changing resolution doesn't seem to effect performance). Also, there are annoying pauses which occur every minute or so that last about a second. And the game crashes a lot. I crash to desktop every 15-60 minutes, and my system is adequately cooled, not overclocked and running under a fully patched Windows XP with extraneous services and programs disabled and the latest graphics/sound/motherboard drivers for my system... I've tried to troubleshoot it various ways, but nothing has so far helped. I also had save game information corrupted once. One nice thing is that they include they include a toolset that you can use to change game content or add your own, and though the tools are quite robust, they are also complicated and require an investment in time to learn that most players don't have. If you want to world build, Neverwinter Nights is probably a better choice since that way you can not only build your own world, you actually have the oppurtunity to play and DM in the world you've created with other people. So, my recommendation is, don't buy the hype on this one. It's perhaps not a terrible game, but it's severely lacking in some (what I feel are) very important areas.
Rating:
Summary: Fan Freaken Tastic!!!!!!!
Review: This game is by far the best RPG game ever made. It Revolutionizes the gaming world. I have had zero problems running this game on my computer. I am running this game with a pentium 4 processor with a 1.8 Ghz 512 MB etc. People who say " This game doesent run on my computer" You are probably right. Mainly because you have to quit being so cheap and spend some money. Make an investment in something that will run any game you want, after all you only live once. Dont blame the game for your computer problems. Now on to the actual game. I have never had a better time playing games in my life until now. This game has brought to me as i am sure others as well a sence of awe for the computer gaming industrie. The graphics on this game are out of this world! every thing has an animation for it's own all the way from some body blinking to wind blowing chimes on a house. This is truly magnificient! As you may have read from other ratings this world is HUUUUUUGGGEEE!!! i have never seen any other game more detailed and big on one disk in my life. The characters are way cool too. you have several different options to choose from. I personally chose an Imperial Knight. I am a fighter class. This game has been the best investment in my RPG gaming career! I highly Recommend this game to every one. Except for Danny Chan because he does not like RPG's. Well K2
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Graphics, Massive World, Hardware Recommendations
Review: I have read alot of reviews about video games on here but this is my first review. I have only played the game for a number of hours but I am already very impressed. The graphics in the newer games such as this one are such a technological leap over anything that has ever been seen before. Medal of Honor - Allied Assault is also in this catagory. You can spend hours just admiring the visual aspects of these games. This game is alot of fun and RPG'ers will be intrigued by it. I am holding off on that fifth star for now until the actual gameplay shows me the same level of advancement. Read the hardware recommendations very carefully! Download the patch from the web site right after installing the game from the CDROM. Update your video card drivers to the latest. Use a newer NVIDIA GeForce or ATI RADEON video card, most other cards are not fully supported. I used an Athlon 1900+, MSI KT3-Ultra mboard, onboard sound, 7200rpm(U133)MaxtorHD, ATI Radeon8500 w/64 MB, WinXP OS. At first I consistantly had random lockups after only a few minutes of playing the game and tried everything to figure out why. READ THE GAME SETTINGS RECOMMENDATIONS from the Game menu and on the internet site. Go to your sound board settings in Windows and set your sound card to "Direct Sound" compatability. Under this Game's Options set the sound settings to "Software" instead of "Hardware Acceleration". Turn the game's Real Time "SHADOWS OFF" under the game options video settings menu. If the above doesn't work, incrementally try tunning down the "Direct 3D" video hardware settings under your video card's "Windows Display Menu" to more conservative settings. Doing the above should cause the lockups disappear. I have not had a single lockup since I did the above. The sound card's settings in the game and under Windows are critical solutions. Its an amazing game. Enjoy it !
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC in the beginning
Review: The music was nice and the start was very exiting. Bethesda has made a quite good character editor; first filling out your name when a guy asks for it and them filling out your skills when you are going to create a sheet that the legion (military) needs. All this happens in the beginning of the game.
All the graphics are wonderfull! The sea is almost like on video and the trees and everything else is amazing. The NPC's are also looking well.
The story is good because there are so many of them. You can choose innumerable of different quests and which factions to belong to.
The game is a little bit confusing, but OK. The NPCs could have been more intelligent and could have had more things to say to you (I hear that Gothic is much better on this).
Other rewievers say that the performance on this game is not that good and I agree with them. The minimum Mhz is set to 500 but I recommend 1 Ghz.
I had very great expectations to this game, but after some days playing it gets boring. YOu always do the same: recieve a quest, go and complete it (if you can) and return and get some advancement in your faction (I'm a champion in the Imperial Legion). The thing that is VERY good is the construction set, which allows you edit the morrowind world in any way and is easy to use too.
This game IS worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Very dyanimc, expansive
Review: Morrowind is one of the most dynamic and expansive game worlds around. While there is a centeral series of missions in Morrowind, the game branches out with a seemingly infinite array of options. The map is expansive, and the scenery is gorgeous. At every turn, you'll find new oppurtunities, dungeons, quests, shipwrecks, and other perils (but not without rewards). The game has a high replay value. You can't simply follow a straight line through the map to complete the main story quests unlike many games of this age. Its akin to Dungeons and Dragons, without having to meet up with your friends to play. The game also has the TES Construction Set, enabling anyone to create "plugins" which modify the main game world in some way. People have already added new dungeons, continents, as well as useful items such as homes and banks. Morrowind is a good investment for those who can appreciate fantasy games.
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