Rating: Summary: So much potential, but falls short Review: Morrowind has so much potential and could have been a wonderful game. It still has some enjoyable moments, but overall has many problems.The Morrowind graphics are very well-done, but in spite of that, I found myself disappointed in the game's look. There simply isn't enough variety, and the world as a whole is dreary and uninteresting to look at. There are no snow-capped mountain peaks, no hidden grottoes, no gushing waterfalls, no dark, mysterious forests, no beautiful lush valleys, no big, colorful, bustling marketplaces, no white, sandy beaches with gracefully bending palm trees. Instead there are a whole lot of dark, ash-colored hills, a lot of caves (which all look the same), and a number of houses, shops, and temples, which come in three different styles and have almost no variation except for those three styles. Everything seems to be drenched in shades of brown and grey. It's almost depressing. I never once stopped and said to myself "Wow! Just look at that amazing sunset, or that amazing scenery, or that amazing set of royal purple armor." I purchased the game because I was impressed by the reviews which said "you can do whatever you want" and "a true rpg". What I found, however, was quite different. I decided to join a "Great House", one of the guilds your character can pick from, and which provides you with quests along the way. I discovered that the Great House I'd chosen didn't get along with one of the others, so I set out to bring down "the enemy House". Pretending the join the enemy House so that I could spy on them and bring that information back to my own House was not even an option. There is no way to do so. In other words, unless you are given a quest (orders) by a higher-ranking member of your guild, what you do or attempt to do makes absolutely no difference in the world of Morrowind. No one even notices. The NPCs give you the same tired responses they gave you last week, and the world carries on much as before. Want to work your up to the top of a guild so that you can force the former guildboss (who was rude to you and oh-so-evil) to do menial tasks like scrub toilets for a week straight? Nope. Can't do that either. Once you become guildboss yourself, your guild apparently never receives another job or request for help ever again. You have no way to use the power that you worked so hard to gain. You can work your way up to the top of any guild and, again, no one really notices and your position has no effect on the world. I'd decided to roleplay one of those strong, honorable, save-the world-type warriors. What I was hoping to do was protect the weak, save children from the clutches of frightening beasts, etc. Instead, I found that roleplaying in Morrowind is extrememly limited. I expected to be able to go out into the world and fight off hordes of slavering beasts with my gleaming axe of death, pick up a missing child, and take her back to a tearfully grateful mum (or something similar). I was never given the opportunity. There are almost NO instances anywhere in the game for a warrior-type character to truly shine. There are no hordes of beasts anywhere at all. Almost all of NPCs who need rescuing are simple folk who got stuck on the road between two towns and need an escort. This is often frustrating, because when an NPC is required to follow you, he or she often gets stuck or starts running around in circles for no apparent reason. There is a lack of varied and interesting creatures in Morrowind. All of them seem to be pretty much the same, just with slightly different levels and powers. None of them have any personality, or anything that makes them seem fun. When I finally neared the end of the main quest and entered the Red Mountain area, I was expecting a lot of frightening, difficult creatures. Instead I ran into the exact same creatures that I'd been encountering since I first started the game. What the heck? I wanted to see something that left my heart pounding with fear, not the same old thing. Sigh. When I reached the final confrontation with the evil-powers-that-be, I was disappointed to find that I was given no option to join him on the path to the dark side. Odd, since the NPCs kept warning me about him and saying he'd try to deceive me, and that perhaps I could pretend to join him and scope out his weaknesses. Nope. In our final battle, the horrible AI caused him to promptly fall in...what else?...a big pit of lava. I was disgusted. I reloaded. And he fell in the lava again! Another sigh. I won't even go into the problems with game crashes, being booted to the desktop, and so on. Those problems have been mentioned by other reviewers, and I've found them to be accurate. If you buy the game, save often.
Rating: Summary: Very Nice Game Review: This is an excellent Role Playing game. The graphics and script are excellent. The AI is very good, although the pathing doesn't work occasionally. But the game is still extremely buggy - locks up or kicks to desktop. Save early and often.
Rating: Summary: Frustrating!!! Review: The graphics are really impressive when it works. Three words of advice for those of you who haven't bought it yet: Crash, Crash, Crash. When you pick up certain Items; A message appears and states "Your game will Crash Now" click OK and the game crashes. I don't find the humor in scamming people out of hard earned money.
Rating: Summary: I have the capability and this game bites Review: Man, I bought this game because of all the great reviews and I am terribly disappointed and out [money]. The graphics are great and when the game starts out there is so much potential. Then you discover the dagger in the first room and find out that the fight scenes are going to be very stupid and your movements are not human-like. You will get killed so very quickly so make sure you take lots of potions around with you. The night-time option sounds good, but you can't see a damned thing. The quests are also nice and there are many of them, but I think that there are games out there like Dungeon Seige that are better equipped. Dungeon Seige is way more repetitive than this game which is about it's only plus. I will be selling mine ... so come buy it....I thought it [was bad] but you might enjoy it..........NAH. RECOMMENDATION: COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY
Rating: Summary: Try before you buy Review: The game is great, and definitly worth playing if you can get it going, I've had minor crash issues, but normally, they only occur after a long session of playing, 6-7 hours solid playing, the game does need some serious hardware though, I'm now running a 1.8P4, with 256Mb, and a Geforce 4 128Mb - allows all the bells and whistle, and bot is there some eye candy, initially I was using a Geforce 2 64Mb, and had to tone down the effects, no nice water, no sunrises, no hot relections. So as I say in the title, make sure you can return the game if your not sure it'll run on your system.
Rating: Summary: Very good, deep game.... Review: prepare to lose many hours of your life with this one. it doesn't pull you in the first second like Diablo, but after a few hours there's no turning back. great graphics, great gameplay, great storyline(but you don't have to follow it, there's just so much to do),Morrowind is highly recommended for any true RPG player.
Rating: Summary: Awesome RPG if you have the hardware. Review: I can understand being disappointed if this game won't run, but I have not had any real problems. I have a 2.0 GHz P4 with 256 ram and a 64 MB GF3 card so I admit I am not the best person to test the game stability. However, If you have a system like mine, I really recommend this game. It is very immersive. You can spend hours doing whatever you want. I personally like to walk everywhere just to see the scenery. This is one of the prettiest games I've seen. It is also remarkably open-ended. I've known plenty of games that have claimed that but this really is. You can really be good or [bad], concentrate on the main quest or the minutia of making potions, spells or enchanting items. My only gripes are in the unwieldy user interface - use this button for this, this button for that. I think it could have been streamlined a little better. The journal/quest tracking system is also unwieldy. Searching through pages of text to find directions is kind of a drag. Otherwise, this is very good game for people who really like to explore. It's kind of like reading a choose your own adventure novel (remember those!) with a lot more detail.
Rating: Summary: Great Game - Ignore the Naysayers Review: I think the naysayers are exaggerating the problems with this game. I enjoyed playing. The graphics are beautiful and the 3D sound is incredible. I like plot driven stories. Especially when they are as opened-ended as this one. It is a true RPG where you have complete control of what you are doing. For those of you with technical problems, try upgrading your RAM. I have 512 Meg and have not had any crashes or lock-ups. RAM upgrades are the most effective and least expensive way to improve performance.
Rating: Summary: Bethesda's Single Player MMORPG Review: I haven't played previous incarnations of the Elder Scrolls games, so I can't say I was especially hyped up to play this one, but I thought I would give it a try based on positive reviews and favorable word-of-mouth. Morrowind plays essentially like a single player version of MMORPGs like Everquest or Dark Ages of Camelot. You spend most of your time killing critters, which gives you skills that increase your levels. NPCs send you on quests to get certain items or kill certain people. You are able to advance in a variety of factions, from particular houses of nobility or a number of guilds, going from a lowly peon to a powerful faction leader. The sense of advancement in Morrowind is palpable, and it's exciting to watch your standing and statistics increase, at least for a little while. There is a main plotline that periodically guides your actions, but it seems like an afterthought throughout much of the game. Morrowind exists not so much for the sake of a plotline, but so that the player can explore everything from dismal swamps to vampire-filled crypts to craggy seashores on the edge of nowhere. However, I only gave this game three stars because I feel its flaws almost outweigh its virtues. NPCs are much the same as they are in MMORPGs: interchangable and pretty much devoid of any personality; the majority of them say the exact same thing when you ask them about a given subject. Unlike the fantasy-themed RPGs by Black Isle, I doubt that you'll find a single memorable character in the entire game, which partly spoils Bethesda's claims of creating an immersive world. (The sparse NPC voice acting in the game is uniformly awful, although I liked the music more than most reviewers in the gaming rags did.) The game is in first person, but combat is pretty much handled a la Diablo: keep clicking your mouse until the thing you're attacking dies. Also, despite the fact that you can reach exalted levels of power--and, indeed, the game is sufficiently unbalanced in your favor that it becomes pretty disappointingly easy once you're a few hours in--you still spend most of your time doing 'fetch quests' and 'kill quests' while waiting for the plot to unravel. No matter how powerful you supposedly become, you're still just some idiot running around the landscape killing diseased lizards. That the game's code is sufficiently slack to cause numerous crash bugs without significant system tweaking and requires a state-of-the-art system to run anywhere near like it's supposed to doesn't help, either. Morrowind is certainly nice to look at and many people will surely consider its open-ended gameplay to be a godsend. Personally, I feel that Bethesda created an attractive world and interesting advancement systems, but forgot to make a compelling game to go along with them. It's like an MMORPG without most of the main attractions of an MMORPG, which made it an essentially unfulfilling gaming experience for me.
Rating: Summary: Incredibly Awesome Review: I have waited a long time for this third installment of the Elder Scrolls, and it was worth it! This RPG is incredibly good. Abstain from playing it if you don't want to be glued to your PC 24/7. The construction set included with the game is incredibly entertaining and easy to use, once you get the hang of it. I was able to add a house to the gameworld to suit my character perfectly. (and believe me I am a very technology challenged person) I think I have spent more time on the construction set than on the game itself. It is so much fun to use and is not limited to modifying architecture. With it the player can create new objects, classes, races, npc's, weapons, armor, the options are almost limitless. The official site boards are a wonderful source of information on every aspect of the game. On them, the players themselves enthusiastically share their experiences and answer most questions regarding Morrowind. Finally, fan sites are mushrooming all over the web with everything from tutorials on using the construction set, to solutions to the most obscure quests and puzzles. Leave it to the fans to generously share their creativity. All in all, I will be playing this game for a long time to come. Kudos to Bethesda for another job well done.
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