 |
 |
||||
 |
 |
 |
|||
 |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
July 1, 2002
I was an early adopter of the second game in The Elder Scrolls series, Daggerfall, which stands to this day as the least epic and most sprawling episode in the history of computer gaming. For my $50, I had a game that both tugged at me with the fascination of a previously unimaginable virtual 3D world and at the same time repulsed me with innumerable bugs and dubious features: such as being able to unwittingly turn down certain quests that were necessary for completing the game. Arriving three years later than its original ETA of 1999, now six years after Daggerfall, Bethesda Softworks has finally unveiled Morrowind. With the PC release followed shortly thereafter with the Xbox', The Elder Scrolls' fantasy world of Tamriel has moved from being a rather esoteric footnote in the history of role playing games (RPGs) to a near household word that might even eclipse the venerable Ultima series in the minds of younger gamers. Responding to criticism of their previous game (notably that the enormous Daggerfall world was largely sterile with its randomly generated dungeons and cities) Bethesda Softworks decided to focus only upon a small section of Tamriel: Morrowind, the home of the mysterious "Dunmer" or Dark Elves. Bragging that this time out that every tree, shrub, and Dwarven treasure chest has been carefully "placed by hand" (an assertion by Bethesda that no review has dared to leave unmentioned), Morrowind does indeed feel more intimate, at least on a superficial level.
Despite having an imposing if not always relevant back story, it is transcended by Morrowind's primary strength is the ability to tell a story through physical presence rather than words. While the individual graphical components that make up Morrowind have all been done before in other games, not since perhaps Ultima VII has a game combined all of the medium's contemporary innovations together so seamlessly that such a truly convincing virtual world has been produced. It is in the subtle details too. The ability of modern video cards to push more polygons has made it so dungeon walls can bow slightly on their sides, not precisely an issue of authenticity, but one making the whole world feel more organic: chamfered and rounded edges become the rule, rather than the exception. While some of the initial awe of Morrowind will wear off once players discover that there are only a few different architectural templates and texture types for things such as dungeons, buildings, and flora and that certain floor plans are reused somewhat lazily at times, nevertheless, the game remains convincing, drawing on its strong first impressions.
While a story told through interacting with in-game virtual books and non player characters about an ancient race of dwarves known as the Dweemer that disappeared, leaving only their strange steam-driven mechanical cities behind (whose aesthetic sense appears uncannily similar to that of Urza's "artifact" creations in the collectible card game, Magic, The Gathering) is not unusually compelling--if a player first travels through their ruins, seeing their bronze towers jutting out of the desolate mountain side, the story has much more of a visceral appeal once further details are exposed. Players are largely free to ignore the central plot, and are indeed often encouraged to do quests for the mage, thief, assassin, warrior, and merchant guilds that populate Morrowind; or merely explore the country side at their leisure. Though most of these "side quests" (if indeed they can be called such a thing as they are almost innumerable) are satisfactorily done, their physical construction tends to be less imaginative than the more interesting dungeons and caverns that are included in the central plot, which will come as a pleasant surprise once players get around to undertaking them. Morrowind is not without its faults. Slow frame rates abound with no apparent bottleneck to be blamed. Morrowind is a great equalizer: it is often choppy on both aging systems and new. Those with DirectX 8.1 compatible video cards (such as the GeForce 3+ or Radeon 8500) will be able to see a special "pixel-shader" effect on water that ripples nicely, especially as players move through it, but is not a true environmental effect as exactly what it reflects seems to have little to do with the scene at hand. Still, it is a welcome addition and it is unfortunate that similar work was not applied to the lava streams and tar pits of the game. It is also apparent that Morrowind received inadequate play testing before it was released, which is doubly unfortunate with the release of the Xbox console version where the idea of constant patches and updates has happily not yet become commonplace. While actual bugs have largely been weeded out (the game is still subject to occasional random crashes without alert, though the auto-save feature makes this an acceptable nuisance by today's standards), the game balance is intrinsically flawed. Many reviewers have indeed named Morrowind an easy game to exploit but have then followed with the now standard question, "but why would you want to?" However, to play Morrowind is to exploit it.
The character system differs from most RPGs in that character levels are increased not by "experience points" gained from combat but from actual experience: swinging a sword will increase the "long blade" skill; casting a healing spell with increase the "restoration" skill; while jumping up and down in place will actually increase the "acrobatics" skill. When ten skills are raised one level (or conversely fewer skills raised multiple points for a sum total of ten) the character's overall level is increased. The player can then assign three tokens to increase the character's primary attributes (strength, intelligence, etc.) and depending on which skills were employed during the course of the previous level, different multipliers affect the tokens; so rather than one point, a token might increase the attribute two, three, or even five points. If that all seems overly complex: it is. While players can certainly learn and adapt to the system, it inherently makes certain skills easier to advance than others. Even though some skills are clearly exploitable (the "athletics" skill can be advanced just by walking around, so some players have weighted their keyboards or rubber-banded their Xbox controller and walked away, leaving their character to run or swim against a wall, gaining levels in the process) it really only serves to punish legitimate play. After all, if it takes 50 successful sword attacks to raise one skill and 50 successful healing spell-casts to raise another--which might advance faster? A character with a sword might be able to make hundreds of blows before he or she might have to return to town for repairs, but a spell caster has only a small pool of "magicka" from which to cast spells before rest is needed, making it that much harder to advance unless players exploit the system by creating a "cantrip" spell (a low powered spell that while functionally useless costs only one magicka point to cast, making it easy, though laborious, to level). Many skills are all but impossible to increase without the aid of a dedicated trainer whose aid can quickly rise to exorbitant amounts of gold.
The thief class suffers the most as there are only so many locks to pick and traps to diffuse while warriors have a veritable field day with re-spawning foes. In fact, the idea of three main classes (fighter, mage, or thief) is made largely irrelevant within the game. All a character needs to stand toe-to-toe in melee with any enemy in the game is one weapon and one armor skill (armor is divided into unarmored, light, medium, and heavy categories--the medium armor being startlingly ineffective), leaving eight whole additional skills from which to choose from. Mid-level mages can cast spells that open locks far more effectively than their thief counterparts and can steal while standing in a dark corner using telekinesis rather than trying to filch an item at arms length. Fighters benefit the most as "hit points" and stamina are gained from raising levels so an early bonus to the "endurance" attribute can net a huge cumulative advantage for players that choose a more warrior-like path early on, while "magicka" is merely based on "intelligence," which can be increased but is not tied to level so there is no penalty at higher levels for having neglected "intelligence" early in the game. Morrowind also fails to accurately scale with the abilities of characters. A level 25 character with decent equipment (both are likely to be accomplished before a player even manages to begin the plot related quests) can easily cut through any opponent in the game without pause. While a player might advance to level 50 or even higher by the end of the game, at that time, there is not much point in playing the game other than trying to see it to its conclusion--as the challenge is gone. The economy of Morrowind also neglects high level characters. Though a "Daedric" weapon might sell for 80,000 gold pieces (according to its "info" box), the most gold any vendor has on-hand in the game tops out at less than 10,000 (and the "merchant" in question is actually a monster that few players would actually discover on their own) meaning that items that your character commonly encounters and possesses are functionally priceless. However, this "realism" is questionable because once that item is in a vendor's possession (sold by the player for a fraction of its worth), they demand the same "priceless" amount to sell it back to the player. That is not an economy. While players can sell smaller items to merchants and wait a day for the vendor's cash supply to replenish, only to "sell" an expensive item to a merchant for all their gold and the return of the smaller items sold previously, only to repeat the cycle again for the next big item--this is not an efficient or enjoyable use of a player's time.
This is exacerbated by the use of skill trainers and the detailed system of enchanting. If a player casts "soul trap" upon an enemy and dispatches it within a certain amount of time, the soul of the creature will become trapped within a soul gem that a character possesses (they come in various sizes corresponding to different levels of monsters). These gems can then be used to enchant various equipment with spell-like effects; either by using the players own "enchant" skill or a specialized vendor. Using a vendor can sometimes cost upwards of $100,000 gold, an amount unfathomable to players in the game--they might easily have $100,000 worth of goods but there is no one capable of buying them and the enchanter only takes cash. Players with a high enchant skill can choose to create their own enchanted items, but they are likely to fail more often than not (destroying a valuable soul gem in the process) and the only feasible way of raising the enchanting skill to a suitably high level is by paying gold to a trainer--so it might not save money in the long run. Fortunately, Morrowind shipped with powerful editing tools. While this might be the season of the editor, with both Dungeon Siege and Neverwinter Nights at it as well--rather than designing quests of dubious quality, Morrowind players have set about fixing shortcomings in the game. Whole patches for actual game bugs have been released by players before official ones have been issued by Bethesda. Other additions include overhauls of the game system: changing skills, spells, and even monster difficulty globally; even things as superficial as having in-game road signs display their actual destinations with their textures, rather than the generic runes that the game shipped with. Players well into the game will appreciate downloads that add "teleport rings" for easy transportation from one city to the next or a "super-merchant" with a stockpile of cash to purchase the character's more expensive items.
Morrowind is a pretty poor RPG objectively speaking. Between the clumsy skill and level system and a plot that seems muted as all the action seems to take place in letters, books, and static conversations, it fails to inspire players on an intellectual level as games such as Ultima VII have done. Despite these issues, on a more visceral level, the game succeeds brilliantly--that the game both initially overwhelms players with such visual splendor and under whelms them with level design, meaning the best is always yet to come, makes Morrowind a joy from beginning to end. Games that rely on such flourishes should best be played sooner than later as they are eventually eclipsed by newer offerings that are ever more shiny; so despite an aging system and warnings of sluggish performance, make Morrowind your next game--you will not be disappointed. by Richard Leader |
||
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
