Thursday, March 15, 2012

A step back in time : The Elderscrolls III - Morrowind

Since Skyrim came out not long ago, I thought it would be a great time to play Morrowind again. fo those of you who are not familiar with Morrowind, it's the third game in the Elder scrolls series and a very good one







The hours of my life i have spent playing this game are countless. Every now and again i pick this game up again and take another go at it. This game however, like all games, has flaws in it. This is not some masterpiece that humanity created and compared to this game, everything sucks. No that is not the case, but of course you know that, only an idiot would think otherwise. Now, let's get started shall we?


Like in all the other Elder Scrolls games, you start out a a prisoner. This time you have just been transferred to Morrowind. The guard escorts you too see the old recordsman who you help finish the paperwork for your release (character creation)

It's probably no secret too you that the graphics in this game are not very fresh, perhaps a little unfresh. but that doesn't matter, people managed, enjoyed and loved video games long before the super smooth 3D rendering you see today, but I digress.




One of the very great things about this game that they took away in Oblivion and was also absent in Skyrim (no surprise) is the fast travel system. In both Oblivion and Skyrim you can fast travel too any location you have previously discovered and in Oblivion that includes all the major cities from the start (even though you have never visited them). The Morrowind system is a little more hardcore. There is no fast travel from anyplace to anyplace. No, what you have too do is ride these little guys from specified locations to specified locations. They are called Silt Striders and unlike most of the other monsters in Morrowind they don't seem to live anywhere else (absent from Morrowind and skyrim)

There is however one very big flaw with this fast travel system. Although it gives the game a little more immersion and gives a purpose to long journeys it can get confusing. Every fast travel point only connects too like 3-4 others and sometimes you need to travel through more than one to get too your desired location. However there is no way to know in advance which point connects to which and many of the town names are very similar so expect going in an few circles before finding the town your after.



There have been some major changes to the combat system throughout the Elder Scroll series. Most of those changes are just updates, keeping up with whats happening in the game industry, what people are into now, can't be making old games for ever bro. Anyways, the way that the morrowind system works is not so different to the system used in D&D. When you swing at an opponent you don't always damage him. Sometimes you would just hear a wind sound and nothing happens (except you get tiered). The better you with the weapon you are using, the less often this happens. it can still get quite frustrating trying too kill a hard enemy and always miss. you at least feel some progress when taking the enemies heath down slowly rather then just missing all the time. This can also happen with magic so be ready.


One of the bad changes in the Elder scrolls and maybe the worst is the removal of most weapon classes and the skills that go with them.

The following skills are included in Morrowind but absent in Oblivion and Skyrim

-Long Blade
-Short Blade
-Spears
-Staves
-Maces
-Axes

Morrowind also has hand to hand and marksman but those skills are also in the other two so i didn't count them.

This is one of the things that Morrowind has down but for some reason (balancing perhaps) those were removed. They kinda brought some of them back though in Skyrim but not as individual skills but as persk for the two weapon classes. in skyrim the weapon classes are 1h and 2h which is quite refreshing actually. those skills then have perks which make you better at using swords or axes or what have you.

Of all the games Oblivion had the worst weapon class system. There are only two weapon classes in oblivion, Blunt and Blade and both are almost identical (slight speed difference, you wont even notice)
with no customised perks or anything. The only thing that matters when you pick a weapons perk in that game is what you think looks better on your character. When you compare the three latest Elder Scrolls games, this is where Morrowind stands out.



Overall it's a pretty good game. Not perfect but pretty good and very worth it it check out, i know it's old but for all you Skyrim fans,  you should really know the origin of the game you love so much. 

Note should also be made on the soundtrack. It's the Best soundtrack in all the Elder Scrolls games in my opinion and for everyone that doesn't know, it's the same soundtrack as in Skyrim, they just freshened it up a little.

One thing should always be kept in mind when playing The Elder Scrolls series and that one thing is MODS.
When you start to get board of the game - mod it.
if you feel the game isn't fresh anymore - mod it
when you feel something is missing - mod it
if you want something new, unorthodox or completely crazy -mod it, mod the crap out of it!




I hope you enjoyed my first (and short) video game review. If you have any questions or requests for games you would like me too review (old and new) please just email me at  kommundur@gmail.com


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