Morrowind: Bloodmoon Review

In sheep's clothing

So... Bloodmoon, eh? I remember hearing about this DLC in reverse to the rest of my Morrowind discovery, because as I said I never tried the DLC when I first played The Elder Scrolls III. Thus maybe I read the name 'Bloodmoon' somewhere, but I was never really all that interested to look it up and see what it was about. (Which is actually rather bizarre because technically the very first piece of Elder Scrolls gameplay I intentionally looked up was someone's 160p grainy footage of werewolf gameplay from this very expansion. But I never looked it up specifically after the fact. Weird.) But it was only when the ultimate nostalgia DLC hit Skyrim, 'Dragonborn', that I was forced to turn around and stare this landmass in the face as diehards gushed at the fact this new DLC would take place in the exact same location as 'Bloodmoon'. Basically, 'Bloodmoon' for Morrowind and 'Dragonborn' for Skyrim both took place on the Island of Solstheim, and snowy island off to the Northwest of Vvardenfell, albeit with several hundred years of difference between the events of each respective DLC. So I ended up playing the callback years before the original, and now I get the surreal experience of seeing what I missed the first time and comparing how it stacks up against it's future 'Dragonborn' iteration and Tribunal's Mournhold. So how did that go?

Well for one I'll come out and say that Tribunal was certainly a lot more visually appealing than whatever it is that Bloodmoon is trying to go for. Okay, I know what Bloodmoon was going for, but I just think there was perhaps a miscommunication or a limitation of resources. You see, Solstheim was in fact an island much closer to Morrowind than Skyrim, but culturally it's clear that the land was always meant to refer back to the Nords, which were an undeveloped and largely unimportant race during the time of Morrowind's release. (They were all just 'stinky dumb Northerner' stereotypes back then) I'm not sure if that lack of development informed all the design decisions of Solstheim but I think that must have been going through somebodies head when they chose to make the land noticeably more flat, less varied and all around harsher than Morrowind. (Okay, that latter point doesn't really relate to 'design' I'll touch on it later.) A lot of the land is formed out of these gentle rising hills or just flat plains of land cut by faceless rocks and it doesn't really live up to the suite of variation that Vvardenfell boasted. Even when you were lost in Morrowind you'd see interesting sights and might even be able to figure out where you are on the landmass, but with Solstheim it can feel like you're lost in the blizzard at times, unable to tell up from down because, aside from a few standouts, every tract of land feels like  a clone of the last.

And that dissatisfaction with exploration isn't total by any means, the sheer novelty of exploring an icy landscape is a wonder of it's own for Morrowind, but it is exacerbated by the enemies, good lord the enemies! You see, both of these DLCs were made for endgame characters and thus are populated with enemies to contribute to that. Tribunal had entire sewer systems full to the brim of deadly Goblins, Dark Brotherhood Assassin's and Fabricant monstrosities. Solstheim has Wolves, Witches, Bears, Berserkers and- Spriggans? I haven't see those guys since Skyrim- what a reunion! Except no, because now they're the worst. Everything is. Everything hits hard, is plentiful and spawns everytime you rest, so you can never explore the land of Solstheim without mobs gnawing at your ankles. Spriggans in particular are even worse here than they are in Skyrim, because they have three lives. THREE! Making them such an absolute chore to slay that you'll bemoan every single time you're forced to take it on. And Solstheim is absolutely teeming with these badguys, making getting from Fort Frostmoth (the start) to the Skaal Village (one of furthest areas of civilisation) an unforgiving trek on it's own that I never want to take again! I appreciate hard content, I do; but this was just frustrating.

But at least you have the narrative to drag you along, one where you can actually have a tangible effect on the land around you! I'm not sure what I was exactly expecting from a Morrowind DLC, but a town building metagame certainly wasn't it. The build in particular is very straightforward with only one real choice, but it's still a very personal experience to be part of the genesis of a town. And whatsmore, the mining town that you found as the Nerevarine is Raven Rock! That's right, the very town you touch down upon in Skyrim's 'Dragonborn', so there's the progression of the world that you're looking for. Of course, I think Skyrim's iteration of the entirety of Solstheim is literally worlds improved upon Bloodmoon's in every conceivable way, (including design intent) but I suppose that's the product of 9 or so years more development experience. So I understand it, even if I maybe don't like it so much.

What about this "Bloodmoon", huh? What's that about? Well that derives from the narrative of the DLC which, amazingly, features two distinct paths for the player to take! (How very un-ElderScrolls-like; I love it) You start off by becoming ingratiated into the Skaal culture, learning of these spiritual settlers and their history, before being tossed into a mortal struggle between them and the Deadric god of the Hunt Hircine in his attempt to bring the wild hunt back around on a Bloodmoon. Narratively this story has literally nothing to do with the Morrowind main story, which was wrapped up by Tribunal, but instead offers a fun side story featuring those ever-popular story crutches, the Daedric Princes. (I'm not hating too hard. They are interesting entities that I always love to learn more about.)

At a point in the story you'll even be scratched by a werewolf and thus be given the choice to go cure yourself and continue the Skaal questline, or to submit to the wolf and become Hircine's servant. (Despite the fact that Werewolfism is a disease and part of the journey of the Nerevarine involved a process that technically makes you immune to aging and disease. Nevermind, just go with it.) Now this is revolutionary for Elder Scrolls storytelling, and you can sort of tell how new the devs were to this idea because of how they totally let the narrative drop off if you choose the Werewolf path. There's quests and objectives, but they're just sort of thrown at you until the Bloodmoon decends with you having no idea what that even means. It's kind of like Fallout 1's storytelling in that regard, unless you follow their specific route, the storytelling will miss you entirely. But seeing as how the narrative isn't really all that elaborate anyway, it's not a huge concern.

You know what is a huge concern? That final mission. Dios mio, that final mission. I'll admit to cutting back to a guide now and then, and it was through this that I saw, funnily enough, how this mission was entitled 'the hardest mission in the game'. "Really?" I thought "How bad could it possibly be?". Hmm... So I was astounded by how hard this mission was, because it's entire premise is throwing you up against insanely durable and strong werewolves in packs that are resistant to magic, are capable of several hundred points of damage in a few seconds and, worst of all, spawn in a maze. A maze you are forbidden from leaving once you enter it. That means you can't rest and get your health back at any single point until every werewolf is dead, whilst bearing in mind that if you summon more than 2 werewolves on you at once (a ludicrously easy thing to do) you will be quickly killed because this game wasn't built to accommodate for multiple enemy fights. Add on top of that the fact this game wants you to escort an NPC through this maze! (I just killed him straight up, not worth the hassle) In the end I had to jump and float over everything in that final maze because it was genuinely impossible to fight through it all legitimately. The onslaught was so insane and illfitting for the poor Morrowind combat controls that it completely overshadowed the final battle against Hircine himself. I'd already been through hell at that point, the devil himself was a picnic by comparison.

Ultimately I think it's no secret that I preferred Tribunal, even if Bloodmoon has more landmass to explore and more new play systems in the lukewarm Werewolf mode. Werewolf form gets easily cumbersome with how it's uncontrollable and happens every night, and the inability to rest or eat items for health makes its versatility limited. (as well as the fact that people remember who you are when you turn back for some reason, so it's a good way to alienate yourself with every NPC on the continent.) But for sheer novelty value of facing Morrowind's hardest vanilla challenge I, machoist that I am, can't exactly say no to playing this DLC. Plus, with time to spend around getting to know Solstheim, I did come to appreciate the landmass for at least not being too ballooned for it's own good, even if I don't appreciate the visual choices in design. In summary; I give Bloodmoon a C Grade for it's offering, fun in concept but rough on execution. If you play through Morrowind yourself and feel like giving this one a skip, I wouldn't admonish yourself too hard for the decision; but if you've the mind to push through there is some fun and new world spaces to explore on the isle. Including the first rendering of Dragur which may be slightly more scary than their Skyrim counterparts! So that's every part of Morrowind reviewed, however... there are some more aspects to Morrowind that I've been playing through before moving onto Oblivion and I think they may be worth a talk, so stay tuned for next time where I'll expand my scope to the wider world of Tamriel.