Skyrim is better than Morrowind

The fire rises!

And now comes the point where we tip this all on it's head. Shoe on the otherfoot, claiming the new boy is bigger than the old man. Yes, it's quite the easy and popular stance to take that 'old game good/ new game bad' and with Bethesda games it's all but a given that this is the way the sentiment trends. I wonder if, for the sake of the argument, someone could neatly turn that on it's head and start from the otherside of the equation; decideing that the newest Bethesda game, with it's years of game design refinement, built up team experience and vastly ballooned resources, is actually overall the superior project and the better all-around game? Whether from the stance of observing the overall package, we can actually conclude that the Xbox original launch title is neatly put to rest by Bethesda's innovations and reiterations? Now you can see where I'm going with all this, right?

On an individual level, as in dealing with actual characters, the people who inhabit Skyrim are, as a whole, more interesting than the various Morrowind residents. That is likely because Morrowind is stuffed with far more people than the developers over at Bethesda could even hope create actual breathing characters and backstories for, whereas for Skyrim, and Oblivion, Bethesda really toned down on the quantity so they could focus on quality. Skyrim's residents are given personalities and unique topics of discussion and often times complex webs of acquaintes only hinted at with clever environmental storytelling techniques and hidden notes pointing this way and that. The majority of Morrowind's NPCs are just puppets for which general quest questions can be funnelled through. This is why the shrinking down of the landmass has been a boon for the immersion of the Elder Scrolls franchise.

Keeping on the topic of 'quality of quantity', I want to talk about quests for a brief while. Morrowind's larger questlines are long and drawn out big events, but the individual quests that make up those chains can, oftentimes, just be mind numbingly boring or uncreative. The mage's guild will have you picking flowers, the fighters guild will have you rat killing; these are all the sorts of quests no more deep and interesting than what an AI could generate. Which is probably why in Skyrim, an AI does generate these kind of miscellaneous 'no substance' quests. Whereas a lot of the less 'essential' parts of Morrowind are shoved with quests that just fill space, Skyrim's handwritten quests all attempt to be more interesting, multi-faceted and memorable. Not all of them manage this, some are collect-athons, but in general the majority of quests has more overall hits than Morrowind's quest success rate.

Of course, the lowest hanging fruit that I'm absolutely going to hit for is Morrowind's combat compared to Skyrim. Now Skyrim does not have the great and most in depth combat in the world and Bethesda absolutely need to overall the action elements of how their games played, and have needed to since Oblivion; but Morrowind was the result of an unholy union that frustrated everybody. Morrowind's combat is built by an idea that sounds conceptually in-depth and detailed on paper, utilising RPG stats and fatigue bars to calculate chance-to-hit like a full action DnD style of game. Whereas in practise it just turns out to be a frustrating and unfulfilling experience of swinging sticks that phase through enemies without doing damage. Level up your weapon enough to hit consistently, and then you'll quickly start to notice that enemies go down like it's nothing, because the sweet-spot between weapons connecting and doing decent, but not overwhelming, damage is so small that you'll have swept right past it by the time you're hitting consistently. Magic is slightly better and more interesting, and bows are always fun no matter the game; but Morrowind's combat never slips into the state of feeling good. It just moves from frustrating and uncooperative to acceptable but boring.

Perhaps it's a little unfair to put it up as a point, but facts cannot be denied, Skyrim has a better sense of set piece presentation. Shackled by antiquated soft- and hardware, even in it's largest narrative climaxes, Morrowind can't quite sell the grandeur of fighting a living god underneath a dormant volcano next to a giant Dwemer mech-suit so well. Skyrim, on the otherhand, smothers itself in the glitzy presentation of the swirling heavens of Sovengarde or the explosive scale of the battle for Whiterun. In it's biggest moments, Skyrim plays up the spectacle to the extent of it's engine's capabilities and matches the flash of an action game of it's time, albeit in the few rare moments that it can actually afford to do so. The set piece presentation isn't exactly stellar for any Elder Scrolls game, but by comparison there really is no competition between what Skyrim had done and Morrowind's very obvious limits. (Don't even get me started on Hircine's Hunt at the end of Bloodmoon; what a dog's dinner of a sequence")

Immersion is another sticking point for which I have to award Skyrim's efforts. Through the style of creating a world to the level of fidelity that The Elder Scrolls V has, it's actually quite easy to get lost up in the flow of living in the world of Skyrim. Cosying up on some warm barstool in a wayward inn on a chilly night, sipping on mead and embracing the heady boozy atmosphere, or listening to the wind howling from the valley drops underneath the Shrine of Azura; there's a sense of atmosphere that really places the player in Skyrim. Not that Morrowind is devoid of that same atmosphere, per se. In fact, I've always said the Bethesda are typically the kings of such immersion in their RPG games, but again this is a mastery of technology question; the amount of ways the player can interact with the world or have it interact with them, in sound and lighting, marks Skyrim as the superior.

And then there's Skyrim's DLC. Morrowind sort of betrays it's own design philosophy with the layout of 'Tribunal', carving out a restrictive section of map full of maze-like sewer tunnels and large empty courtyards instead of the wide open exploration which marked the strength of Vvardenfell. Dawngaurd builds it's narrative into the existing land of Skyrim and expands upon it with new locations and realms that connect with the main game, fitting more neatly into the package of Skyrim's landmass in a way that is totally seamless. Dragonborn is also a culmination of everything we've discussed so far, superior quest design, spectacular set pieces and improved technologies for creating immersion. (Just a shame about those 'waves'.) Making the DLC offerings of Skyrim, ignoring Hearthfire, a more coherent and enriching play experience than what Morrowind presented itself.

Which brings me around to the bitter end of my wanton character assassination of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind; For which in one instance, I quite literally pulled out a knife I'd already used on the back of Skyrim before turning it back on Morrowind. Presenting, I hope, just a few of the reasons for both sides of the potential coin when it comes to this endless debate that has been held for the past ten years regarding these games. Personally, I don't think that either game is better than the other because they are both just so very different. Despite occupying the same franchise and genre, Skyrim and Morrowind are so distinct in how they're constructed that I never find myself playing one whilst wistfully thinking of the other, as I would feel in other comparative titles. Thus for the sake of the argument I wouldn't land on either side too greatly, I think they're both just steller examples of RPG greatness. And then there's Oblivion. Hmm... what shall I do with little 'ol Oblivion?

Morrowind is better than Skyrim

Lighting fires.

Bold claim, isn't it? But one I've heard made time and time again by more niche members of the Elder Scrolls fandom as the franchise progressively fragments itself with each new game entry. Everybody buys and plays the new game, before inevitably peeling off and retreating to their old favourites with a nostalgic wink in their eye and a smile in their hearts. And that's the exact position I'm going to attempt to adopt today wherein I will, for the sake of the argument, detail the many ways in which Morrowind is a superior game to Skyrim and Bethesda should feel bad for not matching it's greatness. Okay, I don't mean that last part, that was a joke. But my seriousness remains; we're going to adopt the haughty high ground as we natter off today, I hope you can stay with me long enough to get to the end of the article. If to at least see what evidence I can pull out of worrying deep knowledge of this franchises' various entries.

First is the obvious cherry everyone who looks at this topic is going to reach for; the world of Morrowind is unmatched in the Elder Scrolls lore. Every Elder Scrolls game bases it's provinces off various real-world examples to varying degrees of intrigue, cultural inspiration and thematic fidelity. Although the snowy plains of Skyrim are pretty and vast, somewhat capturing the Nordic majesty of Viking homeland- those tundras and snowhills also increadibly terrestrial and safe. Bethesda didn't rock the boat with envisioning the world of Skyrim, just as they didn't stress themselves too much coming up with Oblivion's, fantasy standard looking Cyrodiil. Morrowind, on the otherhand, is one of the most original world spaces in RPG history. Giant mushroom wizard towers, towering insectile beasts, Ancient Egyptian influences trimmed down and warped to not feel in the slightest bit derivative. Just breathing in the culture of Morrowind is a fever dream of ingenuity and creative freshness that very few fantasy properties could ever hope to match. Morrowind's Vvardenfell is the best world space in the franchise, no competition.

Morrowind's handling of it's 'Factions' system is also much improved upon the very rigid way that Skyrim does the same job, with a single straightforward quest line that is often singular in scope. Morrowind is free form with an actual 'Faction rank' system built into the game wherein you travel around to various faction headquarters and accept side quests to build merits with your superiors. There's even a focus put into developing certain key skills to be actually suitable for higher positions, cleverly spreading out faction progression to coincide with the overall progression of the character throughout the course of the main game. In Morrowind, getting to the head of any faction requires tons of building connections through completing quests and improving yourself to be noticed, in a manner that is so much more engaging and rewarding than in Skyrim where you'll, quite literally, just fall into the role of guild master if you stick around long enough. 

Next up; Magic. Skyrim really scaled back on what the series was doing with it's magic, even more so than Oblivion already had done. For Skyrim every spell is really informed by how flashy it is, thus how much damage it does, but Morrowind contained entire lists of spells just for utility. Whether that was spells for breaking through locks, or spells for setting fast travel points; Morrowind built a robust and vast array of magical talents to make the idea of playing as a mage and enjoying yourself a genuinely valid proposition, as opposed to later Elder Scrolls games which all but demand a hybrid build between every potential specification. There was also a complete spell-creation system which allowed for fine-tuning of spells and, of course, the crème of the crop; Levitation. Levitation was a spell that revolutionised the design of Morrowind, not just for travel but for dungeon layout as well. How much more interesting is it to discover a hidden coven of ancient treasure not just by trudging along some linear path that any old thief could have stumbled upon over the last 1000 years, but by flying up to the highcrooks of some mossy cave and peering through cracks in the rockface to discover some tucked away antechamber far out the way of prying eyes? Morrowind understood the potential of expansive magic options better than any of it's successor's have so far.

Morrowind's narrative is a famously deep and rich thread of lore that drags the player, arguably forcibly, through dozens countless texts pertaining to the founding of the very nation of Morrowind and the origins of their subspecies. You delve into the deepest lores and bring those stories to life in an effort to become the embodiment of their messianic stories in a desperate struggle against an almost Lovecraftian-style threat that seeks to invade their very dreams, and yours, on it's journey to achieve an invincible godhood. There's oodles of interweaved complexity around traditions, factions and demi-gods that it feels like every sector of the world somehow links back to the grand struggle of the main quest. Whereas Skyrim, by comparison, is rather plodding and obvious with it's plot of 'defeat the dragons' which seems to progress itself and occur independently of mostly every faction in the game. Sure, you'll float by most factions through the course of the main story, but more just to introduce the player to their exsistence, there's no substantive interaction which makes the scope of the story seem to narrow to purely the efforts of the Player and the Blades. Not even the Aldmeri Dominion feel all that important to the grand scheme of things, making Skyrim's 'Save the world' plot feel like one of the softest I've ever gone through in fantasy.

Morrowind had itself two DLC, which brings it in line with Skyrim's 2 major DLCs. The first was an expansion into Mournhold, the capital of Morrowind's mainland, which interweaved with the major characters of the main story so well it felt like something of a natural expansion. Touching on the rest of the tribunal and how they interact with the claims of who you are, makes the events of 'Tribunal' feel worthy and formative to the proceeding few years of Morrowind's lore. If the main game is about dealing with the product of Morrowind's ancient past, 'Tribunal' is about laying the tracks of it's impending future. Whereas Skyrim's Dawngaurd is itself a separate and distinct narrative that fails to reflect back on anything really worthy to the actual state of the world, beyond how Skyrim's vampires choose to hold themselves. 'Bloodmoon' and 'Dragonborn', however, both take place on the island of Solstheiem and I'd argue the tables actually flip for it. Bloodmoon is it's own story whereas Dragonborn feels implicitly tied to the main narrative in way that makes it feel like the cap off to the entire game. Quiet curious.

Finally, there are the immersive elements with which Morrowind defines itself. Morrowind gives it's users no map markers or cheaty video game tools for quest hunting or quick travelling, players must travel the land as the people of the world would, through slit striders and very specific directions that one could very well end up getting wrong if they don't pay attention. Relationships and contacts can be built with anyone in the world thanks to the robust affinity building minigame, events occur in their own pace requiring the player to match it. Morrowind feels like a world that breathes on it's own, whereas Skyrim is a place that would stop in it's tracks if it's main reason for being, the player, stopped existing. Of course it's all an illusion in either game, but Morrowind arguably sells that illusion better with the way it places the character in a sprawling, unforgiving world that just doesn't seem to care about them until those players make it care about them.

Morrowind wowed the world as a launch title for the original Xbox and it has remained something of a love letter to fans of Role Playing Games ever since. One of the most creative and ingenious game worlds ever made, it's only fair that Morrowind has maintained it's adoration almost 20 years later. To this day people still flock to talk about the game, there's a whole new updated version of the game to run mods better on, there are active modding units making content for it, and Nvidia literally picked it as a game to show off their automatic ray-trace remaster tech on; proving it's relevance even in the modern age. Few games can boast living so prominently in the public consciousness for so very long, the staying power of Morrowind is nigh on unmatched. Who could truly argue, then, that it is not itself the greatest Elder Scrolls Game ever made? Who could argue indeed... 

Tamriel Rebuilt

White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise

When talking about mods before I've touched on my adoration of those large scale land-maker mods which command a full amateur team's worth of talent in order to craft a new chunk of concentrated content to rival that of Bethesda's own talent. Of course, when I bring it up I mostly do so in order to celebrate promising upcoming Skyrim mods, however there exists a huge amount of projects that are already out there as well as ones not just limited to the worlds of Skyrim. In fact there are already completed new lands mods for Oblivion as well that I want to get around to eventually, however the focus of this blog is on one of the biggest examples of these mods for Morrowind. Yes, 2002's Morrowind is no stranger to the hugely ambitious mod projects that characterise the Bethesda modding community, and I knew that if I was going to be doing a 'complete' Morrowind playthrough then that just meant that I had to touch on some of these mods too. And so I tackled the biggest, most ambitious of them all; Tamriel Rebuilt.

Tamriel Rebuilt is a new lands mod that aims to create various entire provinces from all around Tamriel and bring them into Morrowind complete with unique enemies and dungeons, questlines and sidequests, music and distinct visual flairs no matter where you go. It's a work-in-progress affair built entirely by volunteers who work in their own time, and it's very likely to stay in 'work-in-progress' for the foreseeable future, but even then there's an amazing amount of work that's already been done and shown out there to the public. Right now there are three major branches to this project that are far-along enough to be in the public eye and they are, funnily enough, Tamriel Rebuilt, (which covers the Morrowind Mainland) 'Province Cyrodiil' and 'Skyrim: Home of the Nords'. I've tried all three and have come away so incredibly impressed that I want to talk about each briefly today. Other projects that don't have public builds out yet are 'High Rock 427' presumably dealing with the home of the High elves, 'Project Valenwood' for those Wood Elf fans out there and 'Elsweyr: Project Sugar' which sounds a little racist. (Oh, you just assume that all Khajiit eat moon sugar? They're an entire race of addicts, are they?) However apparently that was the official name of a cancelled sequel to an Elder Scrolls spin-off game. (So it's Bethesda themselves who started the stereotype, I knew it!)

The second I was done crying blood from finishing Bloodmoon's stupidly difficult final quest, I installed a plethora of mods for Morrowind and jumped right into all of this New Lands insanity, starting with 'Skyrim: Home of the Nords' because I've always attuned myself to my Norse brothers the most. It was at this point I learned that these mods are best played in the OpenMW version of Morrowind, a version of the game run on a fanbuilt engine that is frightfully easy to set-up but doesn't export saves (at least not automatically. The team don't seem all that fussed on developing actual workable tools for it either) and for some incomprehensible reason the aspect ratio for 1080p is stuck at some horrible 4:3. I'm sorry I don't have a 4k monitor! Why must I be punished through my aspect ratio? OpenMW is probably the correct way to play Morrowind in the current day, fit with an engine actually capable of running some custom scripts, but I wasn't having none of that hassle. For Tamriel Rebuilt, however, that meant I wouldn't have an ingame map to tell me where I was because the vanilla Morrowind map has fixed dimensions. (Thank the project's loremaster for the in-universe guide books; they saved my hide!)

'Skyrim: Home the Nords' takes Bloodmoon's attempt to bring Norse culture to Morrowind and puts it to total shame through it's own efforts. Taking place in the more temperate Eastern climates of Skyrim (For now, this mod is still work in progress) this mod envisions a version of Skyrim from before Bethesda fleshed it out themselves, based on the lore that was around at the release of Morrowind. Does this make for a richer world? No, Skyrim and Nords were very clearly underdeveloped as a people before Skyrim, but it does make for a fascinating look at another direction the series could have taken. Visually the new world is stunning with mountainous pathways, twisting barrows and surly tundra plains aplenty. I'm being serious when I say the team put Solstheim to shame with their landscaping, truly applaud worthy. The cities, on the otherhand, are curiously flat topped with the only exception being the small Reachman camps scattered here and there. I think that may be in keeping with the aesthetic from Arena, (Which I thought existed because of engine and team limitations rather than because of an actual conscious design decision) and is does rob the two featured cities of any even remotely interesting skylines. 

Their vision of Skyrim plays a lot more with the Nord's relationship to their 'border buddies' the Redguards and how those tensions could spark into skirmishes. The city of Dragonstar, revived for this mod, is a particular standout to me as it sits split down the middle with a gate that divides the Hammerfell run districts from the Skyrim run ones. The wilderness is full of wild and weird creatures exclusive for Skyrim in keeping with the weirdness of Morrowind's design aesthetic rather than 'TES V: Skyrim's more conventional enemies. Some of the factions are actually joinable and have unfinished but playable questlines and there's an actual arena in the game. Bethesda couldn't even shoot for an arena for the actual Skyrim, so this team even has a one-up on them in that regard. Honestly, Home of the Nords is worth it just for the sightseeing alone, the single Aylied ruin I stumbled across during my own explorations was mind-blowingly cool and uniquely designed, all the Skyrim exclusive items are modelled to a high degree (sometimes with better textures than base Morrowind items) and the new musical tracks provided by Tamriel rebuilt I think fit this environment the best. Strong offering that's an B Grade for what's there so far. (Though of course, bare in mind that all these mods are far from done and you will fall off the edge of the world if you try to walk into Hammerfell. I know. I tried)

Next I tried out 'Province Cyrodiil', but honestly this project is so early along in development that it should really be called 'Island Stirk' seeing as how that is as far as you can go right now. This is a mod that's a lot more like a tour rather than an exploration, because the land you traverse is pretty truncated. But that does allow you opportunity to enjoy everything this mod has to offer in the space of a couple of hours, so if that's what you're looking for than bully for you. Stirk is a typically tropical Cyrodiilian landscape, with warm sands and beaches, and honestly hardly any horrible monsters at all to deal with. The island is pretty sparsely populated too, with only one major port to speak of. The Aylied ruin from this mod is much more akin to Oblivion's design (disappointing, in my opinion. Home of the Nords' one was wild) and there's no real quests to speak of. Still as a mission statement for where the team want to go once they hit the mainland, Stirk does cover most every base well enough for what would be required in the various environs of mainland Cyrodiil, and I'm excited to see what becomes of this mod once plans start forming. I'll give it a C Grade for now, interesting in intent but yet to prove itself.

And finally I saved the big boy for last; Tamriel Rebuilt, the one who started it all. Beginning as a 'simple' plan to envision the Morrowind mainland, it's now grown into so much more and I wanted to see the base that launched so many other projects off of it. And right away I can say that the new parts of Morrowind mainland fit the landscape perfectly. So much so that when I had installed the mods but was still wrapping up some last faction questlines, I Almsivi Interventioned from the Tel islands (Expecting to be in Ebonheart or Ald Ruhn) and wound up confused and wondering through the mod for a good 5 minutes before I figured out what had happened. I literally thought I'd lost my mind before opening up the map and going "Oh, these are new lands!" I suppose that should make sense considering the tools that made Vvardenfell were right there for people to use, but these guys simply nailed the world design of the Bethesda team to a scarily accurate degree, and then went even further beyond.

My tour of Morrowind took me to some incredible looking places that matched the grandeur of Vivec or the personality of Ald Ruhn. Particular standouts to me was the mountainous city of Akamora and the familiar imperial streets of Old Ebonheart. But there was one city in particular that made my breath catch when I first saw. One that, even now, makes me excited to think back on for it's incredible uniqueness. That city is Necrom. Oh good lord the team did an amazing job with Necrom. Unlike anything else that Morrowind has to offer, Necrom is a city of the dead on the eastern peninsula that wears Morrowind's Egyptian influences proudly. Formed out of monolithic mausoleums that invoke the spirit of ancient Thebes, characterised by towering halls of marble white, populated by the ominous Ordinators-in-mourning with their weeping masks; Nercom is just brilliant. Truly and utterly. The only shame is the lack of quests and fleshed-out characters to populate this city, as such a stunning landscape simply demands that attention. I would adore the chance to write some stories and questlines for this place, it's very existence inspires a thousand voices to sing in my head. (But I've never coded a Morrowind mod before so I'd probably be better off leaving that to the actual coders, eh.) Tamriel Rebuilt has some quests to it, but it's mostly just an mindblowing tour as it stands right now; even then, the quality of what's on display right now easily earns the A grade from me. I can see why other teams were inspired to go off and start their own projects from this, some of the work is just breathtaking.

The modding community of Morrowind may not be as large as Skyrim's or Oblivion's, but as long as it has projects like this ongoing for it I don't think there's any doubt that it's just as chock-full of talented individuals looking to express themselves. Having played around with Mods and modding for a few years now, I can safely say that Tamriel Rebuilt is one of the coolest mods of it's type that I've seen, taking a classic and legendary RPG and matching it in scope and even beating it at it's own game in some places. Even if you've never played Morrowind before and are just looking for a base experience, I'd implore you not to finish up with the game without taking a look at the communities' best before you move on. All and all the Tamriel Rebuilt project is an easy recommend for owners of Morrowind, maybe not as a project to put on the calendar and wait upon with baited breath, but to check up on every now and then and be blown away by the things these fans get up to in thier spare time. Sometimes it's exciting and appreciation worthy, and othertimes it's nothing short of inspiring. Unbelievably great job keeping Morrowind alive after all these years team, you've got this blogger in awe. 

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.

Morrowind: Tribunal Review

Now you face the one true god

The very first time that I played Morrowind, all the way back on the Xbox 360 with the help of Microsoft's ever comprehensive backwards compatibility program, I was unfortunate enough not to get to play the DLCs. This was, of course, because these expansions didn't come with the original game and this was before the age of online stores, so I was stuck pretty much playing Morrowind 1.0. Funny thing about that, Morrowind 1.0 is almost unplayable in the modern age thanks to one huge freakin' omission that the team got right around to mending for the first DLC. It's not so much a mechanical issue, but something which I can only assume was a conscious choice, which exacerbates the already iffy Morrowind combat to being a hurdle for enjoying the game at even a base level. Can you guess what they left out? It was the enemies' health bar. Morrowind 1.0 had no visible enemy health bar. (Nor did it have any way to 'check' enemy health, like old school JRPGs and the 'scan' ability) Not that I'm going to bump up my rating on Tribunal for fixing that, should have been in the game to start with, but I thought that was just a curious titbit share with you. 

So Tribunal gets a bit of a bad reputation for featuring one of the most overly aggressive story hooks of any Bethesda DLC to date, and in the end it doesn't really amount to anything anyway. Basically, from the moment you download the DLC (Or, if you have the Game of the Year Edition, from the moment you start the game) every time you rest for prolonged periods of time you are subject to attacks from The Dark Brotherhood. (Yes, that Dark Brotherhood) They'll interrupt you, lay into you with decently powered gear, and likely brutally murder the unprepared. (Of course, if you beat them then that's some free decent armour to screw with early game balance for you. But Morrowind combat is hardly balanced anyway so who cares?) Still, it's annoying for these guys to harass you constantly with a seemingly endless supply of rookie assassins to disturb your sleep, especially as the Tribunal storyline is specifically geared to be played after the main quest, so you're going to be dealing with hordes of dumb ass Assassin's before you get to track them down and tell them to lay off. (Good thing Bethesda never did that ag- oh wait, 'Dragonborn'.)

Tribunal is so named because the main game only ever has you visit one of the three living gods in Vivec, whereas you but hear of Nerevar's Queen/Wife Almalexia and chief inventor/scientist Sotha Sil. This time you actually get to meet them, and must travel to the mainland in order to so; exciting right? Well prepare to be disappointed off the bat because the Morrowind capital of Mournhold is the only location you get to visit on the Morrowind mainland, so discard all those sightseeing plans you had drawn up. Mournhold consists of 5 outdoor cells all stitched together as different districts of Mournhold, and thus feels strangely regressive when compared against the wideopen nine cantons of Vivec. Whatsmore, one of Morrowind's best explorative features, levitation, is disabled within the city because otherwise you'd be able to see how none of the districts are actually connected and would float into the abyss outside the map. (There's an invisible ceiling stopping you from just jumping up there too)

This would make for a pretty disappointing time if it wasn't for the fact that Mournhold is just so darn beautiful. Using almost entirely new assets, Tribunal manages to take the distinct styles of the various Morrowind families and addendum upon them with this slightly new architectural design philosophy of slopes and sharp corners. (A design style that would later, through The Elder Scrolls Online, become the default of the majority of Morrowind.) Most of the districts themselves feel individual with another personality to them to define the manor area from the market place, or the temple from the royal palace grounds. I also adore the royal guard armour, it's this deeper shade of red that invokes the muted but rich palette of Morrowind proper, it fits in seamlessly. I only came out the whole thing wishing that Mournhold had even more districts to enjoy and that the majority of it's content didn't take place in the sewers, which don't share the level of beauty that the main city does.

Built for high player levels, Mournhold offers a challenge for the endgame characters as they have a new major creature to fight, the goblins. That's right, this is a game that shoves an enemy as standard as goblins in the endgame slot. And they're... numerous at the very least. I don't know, I didn't particularly enjoy cutting through hoards of them, like the main quest will force you to do, and found their presence just a chore to have to do deal with. What is much more interesting, but sadly vastly underutilised, are the clockwork fabricants of Sotha Sil's Clockwork city, wholly unique beings that are mix between organic dinosaur beings and synthetic robots. The series could really use more appearances from these guys, no matter how unlikely that may be.

In narrative I found Tribunal to be actually rather strong, picking up with the themes of political turmoil as governing forces come at odds with one another. For this story you have the Temple headed by a notably headstrong Almalexia against the Royal Morrowind family led by the obviously corrupt Helseth, son of legendary historical figure Queen Barenziah. Their struggle for supremacy over the capital of Morrowind will have you going back and forth seeing the flaws on both the tradionalist temple and the new age Royals, as you come to understand that even without Dagoth Ur peering down everyone's necks, Morrowind is a country completely on the brink of systemic change, not for the better or worse specifically, just for the different.

I genuinely loved the whole 'contrasting rules' aspect of the main Tribunal storyline, even if it served as a bit of a microcosm for the same struggle in the Morrowind main story. In fact, I like it so much that it actually starts to highlight the lack of actual meaningful choices to be made throughout such a campaign. I know I commented the same for Morrowind and said how the lack of such choices don't hurt the story, but this time around I feel they actually do; because the narrative goes to lengths to play a cat and mouse between the Temple and the Court only to have the situation end on a weird sort-of cliffhanger by the end. I won't spoil the ending twist, which I think was decently executed, but it does feel like it leaves the conversation this narrative started mid-sentence, and thus I wanted more. But as a bookend to the entire story of Morrowind, I will agree it serves it's purpose admirably and certainly wouldn't recommend anyone experience that game without this DLC, that'd be missing out completely!

Tribunal is peppered with some cool features here and there to enrich the gameplay, including a whole museum system for turning in your artefacts and actually getting paid for them, as opposed to in the main game where their astronomical prices means you cannot sell them to anyone unless you exploit Creeper or the Mudcrab Merchant. (I will say, however, that I found it extremely insulting that the museum wanted my Boots of Blinding Speed. To think that some believe this game playable without those boots is mind-boggling) Also, having the dungeons be made out of entirely endgame areas for endgame players does sort of circumvent the extreme combat gameplay shortcomings of Morrowind, as you'll be fighting tough enemies who take a bit of a beating and actually hitting them thanks to a decent skill level. (Clever Devs) All around, however, I have to give Tribunal a middling B grade just for missing the potential in both creating a sprawling capital for Morrowind (which was somehow smaller than Vvardenfell's capital) and in resolving it's own narrative in a satisfactory manner. I understand what it was that the writers were going for, with spelling out the impetus for Morrowind's impending new age, but even with the hindsight of knowing where this will lead for the country 19 years after the fact, I still felt unsatisfied. Stick around, however, for next week when I'll cover the second, and final, DLC for Morrowind and perhaps even a little something extra.

Morrowind Review

 "I'm a god. How can you kill a god? What a grand and intoxicating Innocence."

In 2002 we were on the cusp of a whole new generation of gaming, one wherein the power of the home consoles was just beginning to get tested. The Xbox was less than a year old, and was due to receive some of the exclusives that would really set Microsoft apart as the serious new player in the video game market, ready to take on The Playstation 2 and the Nintendo Gamecube. (And the N-Gage, obviously) Of course, they would always have Halo to fall back on, a title of such import to the now popular FPS market that it's likely one of the most influential titles of all time, but there needed to be something more. A title which took a genre strong for those other devs, and proved it could survive on the Xbox too. Thus was the position that would be filled with Bethesda's third entry into The Elder Scrolls Franchise: Morrowind. A role playing game built for a western audience, with it's very own adventure twist on the concept, and which would go on to spawn a whole series of award winning games from there on in.

Morrowind was technically smaller in scope to the previous two Elder Scrolls Games. Arena, which was so ungainly big yet sparsely populated that one who chooses not to use the fast travel system would find themselves walking eventually for up to 10 hours between towns. (That's in real-time by-the-by) Or Daggerfall, which got a lot better with it's world building, both in the physical and narrative sense, but still ended up hefty and too intimidating if you don't know what you're doing. Morrowind toned all of that done into a much more sensibly sized fantasy RPG world that we're used to in today's market, yet with an incredible amount of detail to make up for that. Forging one of the most unique and interesting world spaces that had, or even to this day, has graced the video game world. Influenced by Egyptian mythology, populated by weird chitinous bug monsters, seeped in political intrigue; Morrowind would prove to be an RPG must buy for any with even a passing interest in the genre, and to this day many will attest that it's world has yet to be matched by any other title.

It was also my very first look in the Elder Scrolls world. Which isn't to say that it was the first of them that I played, just that it was the first game that I saw in action when I watched several hours of a playthrough on Youtube. All part of the process of me becoming interested in the fantasy genre which now has me helplessly trapped in it's grip. (I'm currently watching through every single episode of Critical Role. I've got the fantasy bug real bad) Whilst the first fantasy game I would play would be Oblivion, (because Amazon took an extra week to deliver Morrowind) I would associate the blossoming of my fascination forever with that world and end up coming back to that game quite often, although perhaps never often enough. I say this because it was literally only earlier last month that I managed to stick through the game to completion, and thus can convey my thoughts on the complete experience in this review format. So in order to close out the chapter in my life which I'm going to call the genesis of my love for fantasy, please bear with me as I review a 19 year old title. And yes, there will be spoilers. I'm sorry, it's sort of crossed that threshold, you know?

A world unlike any other

First I should start by saying that whilst I very much wanted the raw experience, I did download a few mods because Morrowind is an old game and doesn't quite shake hands with newer systems like it could. Those were just mechanical mods though. The Morrowind Code Patch, with almost all of it's gameplay tweaks turned off; (apart from toggle sneak, because that's just utility anyway)  and the Morrowind Graphics Extender because that was the only way I could get a modern resolution for the game alongside a decent draw distance. (Basically, if you want to play Morrowind in the modern age I'd call both of those must-downloads.) Apart from that, I wanted the unburnished Morrowind experience I remembered from oh so long ago, thus I made my Dark Elf character, Jozen Zaljo, (no prizes for getting the reference) and embarked onto Seyda Neen.

From the get-go Morrowind is so similar, yet so very different from other Role Playing games around it. You start as a prisoner aboard a boat, a classic trope that Elder Scrolls itself has turned into a stable; but then are spit out into a world that, even in 2021 with the advances in software we enjoy, is simply gorgeous. A land of giant mushrooms, ash clouds, towering Silt Striders, eye-less two-legged Guars, floating jellyfish Netches, and so much more. It's a world of surprising colour, even when walking lands mostly tainted with the ash of the island of Vvardenfell's central Volcano, Red Mountain. The Flora and Fungi are perhaps the stars of the show here, blossoming everywhere and often ruling the visual asethetic. The Eastern wizards of the Telvanni even build their huge towers out of this fungi, demonstrating the way in which they can be moulded into the landscape. To this day, Morrowind is sublime to purely explore.

The art of Navigating

And in a manner most familiar to Elder Scrolls players, that's exactly what the game allows you to do; Explore. You are kicked off of the Prison boat and told to meet up with some weirdo in Balmora, but from there you've no real immediate obligations and go whichever way you want to. Explore the nearby caves, full with smugglers and slave pens. Walk along the road, rife with bandits, hostile animals, and a man falling from the sky with three powerfully unique irreplicable scrolls. The world becomes your oyster from that point onwards, and it's here that some folk will simply breakdown without any clue what to do or where to go, a common malady of Open World role playing. Morrowind, however, does sort of exacerbate that issue thanks to a design quirk which would be unimaginable in today's world. Morrowind has no waypoints.

If an NPC needs to send you anywhere, and they often do, than the player is given directions that vary from a simple naming of the house or guild you need to search, to a step by step walkthrough of where on the road you need to turn in order to reach some obscure cave. (I hate that latter one, give me a direction and send me on my way anyday of the week) Of course, nowadays we have the saints over at the Morrowind Wiki to help out the lost straggler (and I would recommend the heck out of their services) but back in the day I would not blame a soul who found this a huge turn off for the game, as Morrowind is vast and built with intricate attention to detail, such to the point where tiny caves can be invisible unless you know that they're there. Only big landmarks show up on the world map and the local map is so zoomed in that you can hardly rely on that to point out entry location you might have walked past. In fact, the reason I stopped playing Morrowind the first time it was because I just couldn't find the Cave of the Incarnate and grew bored of looking. (So use the Wiki, for the love of everything)

Fighting Struggles

Once you have your bearing and can figure your way around the world space, another issue might have cropped up on your journey to Caius Coasades little hovel, the combat. Morrowind features a unique combat system which is a hybrid of Daggerfall's direction based mechanics and a, frankly ill-advised, borrowing of D&D concepts. Morrowind and Arena has a mouse movement system wherein you could hold down the strike button and move your mouse in such a manner to indicate the form of attack, whether it was a stab, slash or strike. (With different weapons responding better to different types of attack) Morrowind borrows this concept, only with the movement of the character introduced into the equation in a slightly awkward way. If you want to stab, you have to physically move the character back or forward whilst pressing the stab button. Slashing requires you to move left or right. You get the picture. It's not the best fighting system, but it's serviceable up until the point you actually hit the target.

I will never know what was going through the mind of the Morrowind developers when they picked this system, but here we go. When you hit the target, a system in the game will calculate the level of your skill with that weapon, influenced by your luck stat, to decide whether or not you actually hit. Think X-Com but on the fly. It's as bad as that sounds. So early levels of the game will consist of you standing in front of enemies and spamming the hit button whilst nothing connects and you just pray your health potions hold out long enough for you to survive. It's a bizarre system, thankfully overshadowed once you get into the late game with about 70 in your respective weapon skill, but that it even needs to be overcome to start with is mind boggling. Not this game's proudest moment by a long shot.

A Powder Keg

Overcome those struggles, however, and you'll be treated to a story wherein you get to delve into the fascinating political machinations of Vvardenfell and it's struggles both inside and out of it's borders. You're very quickly told that the one's who sprung you out of incarceration were the Blades, the mysterious division of secret police for the Empire, and it's thier desire to have you educate yourself on the workings of this part of the world. That's how you learn that Vvardenfell is a province torn between spiritual and political conflicts. You have the Tribunal, the three living gods, Vivec, Almalexia and Sotha Sil, who are the spiritual heads of the primary religion of the land, espoused by the temple. They've been challenged in recent generations by the coming of the Imperials and the introduction of their 'Imperial Cult'; basically consisting of the pantheon we know all too well, the nine divines. But this is only the tip of the conflicts.

You have the general disdain for the influx of 'outlanders' coming to the once sacred lands of Vvdarenfell, rumblings in the Temple as they try to cut down on some 'heretical' cult worshipping's of a long dead Dunmer hero and a dark cloud be hanging over all of it, as a plague of death hangs over the land from the threat of the newly awakened god, Dagoth Ur, sworn enemy of the Tribunal, as his forces gather atop red mountain, held back only by the magical ghost fence constructed around the volcano. Oh, also there's a lot of cliffracers. Like, too many. No one really brings it up, but I think that's an issue that should be looked at, they might be over-breeding, it could cause an ecological collapse if not seen to! All of I'm saying is; wipe out all the cliffracers with prejudice. They deserve it.

To be a blade

Becoming inducted into the Blades yourself actually works as a great narrative tool to have the players go out and interact with this world, and experience its various factions and questlines for yourself. Several points in the main story you are literally told just to go out there and do side quests, which can lead to getting involved in the mages guild, Imperial Legion or Morag Tong, or maybe even all three. Just go whether your curiosity takes you. Turns out being a spy for the Emperor is surprisingly liberating when all you have to do in service is random fetch quests with no context at the beginning. In fact, it even gives you a good chance to explore some of the dungeons under the guise of serving the main plot at which point you really come to terms with Morrowind's interesting dungeon design.

Unlike Skyrim's straightforward dungeons or Oblivion's overly formulaic ones, Morrowind features varied dungeons that either make you turn around on yourself a lot, second guess dead ends, or just miss whole chunks entirely if you forget to look up. Levitate is an incredibly useful spell for Morrowind that really informs a lot of the design and exploration, as some of the best items in the game are hidden just upon a rocky outcrop that you'd never suspect unless you got floating. Standard game design laws now say that every secret alcove of loot must have some form of indicator to lead the players to it, but Morrowind almost tried it's hardest to hide this loot, which is what made it feel more wild and exploratory to discover that which no one else has happened upon for hundreds of years.

Of course, the free life can only last so long and it isn't any time at all until you've been roped into what's going on in the main story, specifically when you're sent to converse with a so-called 'Dissident priest' in the temple; a faction of the temple who believe in a heretical reincarnation story for the ancient Chimer hero Indoril Nerevar. He was a contemporary of the godly tribunal back when they were still mortal, and belief in the legend of his eventual resurrection leads the temple to lose their mind and start sending out death squads, despite the fact that old Morrowind was founded on Ancestor worship. Delve ever deeper with the blades and the hook of the story finally lays on you, as you find out that the reason you were freed from prison in the first place is because you naturally fit the bill to be the reincarnation, or the Nerevarine. (A reference to the early Jewish-Christian concept of the Nazarene)

Some people out there bitterly hate it whenever the protagonist in an RPG is signalled out with something special to them, to do some special task. I always endure it as long as there's little or no talk of fate or destiny, because I think such inherently undermines the tension of the situation. If I'm destined to win, why bother? And yet with the Nerevarine prophecy, and way in which the player fits in, I find myself making an exception to my rule. Because it ticks all the boxes to be poor, and yet I fall for it all the same. Perhaps because there's this layer of political machinations wound in there, where some believe you're a plant from the Empire thrown in here to be their puppet. Or maybe it's just because, there's no real great moment of spiritual awakening for you. There's no point where you close your eyes, get imbued with the memories and strength of the Nerevarine, and have it confirmed beyond a doubt that you are he reborn. Instead, the story plays around with unreliable narrators, and the idea that there might have been several 'Nerevarines' over the years, and the completion of his ascension is the only real 'proof' there could be. What does it even mean to be the Nerevarine? Do you posses his soul, mimick his movements, shadow his footsteps? Heck, you don't even have to play as a man or a Dark Elf, and none of the Tribunal instantly recognise you, so I guess you don't look like him. It's left up to interpretation, and I appreciate that level of trust in the audience that isn't usually extended in Western fantasy.

The Incarnate

Another fun side of this story is the way in which everyone disagrees with what exactly it is that the Nerevarine is 'destined' to do. The temple believe he has returned in order to find and defeat his old advisor, Dagoth Ur, and save Vvardenfell from his curse, whilst the nomadic Velothi tribes think he's here to overthrow the Tribunal 'false' gods and restore the ancestor worship of old. Most seem to agree, at least, that he's on a path to kick all the outlanders out of Vvardenfell, despite him being an outlander himself. (As is revealed in a lost section of the prophecy that you have to rediscover) It's a curiously xenophobic addendum to his legend and reflects this isolationism theme to the game which is quite unique in fantasy, or at least unique in the way it's championed. Because of the total immersion element of Elder Scrolls games and RPGs in that ilk, they can get away with plot points like that which don't feel like personal political injections, but just unburnished displays of who these people are and how they act. Typical fantasy games would use such as an opportunity to wag their finger and tell us how we should be accepting, but Morrowind almost comically gives no heed to that and, again, trusts it's audience to reach their own conclusions about whether Morrowind society is killing itself through xenophobia.

Going through the long process of becoming the Nerevarine does mean one thing, however, that you are destined to battle Dagoth Ur atop Red Mountain, and I simply love the way the game imparts the rising tension of this inevitable duel as you go about the duty of winning every major Morrowind faction's support. It starts with dreams that wrack you throughout the night, and extends to 'dreamers' (brianwashed servants of Dagoth Ur) stopping you in the street to proclaim His word. Eventually you'll start getting attacked by Ash Servants whilst resting, and people will talk about the rise in corpus plague cases across the land, letting you know that the situation is escalating without needing any grand showcase moment that would have been impossible with the hardware. Not to say I like this approach specifically better than how Oblivion and Skyrim handle it, I like them both just the same, it's just nice to see the same effect achieved through different means. 

I am a God

Eventually the moment arrives and you are tipped to face the shirtless man himself, Dagoth Ur, and can I say I love how he's become one of the most iconic villains of the series? It's so fitting. He doesn't need to show up throughout and taunt you like some of the others, he just waits under Red Mountain, for you, the Nerevarine. His plan to overthrow the empire and secure Morrowind's border isn't even that much adverse to your own destiny, meaning this isn't even a battle of right vs wrong. In a way, this is literally just Nerevar fixing the mistake he made in his first life; letting Dagoth Ur and his former friends steal the power of the Heart of Lorkhan to make themselves gods. He failed to stop them, and now he's here to rebalance nature. There's never really a question of doing what's right for Morrowind, as Elder Scrolls hasn't really ever had the luxury of multiple choice endings, and in a way I actually respect that rigidity; it rings with a universal truth that it doesn't matter what good the Tribunal has done, their power is stolen through sacrilege, and the ends do not justify the means. (Also, supplanting your people's religion with a dictatorship worship of you and your friends is a bit dodgy, let's be fair.)

Dagoth Ur is- well, what can I say: he's an icon. One of the few heavily voiced character's in the game, (most dialogue is written text) he literally calls out to you through your assault on Red Mountain in order to bid you to his side. "Come to me, Sweet Nerevar.", "Come through fire and war". His dialogue is just so delicious as well, dripping with this sincere pomposity that you just can't help but love. There's one moment, one which will live on in legend for me, where you meet with him and slay him in single combat, only to enter the chamber of the heart and see that he was tricking you, he's immortal. Any other villain out there would wax lyrical about how you're naive, and Dagoth Ur does go there, but he's so delightfully- himself about the whole thing. "What a fool you are! I'm a god. How can you kill a god, what a grand and intoxicating innocence. How could you be so Naïve?" 

Who says that? A "Grand and Intoxicating innocence"! It's just simply brilliant, cheesy to the point of wrapping around and becomes badass again. It's only a shame that the actual fight itself is really straight forward, with no real frills beyond the place where you fight being a grand chamber under a volcano, which is admittedly pretty cool. There is a slight 'Seath the Scaleless' side to the battle where Dagoth Ur cannot be killed until the source of his power, The Heart of Lorkhan, is destroyed, but apart from that there's nothing crazy special about the battle, which is a bit of a shame. I'll still remember the fight fondly though, for the set piece alone if not also for the enigmatic would-be warlord himself.

Future instalments would paint the legacy of Morrowind's hero in a curiously dark light, too, with his destiny of driving outlanders from Morrowind actually panning out. The defeat of Dagoth Ur, through the destruction of the heart, drains the divine power of the Tribunal too ('a necessary evil' in Vivec's eyes) and thus leads to their eventual withdrawal from the world to die as mortals. However, seeing as how among Vivec's many godly accomplishments was the halting of a meteorite over his home city, you can imagine what him losing his powers might result in. Skyrim reveals that years after the events of Morrowind this meteor would end up crashing into the city of Vivec, wiping it out and setting off Red Mountain. The resulting lava and ash would render Vvardenfell and large swathes of the Morrowind mainland uninhabitable leading to a mass exodus. Meaning the Nerevarine didn't just clean Vvardenfell of outlanders, but of all life. What a devilishly twisted legacy for the incarnate.

The road most travelled

How could I finish up without touching on the music? Simple, I can't. The Elder Scrolls have never been strangers to fantastic musical scores that stand out above others in their genre with identifiable grace and personality. Morrowind is no different, with it's classic take on The Elder Scrolls fanfare being a deeply personal and reminiscent jaunt for me. There's no heavy trumpets and loud choirs, but a wood flute, tuneful and rustic. Again, I'm not musically trained in any fashion so I find it hard to really express how a piece of music speaks to me aside from talking about how it makes me feel, and in that vein I always felt the soul of the nomadic Veloth tribes in the Morrowind theme. It's incidental music is similarly iconic and peppered with plenty of fun adventure-inciting phrases, and if we're to judge the soundtrack of this game against that of the always spectacular Elder Scrolls series soundtracks, I'd have to call Morrowind an incredibly close second favourite. It doesn't even come down to skill, but personal preference. Still Morrowind's soundtrack in one of the best, plain and simple.

Summary

In narrative I'll attest that Morrowind has yet to be matched from it's successors, presenting a tale that effortlessly weighed up political and spiritual angles, mashed them together and came out the otherside looking pristine; that's just stylish. My only gripes would be that ultimately there was no real choice for how the main story would play out, which I think would have had a definite place in a story like this. However, considering this game came out in 2002 and stories like that weren't exactly expected from games, it seems unfair to judge that specific aspect by today's standards. Afterall, the resulting narrative doesn't exactly suffer from a straightforward path and the natural freedoms of Morrowind means you can choose to frame your actions however you wish, so is there any real problem here?

The world building, similarly, is world class and would set the standard for Bethesda forevermore. The level of quality that Bethesda is forced to hit with each one of their games on this standard is owed directly to the supremacy of Morrowind. This game's exploration is one of my favourite out of any action adventure RPG, easily better than subsequent Elder Scrolls games, and if only navigation wasn't such a pain I'd be honestly surprised why Morrowind's method isn't the gold standard for the industry. We need more fantasy spaces as unafraid to be original as Morrowind's Vvardenfell was.

Unfortunately, the gameplay is the letdown of Morrowind, where the title really does show it's wrinkles and cracks. Plenty of mods have been made to fix it's issues, but if we're judging this game for what it is then we have to own up to this grandest of failures. Personally the game really picked up once skills became more reliable, but by that point you've usually levelled to a point where most of the game's content isn't a trouble for you anyway, so the content of the vanilla game, at least, is either frustrating or a breeze, with no perfect middle ground. No one's really going to be coming back to Morrowind for the combat, at the end of the day, and that's a genuine failing.

Ultimately, Morrowind still stands out as one of the best examples of how to nail fantasy, and many modern titles could learn entire volumes from it. Most of it's shortcomings in 2021 are due more to it's age rather than missteps (apart from combat) and those with the mindset to look past them will be genuinely shocked by the level of quality and beauty behind them. Coming back to this game was an absolute blast, and reminded me why I love the Elder Scrolls series after I was really starting to come to question that. (I've played over 108 hours in the past two weeks, the games gotta be doing something right) Of course, I've talked about only the main game here, and that's because I want to touch on the expansions and other elements in smaller mini reviews. But as for the maingame of Morrowind, I have to slap a heavy recommend onto this review with a B+ Grade, short of any of the two higher grades simply because a let down in gameplay is a pretty serious infraction when we're talking about a game. But when the grade still hits that high regardless, you know those other elements do some serious heavily lifting to make up the difference, and I wouldn't suggest missing out on all the brilliance of Morrowind for anything in the world. For less than $15 on Steam, there is no excuse not play one of Bethesda's best right now. So don't miss out, or you'll forever be just another N'wah!

RNG or Action

 Let's roll to see if you hit

I'm in an absolutely terrible dark place in my personal psyche right now, so I thought I'd do something about it and start an X-com playthrough because apparently I'm an idiot. Yeah, that means I'm currently questioning who up there in the great Casino in the sky has decided I'm the fellow he wants to give just the worst luck to, because nothing short of divine damnation could inflict the chaos I've been subject to. (I missed a 96% Shot... 96%!?!) And whenever I'm done crying to the gods about why I'm such a pathetic morsel worthy of their ire, I find myself bringing this back around into a contemplation on Game design because as the law of the narcissist goes, if I'm not good at something it must be because that thing is broken in some way. So that's how I got around to this extremely arbitrary and not at all constructive or well considered blog about which type of gameplay it's better to rely on, action systems or RNG systems.

Of course, that alone is a little strange as a lead-in, such to the point where even I kind of have no idea what I mean by it, so let me try and sanitize things down to a question about whether it's better for a game to rely on systems of action and response or systems of action and rolling the die. Of course, that doesn't mean the RNG systems must strictly have no full action elements, I'm just talking about the ultimate call at the end of the day who ends all debate, is it the demand of the key press or the will of the computer algorithm. So does that explain the premise a little more? No? Well too bad because it's about as clear as I'm possible of getting, so without further ado let's ramble.

So RNG sucks. Putting all your time and effort to lining something up only for some stupid computer system to tell you it didn't work; very lame. (Like that 96% shot which, by-the-by, was literally at point blank range; that clinically blind asshat must have pulled a lot of strings to become part of the world's 'premier extra-terrestrial defence force') But action and reaction is super boring, where the player is asked to line up their wits against an AI who's obviously going to trip over his shoe laces because; come on, we're talking about machines against humans here! Maybe if there a bit more of an element of random chance to the situation which takes the control out of your hands then it might heighten the thrill factor a bit. Of course I'm being facetious, RNG systems and action/response systems are not as black and white as all that and they have layers of nuance that simply cannot be covered with anything short of a 100 paragraph blog. (And people tend not to like it when I do those, so I'll keep this slim.)

RNG is actually a big part of games and has been for a very long time now, pretty much as long as the RPG genre has been a thing. Because you see, as much as RNG covers games like XCom, Wastelanders 2 and Baldur's Gate, where your every action is given up to the great calculator in the machine, it also has a significant place alongside system calculations in a great many classic RPGs. Take Crit damage for example, an RPG system wherein players have a chance to deal a special attack for an increased amount of damage; oftentimes this serves as a system for the dedicated number crunchers to really shoot for, especially in hardcore RPG titles like MMO's. What self respecting DPS build doesn't min-max crit percentage boosts in order to guarantee a huge jump to damage output? The same can be said for Proc effects or just the act of hitting at all for some RPGs. Although effort is put in the player, and they usually do all they can to tip the odds in their favour, at the end of the day the ultimate deliberation isn't with us, and doesn't that just make things all the more exciting?

The comparison might seem strange, but I'm about to compare this to horror games and how they achieve their goal of forcibly ejecting the audience's bowls. Most great horror relies on taking the watching into the unknown and playing upon that to leave them helpless, because every known quantity automatically becomes more in one's control, even if just by a cursory degree. You can make plans, prepare your reaction, brace for shocks, all because you have some idea what's around that corner. Take that from the viewer, however, and they're left in a state of heightened adrenaline as they have no idea what might happen. Yeah, the comparison is a little tenuous, I knew that going in, but I'll bet you're starting to see what I mean when I talk about the allure of losing control. That being said, there is an opposite end of the spectrum.

Put people in a state where they feel like nothing that they do is effective and the will of the machine decides everything, then it can end up making the act of playing feel useless and get a little frustrating. Primary subject A for displaying this exact phenomena is none other than 'The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind', and if you've played the game you already know what I'm about to say. Somehow the combat system in Morrowind borrowed a few too many cues from D&D, to the point where everytime the player swings their weapon and makes contact with the enemy, a small calculation is done which takes into account factors like weapon skill level, Stamina and the conjunction of the stars in order to determine whether or not the hit actually landed. That being the hit which already had to land in order for those calculations to go off anyway. Thus meaning that at low level you'll literally be spending your time stabbing people without any damage until your failure levels you up enough to play this like literally any other game ever. This is RNG done catastrophically wrong, if you even needed me to point that out for you.

Now whilst on the surface that may sound familiar to the sort of system which Xcom touts, let me tell you why that's completely wrong and you should ashamed for ever having that opinion. Morrowind is a real-time action RPG wherein the pace of combat is set by the player's ability to press the swing button, whereas Xcom is a tactical game wherein the pace is as slow as it needs to be for the player to decide their next action. Number crunching isn't a supplement to Xcom's action but rather the substitute for full on gunplay, allowing the thrill of the unknown to creep in even when you've spent the last 5 minutes deciding exactly where to stand in order to make one particular shot. Morrowind's system, however, was an unholy clashing of full action and RNG that tripped up on it's own pacing and almost ruins an otherwise classic of a game.

So at the end of the day what have we learned about the nature of RNG or action games? Well absolutely nothing, I just wanted an excuse to try and justify the existence or random number generators in games. Once the dust has settled it's still all terribly frustrating and I would argue that sometimes it doesn't even make you feel like you've done a done a good job, just that you've gotten lucky; but when the stars align and things start going your way it's just human nature to conveniently forget the hand of fate and take all the credit for yourself. When I fail it's because RNG screwed me, but when I succeed it's just a testament to my undeniable tactical genius. (And if you think that sounds exceeding contentious, remember that I did miss a 96% shot at point blank range, give me this one.)