Posted April 05, 2014
last year I posted a slightly pissed of article entitled "Morrowind is overrated". Don't remember? Don't worry, you didn't miss much. For those who do remember, don't you worry either. This isn't another angry rant. But as I went into Morrowind on hype that it was a million times better than Oblivion (One of my first "grown up" games and still one of my favourites) and found anything but I want to talk about some of the reasons why I'm a little underwhelmed.
b]Please don't tell me "There's a mod for that" when I make a criticism. I don't care. I rarely use mods. And mods never factor into a game's score from professional critics So should it here? You could probably Mod Big Rigs into a good game. But if I judged it solely on those mods you feel cheated out of a critique of the real game. So no. Please let's ignore the porn and Star Wars mods that probably exist and focus on Morrowind as it is. Not what fans have made it into. Thank you.
Morrowind is certainly harder than Oblivion. To me this is neither a good or a bad thing. But the game's difficulty curve is odd. It starts out hard as an adamantium wall in alternate universe where everything is 20% harder. Then by the end nothing expect the gods can hurt you. While it gives a strong sense of achievement at first after a while you're left with is a world of infinitely respawning enemies that spoil what should be a good walk are a chore to fight. To misquote Zero Punctuation "I feel like I'm running a failing pest control agency". The game seems t want you to use fast travel. As I hate using fast travel and also hate spending gold It don't need to spend I feel at times like the game is giving me the finger.
I played as a Battlemage Orc. While at the beginning I found I needed magical aid to take out bigger foes as time went by I found using magic was just a waste of time as magic often fails where cold steel never does.
I found the magic tree and systems very cool. But as magica doesn't regenerate unless you take a six hour nap. So if you cast a spell and it fails you'll loose most of your magicia. You now have two options: 1 go back to bed and hope it doesn't fail tomorrow. 2 Load previous saves until you get the result you want.
I'm sad to say this but even with a magic class and maxed out intelligence I doubt I'd have ever made any progress on the magic front without a lot of savescuming. I wanted to branch out from my normal choice of 'Brute with sword' but I'm glad I went with battlemage because from what I've seen if you speichelze in magic, and you don't have enough cash to buy ingreedents form restore magicia potions (And those ingreedents do cost a pretty peny) you're fucked.
I may sound like a casual console player saying this. But I'm glad they put regenerating magic into Oblivion. The fact is only dedication to my role kept me using magic in a game where by my halfway-point magic was almost as much of a hinderence as a help.
Many people say the combat in Morrowind is terrible (one of the few flaws it's fans will admit to) It's certainly no Metal Gear Rising. but even as an inexperienced gamer I've seen worse. Combat can be fun when your forced to think tactically (EG when to use spells and potions, making arrows count, invisibility never gets old) but near the start tactics don't matter as everything can murder you easily.
I think the reason for this (I don't have any proof though) is that a lot of the ideas in the game come from turn based RPG's where stats and dice rolls determine whether your attack is worth a damn. There is a lot of stuff in Morrowind that feels like it would be of more use in a turn based game. "I could use a potion that reflects 30% for 8 seconds and try to cast a spell that will give me a grade 1 lightning shield for 15 seconds. But both this things will have no effect on the out come of the fight with this necromancer and just serve to slow the fight down. So maybe I should ignore all these spells and potions that at best will lessen the amount of damage I will take by a minuscule degree and just focus on crushing his skull with an axe"....... :/
A lot of the less direct branches of magic seem to have little affect on combat except to slow it down. Something that would be less of a problem in a turn based game instead of a real-time one.
Also while this has been well covered before the stat-based hit or miss system for melee attacks is no fun. at the beginning it feels like a bad joke to be flailing a weapon in the other guy's face and to only "hit" once every 10 times. And when you've gotten your axe skill up to 80 (something that will happen soon with no effort required as stick to one weapon) you never miss, making the dice system redundant. Once again it feels like something from a turn-biased RPG brought into a real-time RPG because it was fun in table top Dungeons and Dragons.
But that's just my theory. If you know any reason why I might be wrong then feel free to tell me
So yeah, combat can be fun, fustigating or tedious. How's the Story?
Not too bad. Morrowind has a distinctly differnt world, but looking past that the story of the main campaign is very typical post-Tolken "You are the chosen one who must save the world from the big bad over there" type stuff. Generic but tested and true. The stuff in Morrowind's narrative(s) that's truly interesting is the political struggles taking place in the background. Seeing the struggles between old conservative ways of thinking that involve slavery and xenophobia and newer ways from abroad, and the often sad fallout these struggles have on the ordinary people of Morrowind.
The sad part is the static nature of this political turmoil. outside of who is alive or dead and the grand campaign I never felt like I could have any impact the world (Despite doing some huge things in Tribunal you still end up leaving Mournhold pretty much as you found it). It's a shame because I genuinely wanted to oppose slavery in Vvardenfel (I regret never finding the Twin Lamps. Don't tell me how in the comments). It's good that the game got that reaction from me. It's bad that for all it's claims of openness and freedom the only changes you can make are with a sword.
Also, the natives of Vvardenfel are dicks. Dumb ones two. Are you really dumb enough to call all Orcs "Half-men" to the giant orc in ebony armour with a huge battle axe? You're just asking for trouble at this point.
So in closing Morrowinds story and characters lack depth but have interesting aspects that could have been explored further.
Posted accidently before it was finished. The rest is down below as the editing system seems to have an invisible chatter limit.
b]Please don't tell me "There's a mod for that" when I make a criticism. I don't care. I rarely use mods. And mods never factor into a game's score from professional critics So should it here? You could probably Mod Big Rigs into a good game. But if I judged it solely on those mods you feel cheated out of a critique of the real game. So no. Please let's ignore the porn and Star Wars mods that probably exist and focus on Morrowind as it is. Not what fans have made it into. Thank you.
Morrowind is certainly harder than Oblivion. To me this is neither a good or a bad thing. But the game's difficulty curve is odd. It starts out hard as an adamantium wall in alternate universe where everything is 20% harder. Then by the end nothing expect the gods can hurt you. While it gives a strong sense of achievement at first after a while you're left with is a world of infinitely respawning enemies that spoil what should be a good walk are a chore to fight. To misquote Zero Punctuation "I feel like I'm running a failing pest control agency". The game seems t want you to use fast travel. As I hate using fast travel and also hate spending gold It don't need to spend I feel at times like the game is giving me the finger.
I played as a Battlemage Orc. While at the beginning I found I needed magical aid to take out bigger foes as time went by I found using magic was just a waste of time as magic often fails where cold steel never does.
I found the magic tree and systems very cool. But as magica doesn't regenerate unless you take a six hour nap. So if you cast a spell and it fails you'll loose most of your magicia. You now have two options: 1 go back to bed and hope it doesn't fail tomorrow. 2 Load previous saves until you get the result you want.
I'm sad to say this but even with a magic class and maxed out intelligence I doubt I'd have ever made any progress on the magic front without a lot of savescuming. I wanted to branch out from my normal choice of 'Brute with sword' but I'm glad I went with battlemage because from what I've seen if you speichelze in magic, and you don't have enough cash to buy ingreedents form restore magicia potions (And those ingreedents do cost a pretty peny) you're fucked.
I may sound like a casual console player saying this. But I'm glad they put regenerating magic into Oblivion. The fact is only dedication to my role kept me using magic in a game where by my halfway-point magic was almost as much of a hinderence as a help.
Many people say the combat in Morrowind is terrible (one of the few flaws it's fans will admit to) It's certainly no Metal Gear Rising. but even as an inexperienced gamer I've seen worse. Combat can be fun when your forced to think tactically (EG when to use spells and potions, making arrows count, invisibility never gets old) but near the start tactics don't matter as everything can murder you easily.
I think the reason for this (I don't have any proof though) is that a lot of the ideas in the game come from turn based RPG's where stats and dice rolls determine whether your attack is worth a damn. There is a lot of stuff in Morrowind that feels like it would be of more use in a turn based game. "I could use a potion that reflects 30% for 8 seconds and try to cast a spell that will give me a grade 1 lightning shield for 15 seconds. But both this things will have no effect on the out come of the fight with this necromancer and just serve to slow the fight down. So maybe I should ignore all these spells and potions that at best will lessen the amount of damage I will take by a minuscule degree and just focus on crushing his skull with an axe"....... :/
A lot of the less direct branches of magic seem to have little affect on combat except to slow it down. Something that would be less of a problem in a turn based game instead of a real-time one.
Also while this has been well covered before the stat-based hit or miss system for melee attacks is no fun. at the beginning it feels like a bad joke to be flailing a weapon in the other guy's face and to only "hit" once every 10 times. And when you've gotten your axe skill up to 80 (something that will happen soon with no effort required as stick to one weapon) you never miss, making the dice system redundant. Once again it feels like something from a turn-biased RPG brought into a real-time RPG because it was fun in table top Dungeons and Dragons.
But that's just my theory. If you know any reason why I might be wrong then feel free to tell me
So yeah, combat can be fun, fustigating or tedious. How's the Story?
Not too bad. Morrowind has a distinctly differnt world, but looking past that the story of the main campaign is very typical post-Tolken "You are the chosen one who must save the world from the big bad over there" type stuff. Generic but tested and true. The stuff in Morrowind's narrative(s) that's truly interesting is the political struggles taking place in the background. Seeing the struggles between old conservative ways of thinking that involve slavery and xenophobia and newer ways from abroad, and the often sad fallout these struggles have on the ordinary people of Morrowind.
The sad part is the static nature of this political turmoil. outside of who is alive or dead and the grand campaign I never felt like I could have any impact the world (Despite doing some huge things in Tribunal you still end up leaving Mournhold pretty much as you found it). It's a shame because I genuinely wanted to oppose slavery in Vvardenfel (I regret never finding the Twin Lamps. Don't tell me how in the comments). It's good that the game got that reaction from me. It's bad that for all it's claims of openness and freedom the only changes you can make are with a sword.
Also, the natives of Vvardenfel are dicks. Dumb ones two. Are you really dumb enough to call all Orcs "Half-men" to the giant orc in ebony armour with a huge battle axe? You're just asking for trouble at this point.
So in closing Morrowinds story and characters lack depth but have interesting aspects that could have been explored further.
Posted accidently before it was finished. The rest is down below as the editing system seems to have an invisible chatter limit.
Post edited April 05, 2014 by Johnmourby
