Console games featuring total non-linearity have been few and far between over the years. Unlike PC's, our Playstation's and N64's have lacked the power to really create living, breathing worlds to play through and experience. Now with consoles as powerful, or more so, as PC's, developers are giving the couch potatoes masses a chance to dive into deep, imaginative universes and lands. Bethesda Softworks, the company behind the popular Elder Scrolls series, will be bestowing upon us infantile console users Morrowind, their third chapter in the series.
Before I dive into the specifics of Morrowind's gameplay, control, and whatnot, I must take a moment to really explain how amazingly beautiful this game is. Although details such as weather haven't been set into place yet, the environments of Morrowind are a spectacle to look at. Everything has a very high polygon count, which means that realism is the name of this game. The natural environments, meaning trees, foliage, and the like, look especially convincing. Towns are also very diverse and have atmospheres all their own. Morrowind definitely looks to be a world within itself.
Ahem. Now that I've gotten that out, onto the more important points. Played from a first person perspective, Morrowind is an RPG that literally lets players shape the life of their character. We're not just talking character appearance or history, but what that character becomes, and how they are perceived within the world. Of course the gender, age, race, and appearance specifics of your alter ego are at disposal, but everything the character is and does has an effect on the game.
Morrowind is full of different types of creatures; from humans to elves, each character is perceived differently by the non-player-controlled creatures (NPC's) in the game. This has an enormous effect on how each individual progresses through the title, for example...perhaps the Dark Elfs don't much like the Wood Elfs, therefore you couldn't enlist within their ranks. Choices made at the start of the game effect where you can go, and who you can talk to. Mr. Orc may be hospitable to an injured human, but may very well finish off a dying Aragonian.
Aside from NPC relations, players still possess the world at their fingertips. Characters can learn a large assortment of skills and trades, and these in turn can help shape them into whatever profession one may desire. Professions, like race, will also play a role in how characters are perceived; no one much likes an assassin for a best friend, and may not divulge information or hospitality as willingly.
Speaking of hospitality, you as the player can completely disregard that moral concept! Freedom is what Morrowind is all about, and we all know that freedom allows for some fairly profitable means. The entire world is alive, as stated above, but not just in forests and mountains; villages are full of houses and people, each one going about their daily business. The perfect opportunity to steal some goodies from the unsuspecting masses! What players see in the game, they can touch, eat, read, and take. Of course, our mothers scolded us in childhood about the penalties of theft, and those penalties haven't been forgotten in Morrowind. When caught, players are punished in the game, and depending on the owner of said stolen goods, it could be as light as a scolding, or as intense as imprisonment.
Of course, Morrowind wouldn't be a very entertaining RPG without some fighting, and it delivers that! You have the availability of weapon attacks, as well as magic, and as everything is played from a first person view, enemies are easily in sight. There are numerous weapons available to players, and each will of course handle differently from the last. For those of you who played Daggerfall (an excellent PC RPG, the second title in the Elder Scrolls series), the magic system in Morrowind is pretty much the same. Spells are learned, but can be combined to give birth to new adaptations. This allows for a lot of nifty customization, as well as experimentation.
These skills can be put to good use in the game, but if you're bored with side-quests or your characters field of employment, there are always dungeons and monsters to be fought across the land. If that doesn't float your boat, there is a design editor that allows for players to design whatever their little hearts desire. Towns, dungeons, landscapes, you name it. From what we've heard, created landscapes and towns can be integrated into the main game, which will surely make for a huge replay factor. That, added on to the immense build of the game itself, makes Morrowind an experience that will surely last a lifetime!
For more information on this HIGHLY anticipated RPG, keep your beady little eyes locked on to AllRPG.com for new details!
-- Jeff Brown