This game is really something special. At it's core, the formula is the same as any free-roaming game. But it's much deeper than that. It's one of the truest RPG's I've ever played, in that it fully makes the player become who he becomes. The game doesn't force anything onto you, it's all up to you. You've got to decide which factions to join, who to kill, what skills to learn and what armor to wear. You can make a great warrior, a cunning rogue or an all powerful mage. Or, you can make someone who simply exists in the world of Morrowind, content to read the hundreds of books throughout the game. It's all up to you, but be careful, because the world of Morrowind is a dangerous place, no matter who you are.
The story is very deep and intriguing. It is prophecized that on a certain day, under a certain star, that a nameless prisoner would be born, and that he would be the one to free Morrowind from the terrible Dagoth Ur, a Dark Elf god. This person is known as the Nerevarine. But it's not that simple. A group of Dark Elves known as the Ashlanders are hostile to outlanders, though they believe in the Nerevarine. The Temple utterly rejects this notion, claiming that the Nerevarine is false. The Imperial forces from the Mainland are colonizing the island bit by bit. And on top of that, Sixth House agents operating in the name of Dagoth Ur have begun to terrorize the continent. Your character is a prisoner being released on the shores. You have been commissioned by the Emperor himself to work for the Blades, a secretive group investigating the Sixth House. But you can do whatever you want. Wait a minute, who are you?
Before you begin playing, you must create your character. First you'll have to choose a name. Then you'll have to select a race and make him/her look the way you want. There is a ton of races to choose from, including Dark Elves, Imperials, High Elves, Wood Elves, Redguards, Bretons and several others. Each race is strong in a certain field. For instance, Nords are brutal on the battlefield, but hard to get along with. I chose to be an Imperial, since they have a decent mix of just about everything, though I focused on combat. After choosing your race, you'll have to make your class, or select one of the pre-designated ones. Making your own class is the way to go, since you can customize it the way you see fit. That way, you level up your skills as you really need them. You can make a huge warrior adept in picking locks, creating items or even casting certain types of magic. These types of combinations are really what make the character yours, because you can select exactly what he's going to be.
So now, you've got a character, and you've been let loose. What to do now? Well, the world is your playground. You can literally go anywhere and do anything you want. If you don't feel like doing the Main Quest, you can travel the wilds killing monsters and sacking ancient tombs. You can steal from anywhere in the game, but be warned, if you get caught, you'll have a bounty on your head. There are tons of sidequests littered all over the landscape, and there are several places to receive quests from. These are handled much in the same manner as any GTA game. You go to a certain place, where a certain character is, and he gives you a mission to go and do. These missions range from short and easy to downright epic. You can fight for the Fighter's Guild, Mage's Guild, Thieve's Guild, or join the shadowy assassin group the Morag-Tong. You can join all four if you want. There are three Great Houses in which you can become a member, and you can side with the Imperial Legion or join the Temple. It's all up to, and what you want your character to be like.
Unlike most RPG's, all leveling up is not done through fighting. Through fighting you can level up your armor, and whatever weapon skill you may be using, whether it be long blade, short blade, axe, marksman, spear or hand to hand. Say you have a major skill placed in armorer, which allows you to repair your broken armor and weapons. If you don't buy the proper tools and use them when necessary, that skill will never level up. That is why you won't want to rely on fighting to level up. Leveling up all your skills evenly will result in quicker level ups, since every aspect of your character is getting stronger. I found this a bit confusing at first, until I realized that the game tracks all leveling for you. It records every time you do something towards a skill, and gives you a percentage of how close you are to leveling up a certain skill in the menu screen. It's truly an innovative way to handle the leveling up, since it's so realistic. You can level up simply by talking to people, unlocking doors and running down a trail.
I will say that the combat is handled rather clumsily in this game. Early in the game, it's flat out horrendous, but as you improve your governing attributes like strength, agility, endurance, etc... you will find that it gets much better. The game is primarily played through the first person perspective, and there are tiny crosshairs that you place over your enemy. Pull the right trigger and let it go to attack. Pushing forward or back will stab, side to side will slash, and standing still will chop. And that's the extent of the combat system. It's regrettably shallow, and there's really nothing redeeming about it. You can fight from the third person perspective, but you lose the crosshair, so you only have a vague idea of where your hits are falling. Some enemies are tough, and will really take it to you. If you find that you've run out of potions or magic scrolls, you can rest for a period of time which will restore your health, mana and fatigue levels. This can be abused fairly often, but it makes the game bearable at times.
This game can be quite a looker. Other times, it can be downright ugly. Large sections of the island are a barren wasteland with ash storms ripping through and really not much color to it. I disliked these sections and was always relieved to come to a more natural section of the world. Rainy swamplands along the coast, large plantations to the south, and thick forests to the north. My favorite area of the game is Solstheim, part of the expansion pack found only on the Game of the Year edition. It's a great big snowy forest full of wolves, bears and other abominations. All the generic monsters are fairly similar, but the hard ones are very creepy and always fun to watch in action. There are only a dozen are so character models per race, so get used to seeing the same person over and over. Thankfully the game creators did a good job ensuring that most of the important characters looks different from each other. So while they look good, their animation while fighting or running or moving in general is pretty much awful. It's truly hard to look at your character from the third person perspective. To make matters worse, the shadow on the ground is that of a basic model. They have countless number of details in the game, and they can't even throw in a nice looking shadow? It's also a very quiet game. The NPC's throughout the game only mutter a handful of lines, and are race-specific. The subdued music is heard pretty much constantly on the main continent, so much that I found that I tuned it out and forgot it was even playing. The only other sound effects are weapons clanging and such things.
So, while most of the game is extremely innovative, there are a few annoyances. NPC's will often stand right in the middle of the doorway and won't ever let your through. Some quests in certain factions can be erased right from the game if you accidentally kill someone you weren't supposed to. The load times get more and more horrendous as the game goes on. I guarantee you'll start over at least more than once. It's a game you've really got to be patient with, and if you are, it will be a great experience. It's one of the best games I've ever played, but it does have more than it's fair share of problems compared to other high caliber games. I guess that's to be expected in a game so deep as this one, but they're kind of hard to overlook. Still, please give this game a try, and be patient. It will reward you for it.