Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Immersive"

Pros:
Huge landscape to explore | Bizzare and wonderful creatures, people and culture | Easy to get yourself lost in | Has a massive list of mods, and is easy to mod yourself | Interesting main quest | Fantastic expansions | Endlessly replayable due to sheer size and range of things to do | Great soundtrack

Cons:
Combat is more random chance than anything else | Conversations are in text form - leads to lots of time spent reading

Morrowind was released in 2002, almost a decade ago. Even now, almost 10 years after I bought this game, I find myself playing it again and again. It has a replayability that very few games have managed to achieve. The islands of Vvardenfell can provide you with hundreds and hundreds of hours of playtime, due to the size of the game and the amount of stuff that's in the game.

Vvardenfell has a culture like nothing in this world. You will find yourself getting immersed in the game because it's culture seems so real, yet so unreal. Bethesda has clearly put months of effort into creating cultures, religions, and peoples that, despite their lack of graphic reality, appear very real. Every quest and NPC has been given lots of care and attention, and it shows. The main quests of Morrowind, Bloodmoon and Tribunal feel realistic and are thoroughly enjoyable.

Morrowind, as a RPG, does choice like no other. You really can do whatever you want in this game. It's this level of choice and careful design that makes Morrowind endlessly replayable.

As you explore the islands of Vvardenfell, you will hear Morrowind's excellent soundtrack. Easily one of the best ever made, every song fits it purpose brilliantly. Morrowind's theme tune remains one of the most recognisable main themes ever made.

Morrowind's playability is added to by its ease of moddability. To date, there are hundreds of mods that do many different things to improve Morrowind. For example, there's the Morrowind Graphics Extender, which improves the graphics by giving you modern shader/lighting options. Then there's Tamriel Rebuilt, a colossal mod project aiming to make mainland Morrowind.

However, Morrowind does have its flaws. Combat can seem monotonous at times, and the random chance of hitting is a bad idea from the start. However, you will find yourself having access to an extensive list of weapons and spells to fight off your foes, so this makes combat a bit better. Conversations ingame can also take a very long time due to the fact that it's all typed out. If you have to talk regularly, you may find yourself getting tired of them.

All in all, Morrowind is a brilliant game with loads of great content. If you haven't bought this game already, you should buy it as it's easily one of the best games ever made.