Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls Preview

Fact: You haven't lived until you've crawled through inky, 16-color, 2D catacombs at 4am, guided only by crudely drawn maps on graph paper. For those of you already shaking your head in disagreement (or more likely, disgust), know that it's probably because you've been weaned on online RPGs such as EverQuest, Phantasy Star Online, and Ultima Online--games that have helped render the arcane cartography, stat tracking, and item invoicing of old Wizardrys and Ultimas obsolete. Nowadays, RPGs are less about lonely, repetitive dungeon expeditions and more about claiming a plot in a sprawling monotony of fantasy worlds that have quickly become something of an online suburbia. EQ, Ultima Online, and PSO (to a much lesser extent) have all moved the focus from characterization and storytelling to atmosphere, interacting with neighbors, and economy. All this makes Bethesda Softworks' Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls, the third entry in the venerable Elder Scrolls series, something of a throwback. You can't play the game online, and it's anchored by a heavy narrative. But despite these old-school ties, Morrowind also promises the freedom and variety you'd expect from the latest online RPGs.

Morrowind is set in the fantastical world of Tamriel, and the game takes place on the large volcanic island of Vvardenfell. You arrive on the island as a prisoner and are tasked, like an indentured servant, to complete a variety of missions in exchange for your freedom. These early quests serve partly as a tutorial but also act as a primer to the real story before you embark any adventure of consequence. The interesting thing about your first few hours on the island is that you can attempt to escape at almost any time. Immediately, we discovered Morrowind's chief difference from other single-player console RPGs--you're free to do pretty much whatever you want. You'll face a similar defining moment later in the game when you encounter the strange entity known as "The Blight," which you learn is transforming Vvardenfell into a barren wasteland. You can try to stop it and save the island--a quest Bethesda estimates would take about 40 hours--or if that sounds boring, you can put it on the backburner and explore the 100 hours' worth of side quests instead. These quests mostly involve aligning yourself with one of the five countries, guilds, or religious factions on the island, which all have tasks for you to complete. What makes your freedom all the more real is the fact that Vvardenfell is a completely rendered land with real-time nights and days, dozens of towns to visit, and almost every nook and cranny navigable--or at least visible.

Gameplay takes place from a third-person perspective (which can be adjusted to a first-person view if you prefer). And like most PC RPGs, you must design your character before you can begin. Morrowind offers more than 25 skills (including traits such as personality, luck, and thievery) to build upon, as well as some unique racial choices: the Redguard, who are quick and powerful warriors; the Bretons, intelligent and powerful sorcerers; Nords, who are tall, quick, and resistant to cold; and the Khajiits, who are feline thieves. Additionally, you have aristocratic Imperials and Argonians--both intelligent races--though Argonians are more predisposed toward immorality. And finally, you can also choose from three different elfin subclasses: "high," (magically inclined) "dark," (warriors) and "wood" (thieves and archers). Your race selection is important because many of these races have a natural dislike for one another, meaning you may get along well with some while becoming an instant enemy of others. Your individual statistics, equipment, and reputation further complicate relations with nonplayer characters (NPCs) since they all work to affect others' dispositions toward you. "Disposition" is synonymous with respect in Morrowind--an NPC with a high disposition number indicates friendly feelings toward you, while low numbers bespeak antipathy. If you're a smooth talker or a charismatic figure, dialogue is an easy way to up your disposition points; however, characters without the gift of gab will have to let their appearance or actions do the talking. You can improve your appearance statistic by wearing expensive armor, while actions, like "admire," "intimidation," or "taunt," can also influence disposition, albeit with some specific (and sometimes unpleasant) side effects.

Statistics also have a major bearing in battles, making Morrowind's combat a complex operation of behind-the-scenes number crunching. When you're in battle, for example, your enemies may or may not cry for help depending on their aggressiveness and self-confidence stats. These in-depth stats and figures don't translate into a clunky interface, however. Morrowind doesn't involve point-and-clicking, like other PC-based RPGs; rather, the game has adopted a Soul Reaver-style of control, which lets you pull off a variety of attacks easily instead of fumbling with a cursor. Each melee weapon, for example, has at least three different types of attacks (thrust, chop, and slash) that you pull off simply by pushing the joystick in a particular direction while you hit your attack button. Enemies have target-based damage--meaning a chop in the leg usually isn't as effective as a slash to the neck. Bethesda claims that it has already mapped Morrowind to the Xbox pad, streamlining the game's windows-based interface while keeping your character easy to control.

Some other differences will further separate the PC and Xbox versions of Morrowind. First, don't count on the amazing game editor that's included in the PC version to make it on the Xbox. Bethesda made it clear that while its in-depth game editor (which lets you design your own quests in Morrowind à la Ascii's RPG Maker) is feasible (given the Xbox's hard drive), it will not ship with the game's initial release. It did suggest, though, that with the Xbox's broadband support, it may eventually allow for its free download and installation sometime next year. Secondly, Bethesda has admitted that its programmers are having trouble fitting all of Morrowind's massive content into the Xbox version, citing the system's limited 64MB memory. Whether or not this means less secondary missions or inaccessible areas of the island has yet to be revealed. To compensate for any lack of content, though, Bethesda has made an effort to give the Xbox version of Morrowind an edge over its PC cousin in terms of graphics and sound, thanks to special optimizations made specifically for the console's GeForce 3 video card and support for Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound.

Part of the visual appeal of Morrowind will be tied to the fact that you can go practically anywhere and see almost anything on Vvardenfell. The world of Morrowind looks beautiful simply because it promises a tremendous variety of environments, times of day, and even weather patterns (rain, wind, and volcanic eruptions are simulated). Most of the game's architecture is built from prefabricated structures that allowed the developers to quickly populate the island with vegetation and structures; however, considering the variety and randomness built into each of the prefabs that we've seen, it's doubtful you take too much notice. Morrowind's textures are colorful and detailed, and while polygon counts aren't astronomical (between 5,000 and 10,000 per person), characters feature a good amount of detail and locations appear lush and organic. Fogging is varied, though it still comes off as an overused atmospheric effect--one that will hopefully be toned down before the game's release.

Morrowind's scope and grandeur are on a scale that is rarely seen on both PCs and console systems. No, you won't be able to fetch much if you trade its items on eBay, but you won't need a pen and paper to play either. Bethesda has designs to make Morrowind the best of both worlds. With the game in the process of being tuned for optimization on the Xbox's final hardware, there's a good chance that Morrowind will be ready in time for its release shortly after the Xbox launch in November.