Very involved, yet simple to play. Great adventure, quests and storyline. Sandbox-type play makes this one of the best.
Much of this review will discuss character attributes, skills, classes, potions, spells, armor and weapons as this game is heavily character-driven and much of the enjoyment to playing is making decisions how your character will improve.
Concerning Character Creation:
When you first begin, you will be released from a prison ship in a small fishing village called Seyda Neen, located in southwest Vvardenfell. You will then proceed with your character creation as the excise officer asks you questions about your name, profession and so on, and then you will be ordered to take a package to Caius Cosades in Balmora, located just north of your position a day or two journey. Fortunately the game consists of many statistics although can seem overwhelming when you have to choose from the very beginning. Primary Attributes will mostly be affected by your race and gender (the range will begin somewhere between 30 and 50 for most characters, the max being 100), and affects your four derived attributes, and will also have a direct bearing on 27 skills that can also improve up to 100. Primary Attributes only increase as you gain a level (where you will increase three of them per level). There are four derived attributes, Health, Magicka, Fatigue, and Encumbrance, and are determined by a combination of your primary attributes, so as you gain levels, so will your health, magicka, fatigue, encumbrance eventually increase. The 27 skills will gain experience as you use constantly use most of them throughout the game until you reach one point higher, or you can speed up the process by finding trainers and pay them to teach you and continue to pay them until they can teach you no more (up to their own skill level).
Health, controls how much damage you can take before being killed (can be restored by potion/spell/sleeping).
Magicka, controls how much energy you have available for spell-casting (can be restored by potion/spell/sleeping).
Fatigue, controls how tired you are, every time you run, jump and swing a weapon, the fatigue meter will decrease, making your chances to hit or cast a spell successfully also decrease; and when walking or standing still, the meter will replenish (also can be restored by a potion/spell/sleeping).
Encumbrance, controls how much you can carry, and is solely determined by Strength (also can be adjusted to carry more by use of a Feather potion/spell).
Agility, controls your chance to hit enemies, as well as to dodge their attacks (governs skills Block, Light armor, Marksman, and Sneak).
Endurance, controls your starting and maximum health, and your maximum fatigue (governs skills Heavy armor, Medium armor, and Spear).
Strength, controls the damage you cause with weapons, as well as how much you can carry (affects Acrobatics, Armorer, Axe, Blunt weapon, and Longblade skills).
Speed, controls your rate of movement when walking, running, swimming, or levitating (improves Athletics, Hand-to-hand, Short blade, and Unarmored skills)
Intelligence, controls your maximum magicka (helps Alchemy, Conjuration, Enchant, and Security skills)
Willpower, controls your odds of success at spell-casting and your chance to resist magicka (governs Alteration, Destruction, Mysticism, and Restoration skills).
Personality, controls how much people like you, and the prices you get at vendors (improves Illusion, Mercantile, and Speech-craft).
Luck, helps everything you do in a small way (more like a wild card that will help improve the chance of success for anything you do).
Concerning Races and Classes:
Each race has its own special boosts in attributes. You can choose to be Altmer (high elf), Argonian (reptilian), Bosmer (wood elf), Breton (half-elf), Dunmer (dark elf, native to Morrowind), Imperial (human, specializes in high society and diplomacy), Khajit (feline), Nord (human, fighters from the north), Orc (most are friendly, unlike most other fantasy games), and Redguard (human, black-skinned fighters). In general elves will have a higher Intelligence for spell-casting, orcs and humans will have a better strength and endurance for hand-to-hand fighting, and Argonian and Khajit make better thieves with a higher agility. Also other skills and certain resistance boosts for each race are available as you create your character. You will also have to choose between thirteen Birthsigns, which will determine certain special attributes and spells your character will have. And then you have the chance to pick a class, that also will affect your major skills category determined by the class itself; Acrobat, Agent, Archer, Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Battlemage, Crusader, Healer, Knight, Mage, Monk, Nightblade, Pilgrim, Rogue, Scout, Sorcerer, Spellsword, Thief, Warrior, and Witchhunter. You will get a brief description of each class specialization during your decision. In general choose between Acrobat, Agent, Archer, Crusader, Monk, Thief or Witchhunter to get a higher Agility. Speed will increase with classes such as the Assassin, Nightblade, Rogue, Scout and Thief. A Crusader also will have a modified Strength, and so forth. Strength will be required for any hand-held weapons doing good damage, needed for the Barbarian, Battlemage, Crusader, Knight, and Warrior. Intelligence is also increased for spell-casters choosing classes such as Battlemage, Mage, Sorcerer and Witchhunter. You may have to play with the character creation to get a few ideas, and you really can't go too wrong in whatever you choose as statistics will improve through gameplay. You can also create your own class by playing with the statistics, but because there are already so many pre-made classes this isn't really necessary. It is still a good idea to choose a race and class that will give you the best possible combination for the style of fighting you want to use. As an example, I tend to lean to the Redguard Witchhunter as it gives a good balance between skills in longblade, marksman, destruction and alchemy. I found too that it is a good idea to practice in alchemy as soon as possible as it will help to create restore fatigue and health potions that you will need, and also can sell for a good profit (not necessary, just makes the game a little easier to play if you can create your own potions from many of the herbs, plants and food you will find on your quests and travels).
Concerning Quests:
At this point you can go anywhere, and this has been a point of contention among gamers that Morrowind is very open-ended that you will not know what to do near the beginning. If you perform a few minor side-quests in Seyda Neen (where you first begin), which can all be solved fairly quickly, and checkout a nearby cave housing a gang of bandits, then you will have a chance to get some experience, armor, weapons and gold, and sell several items at the local Seyda Neen merchant. If you explore the surrounding area, you won't get too side-tracked. When deciding to leave Seyda Neen, use the Silt Strider service (basically a giant animal/insect to immediately travel from city to city) and go to Balmora. Balmora is a bigger town and you will find more to do, and one of your next assignments will be to join a Guild and get some experience under your belt. After you accomplish a few quests, you will begin to feel more comfortable with going to new locations and expanding out to new locations. To get an idea of what quests are available and where to go, also to see the map of Vvardenfell, follow the link below. There will be a few spoilers on the main quest page, but at some point during your first pass, it's not a bad idea to peruse the quests as there is quite a bit to do.
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Morrowind
Additionally, not too long after the beginning of the main quest, you will have the chance to teleport to Mournhold (the capital city of Morrowind on the mainland), which is the location for the Tribunal expansion, or to take a ship to an island in the northwest called Solstheim (a very dangerous island where Nord clans reside), the start to the Bloodmoon expansion. It is a good idea to wait on visiting Mournhold, and especially Solstheim, at least until you have gained tenth level, and most importantly are able to heal yourself and have more than 50 for your weapons, armor and spells of choice.
Concerning Guilds and Houses:
Guilds will consist of the Fighters (more like mercenaries for hire, clean out an area of monsters), Mages (many quests are to help other spell-casters find special books or ingredients), Thieves (most jobs are to steal something back for a client), Tribunal (priesthood where most missions will be to deliver potions or to heal someone), Morag Tong (assassins who have professional scrips or legal contracts on someone's life), Imperial Cult (specialized priesthood working for the monarchy), and the Imperial Legion (soldiers and knights sworn to protect the emperor). There is no real limit to what guild you can join although you won't be able to join the Morag Tong or Imperial Cult right away; you can be more of the fighter-type character and still join the Mages guild with little difficulty. Obviously as you gain experience and increase certain skills, your character becomes well-rounded and is very capable of solving every guild quest. Also you will gain the opportunity to join one of three Houses: Hlaalu, Redoran or Telvanni (although it is possible to join two Houses at the same time under certain circumstances, but this is a known bug in the game). House Hlaalu is about business, and a character who has a high personality to use speechcraft to solve certain quests will make a good fit. House Redoran is about piety and duty, so a priest or knight-type character would fit in well, those who are more likely to go by an honor system. House Telvanni are wizards, so if you decide to go this route, prepare to deal with many spell-casters. For the most part, it doesn't matter what guild or house you choose to join, as it is more of a preference to how you want to begin, and eventually you will want to try other guilds to obtain more quests. It is possible to have an unresolved quest in one guild due to advancing far in another guild, especially if one asks you to kill another guild leader. But this won't interfere with the main game quests, although it is usually better to advance in all possible guild quests so you can obtain certain enchanted items or gain higher levels. So to get the complete experience, it is worth joining at least two guilds in the beginning, and maybe try one or two more when you are more comfortable with the game mechanics and locations.
Concerning Alchemy, Enchant and Spells:
As previously mentioned in this review, it is worth exploring alchemy, no matter what class you choose. All you need is a mortar and pestle so as to mix ingredients. You can improve effects of potions by including an alembic, retort or calcinator with the mortar and pestle. There are over 70 types of potions you can make, some with good and bad side-effects, depending on the ingredients used. Every time you successfully make a potion, your alchemy skill will increase a little, and as your skill improves, you will find more options to combine reagents and be able to make different combinations of potion. Useful potions are obviously those that restore health, magicka and fatigue; also fortify [ability] potions will give a boost to said ability and helps greatly in times of combat. Also it is a good strategy to make the basic restore fatigue potions to sell as a means to accumulate gold quickly.
Enchanting items is very useful, especially in the latter parts of the game, basically makes a non-magical item into a magical one. You can pay for an item to be enchanted but this tends to be expensive. It is best to work small, and enchant rings or necklaces to cast a light or a low-level spell to help improve your enchant skill. Eventually you will be able to enchant your armor and weapons to do things like restore health, levitate, water walk, water breathe, cast fire, cast cold, cast electricity and so forth. Since you can use short-cut keys to magic items and spells, it comes in very handy to heal or fire off an attack that uses the items charge rather than use up your own magicka. To enchant an item yourself, you will have to collect soul gems (that come in the very small to large types, determines the maximum soul-type it can collect), and also must learn the soul trap spell. While in combat, cast the soul trap on a monster or creature just before you kill it, and when you kill it, the soul will be instantly stored in a soul gem in your inventory. Use the soul gem in combination with a spell on an item, and you will have a small chance to enchant it, improves with experience. Start with small items, and not too long after, you will be able to enchant most items with many types of spells. The caveat is that you will need to buy or collect soul gems, learn the soul trap spell and also learn the types of spells that will be needed to enchant a certain item with the desired effect. Also you can only enchant non-magic items, and won't be able to add effects on any item that is already magical.
Spells are categorized based on their effect, each seen in your subset of skills, and there are over 170 combination of spells possible. Spells are available to buy from other spell-casters, and will have to visit many of them to collect a large group of spells. Also spells can be found on scrolls and are cast with 100% chance of success; whereas, casting from your character's magicka does not guarantee spell success with every cast. Alteration spells are those that manipulate the physical world to create a desire effect; such as, Jump, Levitate, Water Breathe, Water Walk, and others. Conjuration spells are those that summon items or creatures; such as, Bound [weapon/armor], that gives the spell-caster a certain weapon or armor for a certain period of time, and Summon [animal/creature/monster] that will immediately fight for you for a certain amount of time and then disappear. Destruction spells are those that drain or damage health or attributes, also includes fire, frost, poison and electrical attacks. Illusion spells are those that affect the mind; such as, Blind, Charm, Invisibility and Paralyze. Mysticism include spells that manipulate magical forces to overcome certain boundaries; such as, Mark/Recall (a type of teleportation), Soultrap and Telekinesis. Restoration are spells that cure, heal and fortify certain attributes; such as Cure Disease, Cure Poison, Fortify [attribute/skill/health/magicka], and Restore [attribute/skill/health/magicka].
Concerning Items:
Throughout the game, you will find a multitude of items that range from important books, jewelry, potions and scrolls to menial things such as dinnerware, pottery, clothing, paper and knick-knacks. All can be sold for gold, although some items may weigh more than they are worth and can be dropped to allow you to carry more. You will naturally find many types of armor and weapons, and are categorized based on your subset of skills.
Armor types are either light, medium or heavy. A complete suit of armor will consist of the cuirass, helmet, left/right pauldrons, greaves, boots, left/right gauntlets or bracers and shield. It is not necessary to have all pieces of armor to be exactly the same material but it is usually best that the pieces all be either light, medium or heavy. You can choose to mix and match pieces but your [type] armor skill won't improve as often. Every time you are struck, the [type] armor rating will go up (a unique feature that actually getting hit has a positive side). What is interesting about this type of system is that you can have a high rating in light armor and actually have a better protection and take less damage than being in heavy armor with a lower rating. The negative side to being hit is obviously taking health damage but also the armor will degrade as it continues to absorb damage and won't protect as well. You can use tongs and hammers to repair your armor, and success will be based on your Armory skill, or you will find a smith to repair it for you for a fee.
Weapons will be divided by skill subsets consisting of Axes, Blunt (clubs, maces, hammers, staves), Marksman (bows/crossbows/throwing knives/darts), Longblades (most swords like long, broad, katana, saber, claymore), Shortblades (dagger, tanto, short) and Spear. No weapon is necessarily better than the other since damage will be based on skill and the governing attribute for the weapon. As you play, you will get a feel for what is best for your character; in general it is a good idea to specialize in a couple different weapon types (as you continue gaining experience and gold, it won't be uncommon to pay for training to raise all your skills to at least a 40 or 50) as some quests will give you the opportunity to gain several varying types of powerful magic weapons. Additionally you will have to watch your weapon degradation as it will begin to do less and less damage after every use. As you continue to engage in combat, just like your armor, your weapons will need to be repaired, either by you or pay for a smith to do it.
Concerning Diseases:
Whenever you come in contact with an animal, creature or monster (especially of the undead variety) there will be a chance that you will get a disease. The main focus of any disease will be that it will reduce one or two of your primary attributes thus giving you an incentive to find a cure. Usually a cure disease spell or potion will do the trick, and once cured the attribute will be restored to its prior value. You can also get a more serious type of disease that is related to the ash storms throughout Vvardenfell, categorized as blight disease. Blight diseases will also drain your attributes but at a larger amount. There are a few special diseases that will change the focus of the game. One is called Corprus that is also incurable, which actually becomes part of the main quest. The others are Porphyric Hemophilia and Sanies Lupinus (seen on the island of Solstheim during the Bloodmoon quests), diseases if left untreated will turn you into a vampire or a werewolf. You will be given a choice to cure the disease, as they can both be cured as a normal disease, but if left untreated for a number of days, you will turn.
As a vampire, you will have branching quests as the main quest and any side-quests will be put on hold, mostly due to the fact that no one will talk to you. You will receive damage from sunlight but will also have a very large increase in strength, willpower and speed as well as a few other special abilities. The problem with the vampire quests are that they are subtle and not very obvious as to where you need to go to further the plot, eventually you will have to find a cure to vampirism, and will have to visit certain cities, find special books and find members of your vampire clan to do this. It isn't necessary to try the vampire quests as I thought they were okay. It could've been greatly improved if the main quest was incorporated so that you could still solve the game as a vampire.
As a werewolf in the Bloodmoon expansion, which takes place on the northwest island of Solstheim (where Nord clans reside), you will change at night and must hunt people or animals to satisfy your bloodlust or take damage. You won't be able to use magic, weapons or armor but you will have very lethal claws that will tear your opponents apart and will have very large boosts in agility, endurance, speed, strength, acrobatics, athletics, hand-to-hand and unarmored. You will receive quests during visions and will act the aggressor to the Nord clans, as opposed to fighting werewolves and defending the clans if you chose to cure yourself of the disease before turning for the first time. Near the conclusion of the campaign, you will get the chance to cure yourself of the werewolf disease but isn't necessary, although will be somewhat easier if trying to solve other quests back at Vvardenfell or at Mournhold (in the Tribunal expansion).
Concerning Cities and the Land:
Noteworthy cities are Balmora (where you will begin the main quests for Caius Cosades); Vivec (a very large city that contains every guild and house, connected by platforms that each have three main levels plus a sewer system, and have many quests that will keep you occupied for a long time); Ald'ruhn (an interesting design with a hub made from a giant crab-shell); Gnisis (a city located near a large mine); Sadrith Mora (on a small island off the east coast, contains many mage quests); and Molag Mar (a large, multi-level city located among desolate hills near the south).
Also you will frequent many coastal towns like Seyda Neen, Hla Oad, Gnaar Mok, Khuul and Dagon Fel, and other special villages like Tel Mora, Tel Aruhn and Tel Branora (all built in the heights of trees). Eventually you will visit several camps dotted in various locations of the island where the native Dunmer or dark elf Ashlander clans frequent.
You will realize after some time that the map of Vvardenfell (an island within the province of Morrowind) is very large, and contains various climates, the coast and many islands, hills, forests, swamps and barren mountains, surrounding a central, giant mountain that emits a dust-like storm that covers the land and can also cause disease to those that live too close to the source. The game works on a twenty-four hour clock that will gradually show change from daylight to twilight to midnight, then to dawn and back to daylight again. Sometimes it will rain and a storm will brew, and it can be pretty amazing to experience the panorama of the environments, whether viewing from a hilltop and surveying the land below, or running through an ash-storm in the middle of the day, or water-walking the ocean at night with the stars reflecting from the surface. Populated areas will range from square buildings in an open plain to villages built among trees with spiraling staircases going up gigantic trunks to multilevel cities spread across a large area. You will also visit many Dwemer ruins, usually in quests to get at an advanced technology, where you will see giant gears and mechanisms with platforms that descend into deep caverns. When visiting Mournhold (during the Tribunal expansion), you will experience the magnificence of a walled city, a temple and a palace where you must also go into the equally expansive (and not so pleasant) city sewer system. When visiting Solstheim (during the Bloodmoon expansion), you will learn about the rugged and unforgiving snow and ice environment among the dangerous denizens.
There are a few problems that take away from Morrowind being the perfect game. One is that the environments and time lapses are done very well, buildings are extravagant and some quite big and awesome to behold (Vivec being an amazingly large city when viewed from a distance), but the character bodies and faces might look ridiculous by today's standards. Even in 2003, the character faces could've been a little better, rather than all have the strange oblong, circle look. Another minor issue is that the soundtrack is too short and not varied enough. Since the game is quite long, it sometimes gets annoying listening to the same loop over and over again. It would've been a nice addition if the soundtrack changed based on a certain area you had entered. Of course you have the option to turn the music off, and there can be little to complain with the excellence in the game's sound effects. Another issue is that once the main quests are solved, including the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions, there isn't an option to simply retire the game and give you a final ending summary. You can continue to play and solve other side-quests that you may have missed but seems empty and unnecessary at this point. Basically, you choose to stop playing the same character and begin with a new game, or simply stop playing the game altogether, which can make the plot feel anti-climactic.
Morrowind with expansions makes for a long game, especially when trying to solve most of the quests, and if you like RPG's, then this game is a perfect fit. Because the quests are well-thought out, the varied environments are done well, sound effects put you into the actual fight with the clang of weapons and the explosion of spells, the plots to the main game and expansions are unique unto themselves, and the gameplay system is easy and natural to use, Morrowind is certainly worth another visit. And if you haven't played it before and enjoyed Oblivion or looking forward to Skyrim, then Morrowind is certainly a must-have.