Just when you thought something like this wasn't possible, it is.
Upon beginning the game, Morrowind lets you create your character, which (ATT)^(1) is probably the most diverse character-creation available. So many classes to choose from, which is cool as hell to play around with. The only downside is once you head in and pick your class specializations and then play the game, you find that the skills you picked are not quite compatible with the race you picked. So you basically restart the game over and over until you get the general feel. This could be a good thing if you are a person who likes to keep busy.
Skills such as acrobatics – a skill which involves the action of jumping and how much damage you take from falls – and athletics – simply how fast you run – are only useful for leveling quickly as you have the option to travel instantaneously [sic] to locations by means of a creature. All the other skills can serve a better purpose if they support your class. You will find yourself disappointed when you find how useless speechcraft is. This is simply how much someone likes you and the game you play (a gamble, at best) to get them to like you through admiring, taunting and intimidating, or you can simply bribe them which has the same effect.
Morrowind is unique in that – even without it being a persistent world – there is always something to do. Aside from the main quest-line, there are plenty of secondary missions to keep you coming back for more, which includes guilds.
Another downside to Morrowind is the quite bland AI. NPCs never really do anything and it's as if they only exist for you (which is true in the "gaming" sense) and don't seem to have any purpose safe waiting in one spot for your return^(2). What else plays the AI down is when inside a house with many NPCs, killing an NPC in secret is not so much a secret as the entire world knows of your crime, unexplainably, as if an act of god told them you have killed someone.
Another annoying part in the game is that merchants don't have a lot of money, so when you find a rare loot that's useless to you and is worth a lot of gold, you find that the merchant does not have nearly that much gold.
This reviewer is making the game sound horrible, so on the lighter side, the visuals (ATT) are stunning, water actually looks like water (finally – games before this have just made you laugh) and you will find yourself stopping and just admiring the landscapes. The characters themselves, although, are quite atrociously rendered and if you make a female and take her clothes off, you will find yourself puzzled and you will probably suffer from nausea. Facial expression as at par with other games, if not above-par. You will know just by looking at someone^(3) whether or not they hate you.
Morrowind raises the bar for all RPGs to come, and put forth the idea that an RPG can indeed have an extreme amount of replay value. Morrowind also shows RPG-haters that anyone can like an RPG – even an RPG-hater. If you haven't played this game, you're not a true gamer.
1. This made-up acronym will appear quite a few times throughout the review. It means At the time.
2. This is vastly improved on in the follow-up, Oblivion. NPCs in that game appear to have more purpose.
3. You can approach an NPC and hit enter and it will show you a scale from one to 100 how much they like you.