I certainly understand why many of my friends have trouble getting into this game. If you're coming from Skyrim or Oblivion, you're probably used to having a full set of armor, a decent weapon or spell, knowledge of basic combat, and a fair amount of gold and potions before you even start exploring the world. Morrowind isn't like that. You start the game by stepping off of a boat in a poor swamp town with nothing but the clothes on your back and a rusty iron dagger. There is no fast traveling (or at least no free fast traveling), and the map can sometimes be confusing. The only way you can find what you're looking for sometimes is by reading vague directions your character wrote down in their journal. In Skyrim, Alduin appears before you even have control of your character. In Oblivion, the emperor tells you of Mehrunes Dagon's plot before you leave the first dungeon. In Morrowind, you don't even learn the main plot of the game until you're a few hours into it, and even then you don't have all the information. Many people would consider these things to be negative, or at least intimidating, but in reality I wouldn't have it any other way. If you can get past the dated mechanics and look, I remain convinced that this is the greatest Elder Scrolls game, and my favorite game of all time. The story is wonderful, the lore might possibly be the greatest in all of fiction, the world is wonderfully diverse and detailed, and there is a sense of freedom and magic that makes even games like Skyrim feel constained in comparison. Another incredible thing is that the modding community is still strong 13 years later, meaning that nearly every problem you could have with this game (including the borderline infamous dicerolling) can be fixed. This game is truly a masterpiece and a must play if you are a fan of RPGs. Although your character starts so low, lower than any other RPG I've ever played, the feeling of satisfaction you get when you win is indescribable. You truly feel like a God, and the NPCs treat you the same. There is a reason so many people still rave about this game so many years later, and while it is intimidating, it is without a doubt worth the effort.

You start playing Morrowind. You pick a race, class, go through the tutorial and dive right in. The controls are a bit clunky and you feel a bit awkward swinging around the first dagger you get. Well screw it, let’s see what this game has to offer. So you go up to the first enemy you see, a mudcrab. You start hacking away at it, only to find that you miss almost 90% of the time. Finally after getting hit a few times you dispatch it. Well, that didn’t go as well as you expected. Then you realize that even when running you are moving at a snail's pace and you are constantly very low on fatigue. You get your hands on better weapons and armour, but you still miss often and take more damage than you expect. Despite all this, you play on. You get your first side quest, and then you realize that objectives aren’t marked on your map nor are you notified when they are completed. Then you find other tedious things, your magic doesn’t regenerate, there isn’t a fast travel system*, spells can fail, equipment can break, etc. At long last you snap. You run around cursing the day you ever thought it was a good idea to purchase this game in a blood-curdling scream. But for whatever reason you play on, maybe you want to see if you can get the slightest satisfaction out of the money you’ve invested, maybe a small part of you likes the game, or maybe you want to add more play time so your multi-paragraph rant about why you shouldn’t play this game will be taken more seriously.

Then something magical happens, you get a few level ups and your skills improve. You start figuring out how to keep your health up without constantly purchasing potions. You start paying close attention to the quest instructions and find that they aren’t so difficult to follow. You finally start hitting more than you miss and with every hit you land and every creature you slay you get a burst of adrenaline. You grow stronger and start making short work of enemies that once made mincemeat out of you, laughing triumphantly in your sweet revenge. You start moving much faster than you ever thought you would. But that was just the beginning. You then find yourself paying close attention to the side quests and the people of Morrowind and suddenly you’ve completely immersed yourself in a game that has graphics optimized from the N64 era, but that no longer matters. The controls that once baffled you become completely second-nature. The combat that once was infuriating becomes so great you will charge at every enemy you spot.** The magic system that once seemed impossible suddenly seems like the only way a magic system should work. Even the most trivial interactions become satisfying, and at long last all the troubles you had in the past with this game make complete sense.

Unfortunately Morrowind isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay. It’s no exaggeration that this game takes a LOT of patience to get into. You begin with selecting races you’re not familiar with and making choices for your character without any knowledge about all they ways they will affect you throughout the game. Then, you are put through a brief tutorial and are thrust right into the game with only an item for the first main quest and a dagger. The rest you will have to look up online or learn through experience. But don’t be discouraged, as this game get’s extremely enjoyable once you get out of the ‘rut’ of the first chunk of the game. Once you finally get a good understanding of how everything works you finally start to see that things that once frustrated you are there for good reason. The customization level of this game is extensive, more extensive than Oblivion or Skyrim. Not that those are bad games, but Morrowind offers a deeper and more challenging experience. You have plenty of classes to choose from, you can make your own class, and you choose a birthsign which can augment your stats or grant you new abilities, further increasing the amount of character builds to experiment with. Overall, if you’ve got a lot of free time on your hands and want to play through an deep and immersive RPG, I cannot recommend Morrowind enough.

Pros:
+Very immersive open world
+Plenty of ways to build your character
+Background Music is subtle yet very catchy
+Deep Stat/skill development
+Rock Solid Gameplay, takes some getting used to

Cons:
-Takes a large amount of time to get used to gameplay and controls
-Outdated Graphics (Can be fixed with the right mods)
-Sound Effects are a bit lacking (Fixed with Mods)
-Enchanting is the worst

* There is a Fast travel system of sorts. (As Nerf mentioned earlier) The Mage’s guild allows you to warp to any other Mage’s guild building. The Silt Striders (Giant mountable insects) let you ride to almost any town. Also you can use intervention spells to warp you to the nearest temple, fortress, etc. When you get further in the game you can use exotic means of transportation such as jumping/levitating across the entire island. Bottom line is, just because there’s no fast travel doesn’t mean you can’t conveniently get places

** Morrowind is often criticized as having a “God-awful” combat system. I have yet to figure out why but the complaint I hear a lot is the fact that you can miss, and early game you will miss a lot. I actually loved this. The higher your agility stat and weapon skill the more often you will hit. This motivated me to try and improve my weapon skills so that I could hit more often. Plus I feel like the health of enemies was lowered to compensate for this. Most of the early enemies will go down in a few hits so long as you're using your most effective attacks. So even early game when you miss a lot fights don’t last too much longer than they would in Skyrim where you hit every time. Point is, the combat system is something I love, but you might not enjoy it.

A quick disclaimer:

This is a no nostalgia review of Morrowind. My first introduction to TES was Skyrim, then Oblivion, then Morrowind, then Arena (bleh!). I plan to review the game in a critical fashion and lay out its strengths and flaws regardless of how it is remembered by the nostalgic reviewers. Also, I use minimal mods to enjoy a mostly vanilla experience, and my review is based on vanilla Morrowind (I only use Morrowind Code Patch).

Morrowind is a game from another era in gaming. Its graphics are absolutely hideous to our modern eyes (yes, even in 2002 when it was released. See Hitman 2: Silent Assassin). It processes most things through dice rolls, even whether or not your axe swing lands, or if you cast your spells properly. These of course get better later on as you level up, but in the beginning it can be INFURIATING. The GUIs are very unintuitive: even looting a chest or an enemy can be tedious, and don't even get me started on Alchemy! Leveling up is weird too... you get points and depending on how you use your skills, you get multipliers for those points to be spent in attributes. It just feels unnatural. And to top it all off, it's still buggy.

Then why do I recommend this game if I have such qualms with the above?

Morrowind is a game from another era in gaming. Vvardenfell is an island filled to the brim with mystery, weirdness, monstrosities, and side quests. There is an incredible amount of content packed into this game, and it was, in fact, originally going to be the entire province of Morrowind instead of just Vvardenfell! There are so many guilds and organizations the player can join, each with their own unique questline, plenty of random sidequests you simply find, and places to explore like Dwemer ruins and Daedric Shrines. Truth is, you'll never run out of things to do, and I haven't even mentioned the main questline (I haven't finished it, because I get so sidetracked by everything else).

But it is hard/different...

I had to look up a few guides just to learn how to play this game, because it does not help you one bit. You're dropped off in Seyda Neen and that is it. I was fumbling around trying to kill a mudcrab and didn't understand why I couldn't land a hit until I looked up a few guides on it. Oblivion and Skyrim spoiled me. But once you get the hang of how the game functions and keep in mind that things will get better as you increase your stats, you'll find that Morrowind is truly one of the best RPGs ever made despite its flaws.

I'll make some comments about specific aspects of the game here:

Magic
Magic in Morrowind, I think, is one of its strong suits. There are tons of different spells you can learn, and you can assign your favorites to hotkeys in a GUI by pressing F1. But the best part is once you buy a spell, you can then make spells at certain vendors who will give you a host of options to choose from. You can make Self spells (they affect you), Target spells (aim and fire!) or Touch spells (get up close and personal!), and then you can select how long the spell lasts, and how effective it is. The game then generates the price for the spell, how much Magicka it consumes, and your chances of casting it properly (pesky dice rolls). As of this review, I'm doing a play through as an absolute Mage, and this freedom with Magic is just phenomenal.

Melee Combat
Once you have increased your stats, you'll find that caving in someone’s face with an Orcish Warhammer can be quite... relaxing. Just push through the tedium in the beginning. The melee combat is not the best by any means (Skyrim did FAR better), but it is still fun and there are many different types of weapons (Something Skyrim did not do so well at) including Long Blades, Short Blades, Blunt Weapons, Axes, Spears, Bows, and even Crossbows. Most of these have to be leveled up individually, so it's best to pick one or two and never all of them in character creation.

Speaking of Character Creation
Another highpoint for Morrowind. If you fill out the papers in the beginning yourself, you can become a truly unique individual. By selecting skills to put in the Major category, you gain a ton of points in the beginning for those skills. The same goes for Minor skills, but to a lesser extent. Everything you don't pick is tossed into Misc. with only a paltry 5 points (you can use them, but you have a 5% chance of success!). Good thing Morrowind is good at this part, because it falls flat on its face on player appearance. I won't lie, it's disgraceful. You pick a race as always, but you only have a few different heads, hairstyles, and faces to choose from. Seriously, if/when you play it, you'll see what I mean.

Stealth Combat
I can't speak from experience on this subject so I won't say much. From what I've read online, most people think it's broken. If I do a sneaky character, I'll update this review with my own thoughts.

A Couple of Random Comments
- The GUI is trash. You actually have to tell the game to take all of the money from a chest of body, because maybe some weirdo out there only wants half... WTF. If I remember correctly this may have something to do with pickpocketing, but I could be wrong. But even if so, it makes no sense if you are not sneaking!
-Characters are extremely generic. Other than Therana of House Telvanni, most characters are completely uninteresting and you will likely not remember them. It also doesn't help that there are only a few voice-acted lines in the game that you hear OVER, AND OVER AGAIN.
-Levitation, Unlocking spells, Water Walking and Water Breathing spells? Sign me up!
-The fact that Fatigue affects your ability to cast spells is annoying to me, but from a balance perspective, I guess it's ok.
-CHARACTERS THAT GET STUCK IN A HALLWAY YOU NEED TO GET THROUGH! I hate that guy in the Ald-Ruhn Mages Guild! I want to send him to Oblivion!
-Vvardenfell is gigantic. There are so many things to explore outside of the cities, and quests to go on. Don’t underestimate this aged title, and have the Wiki bookmarked. You’re going to need it.
-The main quest is completely separate from everything else. You are not required to do any of it at any time. I still have not completed it among my many playthroughs.
-In the options, there is a difficulty slider. You can change the difficulty on the fly, and sometimes you need to make it harder later on so the game doesn’t get too easy.
-The game is very slow-paced. This can be a good or bad thing depending on your playstyle. If you love really digging into a game this is perfect. If you are looking for some instant gratification, this isn’t the best title.

Conclusion
Morrowind, despite its flaws and age, truly is a diamond in the modern rough. It is a labor of love, and you will, with patience, have a fantastic and memorable experience in this legendary title. I’ve avoided making too many comparisons to TES IV and V because it is a little unfair to do so as far as graphics go, but I believe Morrowind is the better RPG of all of them, while Skyrim is a more polished lite RPG. If you are a true, hardcore RPG lover, Morrowind is an ideal choice.

MODS!
To fix many problems, I recommend the Morrowind Code Patch. It doesn’t change much about the game other than fix some broken aspects. This is a must-have. You can get a Fair Magicka Regen mod if it annoys you that you don’t regen magicka. If the graphics offend you too much, you can try out the Morrowind Overhaul. Check out Nexus online for a host mods.

9/10

Bethesda remastered the wrong game.

Edit- Bethesda is still remastering the wrong game.

My opinionated review for:
Disclaimer : I have played all of the TES games in reverse order so my praise for the game is not pure nostalgia. Also most of my time playing this game has not been on Steam, but rather the disc version I bought from a movie & music store long ago. I believe I have put a total of 500+ hours on that version alone.

Gameplay: This game is the pinnacle of the TES saga. Every RPG element is here and works well. Upon startup, you are greeted with a rather bland title screen. What makes it so special is the iconic theme of Morrowind that has appeared by variation in all of the later TES games. Clicking new game will send start a skippable intro video and then the game starts. Your backstory is that you were sent to Vvardenfell under the orders of the emporer. This backstory is vague enough for you to be creative with your story, unlike Fallout 3 or Oblivion. You will be awoken by a Dunmer named "Juib" who then asks you for your name. This is the character creation process. You will then select one of 10 races, a class, and a birthsign. It is short and sweet enough to not be annoying like Skyrim's god-long intro sequence. You will collect your papers and orders from the census offices and then you're off. No intro dungeon. No forced story. Nothing. This is where most people are lost. They are so used to the handholding from the newer TES games. You will have to read your journal for info. So you open it up and it says to deliver a package to some guy in Balmora? Where is Balmora? Players will then proceed to run around and then get killed by a mudcrab because they don't understand the stat based combat. That is the beauty of this game. Nothing will be handed to you except insults for being an outlander. What would you do in this situation? Ask for directions of course. The dialogue system is made so that you can ask a npc about almost everything that your character knows of. Unlike Skyrim's 3 phrases that nobody cares about, you can ask about secrets,rumors,services,work, about the dungeon you just delved, an assassin that attacked you, and even a weird dream that you may have had. It is very in-depth. There is also a disposition system where you can ahave enemies based on race,guild, or even for the fact that you are a criminal! Not everyone will be your friend, just like real life, so stay close to those who you trust. You have a diverse range of skills that are all useful in their own ways. You cannot master them all, so train wisely! Attributes are availiable as well, unlike Skyrim. This game is a true RPG, so don't expect action based combat. If you wonder why you can't hit anyone, it is because you are not properly trained with the current weapon you are using. It makes more sense if you think about it. Some may say it is extremely boring and tedious, but I say it is fair, seeing how you should not be able to pick up a weapon and automatically start killing with it. If you prefer to stay out of conflict, there is a great alchemy system availiable. You have multiple tools to mess with and to this day, I still haven't fully understood the sytem. There are many other systems in the game but I cannot fully explain them all or we'll be here for days.

Art: In order to judge and old game's graphics in a modern day, you must compare other games that came out the same year. Going by that, I say the game looked fairly well. It has a lot to look at and read (tons of books availiable!) and while the animations may be a little unbelievable and robotic, they get the job done. One thing you may notice about Morrowind compared to other RPG's, is how alien it feels. That is the prime charm of Morrowind. Think Japanese culture mixed with Mayan culture. There are not a lot of video settings available, so you may need to download Morrowind Graphics Extender if you want to fully customise the graphics and short view distance and low fov.

Music/Sound: This game has one of the best soundtracks ever. Composed by Jeremy Soule, every track is movie quality and always keeps a great feeling inside. It adds to the atmosphere in a big way. The sound design is great as well, although ambience is rather dead, the music makes up for it. The voice acting is top notch, although sometimes non-existent, or maybe I'm just spoiled by Skyrim.

Entertainment Value: Like any other TES game, you can sink an infinite amount of hours into it. There is always something new to explore in Morrowind, a new dungeon, new npc, new weapon, etc. I consider it the best in the series followed by Skyrim. If you are an RPG fan and you don't care if you have to put in a little work to enjoy what this game has to offer, you will most likely enjoy what Morrowind has to offer. And if you are not pleased with how the game looks or plays, there is an active modding community available that will fix every issue you have.

Score:
I love Morrowind to death, so of course this review was biased, but I feel you cannot help but enjoy the land of Morrowind just like me. With Skywind coming soon, we may get another chance to explore this land once again.


Thank you for reading.

You can wear different gloves on each hand.

The further out we get from this game's original release, the more obvious it becomes that this may have been the peak of freedom in a First Person Roleplay game.

Without the mandate to voice act every line of dialogue the game is free to give long rambling speeches about lore. The dialogue system is dated and dumps heaps of information at you. The quest log is a nonsense mess and forces you to pay attention and keep notes. This also means playing for an hour every weekend will be the most punishing experience since you will be 100% lost all the time as you will never remember what you were doing when you last played.

The NPCs will LIE to you. Its one of the amazing parts of this game. The NPCs will give incorrect directions, vague descriptions or outright refuse to give you information unless you bother to use the speechcraft skill and sweet talk them into liking you. Its kind of amazing when you realize a lot of this. The odd interactions between certain systems means these NPCs also act irrationally and erratically like real people.

Spellcrafting is hillarious, broken and amazing. Yes you can game the system. They game even makes it obvious that other mages and spellcasters do the exact same thing. Telvani towers literally block your progression if you don't know how to beat their basic "fly up the mushroom tunnel like a wizard" puzzle.

Level and skill progression seem punishing but its intended to keep you from becoming a master of all trades without some serious time investment or a plan. You are encouraged to play a class with a specific playstyle from the beginning. Deviating means suffering until you're able to make more significant gains in those weak skills. Its meant to incentivize you to create a new character and experience the game from a different perspective.

When the world is very alien looking, the dated nature of the graphics becomes less of an issue.

When you realize you as a player running into an ancestral tomb and taking treasure inside of it aren't looting a forgotten dungeon but an actively used graveyard you suddenly realize why you're attacked by all manner of ghost and ghoul in those underground crypts. You don't belong there and you did it all for 12 gold and a cheap copper ring. Also the bonemeal you took from that jar is literally that guy's grandma.

Morrowind is the only game that I dedicated every bit of 2 months of my life to.

It was early 2004...I had just taken a permanent lunch break from my crappy job, I was living with a slob of a roommate, we ate ramen, I was using a credit card to get by and I was bummed out. I heard about Morrowind from a friend, who sold me when he said "It's kinda like GTA in a fantasy setting" (he was so dumb), I bought it used for about 10 bucks that day, popped it in my Xbox as soon as I got home and began my journey...

The addiction took hold immediately, "♥♥♥♥ the job search" I said to myself, as I also skipped some showers and meals. My routine was as follows: Wake up at about noon, play Morrowind for about 14 hours, sleep, repeat, with a few quick breaks in between of course. I was hooked.

Morrowind amazed me to say the least and took me away from the BS that was life. Sure, some could say I was a "loser" during those 2 months but I didn't care and I don't regret it one bit, Morrowind was the greatest experience I've ever had with any form of art or media. It took 3 long years before I found near the level of enjoyment from a video game-(there was Fable in late 04 but it was short lived)-that I had in Morrowind, which was Runescape (believe it or not), but nothing has came close to the love I had for Morrowind.

I persevered through the game freezes (losing hours of game play), starting over with different characters because I couldn't make up my mind which race I wanted to be, playing entirely in the 3rd person view, and that huge and incredibly annoyingly hard to navigate city (Vivec) while the characters, the level progression system (the sense of getting better with every step), the huge open world, the graphics (often moving the camera towards the sky at ingame night to look at the stars),.and the incredible music, sucked me in.

The possibilities seemed endless with this game, as I could do whatever I wanted (ohhh shiny! I'll take that!) and there were surprises around every corner...I'm just casually walking along and all of a sudden someone falls from the sky and plops on the ground, "what the hell just happened?", I search their body, find a journal, then find out that now deceased character has a bit of back story as to why they ended up falling from the sky. Later, I jump up-(no climbing in Elder Scrolls!)-a mountain only to find a lone orc on top wearing badass armor I so desperatly want to have. "Can I take him?" was the question I was asking myself. It was these types of discoveries that made Morrowind so different.

Most of the time I would ignore the quests and just roam the world to see who or what would pop up. Silt Striders were for "wussies", I thought, as I spent hours traveling the land on foot, making sure to occasionally jump or swim to level those acrobat and athletic skills. Often I was ever so swiftly r a p e d by a blighted Cliff Racer.

Something this fun had to eventually come to an end, I couldn't stay in Morrowind forever.

After 2 months, the journey...was finally over...It happened on a Friday night...I finally decided to go out with a few friends, after they begged and had somewhat of an intervention for me. I finally became unglued from the game for a few hours. I ended up having an awesome night, hung out with friends I considered brothers, met a pretty chick, and it was then I realized living in the real world wasn't so bad and that it was time to make it better for myself.

It's almost as if Morrowind played a part in my transition into full blown adulthood, something I didn't want to face yet, even though I was of age. It was time to let go of the carefree days of being a kid with little responsibility. Morrowind was the grand finale.

The rest is history. I got a new crappy job a few days later, moved soon after (minus the slob roommate), and began dating the girl I met that night. I revisited Morrowind about 4 years later (PC physical copy) and sunk another 80 hours into it, but it didn't hold me as it did before, so that was it, I was done, I walked away never beating the game. It felt like it already served it's purpose back in "04".

Although sometimes I deeply miss the characters (Fargoth), the world, the music, and 2004, I can say that I am, for the most part, done with the game, a closed chapter of my life, but I'll always have extremely fond memories of Morrowind. I enjoyed Oblivion and am currently playing Skyrim SE & ESO, but they can't compare. Nothing can compare to Morrowind.

I look forward to Skywind and I watch the Morrowind store trailer once every few years for that nostalgic trip, and just hearing the main theme song damn near brings a tear to my eye. Like most people who have experienced a most joyous event, my time with Morrowind in "04" evokes pure happiness.

Even if it meant that my character's end game was to be deleted from existence after being brutally fisted by a lowly scamp (of all things), I would still relive those 2 months in a heart beat.

After typing all of this, I feel the urge to play it, but I'm spolied now with Skyrim's improved engine, and I know the experience can never be the same...2004, unemployed, young with my whole life ahead of me...Those days are long gone...but I'm thankful to have had such an incredible experience.

Ah....Morrowind. I hope our ongoing relationship (over 20 years now!) never ends. I remember our first meeting. I went to GameStop in 2002 with a little extra Christmas money. I was holding you and another game, Shenmue 2, and having a hard time deciding which to take home to my Xbox. I ultimately decided on you and I'm a better person for it.

I still think about the first time I stepped off the boat onto Vvardenfell and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. No quest arrow pointers, no direction. I was just supposed to do whatever I felt like. The very idea was mind-boggling and so hardcore. My first trip down the road toward Pelagiad, then on to Balmora, Caldera, and Ald-Ruhn. It was days before I even started the main quest. I rolled a few characters and we had a lot of fun times, but then you changed. Yes you changed, for the better, when you decided to show me so much more with your Game of the Year release on Xbox.

The game I had already spent hundreds, possibly thousands, of hours in had nearly doubled in size. I still hadn't even done everything there was to do in the base game, but I knew I would come back evetually, so I moved on the expansions. We had so much fun together. I never imagined it could get any better.

But then, I got a PC. Oh, how I never even dreamed of the possibilities. Mods. Mods everywhere. The Unofficial Patch. Better Bodies. Morrowind Graphics Extender. I was never very shallow and didn't mind how you looked, but these and hundreds of other mods, no thousands, showed your true potential.

We've had our ups-and-downs. There's been times I have looked through old saves and realized I haven't spent time with you in over a year, but I know you'll always be there waiting. I'll admit I've cheated on you with your younger siblings. I know I'm a terrible person.

I fell victim to the sway and promises of Oblivion, but it was too easy. It showed where to go and what to do. It gave me less armor and weapon choices. It tried to limit my experience. It was cold-hearted. While it was fun, it was really just a fling.

I went back to you for awhile, but then Skyrim released. Sure it was new and flashy, it looked gorgeous, but that's not what it's about. It was even easier than Oblivion. So after another fling and another lesson learned, I went back to you yet again.

I've purchased you 4 times over now (Xbox vanilla, Xbox GOTY, PC GOTY, Steam GOTY) and I've still never experienced all you have to offer.

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Environment: 10 - From the shores of Dagon Fel to the sprawling city of Vivec. From the streets of Mournhold to the Clockwork City. Very few words can describe the magnitude of the environment - sprawling is the first that comes to mind. Go anywhere you want. The sky's the limit. No really, it's the only limit.

Controls: 7 - Look up, look down. Strafe left, strafe right. Pretty basic setup. Combat may be clunky, but mods exist to make it better if you want. It's an action RPG, but an RPG none the less. Stat based combat means not everything willl hit every time.

Gameplay: 10 - Essentially, Morrowind allows you to do what you want, when you want. Play the game however you feel like. Don't feel like ever completing the main quest line? No problem. You might even forget it's there like I did. Want to kill off an important NPC that's part of the main quest line? No worries there either. There's even a work-around quest line that will still allow you to finish the main quest line if you prefer.

Entertainment: 10 - Become a member of the Thieve's Guild and steal your way to the top. Rise through the ranks of the Fighter's Guild and earn your place. Join one of the three political houses for some intrigue. Go on a walk-about and see what there is to see. You might run into a naked Nord that has been bewitched or you could possibly encounter a group of bandits. There is so much going on in this game, you just have to explore to experience some of the random and crazy things out there.

Replayability: 10 - I've spent many, many hours in this game, and have only played a total of four characters. I still want to start a new character at some point. I hope that explains the score well enough.

Graphics: 7 - At release, it was gorgeous. Compared to modern games, it's not much to look at. If you're a shallow Hal, there's plenty of mods available to spruce things up a bit.

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If you've never played an Elder Scrolls game before, you have no idea what you're missing. If you started with either Oblivion or Skyrim, you have no idea what you're missing. A lot of gamers agree (no source) that Morrowind is the pinnacle of the Elder Scrolls series and I agree. Do yourself a favor and get the game.

Most important is give it some time. After the short intro scene, you're on your own. You decide where to go and what to do. You decide how to play the game. The learning curve can seem a bit steep, but believe when I say very simply, it's worth it.

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Disclaimers:

- If you're questioning my listed hours on record, I just purchased this on the Steam 2014 Holiday Sale (12/22/2014). However, as listed above, I have spent quite a bit of time with Morrowind outside of Steam.

- No, I'm not truly in love with this game nor do I have some sort of abnormal gamer fetish. It's just a game I love to play that is the top of my personal "best games" list. Surprisingly to some, I do actually have a wife and kids.

Everyone will hate you because you are foreign
Everyone is racist, you cant escape it
You will spend thousands of gold just trying to get someone to like you
Everyone is corrupt
Merchants have miniscule amounts of gold and will charge you ridiculous prices
You will spend hours trying to actually hit that mudcrab
The game will constantly make you feel like you are ♥♥♥♥
Everything will kill you
You may never complete the main quest
You will get annoyed and rage-quit
Be prepared to spend the next hour trying to get back to where you are because you forgot to save and got jumped by Nix Hounds

You will walk for many miles
You will get lost
You will learn to navigate blindfolded
You will still get lost
You will learn that your journal is your life source
You will have no idea what is going on
You will find Tarhiel, use his scrolls and die
You will go to Addamasartus and die
You will meet a drug addict
You will get orders from him
You will meet many gods
You will realise that they hate eachother
You will learn to hate and love the Tribunal
You will not be able to pronounce anything
You will jump a lot
You will die a lot
You will eventually go on a killing spree
You will learn that all guards are OP
You will get stuck on fences
You will mod
You will lose your life to this game

Ive played this game my whole life. You will love it and spend your life playing it as well. Buy it - I have 5 copies already