Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls III (Xbox)

The plot runs in such a way that you were a prisoner in the Imperial Dungeons and were suddenly taken by ship to a large imperial island and set free at the request of no lesser person than the Emperor himself.

You are then ushered through customs, where you are asked a series of largely moral questions that turn out to determine what type of character you are (sex, race, appearance and class) – then you are set free to do as you wish. It is at this point that you start to understand what Morrowind is really about – freedom! The freedom to do whatever you like and be whatever sort of character you want to be makes the game very appealing to seasoned Role Players – but can become daunting to those less accustomed to being pushed along a set path.

Having wandered around the port town in which you are released and spoken with the various residents within, you will quickly discover that each one will view you differently, depending on their specific backgrounds and tastes. Their reactions will be based on a number of things including your appearance (race, how well dressed you are, and how well armed you are. Most people for example will not take an instant liking to Someone waving a knife inn their face, dressed only in a pair of old pants! Assuming that you can obtain some clothing somewhere though, you will be sure to find someone who will take a liking to you eventually and after some words of flattery and / or some passing of coins may even give you some useful information. This information – will often lead to a quest of some sort, which could be anything from a Mercenary leader asking you to retrieve some overdue payments for him to someone standing, half-submerged in a lake asking you to retrieve his stolen trousers! Obviously some of these quests will reap better rewards than others, but you are completely free to choose who spend time with and what you do and don’t do. Unlike other games in the past, this one does not claim to give you freedom to do what you like then punish you for taking a certain path. You can murder and steal to your hearts content and as long as you are not seen doing it, you will not be punished for it. The game is clever enough however to recognise when you are trying to sell stolen goods back to their owner, or are spotted in several areas where people have later been found dead! People will suspect you even if they can’t prove it and will react to you accordingly, usually by calling the Imperial Guards as soon as you step out of line.

There are a good number of guilds and societies to get involved in too, ranging from The Imperial Legion to religious cults to noble houses to secret assassins guilds. Joining guilds and societies will give you access to new friends, who will give you a place to sleep in the cities they occupy, supplies to use and later quests to complete. Completing these quests will lead to you being more and more accepted within the specific guild, eventually leading to promotion and in turn granting you greater access to the inner workings of the organisation. As you increase in rank within a guild and complete errands for people, your reputation will likewise increase – making you more popular in most places but more unpopular with rival guilds. The scope for variety is huge and it may literally take you days, if not weeks of playing before you start to consider the ultimate question of why you were released from prison in the first place?

This question can be answered in what can be considered to be a ‘central’ quest running through the game, which you are quite free to follow or ignore. It is not as clear-cut as it sounds though, this ‘quest’ if often not at all tangible and must be discovered by accident in many cases. As you travel from place to place fulfilling quests and doing what ever you decide to do, you will often hear rumours and / or stumble across object or old texts that will start to ring bells in your head. You will often remember something that someone else told you a few days ago and it can get very confusing. Luckily there is a journal that tracks your journey day by day, quite accurately – proving to be a most useful tool after several weeks of playing.

Graphically the game is pretty enough, with the scenery outside slowly turning quite convincingly from morning to day to afternoon to evening to night as the day progresses. The weather is quite varied too, with everything from thunderstorms to snow to violent blight dust storms. The only let down if any is the draw-distance with distant buildings / structures suddenly emerging as white shadows then becoming coloured as you draw nearer.

The background depth is impressive with volumes of books and tomes to read through should you so desire As you progress through the game, learning about the history there is even recognisable architecture specific to certain races / periods of time.

In all Morrowind is an engrossing title that could conceivably eat away months of your life. If you want a game with as close to total freedom as you can get outside of an MMORPG then you should certainly give this a go. The game is huge and it is rumoured that the publishers are looking to expand it further in the future with add-ons. Really the first game of its type on the Xbox – an absolute must for role-playing fans but may be almost too free-form for others. In all 5/5.