Morrowind, part 1: The Barriers to Entry

I suppose a good way to start this blog is to talk about one of my favorite game series, Bethesda Game Studio's The Elder Scrolls. More specifically, I’ll talk about the third game in the series, Morrowind. Morrowind was the first Elder Scrolls game I played, but it wasn’t the one that really got me into the series – that one would be the following title, TES IV: Oblivion. In this post, I'll discuss Morrowind from the point of view of a new player, who has no prior experience with any other TES titles.

The Lighthouse in Seyda Neen

Early Experiences

I tried to get into Morrowind a couple of times; I would create a new character, go through the few introductory quests in Seyda Neen, and take the silt strider to Balmora to go and talk to Caius Cosades, as I was instructed. Once I reach grandpa Caius, however, he decides to throw me a curveball by telling me to just go and explore the world for a little while, and return to him later to continue the main quest. I found this sudden freedom to be quite daunting; I had barely figured out the basics of the game, when I was dropped straight into the deep end and left to fend off for myself. I was alone and lost in a strange world, inhibited by strange people, who mostly did not seem to like me very much. I didn't know what to do, or where to begin my adventure. This is where my first crack at the game ended. On my second attempt, I wasn't able to get much further.

That's one buff middle-aged motherfucker right there.

Technical Limitations

By modern standards, Morrowind offers a remarkably inhospitable experience for new players. Part of what makes Morrowind difficult to appreciate certainly stems from the technical limitations of the game: its an old game, and, quite frankly, tends to look like ass. Fortunately, the excellent art design and the intriguing setting help to alleviate this problem quite a bit, as do myriads of mods aimed to improve the game’s visuals.

Suran, one of the comfiest town in Vvardenfell

The dated visuals are not, however, the biggest hurdle an aspiring adventurer has to overcome to get immersed in the fascinating world of Morrowind. The game was developed at a time when spoken dialogue in games was still not very common. Couple this with the fact that one of the main activities in the game is talking to people, and you will quickly find out that a significant portion of your time with the game is spend simply reading lines after lines after lines of dialogue. In order to enjoy the game – hell, in order to even play it at all – the player has to be willing to put in the effort to read a lot of text. Now, I ain't gonna lie – after being spoiled with fully spoken dialogue in modern games, going back to reading walls of tiny text on screen can feel like a chore.

Prepare to do A LOT of reading in this game

Gameplay Features

In addition to the technical limitations of the game, its gameplay is also rather... old-school in many regards. Some challenges that a new player must learn to overcome include excruciatingly slow movement speed; non-regening magicka (i.e. mana); a somewhat confusing leveling system; a fairly involved, web-like fast travel system (there are multiple modes of transportation, all of which connect to different locations); and, infamously, the melee combat, with its inherent missmissmiss nature. Admittedly, all of the above issues can be modded to be more accessible, but I think it's unreasonable to expect a new player to bother with modding the game merely to make it “enjoyable”. In addition, I don't think that the slightly complicated nature of the fast travel system is an actual problem, but rather an interesting design choice. That, however, is the topic for my next post, and will thus not be discussed further here.

A Short Guide to Morrowind's Combat: M1M1M1M1M1M1M1M1

The gameplay experience of Morrowind consists largely of three main components: talking to people, exploring the world, and fighting. Melee combat in Morrowind is a very simple affair: you have one button for swinging your weapon, and that's it. In theory, there are three different types of attacks: a horizontal swing, a vertical swing and a thrust. Each weapon deals different amounts of damage with these attacks (for example, spears are meant for thrusting, while swords are meant for swinging). In practice, however, there is an option which can be enabled in the game's settings that makes the player always use the best type of an attack for each weapon, hence making the different ways of attacking pointless. You can also equip a shield, but your character uses it automatically, provided that your blocking stat is high enough. In other words, shields add no gameplay whatsoever.

You will grow intimately familiar with you Mouse 1 button

The melee combat system in Morrowind has roots in tabletop RPGs, which is clearly demonstrated in the way the game determines whether or not attacks hit their targets. Instead of determining hits spatially (i.e. by looking at whether the model of the weapon connects with the model of the target), à la basically every action video game ever, Morrowind determines hits by looking at the attacker's and defender's stats and rolling a virtual die to see what happens. In effect, the player can repeatedly swing his or her sword straight through the enemy's character model, and the game will tell the player with a straight face that the attacks missed. Hence, Morrowind's combat boils down to standing in front of your enemy and spamming the attack button until either you or your enemy dies. It is, admittedly, very much an RPG flavored combat system, but it is simply not very satisfying for the player.

Memorable Enemy Encounters

Morrowind pits you against a multitude of different enemies, ranging from local wildlife to mad cultists and undead abominations. Some of the foes you face end up being more memorable than others, for varying reasons. I would venture a guess that the most well-known enemy in Morrowind is the Cliff Racer. Cliff Racers basically look like flying lizards, and they are one of many Vvardenfell's indigenous wildlife species. They are also an outright meme among the fan base. Although Cliff Racers aren't particularly dangerous, they are, quite simply, obnoxious as fuck. They are everywhere, they attack in packs, they can come from any direction, they have a tendency to sneak up on you if you are not paying attention, it’s generally impossible to outrun them, and their “SKREEEEEEEE” cry is undoubtedly one of the most annoying sounds in the game.

Excuse me, good sir, but do you have a moment to hear
the gospel of our Lord and Savior SKREE SKREE SKREE

Another particularly treacherous foe you are bound to encounter is the Bonewalker, or worse yet, the Greater Bonewalker. I vividly remember entering a random ancestral tomb (one of the most common types of dungeons in Morrowind), only to find myself facing a Greater Bonewalker. Naturally, I attacked the monstrosity with righteous fury. It was a rough battle, but eventually I came out on top, and the fiend was slayed. The victory proved to be short-lived, however, as I found out that I was now unable to move. A message displayed on the top-left corner of the screen: “You are over-encumbered”. “What the hell”, I wondered and opened up the stats screen, only to find out that all of my character's strength had strangely disappeared. As it turned out, Greater Bonewalkers cast a spell that drains their opponent's strength, consequently reducing the amount of weight they are able to carry. After the Bonewalker encounter, my character had all the strength of a newborn kitten. Hence, I was stuck in a cave, unable to move under the burden of my gear and other random loot I had picked up along the way. Seeing how I was still new to the game, I had no idea how to restore my strength back to normal. I had choice but to drop everything I carried right there, on the floor of a random tomb, go back to the nearest town to look for a cure, and then come back to pick up all the gear and loot I left behind. Instead of doing this, however, I opted for solution number two: I abandoned the game. Again.

These guys have a nasty surprise in store for anyone
foolish enough to fight them. Picture taken from
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1879525/42743.jpg>

There Is Light at the End of the Tunnel

As you may have figured out by now, Morrowind can initially be a tough nut to crack. In fact, I was only able to overcome Morrowind's initial barrier of entry years after my first go at it. It would take me even longer to truly get comfortable with the game. I would say that I only really got into Morrowind after more or less completing Skyrim. In the end, though, I finally started to understand why the game still had an active modding community and a die-hard fan base. In this post, I’ve mainly established that Morrowind can be a difficult game to get into. In my next posts, however, I’ll go ahead and shift my focus to some of the more positive aspects of the game, which I think make Morrowind a remarkable game even today.