Breakdown: Morrowind

January 10th, 2009 by DanB | Posted in Feature, Games |

Before I begin a breakdown of this game, I would like to give a little background.  Morrowind was one of the first games I truly obsessed over.  I upgraded my computer solely to play Morrowind.  I played it so much when I was sick with the stomach flu that it gave me motion sickness.  To this day, it is likely one of my top ten games in terms of how much time I spent playing it.  What does that have to do with the breakdown of the game?  Let me tell you.

I. Scale

There was one thing above all else that attracted me (and I would suspect many others) to this game:  the scale of the world.  From the moment I heard about the sheer size of Vvardenfell, I knew this was something I had to experience.  From the moment a player sets foot on the island and begins looking around, true scope of what they are entering.  Miles and miles of the unknown, just begging to be explored.  But it’s not merely the fact that the island is huge; there are many games with just as much “space” to cover.  It is the fact that you are so small and insignificant in this huge world.  The world looms impossibly large around your character, something I had never experienced before in a game.

II. Presentation

Not only was the world of Vvardenfell simply large, it was real.  Towns were far apart, and filled largely with people who really didn’t give a damn that you existed.  Points of interest dotted the maps and were full of baddies, but usually full of average junk as well.  Rewards weren’t obligatory, some of the best items were the easiest to find, and some of the strangest locales held nothing of monetary value.  The entire world was presented in a way that made you feel there, but of correct proportion.  You will eventually gain strength, but in the beginning you will feel appropriately weak and insignificant.  The sheer scale combined with this idea of a tiny place in the world was a true innovation on the RPG genre.

The second aspect of the presentation that excelled was the artistic style.  It seems almost too easy for developers to fall into the traditional fantasy theme (I’m looking at you, Oblivion).  Morrowind had a much more dark, alien world to it.  Sure there were swords, magic, and castles, but there were also organic pod cities full of mages and bizarre domed cities.

The largest city in the game is not a castle community but a strange tiered city with flowing rivers and a floating prison built into a giant rock.  This departure from “traditional” fantasy made for one of the most unique game experiences out there; it made the player feel as though they were in a far away yet real land, and not in some pulp fantasy realm.

III. Storyline

The final piece that made the Morrowind experience was the treatment of the storyline.  The story itself is fairly standard but well played out; after getting into it you will probably want to see how it ends.  That said, the appeal of Morrowind is the ability to detach yourself from the storyline and explore on your own volition.  Multiple factions, sidequests, and hidden artifacts await the player who takes the time to find them.  The concept is simple, and possibly disasterous if executed poorly; a game with no direction can leave players without any idea of where the fun may be.  Bethesda did a good job of making the storyline compelling enough to follow when you needed a push while leaving the world accessible enough for people to find things to do by themselves.

III.5. Mods

Since player-created mods aren’t a core part of the game design, I’ll only give them half of heading.  That said, the inclusion of a strong construction kit designed for players was brilliant.  Allowing players to tweak the game as well as add things to suit their preferences has greatly increased the longevity of the game.  When Fallout 3 was released without a construction kit, many players were up in arms.  Designing a game engine that allows for this should be considered a core part of game design in the future.

IV. Summary

Morrowind had a lot of unique things going for it when it was released:  huge size, impressive presentation, and an inobtrusive storyline.  It increased our expectations for RPGs and showed that a game doesn’t have to have gimmicks to work.  Simply give a player a system, a world, and let them explore it.  Remarkably simple design, but incredible results.