Where do I even begin talking about Morrowind ?
How about with a shot from one of the very first scenes in the game ?
From the moment you step out of the prison ship that brought you, an outlander, to the Land of the Dunmers, one thing is clear : this is way more than a simple game.
The 3rd chapter of The Elder Scrolls series from Bethesda Softworks, is a serious attempt at creating a living, breathing world to play with.
In many respects, they have beautifully succeeded.
Morrowind is the first game where I felt actually intimidated by too many possibilities.
After going through the opening sequence and the character creation process (smartly fused with the flow of the game through a registration process with the local Customs), the game welcomed me by a merchand killing my character in a local shop as I tried to look at something on his shelves (much less trying to steal).
The second attempt at starting the game was more successful. I went through the first mini-quest without an itch and ended up leaving the little village of Seyda Neen only to stop at the first crossroad.
What to do next ? Take the path through the swamps ? the road up the hills ? or the local ‘bus’ service to go straight to the first city ?
For the first time, there was no clear path to the next quest. That much freedom can be intimidating.
So I did something I could never do before in a game. I found a rock by the water and stood there to watch the sun go down in the ocean and observe the stars as they were revealed by the night.
Morrowind has night and day cycles… and cloud patterns … and moon cycles… and weather patterns. It has fog in the morning and rain under cloudy skies. And this was only the beginning.