The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Reception

Reception

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was well received by critics. It was congratulated most frequently for its breadth of scope, the richness of its visuals, and the freedom it worked into its design. Alongside the compliments, however, came criticism that the game designers had overstretched themselves, leaving glitches in various spots, and made a game too taxing to be run on an average machine, with one reviewer calling it "a resource pig". In a retrospective by 1UP.com, the breadth and open-endedness of Morrowind is suggested to have contributed to the decline of single-player RPGs on home computers by leading customers to MMORPGs, where they could have a similar experience.

In spite of this, reviewers generally felt that the drawbacks of the game were minor in comparison to its strengths. IGN concluded that "Morrowind isn't perfect and its system requirements are huge; but its accomplishments outweigh any reservations." GameSpot's review concluded with a similar summation. "Morrowind does have numerous drawbacks...But they're all generally minor enough that most anyone should be able to look past them...They'll otherwise find that Morrowind fulfills its many ambitious intentions. It's a beautiful-looking, sprawling, and completely open-ended game that allows you to play pretty much however you like".

The game environment of Morrowind was applauded as large and richly detailed, particularly for its real-time weather effects, day/night cycle, and its great variety of plant and animal life. Xbox Nation commended the game for its "sheer scope", and credited that aspect as the game's "biggest selling point", though it criticized the slowdowns, travel times and questing complexities that resulted from it. In contrast to the "generic" nature of Daggerfall's design, reviewers found Morrowind's design spectacular, varied, and stunning. GameSpot stated that "Simply exploring Morrowind is possibly the best thing about it."

The mildly complex reciprocal skill system was generally praised, with some few exceptions. IGN, though finding the manual's description of the system unclear, found the classes well balanced and well designed for all play styles. GameSpot found the system clear and sensible. PC Gamer, by contrast, found the system unbalanced, with combat privileged over other features. Computer Gaming World felt the system's privileging of combinations of single-handed combat weapons and shields over double-handed weapons unnecessarily exploitable, but appreciated the freedom offered by the broad skillset and action-dependent leveling. GameSpy gave strong commendation to the system, stating that "The advancement system makes so much sense that it makes other games, even games set in the D&D world such as Baldur's Gate, look silly by comparison". Morrowind's combat system was poorly received by the gaming press. GameSpot characterized it as one of the game's major weak points and GameSpy devoted the majority of their review's minor complaints to it. The system was disparaged for its simplicity and for its tendency to bore.

One element about Morrowind that received particular, and near-universal, criticism, was the game's journal system. In Morrowind, the player has a journal which is automatically updated with information from time to time following conversations with NPCs and important developments in the plot, each new entry following all those previous. Though IGN and GamePro commended the general interface for its relative ease of use, the journal was almost universally reviled. The journal was found to quickly become a "muddled mess", "hundreds of pages long", without any useful method of organization by quest title or completion level. Computer Gaming World simply called the feature an "anal-retentive nightmare of confusion", and called it one of the game's two greatest shortcomings. However, Bethesda remedied the complaints to some extent in the subsequent expansion Tribunal. There, the journal was organized by quests and could be more easily navigated.

Despite being Bethesda's first major title to be produced for a console, Morrowind's Xbox release was well received in the gaming press. The inability to use modifications on the Xbox was unhappily felt, as was non-native resolution, but the qualities of detail and open-endedness which had similarly graced the PC release made good the Xbox release's faults. Morrowind's Xbox release sold very well; it continued to rank among the top 10 sellers on the console one year after its initial release—a feat matched only by Halo: Combat Evolved. In spite of its critical and commercial success, Morrowind did not win any end-of-year press awards for its Xbox release.

In 2010 IGN ranked Dagoth Ur 90th in "Top 100 Videogames Villains".