Morrowind for the XBOX published by BETHESDA software
Morrowind is a first person real time RPG. Morrowind is not a "Zelda clone" or a "Final Fantasy" type turn based anime overly dramatic interactive story book.
I have a review of Morrowind up at both http://www.gamefaqs.com and http://www.gamerankings.com both are free multi genre text based sites.

Review
6/18/02 -First review, ~ 100 hours in
9.6

if you look at this year and last year's 9.5 and higher games (around the net) you will notice that none have the depth and length of Morrowind.

But being long and having depth isnt enough if the core game isnt engaging. Thankfully Morrowind engages like no RPG before it.

This isnt an RPG like FFX where you follow along a set path in a set story with characters that have absolutely all of their interactions pre scripted with only 1 possible outcome.

And this isnt a hack and slash action RPG like Baldurs Gate:DA where there is an endless stream of well animated baddies that you plow through like a super hero.

Well what is it then? Morrowind is a completely (well 95%) open ended RPG that simulates a fantasy world. Open ended doesnt mean you can do "anything". No game can allow that, the gameworld has to have rules, physics and laws.

But unlike most games where the rules are "character X proceeds to point A then either point B or C" the rules in Morrowind are more like what you would find in a MMORPG such as everquest.

There are skills, spells, leveling rules, and rules governing what it takes to barter and interact. But there is no point A to point B in such and such a manner.

There are goals to attain, but you choose when and where. Similar to a GTA3, you take on a mission, then accomplish it how you see fit. Unlike GTA3 these arent timed races or "survive the firefight" (as fun as those were)

The quests are about exploration, combat, thievery, stealth, magic, and creativity. You decide what skills to specialize in and how to use those skills to find what you need to advance.

You choose who to advance with and when, you decide how to improve your skills, weapons and armour.

The game is literally daunting at first it is such a large world. Combat and magic seem overly simplified at first. And if you simply hack and slash everywhere they will remain that way.

But a creative player can learn to use multiple spells/weapons and the environment to his/her advantage.

For instance opening and closing doors can give you a tactical advantage at times, levitating, using a bow, dodging magic spells, walking on water, paralyzing etc...

There is no right or wrong in combat, only what works.

The more you play the more you discover is possible, stealing houses, attaining rank, completing quests, finding dungeons and amazing weapons and armour.

This isnt to say Morrowind is a flawless game. There are some low res textures, the framerate can stutter, and some of the sounds are lackluster.

The magic system has a nice amount of variety, unfortunately you must delete spells after a while since the interface for spell casting is sub optimal. Cycling through 20 spells and magic items just to get to that one spell you need to win the battle often results in "save from previous location" message.

In addition in the over world there are few beasts to slay and they dont seem to respawn. Once you kill the 5-6 rats in between 2 towns there will never be anything else to kill on that road again. Makes for some boring walks at times. One would think that rats are a dime a dozen and that killing 5-6 wouldnt wipe out an area :D

Rats are boring anyway and there are plenty of dungeons with beasts, ghosts, skeletons etc and of course you can kill towns people if you like.

In fact you can attempt to kill anyone you wish, just make sure you are high enough lvl and have enough gear/dont go to jail.

Morrowind is not for everyone, it is a big confusing game with lots of subtleties, but that is what makes it so great.

Those looking for a sappy love story or flashy FMV will be disappointed. Those looking for a deep combat engine will be left wanting.

For gamers willing to learn a lot about a fantasy world and collect armour, develop skills and do a lot of open ended exploration, this is an RPG for you.

Graphics 8.5 so how does it really look?

framerate issues , pop up, stiff animations and blurry textures are negatives.

Positives are HUGE SPRAWLING worlds with very little loading, highly detailed interiours and exteriours and lots of variety in weapons/armour/monsters

Gameplay 9.0 how does it play?

basic combat and magic can be frustrating, but there is so much more to this game than hack and heal. You just have to figure it out

Unfortunately one can not ignore the shortcomings of the interface and simplified combat which keep this one from being a 10

Sound 8.5 what does it sound like?

fantastic music and nice ambient effects, just not enough of either

Replay Value 10 will I come back?

this game has more replay value than I have ever witnessed in a single player game. It is rivaling a MMORPG at this point, I can see myself playing multiple classes in this game to see how it works out

Intangibles 10 what about the "fun factor"

many games are greater than the sum of their parts, for instance ICO, on the surface it seems like an ok game, but once you experience it, you know it is something special. ICO has what you call intangibles, things that make it great you can only get from actually playing it. Things that arent really in graphics or gameplay distinctly, but cool aspects of graphics and gameplay working well together with sound and story etc...

For instance what makes playing MGS1 cool? Shooting, stealth, story? been there done that, but combined with Snake and the cool boss battles, you have intangibles that make MGS1 on the PSX a stand out game, better than its brother on the PS2 which lacks these intangibles of "whoa this is cool"

Morrowind has these intangibles in spades. When you figure out a quest, or defeat an enemy using your brain who was giving you problems earlier it just has this wow factor.

Looting a very nice weapon, you just cant help looking at your character in the 3rd person, getting skills to increase, exploring and finding cool looking areas, it all adds up over time. As you build your power more of the huge game world seems to call out to you begging you to explore it.

There have been many big long RPGs before, but this is the first to really get it right and to leave the gameworld open, not just guide you along a narrow tale with a few subplots, or bog you down with fetch quests.

This truly is a must buy for RPG fans who are looking for the MMORPG awe/scope in a single player game or who are tired of FFX style linearity or Diablo style button mashers.