Genre: RPG
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

For starters, the graphics are definately not Dead or Alive 3 quality. The textures are not all that great, everything looks smooth-- even rock. The backgrounds are very detailed, and actually look like something you'd see in the real world. In other words, when you look at something close up, it doesn't look that nice, but when you take in the picture a whole, it looks great.

The music fits the game, the genre, and I really like it. It wouldn't be something you could put onto a cd and listen to though. The sound effects are just weird; The jumping sound effect especially is dumb, since you're only jumping 6 inches off the game, with a delayed "thud" sound. You character doesn't talk at all, and most of the other characters sound the same. What's the point of them talking at all? There's not many sound effects, so the music is much more important, since it plays constantly.

You do not just level up your character in Morrowind, you level up inside of a level (your skills). In a guild, you go up ranks in that too, it's a very in-depth game, and really kicks butt. It's very complete, they looked at the game at every level and made it all deep. The complex levelling plays a huge role in the game, because your character is good at some things and bad at others, which is very realistic- getting good at blunt weapons does not mean you can pick up a sword and use that as well.

This is not a normal RPG where you follow a set path and do set things to get to a set ending. Morrowind is a game where there's nothing to follow- there is an ending, but you do not necessarily have to get to it, you have to find it yourself. The game encourages you to just screw around, and it's just... fun, to both play and watch. I've spent hours watching Sniper, and it's just as awesome as playing it yourself.

Genre: RPG
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Morrowind X-box looks like the DirectX 8.1 PC game that it is or, in other words, not quite up to X-box standards. The player models are nice, the textures are of high detail, and some of the environmental effects, such as the pixel-shaded water, are magnificent. The animation is slightly sub-par at times, and the framerates and draw-in distance also suffer in certain areas, but never enough to affect gameplay. Overall, the game is very, very pretty, but it is not quite Dead or Alive 3 either.

Jeremy Soule's soundtrack consists of soaring orchestral work, that also manages to stay in the background. The game's strong suit is in its incredible ambient effects-- one can practically feel the mud beneath the player character's boots during a thunderstorm-filled march to Balmora. The sound effects are very average, though, with generic sword slashes and door noises. The voice acting is good however, especially the comical "Now you die!" female NPC sample, which makes me laugh every time I hear it.

Despite all worries, the X-box port of Morrowind lost nothing in the controls category- everything is easily accessible, and the controls are not difficult to pick up on and memorize. The world is fantastically large, but not so large that you will never see the same place twice. The sheer number of things to do in Morrowind is mind-boggling, with most of them being almost a seperate game within the game. Morrowind is one of the deepest games I have ever played.

Morrowind is not without its faults; travelling is sometimes tedious due to the far-too-easily drained stamina bar, and some of the areas, like Vivec, still feel too large, which occasionally leads to boredom. Ultimately however, Bethesda has done what it set out to accomplish: bring Arena and Daggerfall to the 21st century, while keeping intact all of the gameplay rules, however unrealistic, that made the two original titles so endearing. Meanwhile, they have created one of the deepest and best RPG's of all time. Bravo!