The game begins with your character waking up aboard a prison ship on its way to the small port town of Seyda Neen. A small tutorial lets you know what you should do and will get you through the character creation process and out into the world. Don’t get too comfortable with being led by the hand, because it won’t go on for very long!
Character creation begins when you are asked what your name is by a fellow prisoner. It continues once you land at Seyda Neen when you are asked for some information by a member of the Census office. Here you can choose your gender, race, class, and birth sign.
There are 10 races, 21 classes, 13 birth signs, and 2 genders to choose from. Each race has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, and there are differences between the males and females of each race. You have three options for choosing the class of your character: answer 10 questions for a suggested class, pick your class from a list of pre-built classes, or, if you aren’t happy with the pre-built classes, you also have the option of creating your own class. This gives you the ability to play EXACTLY the character you want to play! The birth signs all have different powers associated with them. These powers may be used once per day.
Freedom
Once you’ve created your character, the tutorial continues just long enough to get you out into the town of Seyda Neen. You’ll have the name of a person to contact, the name of the town that person is in, and a package to deliver to that person. However, there is nothing that says you have to ever see this person if you don’t want to! You can just start walking, you can start talking to everyone you meet, or you can deliver the package. All of the choices are yours in Morrowind.
Gameplay is so non-linear that you could spend weeks just exploring, without being penalized by the game in any way. It is also possible to solve the main quest without ever going on the main quest! Yes, it is a much more difficult prospect, but it can be done.
Customize away!
The Elder Scrolls Construction Set will allow an almost infinite customization of the original game, as well as allow you to create brand new content. Unlike another recently-released game, the Elder Scrolls Construction Set ships with Morrowind, so you can start creating your own content the instant you get the Construction Set loaded. There are plugins available from the Morrowind site and from several fan sites, as well. The number of plug-ins will only get larger as time goes on.
Combat
One thing you will do a lot of in Morrowind is fight, be it with spells, bows, swords, or objects of a magical nature. Hand-to-hand combat is slightly tricky in Morrowind. There are three types of attacks for each weapon and one of those is better than the other two. After struggling with trying to master the three different attacks, I went into the game configuration screen and chose the option to always use the best attack.
Weapons fall under different skill categories in Morrowind:
Using any weapon in a skill will raise your ability with all of the weapons in that skill.
Once you’re done with your opponent, it’s time to gather the loot! One of the best ways to find new items is to take them from the people you defeat in combat. You can literally take the shirt from a fallen foe’s back!
