The second official expansion for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is quite an enjoyable one. Unlike the previous one where you’d be teleported to a special place, a brand new location is added to the map of the main game this time around, northwest of Vvardenfell, for the player to explore at will. The island is called Solstheim, and offers a decent amount of fun for those who enjoyed the main game.
Upon setting foot in Solstheim you get wind of problems that the Imperial Legion is facing in running the fort set on the island, Fort Frostmoth. Small-time stuff so far, soldiers with low morale, shipments of booze lost in transit, some corruption problems here and there. Things escalate when the fort is attacked and partially destroyed. The legion suspects that the Nords in the northern area of the island are responsible for the attack and tasks you with uncovering more information.
When you reach the Skaal village in the north, you find out that you first need to prove your worth for the villagers before being accepted as a friend of the Skaal. You need to perform the ritual once performed by a Skaal hero, finding a few pillars scattered around the island and fulfilling the required tasks.
After proving his worth in several manners, the Nerevarine is then told about the Bloodmoon prophecy, where the Daedric Prince Hircine appears in a dream to take some of the island’s champions to a glacier in order to face a horde of werewolves to test their might. The sole survivor will have the “honor” of being hunted by the legendary hunter himself. Hircine is then the final boss of the expansion pack.
The story unfolds quite well, and Hircine is a great antagonist, even though you only find out about his involvement in all of this pretty late. There are quite a few side-quests ready as well, including one where you’ll lend a hand in building a new village from scratch, Raven Rock, getting to choose your own house at the end. The main quest by itself packs a few hours of fun. It will probably last around 20 hours for most players.
One of the reasons why the campaign is able to last that long is because the difficulty spike is quite apparent here. There are many kinds of tough enemies inhabiting the island, and they are incredibly abundant. So much so that I often thought they overdid a little. You can barely walk a few steps without getting the attention of at least half a dozen enemies, some of them quite strong. Some players who haven’t done enough grinding in the main game might face severe problems navigating the island.
Something worth noting is how different the island of Solstheim feels compared to Vvardenfell. Solstheim is more closely connected to Skyrim than Morrowind, so the general architecture and atmosphere is Nord-oriented rather than Dunmer (the natural race of Morrowind dwellers). This is not exactly a problem since it was meant to be a shift from the atmosphere of the main game, but those craving for an experience that furthers what Morrowind brought to the table will be in for a bit of a disappointment.
I’d say that one of the problems with the main game was how little variety there was when it came to enemies you faced. Sure, most instances you had an annoying Cliff Racer on your back, but even the moments where something else was the culprit, the variety wasn’t all that great. In Solstheim there is a decent variety of enemies, and they have a bigger range of difficulty to them. The only problem, as mentioned, is the sheer amount of them at any given time, not the variety itself.
There are wild animals like wolves (a few variations of them actually), bears, boars, and such. Some natural beasts like Spriggans, which are quite menacing when you first encounter them, since they resurrect twice, giving the player the impression that they’re actually invincible. There are ground minions (the Rieklings) both by themselves and mounted on boars. There’s also a new type of creature, the Draugr, which sends a chill down your spine when you first encounter them, portrayed as creatures dwelling in the depths of caves with red glowing eyes and a savage stance toward anyone who dares approach them.
Other creatures, strangely, have distinct humanoid features, like Berzerkers and Fryse Hags. It’s almost weird having to kill such human-like foes, at first it just seems like you poked them the wrong way and they attacked you, but they’re actual enemies here, no bounty will come your way.
There is new stuff, like new types of items, weapons, armors and all that. The new designs have mostly to do with the way that the nords live by — using animal pelts and such — , and the extreme winter climate found in Solstheim, but there will be an interesting variety of new stuff to be discovered. The way Morrowind is laid out marks how the island is laid out as well, with an insane amount of caves waiting to be explored. The problem we faced in Morrowind is back with a vengeance too, most of them are not particularly interesting to venture through unless done via some quest in order to accomplish something.
There’s a nice amount of quests to be completed, and they should keep the player busy for the entirety of the playthrough. As always, the main quest is nice and engaging, but there’s a whole world of side-quests out there, just waiting to be found and braved. Since the expansions added a neat little quest indexer, it will be more pleasurable tackling them. The actual demands are as bizarre as they have always been since the main game, stuff like a guy cursed by some other guy never to sleep again, or someone who must endure the dangers of a cave to prove his worth. Like always, many quests have more than one outcome or way of completing them, leaving to the player the decision on how to approach the situation.
There’s a whole lot of interesting characters and story tidbits to be unfolded. Once again, the Morrowind team managed to wrap up interesting stories in the pack. One of the longer, more complex quests, the one where you have to help build Raven Rock, is certainly one prime example, offering many instances of power play between two aspiring leaders, and it’s up to you to choose who you’ll be backing up, with a whole different quest-line depending on your choice.
The general atmosphere is pretty distinct from what is expected from Morrowind, traveling through the glacial nothingness of Solstheim’s natural landscape is certainly a sight to behold. It directly clashes with the extreme level of difficulty that the island presents, but that’s for the player to overcome. It’s a brute world for seasoned warriors, that’s for sure.
Sure, like it has come to be expected from games like this, the campaign is often exacerbated because of the constant traveling. Most of the play time will be spent traveling from one place to the other, and the island isn’t particularly small per say. But still, it’s nothing that we haven’t seen anywhere else, or even in the main game, to tell the truth.
Bloodmoon is a decent addition to Morrowind, it can easily lengthen the experience of players looking for more RPG fun that is based in the world of Elder Scrolls. Those looking for more of the same of what they were served in Morrowind may come out of this a bit frustrated, since it indeed is a drastic shift of perspective and general atmosphere; but at what it strives to provide, it does well. Solstheim ends up an island full of opportunities deserving to be explored and experienced.
Marco AGJ
Marco AGJ - Games 