Zaphod on 11/11/2002 at 06:49
This is pretty much reposted from a (http://www.elderscrolls.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=tribunalhints&Number=881025&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=all&vc=1) similar thread on the official Morrowind boards, where I'm "Rockford."The linear plot bugged me a little... but I got over it. The tension between the King plot and the Temple plot was interesting, although (like most games) you are allowed to choose the Fallacy of the Golden Mean in almost every case in an attempt to satisfy both groups without angering either one.
Amalexia was
awfully easy to kill with the Amulet of Shadows and the Trueflame. Too easy, really. As a God, I would have expected her to be able to see through my Chameleon, but... she just kinda stood there and grunted while I filleted her.
And, I was
very disappointed (either that, or I'm missing something big, and I'd appreciate being told if that's true) with the utter lack of resolution with the King plot. It's clear that he's evil, he's poisoned at least 2, and probably more, people in his way of ascension to the throne. But, I never had an opportunity to find the body of Vadras, never got to speak to anyone important (Amalexia, the Queen, etc) about deposing/executing the King, etc. Amalexia's dead, I go and speak to the King, and I get a royal guard uniform? Wow... thanks. Thanks for that. I didn't have enough crap cluttering up my inventory. Am I missing some resolution action I can take against the king? Does the writer in the Royal Courtyard have more to do with things than I think? Why can't I ***SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE MAIN MORROWIND QUEST YET***
shake the idea that the writer is another reincarnation of the original Emporer, like Wolf was in the Ghostgate Temple of Dusk at the end of the main quest? I thought the Theatre quest was fantastic... but I felt kinda stupid after I spent 15 minutes transposing the entire text of the play onto a piece of paper so I wouldn't make mistakes... only to be attacked after only 5 lines or so
The dungeons were... tiresome. (But, full disclosure, I always find dungeons tiresome. I'm always in it for the plot, the alliegences, the above-ground double-crosses, not the combat. That's just me.) Thankfully, I was able to avoid 90% of the combat with the Amulet of Shadows (I just can't get enough of that thing).
This felt more like a first-person adventure game than Morrowind did. Very linear, and pretty straightforward. It was clear that there was 1 right way to do almost everything, with very little deviation. But... that's ok, I suppose. It
was just an add-on.
In terms of the "twist" ending, I was really thinking that the King was gonna come into play somehow, that he's... I dunno... rip off his King mask and it'd be Sotha Sil and he'd be all "Ah HAH! You meddling kids!"
And the Clockwork City? Feh! Felt like a fan-made mod that someone threw together over a long weekend. Room after room of the same exact thing, with nothing to investigate, nothing to loot, just rooms upon rooms of gears and metal kimono lizards. It was a lot less of a "city" than I was expecting. I think, though, that this was a failure of Marketing, rather than Development. If they hadn't trumpted "OMG U GET TO PLAY TEH CLOWROK CITY!!1!" in every single preview/release/article about this game, I wouldn't feel nearly so let down by that 10-room mini-dungeon crawl.
So, that's my $0.02. Fairly interesting plot, some diverting side quests (although I can't figure out why the owner of the Winged Guar would Never Trust Me that I did my job, even after I once got cranky and killed everyone in the bar to see if that satisfied her), the new characters were a mixed bag (assassins good, Goblins silly). I personally LIKED the new "apologetic" dialogue.
{NOTE, TTLGers - many people in the Morrowind Forums thread mentioned the new, more "realistic" or "apologetic" dialogue that a lot of the NPCs had in Tribunal} The dialogue of most of the Average Working Stiffs in the game was much more Groundling and much less Stilted than the Average Working Stiffs in the main quest... and I found that refreshing. Memorable people include the love-lorn people, the Clutter King, and
Here are my final questions:
1. Is there a resolution to the King plot thread after Amalexia is killed?
1a. Can you find poisoned bodies, evidence, etc. and get the King thrown out?
1b. Can you join/assist/help the Common Tongue guys after you pay them off?
1c. The grieving widow... does she come back into play?
2. Is the mostly-naked Nord in the Plaza useful in any way? Or is he just a self-parody reference to the naked helpless Nords in the main quest?
3. Does the greedy little Bosmer in front of the temple do anything at all?
4. Is the Writer in the Royal Courtyard useful for anything other than some Trueflame help?
I'd rate the game a solid B. Nothing that I'll tell the grandkids about when I'm bouncing them on my knee, but I've spent $30 on worse games.
