Gameplay of The Elder Scrolls Series - The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Combat

Combat

In Morrowind, the simplest attack, a chop, is performed with a left click. The somewhat more complex slash and thrust attacks are performed by a combination of that same generic click with different tappings of the keyboard's directional keys. Reviewers found little value in choosing amongst the three melee attacks, since each attack variant always gives the same damage value, and an option is available to always use the best attack, an option reviews and strategy guides tended to recommend.

Each weapon possesses a rating determining its strength in each of these areas. A combination of hidden arithmetic modifiers upon each combatant's skills determines whether or not the attack hits. In the original, the player was given no indication of the amount of health left in their enemies, and no indication of the strength of their attacks. Reviewers took the absence badly, wishing for a more developed visible response system. Bethesda eventually added enemy health bars in patch 1.1.0605, released one month after Morrowind's initial publication, and the patch came packaged with Morrowind's expansions and Game of the Year editions.

Combat in Morrowind was generally found to be simple, one reviewer describing it as a "purely hack-and-slash affair", with others expressing similar feelings. Questioned for a comparison combat system during the game's development, developer Pete Hines likened Morrowind's system to that of Jedi Knight. The combat system was poorly received in most quarters, with GameSpot characterizing it as one of the game's major weak points, and GameSpy devoting the majority of its minor complaints to it. Electronic Gaming Monthly's Kathleen Sanders saw Morrowind's combat system as one "universally regarded as boring". On a more favourable note, IGN found tactical tricks emerging from within the game's workings, as particular skills, spells and abilities lent themselves to certain strategies. As an example, IGN noted that a levitating character was well suited to kill melee-capable beasties upon the ground from afar, their numbers being too stupid and enraged to flee from the onslaught.