So, sort of an odd first dual review here, but it sort of makes sense... The Elder Scrolls series has been quite popular for some time, but it was Morrowind that seems to have really vaulted it into the spotlight. Even with Skyrim looming on the horizon, Morrowind is still the RPG of choice for many avid PC gamers. This is probably because it has the perfect balance of fun in gameplay, and ease of modding. more people can handle the production of a large mod for little 'ol Morrowind than for the current gen Oblivion. This of course neatly segues me to The Underground II, a mod for Morrowind. While far more mature than one would probably expect from Morrowind, it demonstrated this unusual and shocking quality: It was really freakin' good! But we'll get to that...
Also, this MAY contain spoilers, so if you see a big blank space, highlight it for spoilers.
First up, Morrowind. So, as with any Elder Scrolls game it seems, you start out as a convict who is released for some arbitrary reason and is hurled into a massive disaster, typically involving demon-things and usually ending in someplace on fire. This time around, your on a prison ship, transported to Morrowind to fulfill a prophecy foretelling the return of a god, so basically your the Morrowind equivalent of Jesus or something. All that matters is that they dump you in a s**t hole tone with a bit of pocket change and some paper with a name and a city on it. Then, if your random adventures should find you in that city, near that man, then maybe you can consider doing the main quest, but the first "mission" you're given is literally to go do some side quests. After piddling about a bit, you can get to the story, being interrupted occasionally by your boss telling you your getting a bit pudgy and maybe you should go do more side-quests. While the story was pretty weird, it was still somehow better than most game stories now-a-days, which is pretty ******** sad since this game seemed to be trying to make you forget about its story. The story was the least interesting part, with the side-quests being far more entertaining and immersive. This is pretty much the opposite of The Underground mod.
The Underground mod starts out simply enough. In the same town as you start the story mentioned above, you can now gain access to the sewers, where you meet a pants-less Orc, a pathetic excuse for a female vampire, and either a man in a trench coat or a woman in short-shorts and a bra, depending on your character's gender. Mine was a male, so we'll continue assuming my character (Vincent) is interacting with the female plot character (Synda).
Synda asks you to grab a Lord of the Rings prop from the puddle behind her, then makes up some bullshit about it all being a test. Then she tells you about a lengthy fetch quest she's on and invites you to join her party... that's right, she's the main character here! But rather than actually go fetch the item, she invites you to a vampire night-club full of odd dancers and naked lesbians and tells you to buy her a drink. Once you wrap you head around what's around you, the actual story begins to unfold, and you end up on an epic adventure to save the world, an adventure full of danger, excitement, and (assuming you have the recommended mods) vast amounts of full frontal nudity.
One flaw with the Underground from a non-technical standpoint is that as you play you get this eerie feeling that you're playing the sick, fetishistic fantasy of a sex-deprived live action role-player. There is one scene where the main characters fight in a little shack, and as they do, all of their clothes get torn until every bit of sexually related skin is revealed. The entire fight was unnecessary really. And there is one bit later on where Synda (or the male counterpart Johnny) has a long talk with the character about her troubled past while sitting on the side of a bed, which seems all fine and dandy until she starts taking off clothes and invites you to do the same. Then the game does it's best to show a kiss in first person with it's limited graphical capabilites, and you are treated to a text screen informing you that you had "a night of crazy sex." It was just so juvenile that it sort of ruined the moment. But all that aside, the creator of the mod does a pretty good job of making you care about Synda, which comes into play later in the story. It was a fantastic story, bugged by the juvenile reason for writing it. And speaking of bugged, if crashing to desktop was an STD, then The Underground II is the dirtiest whore to ever grace the internet.
When running the Underground II, Morrowind crashed so often and so consistently, that it was almost unplayable. Granted there was a project going to try and fix it, but it isn't moving anywhere anytime soon. If it were less buggy and more mature, I would have never even bothered playing vanilla Morrowind.
{{To Be Continued Later}}
Roger Price Community Member 
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