MadCap's Game Reviews - "The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Tribunal"

Y'know how messing with the established social order isn't a good thing? Yeah, it's not a good thing. I mean, most works of fiction don't often show that.  You get a D&D campaign where you save the land from the evil wizard, you're not going to often see a campaign dealing with the consequences of taking down his tyrannical regime that nonetheless brought stability afterwards. Tribunal is an expansion pack for Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind that ends up dealing with the consequences of killing of the Devil of a False Religion and destroying the ultimate power source for a trio of deities that were considered the personifications of good in said religion.

...yeah, some people are going to be pissed about you mucking around with their beliefs, Hero!

The plot picks up as soon as you install it...or rather, as soon as you sleep.  More often than not, your player will be attacked by a Dark Brotherhood assassin! But because you're the goddamn Batma-err, Nereverarine (if you've completed the Main Quest, as you should have by this point), you kick his ass and get a journal entry saying that you should probably tell a guard about the attack.  Not that it tells you which guard and it can be anyone from an Imperial soldier in Seyda Neen to a Telvanni guard and they will - because plot convenience - all point you to the same guy in Ebonheart.

Like in Oblivion, all the guards on Vvardenfell are somehow psychic.

But afterwards, you are transported to Mournhold, the capital of the Morrowind province to investigate further, leading into an interesting story with political intrigue, with more of the vanilla game's themes of how much holding fate and destiny have upon the course of one's life.

Y'know besides being the way they marked essential NPCs before just making them unkillable.

 While you don't have to have played Morrowind's Main Quest, it actually makes far, far more sense if you do given that you're adding more to the legend of the Nerevarine, such as working for his former wife and reforging his sword.

Oh, yes, for completing the Main Quest, you get a flaming sword.

A sword that is on fire.

That. Is. AWESOME!

But beyond that, it's actually a good story, even if the final citadel is a bit of a slog to get through. Don't be ashamed of having to use the Console to get through some rooms (one of the rooms in Sotha Sil's Clockwork City seems specially made for you to use it, because I've never been able to figure out how otherwise without severe magic use). And eventually, you will face the hardest fight that Morrowind and its expansion have to offer.  I'm not exaggerating. Even with plenty of potions and other buffs, I've never managed to get through it on just one shot. And even the almighty EpicApathy was brought down to a single hit point by the end of the fight.

But yes. Tribunal builds on pretty much everything Morrowind did, once more bringing the player into an alien environment and telling an interesting and engaging story. It's not overly long, but it doesn't need to be.

Also, with that final fight, we get an answer to the question "What's more awesome than one flaming sword?"

The answer is two.

Two. Flaming. Swords.

Awesome.

Tribunal is now available from Bethesda Softworks for PC and Xbox.

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