As far as the player’s lofty quests are concerned, all those administrative details behind Vivec City’s economy aren’t relevant. Vvardenfell, the massive island you explore in Morrowind, is one of the few sandbox maps that feels like it was built without any intention to turn it into game, as if it was designed and mapped to serve the lore more than playability. Administrative businesses, libraries, treasuries and offices take up space next to the rowdy taverns and ghastly magic shops. The fictional economy that supports these fictional lives is on full display–their houses, their businesses, the farms that grow their food and the sewers that funnel away their waste are not spared for detail. They all have their own inventories, their own dispositions, jobs, haunts and hangs that combine to give each NPC their own personal little story. Each district has four explorable interior levels each, containing innumerable businesses and residences that house hundreds of named NPCs. Eight floating stone pyramids comprise the city’s eight districts, with a network of gondolas and bridges connecting them to each other and the mainland. Vivec is like a cramped cyberpunk cityscape, but it’s presented inside the brown sandstone of medieval fantasy. The Elder Scrolls’ cavalier attention to detail, both large and small, reached an apex there. My first trip to Vivec City was an unforgettable hour of confusion and awe.
0 kommentar(er)
