Summary
The Elder Scrolls Online’s upcoming Gold Road chapter is shaping up to be a standout moment in the MMO’s 10-year run, introducing a transformative new scribing system with the potential to reshape the character build landscape and massive new lore developments that may influence the franchise’s story from this point forward. With roughly 30 hours of solid story content alongside numerous memorable dungeons, delves, world bosses, and a new 12-person Trial, Gold Road looks like Zenimax at the top of its game.
Game Rant recently had the opportunity to spend some time questing throughout Gold Road’s West Weald where we got a taste of the new scribing system and its associated questline, and we also worked our way through some of the Chapter’s main story involving the new Daedric prince. Naturally, with a limited pool of players in the preview build, we weren’t able to tackle the 12-person Trial, so we mostly stuck to solo content, of which there is always plenty inThe Elder Scrolls Online.
AsThe Elder Scrolls Onlinecontinues fleshing out its map of all Tamriel, it has once again found itself depicting another location fromOblivionthat series fans recall fondly: the West Weald, home of Skingrad and its famous vineyards. TheElder Scrolls Online’sdepiction of Skingradis certainly one of the more visually distinct human cities in the game thus far, with darker all-brick architecture and an almost Gothic visual style with pointed rooftops and stained-glass windows. There’s a surprising amount of detail tucked away throughout Skingrad and the activities of its ambient NPCs, making it feel more lively than a typical MMO hub city.
Venturing outside Skingrad, the “gold” in Gold Road shows itself immediately. The surrounding region is filled with vibrant fall colors amongst the grass and trees broken up by Ayleid ruins, though venturing further into the West Weald shows some surprising biome diversity to break up the zone’s primary theme. Past Skingrad’s vineyards lie the Blighted Land, a gray, dreary, dead place that contrasts strongly with the bright and idyllic golden landscape surrounding it. Meanwhile, Ostumir is a dense and dark green jungle that has sprung up nearly overnight, populated with predatory plants that deal a little damage to passers-by. Overall, Gold Road offers an above-average amount of geographic variety, making that signature aimlessElder Scrolls-style explorationas interesting as we hoped.
As expected of an ESO zone, the region is suitably dotted with delves, public dungeons, treasure chests, and unique points of interest. At the same time, it also comes with an event system reminiscent of Dark Anchors known as Mirrormoor Incursions. Like Dark Anchors, these Incursions are marked on the map and feature some new mechanics, and we imagine that rotating between Incursion points will be a popular farming activity for Gold Road players.
Of course, one of TheElder Scrolls Online’s strengths, as with the rest of the series, has been its storytelling and questing, and Gold Road’s narrative had us hooked from the beginning thanks to its unique premise. In the previous chapter, Necrom did something unexpected in an Elder Scrolls OnlineChapter by ending on a cliffhanger, and although Gold Road doesn’t necessarily require having played Necrom, it is the second of a one-two narrative punch that follows the big reveal of an all-new Daedric Prince, Ithelia.
We won’t go too far into spoiler territory, but suffice it to say that Gold Road’s main quest involves uncovering the mystery of Ithelia, who has lost her memories and wanders around Tamriel while mayhem follows in her wake. The main antagonist faction players will be dealing with is the Recollection, a group of rogue Elves who seek to restore Ithelia at all costs. It’s one of the more interesting Chapter storylines we’ve experienced in ESO, particularly because of its lore implications. Now that Ithelia is known, we can’t help but wonder if she might have some sort of presenceinThe Elder Scrolls 6.
The quest that unlocks and progresses the scribing system is a roughly 6-hour affair, though scribing is unlocked within the first thirty or so minutes of embarking on the quest. This is a highly involved questline that takes players all across Tamriel to perform some light scavenger hunts by following hints in a book, followed by a “hidden object” hunt in a small area to uncover one of four of the godlike Luminary entities that players will learn about during this quest. Upon meeting a Luminary, they’ll ask players to choose a few of a handful of challenges to undertake, which may involve completing a certain number of delves or Dark Anchors in a specific zone, or participating in a PVP battleground. It’s a great way to get players to explore zones they may not have visited for a long time, or to engage with content they typically ignore. That said, there are enough choices that we didn’t feel forced to engage in something we really didn’t like.
Beyond these central quests, there are naturally plenty of side quests where we often deal with the aftermath of Ithelia’s arrival, and some especially touching moments in a few side quests show that once again,ESO’s side questsare much more emotionally involved than standard “collect 10 boar hides” MMO fare.
The big box feature of Gold Road isESO’s new scribing systemthat involves skill customization, though it’s important to temper expectations. Scribing involves combining three elements or scripts: a focus script that determines damage type or the ability’s defining characteristic, a signature script that modifies the ability’s behavior, and an affix script that usually adds a small statistical bonus or buff. In its debut iteration, scribing will be limited to weapon, world, and guild skills, making it unlikely that an entire build would be comprised solely of custom-scribed skills.
However, we anticipate that scribed abilities will be tremendously useful in some builds right from the start. For example, healer players may enjoy scribing the new Wield Soul ability with a healing focus script, healing signature script, and vitality affix to create an ability that heals a player immediately and over time while also buffing their vitality and giving them a bonus to healing received. The system isn’t quite the same asOblivion’s spellmaking system, but hopefully, it’ll extend to class abilities in the future. Scribing can also impact the visuals of abilities, such as Elemental Explosion offering fiery, icy, or even bloody red explosions depending on the chosen scripts.
Also arriving with the scribing system a new cosmetic system for abilities. This is separate from scribing and allows players to alter the visual effects of their abilities mostly through new color choices. These customization options can be acquired for free through completing quests and earning achievements, while some premium options will be available on the Crown Store. In a game that has always been about player freedom, this new level of customization, both among combat abilities and their appearances, marks Gold Road as a major milestone and a suitable way to kick off the game’s 10th year.
The Elder Scrolls Online
WHERE TO PLAY
Experience an ever-expanding story across all of Tamriel in The Elder Scrolls Online, an award-winning fantasy RPG. Explore a rich, living world with friends or embark upon a solo adventure.Ultimate freedom—Create your ultimate RPG character, play solo or adventure with friends, and determine your fate in an ever-expanding world. With no level restrictions, go anywhere at any time in a truly open world.Choose your adventure—Begin your adventure where you like: emerge from Coldharbour in the Base Game, battle Dragons in the Elsweyr Chapter, or get ready to face the Prince of Destruction, Mehrunes Dagon, in Blackwood. All content is accessible for new players, and you can switch adventures whenever you like.
