The Elder Scrolls Online:  The Gold Road Review – Mirroring The Oblivion

Called me out if you have heard of this before, okay. 

A mysterious thing has happened within a town nearby that spouts out of nowhere, then suddenly you are working with both sides of a conflict that includes a spot of tower defense, multiverse traversals, and somehow, involves a drink from a Inn and saving the universe.

If you say The Elder Scrolls, you are mostly correct as the newest expansion for their ever-expanding Online game, takes players on a journey that you may have been on, with some twists and connections that players from the olden days might remember from the days of TES: IV.

The Connection To Two

This new expansion has a connection of two, one being the previous expansion that came out last year and the other is their early 360 era hit in the form of Oblivion, where this new expansion takes place within the Cyrodilarea of West Weald that has been transformed a lush forest that people are blaming the Wood Elves for this.

And what’s interesting is that most of the monuments that were in the two-decades-old game, are still present there, now visitable by you and many others as a new place to explore, which kinda feels like visiting an old town you used to visit, now overtaken by lush greenery.

However, those who would want to join in the expansion from here might need to do some homework with the Necrom expansion as this does set after that one and narratively does feel complete if you do that beforehand as the quest-giver you meet to start Gold Road is sort of your previous employer within Apocrypha area. And the dangers ensured are based on your previous main quest hijinks.

Et Tu, Scrolls?

While I won’t go into the nitty and gritty of the whole expansion, from what I’ve experienced, it doesn’t shy away from making it weird and convoluted, something that older fans might enjoy despite it being a bit fetch-quest excess, at times. 

As I mentioned at the start, there is the siege defense part that feels like a sort of a throwback of the older times and multiple versions of one character that’s being held in a “single” plane of existence does feel familiar, in a flash-forward sort of way.

Besides that, combat gets a new relift with the new additions of Scribing, where players can enhance their skill on top of their already acquired powers with buffs and debuffs that they can collect from collected Grimoire and their Focus Scripts. 

An example I got was physical attacks but with the deflect of damage increases/decreases depending on that Grimoire, it’s a neat feature that helps stack damage if you’re doing the Public PVE or PVP stuff with others who are higher levels than you and it does remind me of Fallout 76’s traits system, where you can get some benefits that also come with disadvantages as well. So, I guess those systems are intertwined in a way.

In short, combat gets a nice new addition to its lineup, and while it isn’t really fundamentally changing, it’s a good thing that Zenimax Online is freshening up the game a bit, now that it’s coming up to 10 years in service.

Verdict

The Elder Scrolls Online: The Gold Road is one part interesting in its story of returning to a place players knew and some new stuff within its combat, but other parts are confusing due to the interconnected nature of this current narrative. But that’s really the charm of it. So start at Necrom and work your way here is what I’d recommend.

Played on PC, the review copy of The Gold Road expansion is provided by the publisher.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept