The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road Review – A Middling Autumn Cruise

The Elder Scrolls Online has been around since 2014, and in that time, the game has received plenty of expansions and DLCs. Arriving just in time for the 10-year anniversary, Gold Road is the latest in the long line of expansions, serving as a follow-up for last year’s excellent DLC, Necrom. Offering a new zone to explore, a couple of new game mechanics, and the climactic ending of the current post-game narrative, Gold Road looks to be another fun adventure across the land of Tamriel. Let’s see how it stacks up to the rest of The Elder Scrolls Online DLC as we journey into the wilds of West Weald.

A Case of Contested Land

Gold Road continues the story that started in the previous expansion, Necrom, as players meet back up with Leramil the Wise and undertake a quest from the Daedric Prince of Knowledge, Hermaus Mora. This time, the Daedric Prince of Path, Ithelia, is on the loose in the humble region of West Weald, home to the city of Skingrad and a growing population of wood elves. Along with the safety of West Weald, Ithelia’s appearance threatens the existence of all known worlds, as she tugs on the literal fabric of reality. Arriving in West Weald, you find things in a tense state of disarray, as a group of cultists called the Recollection roam the nearby ruins, while monsters infest the lands and an overgrowing forest causes political strife between the Imperial Legion and the native wood elves. Of course, it’s up to us to settle things and defeat Ithelia.

Unfortunately, the narrative in Gold Road is ultimately disappointing. While the general concept is cool, it’s far from original; this is hardly the first time that ESO has done a “Daedric Prince threatens reality” storyline. Despite solid voice acting, most of the characters are forgettable, the pacing is awkward, and everything feels half-baked. Most of the main quests are spent listening to exposition dumps and completing simple fetch quests, or revisiting areas that you’ve likely already explored during a side quest. To that point, there are a few interesting stories in the side quests, but they’re infrequent and less intriguing than average. Instead of an epic conclusion to the “Shadow over Morrowind” storyline, Gold Road is a mediocre mission with only a few cheer-worthy moments.

Custom Skills Through Scribing

Besides the main quest, ESO: Gold Road offers more of the same content that longtime players will be familiar with, including daily quests, world bosses, and a 12-player trial dungeon. In the new world events, called “Mirrormoors”, you must fend off mirror-world bosses in hard-hitting battles that will put your skills to the test. While fun to complete at first, these world events are rather lengthy and the rewards rarely outweigh the time investment, so don’t expect to grind them for great loot.

However, there’s one major new game mechanic of note called Scribing, which should be interesting for players looking to fine-tune their build. Through Scribing, you can now customize a new set of grimoires, which bestow active abilities to use in combat. After collecting the appropriate resources, simply visit a scribing altar, where you can adjust the function, effect, and final flourish of any given grimoire. While this mechanic is enjoyable in practice and offers some cool customization for your kit, the Scribing abilities aren’t all that powerful. They’re fun to experiment with, but they’re not important enough to shake up the existing build meta.

In truth, my favorite content in Gold Road came from a few select quests and locations, many of which stood separate from the West Weald’s focal story. A handful of recurring characters pop up, which is always fun to see in a DLC, continuing some long-running gags and plot lines. Apart from these occasional moments of true excitement, the majority of the content in Gold Road is just serviceable enough. It’s not bad, it’s just mediocre.

The Bottom Line on ESO: Gold Road

On its own, Gold Road is a passable expansion for The Elder Scrolls Online that provides a decent chunk of content for existing fans to enjoy. However, it’s a significant step down from Necrom and feels like a disappointing end to an otherwise interesting story. Given its “part two” nature, it’s hard to recommend Gold Road to ESO newcomers, as Necrom and other expansions are far better places to start. If you’re hungry for new quests and don’t mind a slow-paced experience, Gold Road is worth playing, but it lacks the impact and spectacle of most other ESO expansions, putting it on par with the likes of Greymoor and Blackwood.