Hands on with The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road - Preview
Over the past 10 years, The Elder Scrolls Online has taken players to countless locations across the world of Tamriel, including locations that featured in the main series. With the 2024 release of Gold Road, players will get to revisit a familiar location from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Bethesda were kind enough to invite me to venture into the world early, to see what exactly was on offer.
The new area is called the West Weald and starts in the east at Skingrad and then heads west. Skingrad for those Oblivion players was the first city that was along the Gold Road, which would then lead to Kvatch and then Anvil. In this new expansion, Skingrad is the hub city, so it is where all the hustle and bustle will be found, but of course there are going to be countless more chances to find things to do. As you might expect with the expansion being called The Gold Road, a lot of the visuals that players will see will be similar to that of the location for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. That means you are going to enjoy a lot of Autumn colours, but there is more than just the Gold Road, players will also get to explore the Colovian Highlands, which feature a similar colour palette, but as its in the mountains, will be more rocky and filled with more crests and valleys. The final main location is the Valenwood Annexation, is quite a different location, as it’s a forest, so lush and green; the only problem is it appeared almost out of nowhere.
So a new location is coming, which is totally expected, but story is a key part of the series and for the first time ever, there is a direct continuation here that keeps the storm of Necrom going. Now I will admit, I honestly didn’t put much time into the story content here, mostly because I wanted to experience it in full later on, but also as I wanted to dive into the scribing mechanic. The story, as I said, continues on from Necrom and with the lost Daedric Prince Ithelia now loose in the world, things are getting weird, like the sudden appearance of a forest. Once you start to look into the forests appearance, you will encounter a group of Wood Elves who are seeking a new home, a group called the Recollection, who are worshippers of Ithelia and then there is also the chance you may spot the missing Daedric Prince, even if they know not who they are.
Story aside, the main aspect of the expansion that I wanted to spend time in was scribing, which is a new system for players to invest time in, as it lets them create the spells they want. Before I get in any further, I should point out that you can’t just create one hit kill spells from the outset, there is a lot of layers to this system, so just be aware of that. How you get the quest is that in Skingrad, the Mages Guild has discovered that a long lost vault has basically woken up and they want to send folks in to investigate, but as they don’t believe it to be to big of a deal, they won’t allocate a lot of their own people, so they recruit you. Heading in, you will about new groups like the Order of the Lamp, new people and locations, plus as you continue that quest line, you are going to spend a lot of time exploring ruins and delves. Plus there is thing with a talking crow, a very large glowing deer, a much smaller glowing deer and a spectral hunter, but all that is story, scribing is something different, so lets look at that.
Scribing has a few set rules, the first and most important one is that each starting point requires a grimoire. This is a term used throughout the world and fantasy, referring to books of knowledge and that same fact is held here, you need a basis to build your scribing off and that won’t change. There are grimoires for Smash, Soul Burst, Shield Throw, Ulfsild’s Contingency and more and each of them are classed based on their use. Shield Throw for example is listed under the One hand and Shield skill line, so if you select that, then your scripts will start to tweak it. Scripts are things that you unlock over time and they are what modify the actual skill, so you can change your attack from a single target to multiple, then you can adjust more aspects like damage over time. Each time you make a change the cost of the use goes up, for a skill like Shield Throw, that will be stamina but for casting a spell it will be Magicka and working out what you can actually use will be something to consider. Something else to consider is that there are combinations you won’t be able to use, if you include a healing themed focus script, then you can’t include any damage effects in your signature script, as it would be counterintuitive to heal someone, then damage them.
Each time you scribe a new spell or skill, you can add in 3 layers of options, you start with the Grimoire, then add your focus script, then your signature script and then your affix script. For each level you add, so if you fill in all 3 layers, you need the same amount of ink to actual scribe it. Luminous Inks are your method of creating the skill, if you don’t have it, then you won’t be able to complete the scribe. Of course, there is a minor exception to that rule, if you have used a script before, like a damage over time script, you won’t need to use ink to scribe it again. So if you make Shield Throw twice and swap out the staggered effect at the end to cowardice for example, you would only use ink for that different script, not the others that are the same. There are a lot of parts to think about with scribing, the main quest to unlock it will keep you busy for a few hours alone, but the potential for player customisation is very exciting, so it is something worth looking into. Once you have scribed a skill, it will be added into your Skills menu, and you can add it to your line up as you desire.
But wait, there’s more. You thought that Scribing was only just to make a skill and call it a day, then you thought wrong as you can also style skills. Once your skills are levelled up, a new paintbrush icon will appear beside the skill in the Skills menu, from there you can see what styles you have available for that skill, which is mostly just changing the colour of the effects. This isn’t something I did in my time with the game, as unlocking styles will generally require you to complete a quest or obtain something, but if you want to do that, it just adds another way to make the game more for you.
I could wax on for a lot more about the scribing system, that quest to unlock it or even just the room where it all happens, but there is more to The Gold Road than just that. While not something I did in my limited time with the game, there is a new 12 player PvE trial called Lucent Citadel, which will send players into a long forgotten Daedric vault. A new world event called Mirrormoor Incursions will happen, giving players nearby a chance to defend Tamriel from the Daedric invaders, plus there are updates to Tribute, new characters and much, much more. As with any preview event, time is always limited and I wanted to keep playing, but even just a few days with the game made me wanting June to arrive now.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road is set to launch this June, specifically on June 3rd for PC and Mac, then June 18 for both Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Pre-orders are available now, in either upgrade form for existing players or deluxe form for those coming in new.
