Analysis of The Elder Scrolls Online Gold Road: This fantasy RPG seeks to make the wait for The Elder Scrolls VI more bearable by facing an enemy never before seen in the saga

Waiting for a The Elder Scrolls VI which still seems to have an eternity left to come out, the fans of this fantasy universe We have been lucky enough to spend the last ten years enjoying exciting adventures all over Tamriel thanks to a The Elder Scrolls Online that knew how to reinvent itself until it became one of the most popular and respected MMOs on the market. Ten years full of stories and spectacular moments that have been a relief for those of us who long to know more about this world of sword and sorcery. Because if what you are looking for are great stories, here are some of the best and most surprising of this Bethesda saga. So much so that he fantastic Nekrom chapter surprised us with the appearance of a new Daedra Princewhich has not happened since 2007, and now that story continues with a ESO: Gold Road that confronts us with the very end of reality.

It also does so together with novelties as powerful as the possibility of customize our spells, until we make our hero feel more unique compared to other adventurers; and also with a whole new region to explore that may not be as exotic as Morrowind or the lovecraftian world of Hermaeus Mora, but which is equally exciting to explore. However, ten years after the release of The Elder Scrolls Online, the need to renew certain parts of the game to avoid falling into repetition also becomes even more palpable. Because it is clear that the team Zenimax Online It is increasingly more ambitious when it comes to presenting its stories and the missions we embark on, but it is not always well reflected in the game.

There is specifically a mission that he proposes to us defend a fortress using a large ballista, which sounds great, but when it comes down to it this battle is anything but exciting because the waves of enemies, which are not that many, stop once they have reached a critical point on the map. They directly stop and wait for you to kill them, so the epic with which that moment is described loses practically all its charm. Regardless of these kinds of situations, and taking into account that ESO’s strength is its great stories and main characters, how about this new journey through Tamriel?

A new Daedra princess to fight against

I confess that my first steps through the new region of the Western Forest They were not as idyllic as in previous chapters, basically because this scenario, at first, is not very different from what we have already seen in the game. We came from the fairy tale landscapes of High Island, or the twisted dominions of the Prince of Destiny in Necrom, so it was difficult to compete against that. Fortunately, that feeling of “I’ve seen it before” disappears as you delve deeper into this new setting, more varied than you could imagine at first glance, and with a few areas of hypnotic beauty.

Our main mission is to hunt down the Princess of the Paths, Ithelia, before he regains all his power and puts an end to existence; But along the way you will discover that this imperial province has other problems to face. The overall experience is quite good, but something irregular. The story has moments, but it is also starring some of the more discreet villains (sometimes even ridiculous) of the entire game, who are not given the time or depth they deserved to give greater meaning to their actions. And this has an impact on the missions themselves, which in the first hours of the adventure never end up engaging enough to trap you in the story of Gold Road.

Some of these adventures are really powerful, like the one about Outlaw’s Innwhich delves into such fascinating ideas as alternative realities, while allowing us to learn more about Ithelia in a Lovecraft-style setting. The problem is that there are also routine missions that are barely accompanied by a good plot, which ends up turning the experience into a continued massacre of enemies whose motivations should matter to us, but they don’t at all because they aren’t explained very well either. And it’s a shame.

Gold Road deals political topics as typical of The Elder Scrolls as racism and ancestral territorial disputes, pitting the imperials against the wood elves in a classic story that could have given much more of itself from this perspective. Only when chaos takes over Tamriel does the story gain the strength necessary to rob you of hours of sleep by not wanting to tear you away from the game. There are other reasons for this, of course, because this chapter stands out for the great design of its dungeons and, especially, for presenting some of the best boss battles of the entire game. There are fights that are quite a spectacle and when you think they can no longer surprise you, they put more effects, explosions and enemies on stage to make the fight more epic.

The writing changes everything

From an adventure point of view, Gold Road doesn’t change anything from what we’ve seen in the past. There aren’t many surprises, the missions are the usual ones, we don’t have a new character class either (the last one was the Arcanist)… in short, it is ESO just as you remember it. However, the writing desk It’s another story because this new system is one of the greatest advances that this MMO has made since its birth, significantly expanding the options to turn your hero into someone truly unique. Although first, a clarification, since it is important to make clear that does not about of a system for create new spells from scratch and skills.

The writing office gives you the opportunity to take a skill and give it a spin of nut changing the type of damage it causes, the duration of the altered states, adding other additional effects, etc. Come on, first of all you can even be overwhelming; but I also tell you that the more you use it, the more you enjoy experimenting and trying new options. There is a whole new line of quests aimed at unraveling the mysteries of this new feature, and it is a pleasure to face them due to the quality of its story and the reward it offers. That not every day you have the opportunity to change your way of fighting after years and years of repeating the same strategies.

Something less impressed leaves me with another of the game’s novelties, which is the possibility of customizing the aesthetics of your skills and spells. I mean. It’s cool to have another extra option to make your actions feel unique, but really, there’s not much to it. As you play you unlock up to 22 unique styles that you can only apply to certain skills, which in most cases don’t change much either. Wow, don’t expect a radical change because it is far from it.