The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road’s story is the equivalent of framingStar Warsfrom the perspective of the Empire, only George Lucasreallywants you to think the Empire are the good guys as they obliterate Alderaan from orbit and slaughter the rebel alliance in cold blood.
Spoilers for Gold Road follow.
Gold Road sends you to Cyrodil’s West Wealdfor two reasons, 1) the Daedric Prince Ithelia, whose very existence is a threat to reality, has returned, and 2) a faction of wood elves called the Recollection issummoning junglesas they attempt to bring back their lost Ayleid culture.
The Recollection was an opportunity to broach Tamriel’s complex history of mer and men’s conflict, from the Ayleid Empire’s enslavement of mankind that led to the near eradication of the Ayleid people, to the Nords driving the Falmer undergorund where they would be subjegated by the Dwemer. But in Gold Road, the Recollection is depicted as nothing more than a group of evildoers, seeding into Bosmer culture as spies and turncoats. It’s painfully black and white.
Their king, a comical pantomime villain, is another Daedra-summoning coward who runs away at every opportunity after conjuring portals to thrust bosses at us, reducing their initially sympathetic cause into a painfully two-dimensional one. Throughout the main story, they’re nothing more than cannon fodder, with the finale even brushing aside their ideas as a “mad dream”.
The “mad dream” in question was to restore the Ayleid culture by bringing back the lost jungles of Valenwood that had been torn down. It’s far from a clear-cut story of evil and good, as we discover that the Recollection was founded to uncover memories that were stolen from their ancestors by Hermaeus Mora.
But the main quest never unpacks who they are, reducing the last remnants of their group to mere “stragglers” who are to be unquestionably wiped out.
At some point in the narrative their goal snaps from restoring their lost culture to destroying the West Weald and bringing back the cruel Ayleid empire, which is less of a believable continuation of the themes set up in the beginning and more of an excuse to completely eradicate and villainise them. The whole narrative is flimsy, with evenItheliagoing from a sympathetic, charming character who clearly has no ill-will to a villain hellbent on the destruction of everything.
The motivations driving these antagonists are built on rickety foundations that don’t hold their weight, but even putting aside the over-simplification of these rich factions, it’s nothing new anyway.
The story even ends with Bosmer, who had nothing to do with the Recollection, making amends to theEmpirefor their actions, promising not to extend beyond their borders into land that was ripped from them to begin with. Insert the Are we the Baddies? meme here.
The Recollection’s king is a rehash of the Veiled Heritance plot of the base game, and restoring Ithelia’s memories quickly devolves into another boss fight against an unleashed Daedric Prince trying to destroy everything so they can remake the universe in their image. We’ve been here before.
Promises from a Prince who can see the many possible futures like different paths splintering from the main road is an unbelievably interesting concept, one that comes so close to its full potential when we visit an inn at the crossroads of fate. However, exploration of this idea amounts to venturing into the basement, stepping through portals, and meeting different Ithelias in the same generic cave, one melancholy, one angry, and one content. Hardly the exciting prospect of a fractured future where she can doanythingand everything.
Gameplay-wise, Gold Road is rich with interesting ideas to spice up the typical quest format. At one point, we’re tasked with defending a fortress from waves of Daedra, using a ballista to hold them back. But it’s clear that ESO is pushing its limitsafter a decade, not able to match the ambition of its developers’ vision. If you fail to take out the Daedra, they just stand at the barricade until you fire at them again.
It’s a shame because Gold Road is otherwise one of the best chapters of ESO yet. The zone is varied and beautiful, every corner a different experience, making exploration a treat like never before. The bosses are some of the most mechanically dense and engaging outside of dungeons, finally bringing the world zone up to par with the rest of the PvE content. And the new Scribing mechanic—a precursor to spell crafting—will radically change how we craft builds, complemented by the Order of the Lamp who have one of the most striking aesthetics in any faction of the game.
All of that is undercut by the foundations of the chapter, the main story which everything builds from. At every corner, I was treated like a hero for my actions, but I’ve never felt more like a villain.
