izigame.me

Prepare yourself for the most disappointing chapter ZOS has ever made. Yes, even worse than Blackwood.
Zone: West Weald of Gold Road is... well, gold. Though it has nothing else going for it in terms of novelty. 30% of it is basically Grahtwood while the rest is 'insert any imperial zone here' but make it yellow.
However, it's much smaller than any other chapter zone. And they made it worse by yeeting the 2nd dlc at the end of the year. So now you have a smaller, inferior 'adventure' that you can 100% in 3 days max.
Scribing: Inspired by the spellmaking of previous games, scribing is a way to make your own skills. I can already hear you saying, "I should get this chapter so I can use scribing to raise my DPS!" And to that I say think again. If you're a PvE DPS player like 90% of the player base, scribing is pretty much not for you. The target audience seems to be healers, some PvPers, and people who want to experiment. Otherwise, your usual skills are just fine. If you rely on meta builds like a lot of people, you'll probably forget scribing even exists in a few months. Also, be warned that it's a colossal grind.
There's also the matter of skill reskins, but it's pretty obvious it's just one more way ZOS will use to get $$$ and pad crate drop lists so you're forced to buy more pulls to get what you actually want.
Story: If the reveal from the previous chapter made you excited for something new, prepare to be disappointed. Watch as ZOS fumbles one of the most interesting plot twists it has ever written by making it a neverending string of fetch quests and YET ANOTHER tangentially related daedric cult that is simply there for you to have something to kill as you traverse the new zone.
You do this alongside some of the blandest sidekicks in any chapter with 0% character development other than helping you gather MacGuffins and nod passively at any crap you say. I mean, it doesn't take an ABSOLUTE GENIUS or 1 billion dollars from the budget to make these characters slightly less mind-numbing, by introducing some scenes between each fetch quest to connect with them and learn more about them, BUT WHAT DO I KNOW I'MA SHUT UP AND GO THE NEXT QUEST MARKER TO UNLOCK ACHIEVEMENTS, ENDORPHINS YAY.
BUT the few characters ZOS managed to write well are basically tossed in the trash this chapter. The biggest storytelling sin of ZOS is not crappy writing, it's writing good characters and then ruining them, because they can't help but make them 'evil' for bs reasons. They did it to the Ascendant Lord who started as someone with actual motivations, and they did it now to Torvesard and the other spoiler character that I won't mention. Only for everything to not matter in the end anyway.
There's also the issue of ZoS having to shoehorn in a story about one of the playable races, which in this case is the bosmer, however you will find yourself caring very little about anyone or anything as you collect MacGuffins that you will use to look for the next MacGuffin. And if you're a bosmer fan, prepare to see your favorite race become the antagonists, also for no good reason.
ZOS seems to be under the impression that to sell copies, they have to abide by a formula which they have used for the past 10 years. Because heaven forbid we see any innovation from them. Though here's the thing: THE FORMULA WAS NEVER GOOD ENOUGH TO BEGIN WITH. If it was a good formula, it would produce the same quality every single time. Which it doesn't. Compare Summerset to this abomination and you'll see what I'm talking about.
So if you're looking to buy it, do it while it's on sale, or if you're a casual player just wait for the next chapter which will give you all the previous chapters including this one.