The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dawnguard Review

[Li Mu]

Steve, there are a fair few typos in your article! Just giving you a heads up.

 

[Li Mu]

Yeah, I never really liked Skyrim as much as Oblivion, and this DLC, and other people's comments really are justifying my point. I'm starting to think that the success of Bethesda's recent games has gotten to their head somewhat, and when a large majority of Oblivion fans weren't too impressed with Skyrim, they just lobbed in a load of stuff people were asking for in Oblivion to make it appeal to them too. I heard countless people request Horse-back combat, Crossbows, Polearms, and almost an extra god knows how much of Dawnguard's content for Oblivion back when, and now they just throw them in like mad. If they put in throwing weapons (A well missed concept from earlier Elder Scrolls games.) in the next Skyrim DLC, I think it's fair to declare it official that Bethesda are just trying too hard to appeal to everyone. I think it's also pretty fair to say that a good majority of people only bought Skyrim because of the stupid "arrow to the knee" joke (If you can call it that.), or Oblivion's success. I may sound like I'm bashing Skyrim for being popular, but it's just generally worse than Oblivion in every aspect, and not even all that good without comparison anyway. I must say, though, the graphics of Skyrim were actually awfully impressve (With few exceptions.), with special mention going to improved beast races, especially Khajiits (Though the horns on Argonians really didn't quite suit, and were probably just added to make them look closer to dragons. I want my Dorsal Ridges god damnit!... However, the head feathers were pretty cool. Still rather have ridges, mind you.).

Wait...so you're complaining that Bethesda suck because they are trying to appeal to everyone.
And then you're complaining that Bethesda suck because they changed the game in a way you don't like and are failing to appeal to you.

umm...ok

You think people only bought Skyrim because of the Arrow In The Knee joke? Are you insane?
That's like saying "People only bought Gears of War because Yatzee often talks about Chest High Walls"

I would disagree about Skyrim being worse than Oblivion.
I would actually say that there are some things which Oblivion and Morrowind did better, but that Skyrim does it's own thing and does it well. Although I must admit that I do miss the rough voices of the Dunmer in Skyrim.

 

[shintakie10]

I was super excited about Skyrim, bought it at launch, played one character to about level 43, then put it down and never picked it up again. Something about it is just, I don't know, very "blah" feeling. Not like Morrowind used to feel at all.

I feel the same.

For me its the fact that the story doesn't make sense, is told extemely poorly and nothing you do matters.

I dunno, Morrowind felt like that to me, too. It just looked uglier to boot. And had infinite diseases to annoy you with in the red mountain areas.

The story in Morrowind was infinitely better and your character had a developement process.
Skyrim, you walk out of a cave, down the road and ZOMG YOUR THE DRAGON BORN!!!!
Then you get led by the nose for a few hours and everyone ignores you.

There's definitely a more gradual climb for the Nerevarine than for the Dovahkiin, but I wouldn't say that makes it "better" by default. It just means you had more fetch quests to complete before people decided ZOMG YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE. It's equally arbitrary. At least in Skyrim you actually do things that pretty clearly show you are this chosen whatever, whereas in Morrowind you're basically just an adventurer who people decide must be this prophesied hero because you're doing cool stuff for them.

I don't remember any Nerevarine-specific powers akin to the Dovahkiin's inherent connection to Shouts. Maybe it's been too long since I played it, but I'm pretty sure you're just Some Adventurer and kind stumble into the whole Nerevarine deal.

Shouts are basically just spells that they replaced with a special graphic. Its actually because of shouts that bein a mage has so fewer options than they did in previous games.

It was my biggest gripe with the gameplay honestly. I always played a Mage, but shouts were retarded and I didnt want to use them. However if I didnt want to use them I missed out on several essential spells because there are no equivalent spells to the shouts.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

So more of exactly what I disliked about Skyrim to begin with. Impactless, consequence-free gameplay. Just a few extra toys fill the meaningless game world with.

Yeah, this is by far the biggest problem I have with Skyrim. The environments are gorgeous, and exploring is truly fun, but it all doesn't matter in the end. Sure, the dungeons are infinitely better than Oblivion's, and likewise the story missions are a bit more involved than "go there, fetch and/or kill X&Y," but there's no lasting impact on the world. Hell, there are still Stormcloak camps I can't clear out, because some prick leader of theirs must be invincible. Likewise, what does it matter if I'm the archmage now? Winterhold is still a decrepit village. You can kill the emperor for crying out loud, and there are no in-game consequences. My favorite example of this is actually the conclusion of the civil war portion of the story, after which the corpse of Ulfric was still in his throne room, despite the new Jarl having taken up residence there. Nobody bothered to react to it, even after set his corpse on the table and did nasty things to it. While this consequence free thing is fun at first, it gets boring after a while. I want to be able to fail, I want to be able to help or destroy communities in the world, I want characters to acknowledge what I have and have not done. In short, I want a living world. Hell, if the 12 year old Deus Ex can acknowledge how I completed a mission and have the characters respond accordingly (or that whole harassment thing with the women's restroom...), why the hell can't Skyrim? I don't think I'll buy the DLC just yet. Maybe when it's on sale at some point, but not for full price.

 

[Rawne1980]

but at least I can say that my arrows blot out the sun.[/spoiler]

Then we shall fight you in the shade.....

 

[Vampire cat]

To be honest, I was planning on buy skyrim when it came out as GOTY edition. Same deal with Fallout, no point buying the game and the DLC seperate when its cheaper to wait.

Personally I don't agree. I'm glad to pay the full price for a game I think is worth the money. So I was happy to spring for Steam's Skyrim pre-purchase, and I'll be glad to buy this DLC, which looks to be pretty cool!

That, I guess, is pretty much how one should show ones interest and love for a game though. Are you willing to pay full price for the game? If not, you should indeed wait and get a better deal on it. Support the developers as much as you see fit (but don't pirate... Thats not cool =p), but expect to wait a while.

It was my biggest gripe with the gameplay honestly. I always played a Mage, but shouts were retarded and I didnt want to use them. However if I didnt want to use them I missed out on several essential spells because there are no equivalent spells to the shouts.

Yay for mods! There are several great mods that add loads of awesome, cool looking and lore-friendly spells to the game. This is what makes mod support so great, if there is something not quite to your liking it's very likely that someone else agrees, and made a mod to change that.

My personal mod list is packed XD.

 

[Andrew_C]

I'm still waiting for the GOTY edition of Skyrim, or maybe the Deluxe GOTY edition, where they actually include ALL the DLC

 

[JasonBurnout16]

Really don't know whether I want to get this or not. I'm just worried the DLC is going to be like every other quest in Skyrim: Talk to guy, go to city, talk to another guy, go to another city. The pattern repeats, so that I don't get into quests, I just watch a load of loading screens.

But Vampireeeeee!! Hard choice.

 

[Soopy]

Really don't know whether I want to get this or not. I'm just worried the DLC is going to be like every other quest in Skyrim: Talk to guy, go to city, talk to another guy, go to another city. The pattern repeats, so that I don't get into quests, I just watch a load of loading screens.

But Vampireeeeee!! Hard choice.

They literally send you from one corner of the map to the other about 15 times.

It's like the KOTN but going from Anvil to Cheydinhall and back for every quest. I usually don't fast travel, but I couldn't see the value in walking past the same land marks 15 times.

 

[CAPTCHA]

Does the DLC have many new enviroment textures, art assets, models, ect?

 

[JasonBurnout16]

Really don't know whether I want to get this or not. I'm just worried the DLC is going to be like every other quest in Skyrim: Talk to guy, go to city, talk to another guy, go to another city. The pattern repeats, so that I don't get into quests, I just watch a load of loading screens.

But Vampireeeeee!! Hard choice.

They literally send you from one corner of the map to the other about 15 times.

It's like the KOTN but going from Anvil to Cheydinhall and back for every quest. I usually don't fast travel, but I couldn't see the value in walking past the same land marks 15 times.

See that's what I hate about a lot of the current open world games. You get given a quest by someone saying something like "Oh he just wandered out of town, he'll be in the local forest", then you check your map and it turns out that 'near town' is about a twenty minute walk away through some mountains and past a lake or something. It's quite similar to Kingdoms of Amalur in that respect - that game is ridiculous for sending you miles away for pointless quests.

QUESTION: Are any new monsters introduced? I don't mind about spoilers, I just want to know if there is added variety.

 

[Soopy]

Really don't know whether I want to get this or not. I'm just worried the DLC is going to be like every other quest in Skyrim: Talk to guy, go to city, talk to another guy, go to another city. The pattern repeats, so that I don't get into quests, I just watch a load of loading screens.

But Vampireeeeee!! Hard choice.

They literally send you from one corner of the map to the other about 15 times.

It's like the KOTN but going from Anvil to Cheydinhall and back for every quest. I usually don't fast travel, but I couldn't see the value in walking past the same land marks 15 times.

See that's what I hate about a lot of the current open world games. You get given a quest by someone saying something like "Oh he just wandered out of town, he'll be in the local forest", then you check your map and it turns out that 'near town' is about a twenty minute walk away through some mountains and past a lake or something. It's quite similar to Kingdoms of Amalur in that respect - that game is ridiculous for sending you miles away for pointless quests.

It's not a problem with sandbox games as such, more so developers using that as a padding aid to make the quest seem longer. I mean, if the quests in Skyrim all happened directly outside the city you got them from, the game would be 50% shorter. And it is if you fast travel.

Yes, there are new monsters. Gargoyles, armoured trolls and some new Charus monsters to name a few.

 

[Badassassin]

So apparently no one played far enough to get the exploding crossbow bolts. That's part was pretty badass.

 

[Thyunda]

Really don't know whether I want to get this or not. I'm just worried the DLC is going to be like every other quest in Skyrim: Talk to guy, go to city, talk to another guy, go to another city. The pattern repeats, so that I don't get into quests, I just watch a load of loading screens.

But Vampireeeeee!! Hard choice.

They literally send you from one corner of the map to the other about 15 times.

It's like the KOTN but going from Anvil to Cheydinhall and back for every quest. I usually don't fast travel, but I couldn't see the value in walking past the same land marks 15 times.

See that's what I hate about a lot of the current open world games. You get given a quest by someone saying something like "Oh he just wandered out of town, he'll be in the local forest", then you check your map and it turns out that 'near town' is about a twenty minute walk away through some mountains and past a lake or something. It's quite similar to Kingdoms of Amalur in that respect - that game is ridiculous for sending you miles away for pointless quests.

It's not a problem with sandbox games as such, more so developers using that as a padding aid to make the quest seem longer. I mean, if the quests in Skyrim all happened directly outside the city you got them from, the game would be 50% shorter. And it is if you fast travel.

Yes, there are new monsters. Gargoyles, armoured trolls and some new Charus monsters to name a few.

I mined a shellbug. I hated myself immediately. Why would the game trick me into that? So evil.

Oh and I play Dawnguard, not vampire. Purely because I'm a werewolf, who now have a proper perk tree and it's actually advantageous to play as one now. And there were these mentions of 'Totems' in the perks, and since I have no werewolf abilities, there must be some sort of quest associated.
My brother plays vampire, I play werewolf - it's usually how we handle multiple choice storylines. I'm good guy, he's bad guy. His vampire lord seems more suited to levelling up in combat, but it didn't look as satisfying as cutting a gory swathe across Skyrim as a werewolf, where I gained perks from devouring the corpses of, first the people, then the animals I killed.

And...seemingly randomly - my brother created a Breton female archer/spellcaster, and after an awkward debacle in the Riverwood inn, a courier showed up. In his underwear.
"I've got a package here. Your hands only."

 

[Easton Dark]

Now those look like vampires. Not the bullshit "Our skin gets paler and we can eat people's necks in their sleep" bullshit that TES has had going for awhile. This is Nosferatu stuff.

Looks good. Too bad it's not out on PC yet :l

 

[Simonoly]

$20 seems a fair price to me when you compare Dawnguard to other Bethesda add-ons. It's not as large and expansive as Shivering Isles (which was $30), but it's much more interesting and substantial than Knights of the Nine and a lot of the Fallout 3/NV dlc.

I actually found the first half of the dlc up to and including the Soul Cairn to be really quite dull. However, the second half of the dlc was quite superb, especially the part where you travel to the Forgotten Vale. Skyrim never looked so darn pretty!

 

[Steve Butts]

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dawnguard Review

... at the end of the video... was that you trying to murder some butterflies with vampire powers? That's dark man... like "supporting the Stormcloaks unironicly" dark.

Screw those butterflies.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Really don't know whether I want to get this or not. I'm just worried the DLC is going to be like every other quest in Skyrim: Talk to guy, go to city, talk to another guy, go to another city. The pattern repeats, so that I don't get into quests, I just watch a load of loading screens.

But Vampireeeeee!! Hard choice.

They literally send you from one corner of the map to the other about 15 times.

It's like the KOTN but going from Anvil to Cheydinhall and back for every quest. I usually don't fast travel, but I couldn't see the value in walking past the same land marks 15 times.

See that's what I hate about a lot of the current open world games. You get given a quest by someone saying something like "Oh he just wandered out of town, he'll be in the local forest", then you check your map and it turns out that 'near town' is about a twenty minute walk away through some mountains and past a lake or something. It's quite similar to Kingdoms of Amalur in that respect - that game is ridiculous for sending you miles away for pointless quests.

It's not a problem with sandbox games as such, more so developers using that as a padding aid to make the quest seem longer. I mean, if the quests in Skyrim all happened directly outside the city you got them from, the game would be 50% shorter. And it is if you fast travel.

Yes, there are new monsters. Gargoyles, armoured trolls and some new Charus monsters to name a few.

I mined a shellbug. I hated myself immediately. Why would the game trick me into that? So evil.

Oh and I play Dawnguard, not vampire. Purely because I'm a werewolf, who now have a proper perk tree and it's actually advantageous to play as one now. And there were these mentions of 'Totems' in the perks, and since I have no werewolf abilities, there must be some sort of quest associated.
My brother plays vampire, I play werewolf - it's usually how we handle multiple choice storylines. I'm good guy, he's bad guy. His vampire lord seems more suited to levelling up in combat, but it didn't look as satisfying as cutting a gory swathe across Skyrim as a werewolf, where I gained perks from devouring the corpses of, first the people, then the animals I killed.

And...seemingly randomly - my brother created a Breton female archer/spellcaster, and after an awkward debacle in the Riverwood inn, a courier showed up. In his underwear.
"I've got a package here. Your hands only."

If you go back to the companions and do some quests with, eh... I forgot her name... the red head werewolf gal (if she isn't dead). She gives you a few quests over time that earn you totems.

The totems change a few things (there are 4 I think), but more often then not they make it worse. For example, 1 totem changes your howl so instead of making enemies flee it allows you to see enemies through walls, but this actually makes using a werewolf more difficulty since the terror howl enabled you to fight multiple enemies and feed during fights. The new perk tree might actually improve that, but I have yet to see whats on it.

OT: Skyrim seems to have garnered a lot of anti-fans on this site. The game seems to be doing tremendously well and I'm really looking forward to this DLC... I hope Beth keep adding free content, some of those stealth additions shown in the game jam would be most welcome. Also, enchanted arrows, make it happen.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I will say at the very least Bethesda FINALLY put an NPC in the game that didn't feel like a mannequin. Serana I found to be very interesting with some actual depth to her. Plus it helps that she's voiced by Laura Bailey (a.k.a. Catherine, Chun-li, Platinum the Trinity, and a BILLION anime voices) who actually puts some emotion and effort into her lines.

 

[LostintheWick]

It's frustrating that the first DLC for Skyrim assumes that everyone loves or wants to be a vampire. Vampires are lame.

I love the idea of being vampire hunter. That just sounds like it could've been a B.A. experience... but in Skyrim it is not.

It would've been nice if the Dawnguard had some sort of powers to make them worth playing as much as the vamp.