Playtime: 7 Hours
Score: 8/10

Solid expansion for a great game! I always started this DLC in the past but never finished it, but this time I am determined to do everything in Skyrim, including this DLC. This expansion added a great storyline and tons of side features that I really liked too.

Starting off, the main Dawnguard story was pretty cool with the quests feeling a lot more epic then the main game in some ways. They did some cool lore stuff with the Falmer and overall it was just a lot of fun. The main thing I loved though was the new companion Serena who really was the highlight. Companions in the main game really just felt lifeless most of the time and just portable storage, but Serena felt like a true companion with her own opinions and personality. Playing through the story with her at my side felt like a fun buddy cop adventure. I sided with the Dawnguard but I do look forward to a separate playthrough where I side with the vampires instead. I do wish Bethesda would include branching choices in their main games though, cause it always seems like DLCs have more choices then the main game does.

Other then then there are various side features as well. You get a new vampire beast form as well as perk trees for both it and the werewolf form which is the route I always go. Some cool new weapons like Auriel's bow with some unique arrows that are deadly against undead like Draugr. You also get a fun side quest that involves you helping a long dead adventurer in some Dwarven ruins which leads to a really awesome item at the end. One final touch I liked was the addition of the new shout, Soul Tear, not really for the shout itself but how you get it. Its not found on chanting wall, but rather from a certain character that I won't spoil. But it really added a lot of depth to the shout and learning all three words was kind of emotional from a story perspective.

Overall, a solid DLC for Skyrim!

Yeah, not a big fan of this expansion. This is the first time I've played through on the vampire side since 2013 when the expansion came out on PS3, and it reminded me why I always stick with the Dawnguard. The Vampire Lord mode, while cool on paper, is terrible for a few reasons, especially when used in the DLC's story, mainly having to do with Serana, the companion who accompanies you throughout the entire questline. The way you improve, and increase the Vampire Lord's skills is by killing enemies with one specific attack, and you have to personally do it. Serana, nor any other companion can do it. Kill stealing becomes a huge burden when you just want to level the damn skills, but Serana charges in at the last second to kill them instead. On top of that, for some completely stupid reason that I cannot comprehend, if Serana is in your party, the main attack of the vampire lord, the one that you need to use to level, is significantly debuffed. It devolves in less combat, and more timing your shot to make sure you kill them before Serana does, because it does such a pitiful amount of damage when she's around that you might as well just sit on the sidelines. On top of that, in vampire lord mode, you can't do anything, you can't pick locks, loot bodies or chests, you can't activate certain objects, you can't speak, you can't open your inventory, you can't do shit. You basically have two choices, stay in gimped vampire mode, where your attacks do no damage with your primary companion, and you can't do anything, or you don't experience one of the expansions main new features. It's completely baffling how this mode was handled, especially with the new werewolf skill tree, which avoids almost all of these problems.
On top of that, the story is just awful. Not that I expect a great story from Bethesda, but this one might be their SECOND worst story, I mean they did make Fallout 3. It's less so a problem of their content, and more of their characters. Harkon is a terribly underdeveloped antagonist, and while it's more excusable for the Dawnguard side, on the Vampires, it's just terrible since Harkon can almost always be available to speak with. You are constantly told of how terrible a person he is, and how you can't reason with him, and that he's consumed by power, and the game practically shows you the exact opposite. Hell, if you cure your vampirism, and come back, Harkon will give you it again if you just walk up and ask. We're shown other people, who publicly trying to dethrone him, and yet he does nothing against them. He seems pretty willing to share, and respect those he views as powerful to me. Also, after the brief hiatus in Skyrim's main quest, this brings back Bethesda's tradition since Oblivion of the player not being the main character. This one is particularly bad about it though, in that not a single thing would have changed about the story had the Dragonborn not participated, save for Serana getting released a few hours later. I do think the story has some good ideas, I like the general progression, I think the idea behind both the Dawnguard and Volkihar is cool, I like the general set-up, and characters, but the way all of it is executed is just so bleh. The story needs to do way more showing, and a lot less telling, it needs to spend more time on those characters, and it especially needs to involve the player far more in the conflict aside from "hey you, why don't you accompany serana on destroying these three big skeletons!"
On the whole though, I do still like the expansion's contents. Not only are all the dungeons it adds pretty fun, and lengthy, but it adds a multitude of new radiant quests, brings you across some unique, and interesting locations, has some great encounters, (there's a particular one involving a frozen over lake that I love, if you've played it, you know what I'm talking about) and best of all, it expands the main games content in a significant way. There's plenty of new things, like the aforementioned werewolf skill tree, but also things like a new quest separate from the main story, new armor, new shouts, and a way to change your character's appearance. It's a shining example of the right way to do a medium sized expansion, because it's not just a new set of quests, it genuinely changes the main game for the better too.

Uma boa DLC. O que eu mais gosto dela é sua história e upgrades que trazem para a gameplay. Essa nova árvore para Vampiros e Lobisomem (mesmo que o Lobisomem continue uma merda), são muito interessante. A história é boa, a Serana é a melhor companion do jogo e tem aventuras muito boas, como quando você vai para a dimensão das almas... Aquela parte é de tirar o folego. Mas ela não é perfeita, há sim alguns defeitos, como o fato de vampiros atacar as cidades, isso pode acabar matando um NPC importante, um mercador útil ou etc. Seria interessante se eles fossem pra alguma ala médica que você pudesse ir lá e ajudar eles á curar do vampirismo ou algo assim. A Dawnguard é decepcionante, não há motivos pra usar ela, os cachorros são feios e a besta é uma arma inútil. E o fato de não poder casar com a Serana é uma porra! >:(

This is a well done addon worth playing if you enjoyed the main game. nothing here reinvents the wheel but there are several big and uniqe new areas, some nice quests, some nice additions like the werewolve and vampire skilltree as well as the crossbows. That you can not marry Serana because she is a vampire is a shame, but I have red there are mods to fix that.
The game could have used about 7 more of this kind of addon, that just add a bigger questline to follow as well as new stuff and improvements to the game in general.

It took quite a while for a DLC to come out for Skyrim, but here it is. Vampirism is where this one will take you and while it is a fun ride, it is quite short and a bit lacking in content. You can choose to side with the vampires or Dawnguard, but the main storyline is the same. I found all the quests fun, with some beautiful new locales, but I really wish this DLC was more.

You start about by hearing about a rumor of a castle off near Solitude. Once you arrive you are greeted by vampires and the lord of them all asks if you want the gift or not. I, of course, chose to and am glad I did. The new vampire form has its own set of perks and skills. Using melee to attack or magic spells are fun, plus the bat teleportation spell is great to use. The vampire design in Dawnguard is fantastic and stays away from cliché looks. They look like beasts rather than the typical Hollywood vampires. I chose to side with the vampires, so I can’t tell you how the Dawnguard quests went. The side quests are fun and vary greatly on what to do. Same goes for the mains quests, but I have one major complaint about a particular main quest.

One quest has you trying to figure out how to get Auriel’s Bow from the Snow Elves, yes Snow elves, and this is one confusing quest. You have to pass through 5 different portals that take you to new areas, but the quest marker doesn’t point to them all like most quests. You really have to figure out where to go and this quest will take almost 2 hours to complete. It takes you through vast areas such as icy caverns, phosphorescent caves, and Falmer territory. Because these areas are so vast (probably more vast than any other interior area in Skyrim) you will get lost easily. I spent most of my time trying to figure out where to go because there were so many branching confusing paths. Some people may like this, but at least make the quest marker point in the right direction.

The DLC is also extremely buggy with quests that you can’t complete, items that won’t appear or drop, and many other things. I had to advance some quests using the command console because a bug prevented me from moving on. The story is a disappointment as well because you feel like you’re just the middleman in some family dispute. Serena is a great companion, but the other characters are hard to like because you don’t visit them very often except to get quests. There weren’t any crazy plot twists or anything like that. I honestly felt like this is something that could have just been kept in the main game as a faction quest. For the high price point ($20) there isn’t much loot that you can walk away with and feel satisfied with. The biggest loot is Auriel’s Bow which is useless for people who aren’t using archery. There are a couple new enemies thrown in, but overall this DLC doesn’t feel like it is worth $20.

The most important thing is that it is more Skyrim which is what people want. It is more quests that are fun and allow you to continue leveling up your character and looting. Skyrim may not ever have a Shivering Isles type expansion, but let’s hope that the future DLC will be more enjoyable than Dawnguard.