This is my own personal opinion of Dawnguard, many people may disagree but just remember that this is my own opinion and as such i am entitled to it

The Good

I thoroughly enjoyed playing on the vampire side of things as my first character, the vampire lord looks badass in a way that cannot properly be described.

The characters of the Volkihar vampires are interesting and I loved their castle, had a unique feel to it that I hadn't felt in Fort Dawnguard. The 2 new areas, The Soul Cairn and The Forgotten Vale are great additions, The Soul Cairn is probably the most unique looking place in skyrim and even though it may appear empty and samey it made me want to explore it more, which is certainly saying something as I hadn't ever felt that way about a location before. The Forgotten Vale is just... in a word... beautiful... I never thought I would see such a beautiful place in a game that is not only pretty to look at but is also expansive and interesting. Serena is also one of the best characters in skyrim. Funny, charming and suprisingly attractive she is great to have walking about with you and she is a welcome addition to the memorable followers list.

The new equipment are certainly interesting additions. The Crossbows are good fun and are quite powerful for even low level archers. The new armor such as the Falmer Heavy Armor and the vampire armor not only look great but also have decent stats attached to them.

Finishing off is the great attention to detail and, to put it quite simply, the best side quest in Skryim, "Lost to the ages" if you haven't tried this wonderful side quest just do it, challenging and rewarding, just how I like it.

The Bad

During the course of the DLC i never really felt as though there was a proper war going on between the Vamprires and the Dawnguard, sure the Dawnguard pop up from time to time but even during the main quest of the DLC there was no epic battle between the factions, which was a big dissapointment for me.

One thing that really bugged me is that even while playing as the Vampires, you killed loads of vampires... and gargoyles... and undead... it really didnt make sense to me how many of my own badass kind I was killing, it would have made sense for the Dawnguard to be killing this many creatures but even as a vampire it confused me how much of my own kind I could happily kill. This also extends into how much you can probably tell I love the vampires side, the Dawnguard however... not so much. The characters are relatively generic, their fort doesnt feel like a fort due to cobwebs, clutter, emptyness ect, there doesn't actually seem to be that much of an 'army' so as to speak as instead there being about 5 people, who aren't very interesting. Finally the fact that the 2 faction's main quests are basically the same. If I got my own way of how the Dawnguard Main Quest went I would have made an assault on Castle Volkihar happen at some point and maybe to do so (and I know this is generic and sad so don't judge me) the Dawnguard recruit werewolves to act as cattle for the Volkihar (seeing as one of the Thrallmaster Vampire mentions that some people come willingly) and then when the Dawnguard attacked all hell would break loose and the werewolves would help tear the vampires apart, but hey thats just my 2 cents.

The vampire lord form is relatively clunky and slow and while it can be powerful werewolf seems to overpower it again on the end scale of their skill trees. Vampire attacks can sometimes become annoying, Auriel's bow i believe needs a bit of a damage boost considering it is a weapon owned by a god. I wish I could invest in the castle and the fort by paying to upgrade them and so on so forth with nitpicking.

And once again, bugs, I know this is bethesda but during my first playthrough the slowdown in castle volkihar was terrible, the game crashed on me 3 times, Serena suddenly went beserk and attacked everyone in castle volkihar for no reason and at times various quests wouldn't continue. Along with that the Serena Drain Health Ball glitch didn't get fixed and as a result many people don't realise this is a glitch and just consider the vampire lord to be terrible in terms of damage. The beta test I believe should be sent out slightly earlier so that Bethesda could have a bit more time to iron out these bugs but of course I don't work at a games company so I don't know how these things work exactly.

The Verdict

Dawnguard is a great addition to Skyrim and a wonderful first DLC. With memorable characters and locations, excellent main and side quests and a slew of new equipment it definitely holds itself as a proper expansion. While various features don't feel completely as polished as they should and bugs continue to creep in on a large scale if you can overlook these flaws you can see Dawnguard as a fantastic start to Skyrim's DLC roster.

If anybody has any points they would like to make or wish to give their own opinion then let us know!

I think your thread deserves more posts than this.

What did you think of my review friend?

I also like the fact that they actually added spells, also when you mention about there not being a sense of warfare between the two faction, what do think about the war between vampires and mortals with the added vampire attacking cities?

And you review seems well balance enough from what i've heard, too be fair this makes me want dawnguard more

The idea of the vampires attacking cities is cool and all, but I would have preferred if the Dawnguard posted several generic members of themselves in cities to protect the cities, THEN it would feel like a war, at the moment it just simply feels like something that replaces dragon attacks

The part that caught my attention was: "Both sides are basically the same" Oh s*** is it like Empire/Stormloacks?

How about the dawnguard training and updateing the city guards with the use of crossbows and other methods of killing vampires, this would lead to stronger guards, maybe even captains that can go toe-to-toe with you.

Well if it was put in that context it would have to be one side i was biased on, at least with the civil war you have massive and epic battles, none to be found here however

And the idea of the dawnguard training city guards is a great idea! It certainly would have bridged the gap.

No big battles what so ever, would of that been a perfect time to use the new "horse mount combat" feature.

No there radically different.

Thanks, I was talking about the storyline. So "radically" different. That's enough for me!

Indeed, strange that their is no real time for using this apart from maybe the soul cairn, you can't even take a normal horse to their or the forgotten vale either, strange design choice

No they're not.

Yes they, are, ,different followers, different side quests, different radiant quests, different main quests.

My personal verdict is, while it's a great first expansion, it did not deserve a $20.00 Price tag. They exaggerated in the amount of content added when compared to Shivering Isles. While I'm happy it's about the same amount, they said it would be more, and the same amount, to me, doesn't warrant such a gross overprice. It's like they were pulling a Call of Duty with the prices this time around. Not just the prices though. Also, they lacked some key features they said were going to be in the game, that weren't, such as upgrading the DLC keeps. To top it off, legendary drops felt limited as well. It's cool that there's a new axe, bow, hammer, etc. in the game, and I love my Dragonbone gear as well, but compared to the weapons, unique and otherwise, and the variety of them in Shivering Isles, Dawnguard doesn't compare. The same can be said about unique armor. Sure there are different Styles of the Dawnguard and Vampire armor, but it isn't unique in any way. Where's the unique gear? It was lacking in this game. Plus, while more spells have been added, compared to Shivering Isles... Heck, compared to Oblivion itself, spells have always been lacking in Skyrim! It should have been a key focus to completely revamp spellcasting in the game to make it more on par with what people actually wanted to begin with. I love the perks for the WW and VL as much as the next guy, but it doesn't mean it makes up for the severely lacked content here...

All in all, when compared to Shivering Isles, I would say it's great, and it's fun, but it isn't Shivering Isles great, and definately not worth the price....

Same follower. Side quest vary. Vampire kill dawnguard. Dawnguard kill vampire. Main quests the outcome is the same except Dawnguard get more.

The only issue I had was the lack of things to kill in the soul carin. When entering I was blown away by the look and the feel, but I expected to be fending off an undead army, always under attack and just flat out having to cut my way through hoards of undead. But that wasn't the case, it was a little lack luster IMO, everything else about the DLC I have enjoyed so far, but the Soul carin was a little bit of a let down.

Only problem I see is the bad. You say that the Dawngaurd didn't attack or raid the castle, even though they do? (That is, if you side with them).

Actually that was one of my favorite parts. Raiding the castle with all the other dawnguards, than fighting the vampire lord (Which I milked the hell out of by doing only a few swings with my sword and than switching it up. If I just activated my elemental fury he would've been dead in seconds. Tried to avoid that.)

not being able to side with harkon and actually blacking out the sun permanently.

dawnguard being able to get VL.

no tricking out forts like beth said.

no people attack you at level 4 vampire.

these are the things i dislike about the dlc.

A lot of the stuff in your "bad section" can be solved by mods so I think it will be amazing for us pc users

well goodie for u

OK quick recall for this, Dawnguard faction is slightly better, I saw the huskies, made me a happy man :3 also the amount of members in the castle now is better, around 10 or so, plus the final battle at the dawnguard end helped make it feel a bit more like a proper battle.

Seems like a fair review to me.

I agree, it doesn't make sense for me to have to kill so many Vampires, if I'm working with the Vampires.