Okay, so I played through the DLC. I am going to give the goods and the bads, and most importantly of all, a "buy or not buy" at the end.


So lets begin.

Graphics: This is skyrim, do the math, it's always gorgeous and atmospheric.

Environment: There is really nothing new to this, and a lot of the stuff used is merely recycled from every other part of the game (shocker i know). In fact, I would go so far as to say that there is NOTHING new when it comes to textures or objects aside from a very small number of things. Yeah it's not much of a surprise, but when you go to the Soul Caern, things DO get different and interesting(ish).

Gameplay: Well, don't expect any huge differences here, everything works just as it does in any other part of the game. The new characters are certainly interesting, and the vampire companion is a lot of fun to interact with. The worst aspect is that the game refuses to let you marry her, which seems so stupidly natural once you either get turned into a vampire yourself, or get her cured at the very end. THIS IS STUPID AND I THINK BETHESDA SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER!

Moving on, the magical item of the game is a fancy bow, though there is little impressive about it unless you use special arrows. One type lets you screw over the undead something fiere with a pulse of light, and the other effectively turns off the sun. If you're a vampire or a psychotic evil bastard, this second option is fun.

Strangely enough, this game involves even MORE elder scrolls, and lets our hero read MORE of them... as if this seemed like a good idea the first time. Miraculously enough you don't go blind either. Plot armor or plot hole? your choice.

There are some new dragons, and two new shouts, nothing really interesting aside from how the ice dragon pair function, however if you play with an old character, they are hardly a challenge.

The difference between which faction you take really doesn't result in anything different, the villian dies and you still have the woman is still your teammate. If you want to rain down horrors on the little people, or never do it.. it's up to you enjoy.

In the end, the game has almost.. ALMOST no bearing on the overall arc of the game, if you're already a game finisher (like me), you get some different dialogue, but aside from that, either the vampire faction grows in strength, or gets effectively wiped out. Does this matter to you? you decide. In the end you can still get to be a vampire and kick over small towns for giggles.

Also, most importantly of all, if you were a werewolf, you ARE NO LONGER A WEREWOLF ANYMORE if you become a vampire. IF this happens you can NEVER BECOME A WEREWOLF AGAIN!!


Overall:
Pros: one very cool companion
Cool way to spread terror and mayhem by turning the sun red.
Nifty new weapons and armor that doesn't involve ebony or daedra hearts
VERY cool new places to make your home or base.

Cons:
This is expensive, 20 bucks/euros for something that has limited effect on the game
you can't marry the hottie you have to form a very personal relationship with
Some sloppy programming and planning involving making a human use the power of vampires and perminant blocks in becoming vampires or werewolfs.


Should you buy?: I would say not now. this is not worth the 20 bucks, wait for it to come down in cost.

You didn't notice that transforming into a Vampire Lord has an entire new set of controls and style of gameplay? Along with a full perk tree.
Also the addition of a Werwolf perk tree.


The only cons for me are being forced to get the damn Elder Scroll (again.)
And the random vampire attacks killing people in town all the time. (worse than random dragons by far)

When I looked at my skill tree, i could not find the werewolf tree at all.

Become a werewolf or vampire lord and press B or your menu button. Also I am pretty sure you can become a Werewolf again if you became a VL and decided it was not for you.

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  Become a werewolf or vampire lord and press B or your menu button. Also I am pretty sure you can become a Werewolf again if you became a VL and decided it was not for you.
  

this kind of trolling usually gets people banned from forums.

Evidently to access it you need to feed on corpses.

Didn't realize that trying to be helpful was trolling . You only need to feed to gain perk points the menu is accessable at anytime your in beast form. Seemed to me you was missing out on a cool feature.
Anyways to be on topic I would give Dawnguard a 6.5 out of 10 and recommend that people buy.

Firstly there are 3 new shouts and saying that almost every texture has been reused is completely wrong, there's all the Dawnguard armour types, Vampire armour, Royal armour, Dragonbone weapons, Dawnguard weapons, Auriels bow, Hardened Falmer armour and the Aetherium Crown.

That's just items, the Snow Elven architecture is completely new and probably my favourite in the TES series, the Chantry is simply beautiful. Both the Dawnguard and Volkihar fortresses are unique in design as well as the falmer designs have been expanded in the Vale.

Although I will admit that the Ancient Falmer armour is a rehashed combination of Ebony and Elven.

So yeah... Not all rehashed textures.

The storyline was very restrictive, all roads led to Rome!

I don't mean to disagree with you OP, everyone has their own opinion with these things, but it seems that you sort of just breezes through the dlc. There are quite a few new things added, a lot of them well hidden. Besides the Soul Cairn, you have to admit the Vale was pretty spectacular as well. And the werewolf perk tree actually does add a lot. Makes being a wolfy a viable playstyle. If you love Skyrim, then this is a buy now. But I can understand peoples hesitation with the price.

Don't mean to disagree with you, just point some things out. You did a good job of listing the big bonuses and such with dg. Good review