Just finished.

Doing every single quest in the DLC - but always fast travelling - it took me 15 hours for the main quest (DG) and 27 overall.

This is a beautiful addition to the game. I'm in awe.

A couple of nits (sorry, Bethesda):
1. Curing Serana of vampirism. If you ask her at the 'wrong' time, you lose all future ability to reengage on the topic. There shouldn't be dead ends in conversations.
2. Summoning the very special individual you meet in the very special place when seeking out Serana's mom (I don't want to be specific, as it would be a spoiler.) When I try to summon him in Tamriel, I cannot complete the summons - it simply fades out.
3. Summoning the special horse that you meet in that same special place - ditto. Unable to complete summons, despite having completed the necessary particulars.
4. The caves in the castle valley - they seem rather pointless.
5. The 'paragon' stuff - great idea, but I never would have figured out what to do if I had not consulted online sources.

And one particular kudo:
The valley to which one journeys to pick up the special weapon - a valley that hasn't seen too much foot traffic in a while.
That entire episode is an award winner, Bethesda. W O W .

Final score: 9.5, easily.

THanks, Bethesda. I'm buying yooz guys a brew one day.

Great review. I love how detailed it is. I love how you explain about the 9.5 score too.

2/10.

Like he said, this is hardly a review. All I learned is "this is beautiful" then "I encountered the following bugs" then you finished with "awesome, 9.5". Why is it 9.5? What is so amazing about the DLC? What's the most memorable moment? Are there any characters you've grown attached to? Was it difficult, was it easy? Did you enjoy all places alike, or were some worse than others? Did it feel different or did you think it fit very smoothly into vanilla Skyrim?
Just to begin.

I think it's actually a good thing. A quest that you have to do the right way or lose the possibility of ever completing it. Because Serana is supposed to be a person and you can waste all your chances with a real person.
Also, it's a spoiler.

Come on, you just need to find the Paragon Platform and you're set. I understand how that can be difficult for someone who's used to fast travelling, though. You should try exploration, it's fun

I agree with you on Serana and that this review is.... not well fleshed out — maybe if you were quickly mentioning it to a friend it would work, but for something put up for public scrutiny it's rather lacking — but don't you think the quoted statement is more than a little loaded? First off not exploring and not fast traveling are not tied — I fast travel plenty, but I thoroughly inspect everything in every dungeon, and everything I stumble across on my first journey to a place. Second, his point about the Paragons is completely valid; we are never introduced to the idea of the Paragons, we are never told where to get them, we are never told where the paragon platform is — or that there is such a thing. No quests, no books/notes, no hints, nada — now maybe if this wasn't one of the two things in the Forgotten Vale they could do that, but that's not the case.

Bad review, not trying to be mean about it. The above have stated why, however I do agree, well done Beth, well done.

I guess you're right in saying that we don't know anything about the paragons - what are they? "Big gems opening portals" is not really an explanation... There should be a person we can talk to about the paragons, someone who could tell us the story of these gems and their guardians.
Then again, this is the Forgotten Vale. It stands to reason that there are no books left and no people who can help us. Still, it could have been resolved bettter. I wish it was.

But I can't agree with the statement that the idea needs to be "introduced". When I find a unique, valuable object and them stumble across another similar one - and they seem to be connected somehow - then I hold to these items until I find out more about them. So I carry them with me until:
1. I find the rest of them.
2. I figure out if they have any other use aside from selling to a merchant. Ergo, until I find the Paragon Platform.
It's a natural thing to do. I don't need a quest in my journal.

About fast travelling - I admit I can't say for certain if the OP is an explorer or not. However, based on my observations of the forumites here, people who always fast travel are those who rarely explore. That's just something I assumed. But now that I think of it, if the OP didn't explore at all he'd probably never have found the paragons, so I might have been wrong.

Maybe it's just that I love riddles and hidden surprises. I suppose if you just want to know what the paragons are for, searching for the platform can indeed be frustrating.

No need to troll. If you have more detailed questions, the polite thing to do is ask.

For all those wanting more detail:
I can't. It would be a total spoiler and would ruin it for people who haven't played.

There are

or move to the spoiler forum

I think Gelabor should tell you something like also along your journey you may find paragons that can take you through a portal to a place in the forgotten vale. The portal is by the water fall by the cliff. That would have been enough, without YouTube I would have no idea what the Paragons do.

Then ask a moderator to move this to the spoiler section?

by the way- the key to summoning 'that very special person'---- Aim at the ground in a decently open area.

COOL. I will give it a try. Thanks

You weren't able to summon Funny I was able to.

I was doing it wrong, Fyrisi up above helped me out

Oh ok that's good.

7/10.

Needs a whole new community & environment. Same old scenery over and over again.

greatly enjoyed this new DLC. I'll agree with most of the points touched on by the OP

That being said though...

1.My main issue (hopefully stopped with the MQ finished) vampires wiping out NPC. No need to discuss this further folks, read the threads.
2.Pissing off Serana somehow and she now won't talk about being cured... plus side she can turn me into a vampire lord if I ever change my mind.
3.Werewolves? Other then my character already was one, i thought there was going to be more involvement from them. Never encountered any at all. And this werewolf skill tree? How does that unlock? Kinda disapointed. No I wasn't expecting some kinda Underworld or Twilight kinda story... but some kinda vampire/werewolf thing would have been nice... maybe forbidden love between Serana the vampire and my character the werewolf... ah who knows lol

9/10 for me guys. Loved it. Little glitches here and there but as a PC player, some of those issues may relate to mods I run. Who knows. I don't care. I will try different things with my other characters.

Nice Review Chickenkungfu, I am in agreement with you. Regarding the summon comment, there is a fix to summoning both of those special characters. Search the forum and you will find your answer.