Theres plenty of incentive. Dawnguard armor, huskys, trolls, and the ability to upgrade crossbows. If anything, I'd say the vamps got the short end of the stick.

Thank you guys for all the feedback. It was my first ever review of anything and I appreciate all your comments. Oh and @Lordfoofoo, we DID get a solid answer about the dwemer back in Morrowind, but it's extremely deep shrouded in philosophy and metaphysics. If you want I can explain it to you haha but it's probably better suited to a private message.

It's good that some people are satisfied with it. I know that many aren't.
Edit: Like I said, I would've prefered more gadgets and powers

I dont see why, but to each his own. I personaly loved the [censored] out of the crossbow. Especially the upgraded dwarven 1 with explosive bolts. Top that off with enchantments (mine paralyzes) and its a major powerhouse. I also love the whole crusader style heavy armor u get, and the different colors for them, and the light armor. I almost came when I saw the armored trolls and huskys! It made me feel like a real vamp hunter all in all. Super cool. My only complaint is no one responds or says anything about Serana, a vamp, being in a vampire hunting castle. And that they dont say anything about me being a werewolf. Oh, and no dawnguard sword. I guess that's a lot of complaints. Whatevs, the Dawnguard RULE!

PS why does j1zz get turned to ironed when i try to type it in? Thought it was supposed to be censored.

Without having played it yet, that review is quite in harmony with things I've found out and things I've thought about what I've found out.

If you were a reviewer, I'd be inclined to pay attention to your reviews.

What about the fact that no one notices if YOU'RE a vampire? Haha

oh and one thing they just forgot some epic music i think this one resume quiet well the content : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lXT13GFpVM

Yea, that is dumb. Only Isran does.

Dang thanks. Maybe I'll make some more. This was just s spur of the moment thing after I compiled some posts from a couple threads I posted in

He does? What does he say or do?

I found it the other way round. The only good thing the vamps seem to get is the VL form, which in my opinion isn't all that great.

Something along the lines of you have some nerve to come back here after you let them change you. I'll give you one chance. Speak to (whatever the name of guy who cures vampirism is).

Why would he even think about letting you stay with the dawnguard if he somehow knows you LET them change you? You willingly join the other side and they just allow you back in without even a slap on the wrist? This is what I meant by no consequences. It cheapens the experience.

Everyone in Fort Dawnguard notices that you're a vampire, some of them point you to Falion, while others ask you to speak to Isran (who points you to Falion). All of them are uncomfortable with it, which is weird since at the end of the Dawnguard questline Serana has proven that vampires can be trusted.

I personally loved Dawnguard. The Soul Cairn was beautiful (although I really would have liked an option to deny the Ideal Masters some of the souls and find a way to move them to Sovngarde). Forgotten Vale was also quite breathtaking (if a bit big, but the teleporters make up for it), and the Falmer village was designed really well. I love the Dawnguard armour (it's what I wear now, even took Advanced smithing perk just to upgrade it) and the choice of colours, same with the vampire armour - upgraded for some of my followers. I'm indifferent about the crossbows, but it's nice to have that option. I love the Vampire Royal Armour even though I don't use light armour - the cloak is just beautiful. I love Arvak - whoever thought of the idea of a summonable mount was a genius - no more missing horses, and no more needing to join the Dark Brotherhood just to get a cool horse. I do wish Arvak was a normal ethereal horse, though, rather than a skeletal one. Maybe Bethesda got caught up in the vampire undead mindset.

Duhnerviir was cool, but of limited real use since we can call Odahviing anyway. I love how we get to meet Jiub again and help him out, even if we feel sad about his fate (thankfully he ends his story on a chirpy note and is not too upset about the whole thing), and his locket is actually quite a great item to have. +50 carry weight is better than anything I can enchant (without exploiting), and now I wear it in tribute to him. The new books are always welcome (and we have Jiub's book too - I hope someday we can go back to the Soul Cairn as get volume 2 from him) and there are tons of them in Castle Volkihar. I also love how Hern and Hert now look suitably vampiric, and when I blotted out the sun in front of Hert she actually said "Skyrim is ours!" and something about "now it's our time" or something. Of course, Hert never really does anything bad but it's cool to see her with vampire eyes and recognising the blotted out sun. I love Serana and how she interacts with you during the Dawnguard questline - she really comes alive. Of course, it's not hard to code when the writers know that she'll be the one you take through those areas, but the dialogue was really well-written. "Turns out you don't really get to know much about something by sleeping with it" - that immediately put my mind on the wrong track and I was delighted to see that you could actually respond on that track!! It's a shame that after the questline she reverts to being a normal follower (albeit one with a cool sandbox AI package) but she's still great to have, and arguably one of the best written followers I've seen in a Bethesda game.

There were a few downsides, but nothing which really ruined my enjoyment. The vampires attacking towns and villages was annoying, but unless you play with a no-reload rule you just need to be more careful. It can get annoying, but I managed to avoid visiting towns for most of the questline. After the questline you can still blot out the sun and trigger vampire attacks if you wanted, which is a nice bonus (even if you sided with the DG). Siding with the Dawnguard unfortunately also renders all items in Castle Volkihar as owned, even after the quest is over. All those books, including some I really wanted, all red!! Thank goodness for the console, and if you know that beforehand, you do have a small window of opportunity to empty the bookshelves of books when they are still unowned (the first time you enter the castle with Serana, before Harkon ejects you), but it's annoying nevertheless - especially when Fort Dawnguard doesn't have a matching library (I think they barely have 10 books in the whole place). Lots of the new items also require the Advanced smithing perk to upgrade fully, and for heavy armour users it means using 2 perks (although with the Elven perk you can also upgrade Auriel's bow, so it's not a total waste). The new monsters weren't really that impressive, but I guess they didn't need to be - although the first Vale Sabre Cat I saw scared me (more due to not really knowing what it was, though). The vampire ending was also quite underwhelming - you don't really feel like you're in charge of the castle - only the steward and the blacksmith girl seem to be pleasant to you at all. The Dawnguard ending was nice, cemented by Isran's heartfelt thank-you to Serana at the end - that really was a nice touch, and made me like him far more than I should have. Sadly, his dialogue post-Dawnguard remains the same as the start - I guess it could be attributed to his eternal vigilance, but it would be nice for him to lighten up after such a big victory. The new NPCs were nice too (although I wish you could recruit some of the vampires too, but it was annoying to finally get a female Bosmer companion, only to find out that she was missing voice files - the Eola sultry-female voiceset is missing a few lines by default and they weren't put in. Even though the actress recorded a few new lines specially for Beleval they neglected to record the missing lines. With the great quality of work done by modders these days, the main advantage (in my opinion) that Bethesda has over the modders is the access to voice actors (some nice mods are really let down by unvoiced dialogue), and for them to slip up in this department was quite a big let-down for me.

All in all it was a wonderful ride, though - much more fun that expected. There are other things I'd like, like a proper room in Fort Dawnguard with a library etc, but those can easily be modded in anyway. Dawnguard delivers a very nice setting and some great memories after the quest has ended. It does tend to force you through the quests (there's a real feeling of urgency unlike with Alduin - although part of that can be attributed to the annoying dying townsfolk feature) but the quests weren't that long. I also liked how some of the sidequests and miscellaneous quests did not automatically start the next quest in your journal after you complete the previous one, allowing you an uncluttered journal until such time as you chose to start the next quest (learn from this, night mother). In short, tt could have been more, but what was there was really enjoyable.

I think Isran felt that becoming a vampire didn't mean that you had thrown in your lot with the evil vampire organisation. He was disgusted with what you had become, but was willing to hear you out rather than let his bigotry overtake him. That reflects better on him than I expected. It's like how he is uncomfortable with (and more than a little rude to) Serana all the way until the end, but finally acknowledges that she really made a big sacrifice to help everyone, and he eats humble pie and thanks her sincerely. Despite his arrogance he is less obdurate than people like Esbern, and you just have to like him after the start, when he takes Agmaer under his care and teaches him from scratch. "'My pa's axe..?'... Stendarr preserve us..."

He doesn't know anything. Let them change you could mean letting your guard down, and getting infected. Oh, and who taught you those necromancer skills, and where can I find them? (topic is old)

Haha sorry, I sort of quit skyrim so I haven't been on the forums for a while, so I checked my last threads to see anything happened while I was gone.

Like many, I downloaded DG the day it was announced, installed it, then started to play it. I never made it to the fort, because the review hit a key point: vampires were killing necessary NPCs, because the mechanics only allow for a single store replacement. When they're wiped, the store is lost to us for the entire game. That's crap, so I uninstalled the DLC.

Now, I'm ready. I just finished Skyrim last night, so I'm going to use my existing character to play DG. I'm at a position now any NPC can be wiped and I won't care.

After finishing Skyrim, my expectation for a "good story" isn't one I carry, so it's nice to see a review which outlines we really have no choice in the DLC (as though we did in Skyrim).

I'm okay with that.

Thanks for the review. It was helpful, even with spoilers.

Thank you! I'm probably going to write another review for the next real dlc that comes out. This review was more popular than I expected