Well, I have finished Dawnguard in about eleven levels, if that means anything.

Pros and Cons:

1. It was easy to fall in love, if you will, with the protagonist daughter, Serana, of the “Clan Volkihar.” (I was enthralled with the fact that Serana remained in the game to be used as a companion. Watching Serana run off toward the dock alone, from the steps of Castle Volkihar, in search of cure for Vampirism was heartwarming. )

2. The sultry voice acting was superb as was the dialogue the actress voiced.

3. Thanks to Bethesda! The cinematography was exceptional in keeping with Skyrim’s amazing artwork.

4. The entire storyline was very well written, I think. (More so than the main storyline of Skyrim, which is rather disinteresting. Given that I played Skyrim for more than 500 hours before I ever finished the main quest and it’s not so fun filled ending—to say, because of all of the negative feedback about it in the forums.)

5. I was impressed with the fact that Dawnguard was designed, in part I believe, as part of the game itself. Wherein, you could jump around doing different unrelated quest after quest in both the game and Dawnguard with ease. (Not like some of those poorly designed DLC's in Dragon Age Origins, which I wasted money on.)


Personal Cons:

1. I am not necessarily a fan of multilayered mazes and there were more than my patience could handle at times. And, with that I fault my elderly mind, along with my frustration of following Skyrim’s compass. (I have never been able to quite grasp the compass and its many way-points.)


This probably seems like a bunch of rambling, but having played Dawnguard I am anxious to see what comes next. It was well worth the $20 bucks.

I wasn't so much imperssed with the storyline primarily because of how you end up making the choice between two sides

Choosing a side didn't bother me so much as all of the multilayered mazes did. Everywhere you went there was a maze to traverse. But, on the whole I liked it.

I like it more than I would have because I have mods lol

Just a few holes in logic for me.

Also,

pro s for dawnguard
nice worked out quest tho the start is a bit naive , all the vampires i met before just want to kill me so my first reaction was to kill serena
Serena is one of the few fleshed out npcs indeed and you either fall for her or you have a immediate dislike for her
Some epic new dungons and areas very nicely made and looks great, i especially like the soulcairn

Cons , i mentioned this before , alot of the features should have been in the original game and even then exsisting mods do a better job than some of those new features features
but what annoys me the most is the huge timesink this DLC is
ever noticed how all the locations of the mainquest seems to be always on the extreme end of the mapIf you are one of those people that never fast travels , ir does get annpying after a few times , it is almost like the game wants you to fast travel so it can spawn a dragon or a group of town attacking vampires

Yeah the traveling was a pain, and others have said those should have been basic features as well.

I hated the darkfall cave personally, I got confused lol. It also reminds me of that MMO darkfall of course xD

I also had a few game breaking bugs or plain bad bugs. Luckily I'm on computer so mods and console commands fixed that. But it's a pain to research for an hour to find new console commands and understand how they work and the consequences of using them.

I likes the idea of the DLC, but a lot of the execution of it was iffy to me. Too many game Breaking bugs, any console players with these would be screwed.

I've actually seen some 360 guy trying to send in his game info to a PC guy to transfer it to their PC and use console commands to advance him then send the memory back.

Dunno how that worked out.

Found that while trying to fix my own bugs lol

The Falmer village in the Forgotten Vale was a nightmare. The whole level design svcked, and it was too long. I just couldn't wait to get out of that manurehole and reach the Inner Sanctum.

pretty sure it was intended to be like that, i was glad i got out aswell,what a confussing maze but still some pretty epic fights

I agree wholeheartedly about the Darkfall Cave and the Falmer Village. But then, as I stated before I dislike multilayered mazes immensely. I always get twisted around those damnable mazes especially after a fight. In truth however, when I get annoyed by the constant fighting I just open up the console and type "kill" or "killall" if I am alone. Still, I personally liked Serana's character.

As for bugs the only bug I had was related to a mannequin mod, where I could not enter Castle Dawnguard. That said, I must have nearly 90 mods added to the game as it is. Most of which are mesh and texture mods, with about 20 .esp and .esm mods.

One final note, I wish I would have had more than 24 Elven arrows before the big boss fight. He was floating around that room so fast that I keep missing him. If it hadn't been for the "Dawnbreaker" --when his health was almost at an end-- I would have never defeated him.

I want to add to the shout-outs for Serana: she's the best in-game companion I've tried so far. She's interesting and fun to have around, doesn't get lost or in the way, is a great asset as a fighter, and basically everything I want in a follower.

I'm enjoying Dawnguard and particularly like the new locations - very imaginative - and I like the level design. I also particularly noted the animation of certain skeletons rising out of the ground - I thought that was particularly well done.

haha serana keeps shooting icicles into my skull

Let me kill Serana on sight and it will be perfect ( It's still amazing ).