The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dawnguard

Giving you a reason to come back to the wonderful world of Skyrim is what ultimately matters and at the end of the day, if you can stomach the cost, it will give you hours of fun and may spark your interest to carry on playing a simply fantastic base game.

If you are into Twilight, vampires and stuff like that, then you will love this expansion. Not only do you get a chance to make a new choice in regards to your "relation", but you also get a gripping story, a family tragedy and a decent amount of new spells if you are into the werewolf or vampire parts of TeS. And you also get a dragon shout and new gear. Not bad.

One of the best add-on adventures in recent RPG memory, but take our warning to heart: save early, save often, and expect the unexpected.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard. Bethesda shows how a dlc should be done. Dawnguard's 20-euro price tag is quite steep, but the amount of quality content more than makes up for it. Also, playing as a vampire lord is a welcome distraction. [Sept 2012]

Dawnguard adds more of what made Skyrim great, without feeling like it was tacked on at the last minute.

If you're like me, you already invested a considerable amount of time in Skyrim. If that's you, Dawnguard is well worth the $20 investment.

In the end, Dawnguard doesn't add vast new stretches of wilderness to explore or new game mechanics; it merely builds on what made Skyrim so great to begin with. The main quest will captivate those who have exhausted the majority of storylines in the base game, but players will inevitably be drawn into exploration once again. Dawnguard is almost guaranteed to elicit more than twenty hours from your schedule, so stay away if you have any real priorities at the moment.

Fans of Skyrim should almost certainly grab it in recognition of the fact that it's hard to get too much of a good thing.

Dawnguard is DLC done right.

Bethesda went the extra mile to tweak existing quests in order to fully integrate the experience, and their effort shows. The constant treks across Skyrim do get a bit old after a while, but the wealth of new powers, information, and intrigue you'll find along the way more than makes up for the long walks.

While Dawnguard probably could have contained a bit more for its $20 price tag, most gamers who have dedicated months of their lives to playing this game will not be disappointed with their purchase. For the time being, I'm hooked again, and that means I'm probably going to have to go pay off my ridiculously high bounty in Whiterun.

The vampiric tone is enough of a departure to reinvigorate interest in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and tempt gamers back for another round but the same frame-rate issues and glitches abound taking a little bit of the shine off it. It's well worth a look, just know what you're in for.

A DLC full of content and worth the 1600 Microsoft Points it costs. It is perfectly integrated into Skyrim, offers plenty of secondary missions and the main story has great moments and epic battles. A very recommended acquisition for those who enjoyed Skyrim.

Adds over 20 hours of new content, but will feel a little too familiar for Skyrim vets. [Sept 2012, p.107]

Dawnguard offers far more than a self-contained episode in the Fallout vein--which it should, at double the price--but it falls just short of the scope of a traditional, pre-Internet boxed expansion pack. Still, it's a fine way to expand the already immense content offering of Skyrim, especially if you're still actively traipsing around those snowy hills in search of more adventure.

The new DLC contains a couple of mechanical flaws, its story feels undercooked at times and, because this is a Bethesda game, it is by no means bug-free. But if you already own a copy of Skyrim, buying Dawnguard isn't so much a good decision to make as it is a no-brainer.

Lore enthusiasts will appreciate several significant developments, and no matter your choice, both new organizations have memorable characters and conversations. I had a blast returning to Skyrim after a few months away. Even so, Bethesda did such a fine job of entertaining me the first time out that Dawnguard feels more like an added bonus than an essential ingredient of the whole.

When you get 100-plus hours of gameplay out of the box, do you really want to spend another $20 for 20-or-so more? That's up to you, but Dawnguard is certainly worth the investment.

The evaluation, while taking into account the huge amount of problems can not be negative: Dawnguard offers an exceptional number of hours of additional gameplay, new areas and extremely interesting quest; as well as lot of new pieces of equipment.

An expansion that extends content, areas, weapons and powers. The Vampire Lord and Dawnguard are two sides facing a new dark frame and potential. If you play Skyrim still a lot, you'll like it.

Dawnguard is a well made, quite long expansion that doesn't live up to all our expectations. It's import ant, because this DLC costs 1600 MSP, which converts to a fairly big amount of money. But if you're a fan of Skyrim and can't wait to become a powerful vampire lord, you should give it a chance.

Dawnguard is a decent expansion for Skyrim, but one with a steep price. The content in the expansion is compelling, but will never have you at the edge of your seat.

Quotation forthcoming.

It's not a DLC that you need badly, especially if you still have something else to do in Skyrim. But if you already know it inside out and are hungry for more, Dawnguard will quench your thirst. [September 2012, p.66]

The "nudist vampire clan bug" has been corrected, and now we can see Dawnguard for what it really is. Not a fundoshi commercial, but a decent DLC with quality content, a price that's a bit too high, and the usual amount of bugs (and since this is a Bethesda game, "usual" means "a lot"). Skyrim fans will probably love these quest lines as they loved the original game, even with their problems.

All of this amounts to a content-packed but ultimately rather disappointing first crack at Skyrim DLC for Bethesda.

Dawnguard has a lot going for it, but as with all major Bethesda RPG's, it also has tons of bugs. Still worth your money though and it hopefully will get a necessary set of patches.

Playing as a Vampire Lord is too buggy and clumsy to be fun for long. And that's a shame, because with more attention to the design of this form, Dawnguard could have been a better piece of software.

As a whole, Dawnguard is either to expensive or too spiritless to really shine, maybe even both. In its best moments, it manages to surpass Skyrim in some disciplines, but it doesn't quite harness all of the potential its fascinating new areas and fractions seem to offer. A good new episode then, but not an essential one.

Dawnguard is the ideal add-on for those who still haven't satisfied their need for Skyrim. Those who seek innovation, will be disappointed however. Dawnguard is simply more of the same, plus a clumsy Vampire Lord transformation.

Dawnguard is a mixture of old and a little something new, but it's also a case of success and failure. In trying to present an epic pilgrimage, the game becomes exasperating and a chore, but in attempting to do new things it occasionally sets itself apart from the side-quests discovered in the main game. There's nothing earth-shattering or fresh from an artistic standpoint, but Dawnguard has its high points, a very welcome companion and as well as new powers for you to play around with. Whether or not you consider this worth the 1600 MS points will depend on just how desperate you are to return to the world of Tamriel.

Even by Bethesda standards, Dawnguard is just riddled with bugs, many of them game-breaking. I came across audio issues, missing textures, missing NPCs, broken dungeons, and much more. This is a fun expansion, even if its content is a little disappointing, but I highly suggest waiting for a patch (or three) before you jump in.

The vampire powers are a nice game changer and the overall story is engaging. The game still suffers from the typical Elder Scrolls quirkiness, but that's not necessarily a bad thing depending on your point of view.

Dawnguard is an atmospheric and enjoyable return to the frigid lands of Skyrim. Just beware the bugs.

If you are a Skyrim fan who has already invested countless number of hours into the main game, then Dawnguard is for you, but if you have moved on to other games, I am not so certain Dawnguard is reason alone to come back as frankly it is more of the same.

While the amount of content included in this DLC is substantial-definitely worth the twenty bucks-it's also riddled with bugs, and a few of those make it damn near unplayable. It's frustrating, at the very least.

It's difficult to turn your nose up at new content for a game that scored a ten, but if you're expecting something dramatically different or experimental from Dawnguard you're likely to be disappointed.

Dawnguard is considerably better than most of Bethesda's recent Fallout 3 DLC, but you'll be sorely disappointed if you go in expecting to find Skyrim's version of Bloodmoon or The Shivering Isles.

Apart from the (sadly) expected Bethesda hiccups - erratic quest markers, odd spawn glitches - there's nothing really wrong with Dawnguard. At the same time, there's nothing here that demands 1600 Microsoft Points' worth of attention. If all you want is a solid side quest and some good loot, this will scratch that itch. If you were hoping for something more epic and ambitious, keep waiting.

Bethesda's mega-RPG already has so much to offer that an extra storyline doesn't feel like a real expansion. For those who've seen everything in Skyrim, Dawnguard might be nice, boasting a few new and pretty areas. Unfortunately, it doesn't feel like a complete expansion like Shivering Isles was for Oblivion, which is why it's also a bit expensive.

Skyrim: Dawnguard will not blow your mind, but it's a decent addition to the Skyrim franchise, so long as you're willing to buy into the vampiric premise. There's a number of lore-rich encounters that long time TES fans will love, and a number of extras that help pad the package.

It's not bad at all, but it's not different. It might add to Skyrim, but it doesn't enrich it in doing so.

Judged purely on its merits as a piece of downloadable content, 'Dawnguard' doesn't quite live up to its rather steep 1600 Microsoft Points (£15 / $20) price tag. The plot, missions and marquee features aren't as strong as they could be, failing to leave much of an impression past the relatively brief questline. However, it's the little things that help Dawnguard capture that Skyrim magic, leaving players thirsty for more.

Its headline feature is easily its worst but there are enough other new extras to make this a costly but still diverting return to the land of Skyrim.

Predictable, bug-ridden fare. [Sept 2012, p.72]