Very recently, I have had the pleasure of bashing one of my favorite games of the year 2012. Funny thing was that I enjoyed it significantly more than I did Halo and for longer than I did Dishonored, it scored far less. That is because while the game was ambitiously done, it was lazily implemented. My rating of this expansion is not going to change when discussing visuals or audio but the story and game-play featured some very interesting improvements!
Again, please note that I would score this game much lower in game-play if not for the mods available on PC.
Story: 6/10
I purchased the Dawnguard DLC after feeling incredibly disappointing with the main plot-line of Skyrim and desperate for some compensation. It was on sale for a ridiculously cheap price on steam so I thought: “What the hell… Why not?”.
This DLC did a great job of reminding me that while developers sometimes do fail to provide me with the epic story they suggested I would experience when advertising the game, it is not necessarily intended to be that way and they do certainly try to make up for it.
The story offered had two different factions to choose from but regardless of the faction you choose. It all leads to one main thing and the faction you side with gaining the upper hand over the other. This is not to say that the story was outstanding, though it was very rewarding to receive a stylish bow that allowed you to shoot arrows that explode with the power of the sun at enemies, and the final battle was definitely more rewarding to me than the terribly scripted final battle of the core game. What was rewarding though was the lore presented on the new locals like the Soul Cairn and Castle Dawngaurd, and also the lore on the origin of vampire and the difference between vampire lords and the regular riff raff you have encountered so far in the series.
What also helped was that the characters did not feel so terribly two dimensional. Sure… Serana regardless of the faction chosen still felt like a teenage girl with daddy issues, despite that she was probably the most fleshed out character I have encountered in Skyrim. As a player, I got to interact with her significantly with much more depth than I did with any other character. It was actually not a surprise to find a mod allowing the player to marry her.
There was also my personal favorite Florentius Banius. He wasn’t exactly fleshed out, but his quirky personality and his claims to have a direct link of communication with the Divine Arkay made him sound bat sh!t crazy! But at the same time he did tend to know a little more than his character could know without access to abnormal means such as actually communicating with his deity. It was also amusing how the other characters reacted to him regarding his odd behavior, especially the the stoic and taciturn leader of the Dawngaurd, Isran who finds Banius to be barely tolerable. Personally I would have LOVED to have seen the character given more depth and involvement in the story as he was by far the most amusing personality I have encountered in the series (his odd quirks make him more enjoyable to me than even Sheogorath!).
Game-play: 9/10
What could have improved the game-play? Well each faction had their own arsenal of abilities or weapons that made the game quiet fun to play. First off is the vampire faction’s vampire lord form which allows you to level up on a completely different skill tree based on how many people you drain dry using that form. But it isn’t just that which makes the combat fun, it is the fact that I can “force pull” enemies using some choke spell which I can’t seem to remember the name of. It reminded me of the telekinesis spell but on people. What was even more enjoyable was the fact that one particular modder created a spell based on it in the “Blood Bender’s Mind” mod which allowed you to do it in regular form even if you do not work for the vampire faction, something that i really enjoyed combining with Unrelenting force and my enchanted axe! Another fun addition where the crossbows and the other Dawnguard equipment which looked particularly good, and the crossbow functioned very well given that it didn’t need to be drawn before shooting allowing for faster reaction times when surprised.
Story: 6/10
Visuals: 5/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Sound: 6/10
Total: 6.5/10 (Good)
Please refer to our Score Guide
