The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dawnguard

Dawnguard is Bethesda's first proper expansion for Skyrim, and it arrives with a premise that is both classic and a little safe: vampires want to blot out the sun using an Elder Scroll prophecy, and you get to pick a side. The Volkihar clan, led by the imperious Lord Harkon, faces off against the reformed Dawnguard order under the battle-hardened Isran. You are, naturally, caught in the middle at level 10 or higher, which already tells you something about the audience this expansion is built for. If you have not spent meaningful time in Skyrim's base game, Dawnguard will feel like a pop quiz you did not study for. The faction choice is the expansion's most interesting lever, even if it pulls less weight than you might hope. Siding with Harkon hands you the Vampire Lord form almost immediately: a hulking, winged creature with eleven perks across its own skill tree, two combat modes (Blood Magic levitation and grounded melee-claw), and abilities like Vampiric Drain, Raise Dead, and a bat-swarm dash. On paper, it reads like a second character sheet. In practice, the form is clunky in tight dungeon corridors, locks you into a forced third-person camera, and tends to feel weaker than whatever build you spent forty hours crafting before the DLC began. The werewolf perk tree also gets expanded here, so Companions fans are not left out, but Vampire Lord is clearly the headline act. Going Dawnguard, meanwhile, gets you the crossbow almost immediately. It stays loaded while holstered, fires harder than a bow, and slots neatly into the archery perk tree. Dwarven exploding bolts are a Dawnguard-exclusive treat. Neither path closes off the Vampire Lord form permanently, which softens the consequences of your choice considerably. Narrative-wise, Dawnguard delivers something slightly warmer than Skyrim's main quest. Serana, your vampire companion voiced by Laura Bailey, is genuinely well-written, with an arc rooted in family trauma and reluctant trust that earns its emotional beats. The story takes you through two standout new world spaces: the Soul Cairn, a grey realm of Oblivion stuffed with captured souls, and the Forgotten Vale, a secluded arctic valley with a cathedral atmosphere and some of the prettier vistas the engine can produce. Both areas feel genuinely distinct from the holds of the base game. The main map content, by contrast, mostly recycles familiar caves and crypts, and the Elder Scrolls lore around the prophecy, while interesting in isolation, gets diluted by fetch-quest padding that Skyrim veterans will recognise as an old habit Bethesda has not quite broken. Bugs remain a companion throughout. Quest triggers fail, characters do not appear where they should, and the Vampire Lord form carries a small museum of transformation glitches. None are game-ending in most playthroughs, but the save-early culture required to survive Bethesda DLC of this era is still very much in effect. The dragonbone weapons added here, while thematically satisfying, may not outperform your existing legendary gear, so loot hunters should temper expectations. Total playtime lands around 10 to 20 hours depending on side content, with a second run on the opposite faction adding meaningful replayability even if the quest beats converge more than the branching setup implies. For lore obsessives and fans of companion-driven stories, Dawnguard earns its place. For players who just want a radically different gameplay experience bolted onto Skyrim, the Vampire Lord form will disappoint more than it dazzles. It is more Skyrim, for better and for worse, and Serana alone is worth most of the admission. Monika, Scout Team