Dawnguard Released

[Nefaro]

The reviewer pointed towards the old Bloodmoon expansion (and the other one?) where you could change into stuff.. and all that jazz. 

He seemed pretty peeved about the change in this one (Dawnguard) blocking out all your normal skills, map, inventory.. everything.  Basically being just a basic monster-mode switch that was weaker than his regular outfit.  That does kinda sound sucky.  :-\

[Toonces]

Well, I'm playing the vampire slayer questline so I can't comment on the vampire lord stuff.

In general I agree with the RPS review.  From what I've seen, a lot of the questline is going somewhere to fetch something for someone.  I haven't done the mounted combat yet, but other than that I don't think I've seen anything that is "game changing".  I suppose that I would agree that Dawnguard feels a lot like one of the vanilla questlines like the Companions or whatever. 

I've seen three unique locations so far, one of which you can see in the screenshots in the review.  I would agree that there is less interaction in the new area than there could have been.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that there is a lot more they could have done that I can think even with my limited imagination.  However, the area was really cool and the boss fights were epic-feeling enough.  It felt quite unique. 

I do find that there is a lot of slogging through dungeons and killing Falmer...I'm on that quest right now.  But the environment is well-done...very, very dark.  I'm going through torches like crazy and am really regreting that I couldn't figure out how to get my belt-mounted lantern to work (I must have mis-installed it because it wasn't at Riften or any other shop I've visited). 

My gripe with the RPS review is the same as what it is for most of the people that are anti-Dawnguard, and it has to do with the belly-aching over the price of the DLC.  I have to be perfectly honest- I think $20 is a completely fair price for the DLC.  I guess I'm just old school.  I remember when games were much more expensive than they are now.  Frankly, I think we're spoiled by these Steam sales where you can buy packs of really amazing games for practically pennies.  When I consider that a McDonald's value meal runs $8 or more now, it's all relative.  So, in that sense, $20 is very reasonable for what you get. 

I consider that I've spent 104 hours with Skyrim according to Steam and I'm still not finished.  I'd guess that there is probably another 50-100 hours to go before I finally hang it up.  Really, that is a lot of entertainment for $60 which is what I paid for Skyrim on release.  You could pick it up for half that a few weeks ago.  For $30, I mean, c'mon. 

My beef with Skyrim in general is that, when you get down to it, it's really no different than Dungeon Siege or any dungeon crawler.  You get your mission, go into the dungeon, kill the monsters, collect the loot, rinse and repeat.  Sure, you can "role play" if you want but at the end of the day it's one big dungeon crawl.  I found myself boring of Skyrim at 92 hours (92 hours!) because it started to feel like the same thing over and over.  Yet, what Skyrim does more than any game I've played is completely draw me into an alternative universe with incredibly immersive environments and just enough NPC action that I feel like I'm in a living world.  To that end, Dawnguard is just more of the same Skyrim. 

I suppose to finish this long post up I'd say that I do agree that Dawnguard feels a bit lazy, like the developers stuck with the nice, safe, well-trodden path.  I'm not seeing a lot of vampire "lore" and I can see where they could have gone a far different direction.  Maybe Skyrim in general is too easy with the little arrow thing always showing you exactly where you need to go next.  Other than choosing whether to become a vampire or stick with the slayers I haven't felt like there were any life-altering choices to make.  But ultimately I find myself invested in the story and wanting to see how it all ends.  There are only a handful of games that have held my interest for 100+ hours and for me Skyrim is one of the best games I've ever played.  For me, Dawnguard is a safe bet because more of the same is all I'm looking for.  But if you're not totally invested in Skyrim then I don't see any reason why you shouldn't just wait 6 months and pick this up for pennies during the Christmas sale.

Seriously, I just don't get the outrage over the price of Dawnguard.  I fear this might be an unintended consequence of these insane Steam sales and I hope that it doesn't start to spell the end of these high-end RPGs.  I don't know how many copies of a Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition you can sell for $17 and still make a profit.

[Toonces]

[Nefaro]

Hey Toonces..

Have you not found any new armor or equipment, in the expansion content, to replace your previous stuff?  I wonder if, or how much, extra kick-ass wearables they added..?

[LongBlade]

I'm curious what the impact has on your character development. I had a stealth/archer character. Does the vampire/vamp hunter alter play style or force you to adopt a different one?

[Toonces]

No new wearables other than vampire armor (light armor basically).  I haven't changed my play style at all- still playing through as a battle-mage type character.  Vampire hunter is more of a role like picking the Imperials or Stormcloaks, not a style-changing choice.

What has probably got everyone so cheesed (besides the price) is that there's not much "vampire hunting" going on.  I don't want to spoil it, but so far I've been mostly acquiring things that will, I'm sure, lead to a big showdown.  But I haven't been crawling in vampire lairs killing vampires, which is what I expected to be doing...

[LongBlade]

No new wearables other than vampire armor (light armor basically).  I haven't changed my play style at all- still playing through as a battle-mage type character.  Vampire hunter is more of a role like picking the Imperials or Stormcloaks, not a style-changing choice.

What has probably got everyone so cheesed (besides the price) is that there's not much "vampire hunting" going on.  I don't want to spoil it, but so far I've been mostly acquiring things that will, I'm sure, lead to a big showdown.  But I haven't been crawling in vampire lairs killing vampires, which is what I expected to be doing...

Well, the good news is that you've had at least 10 hours of new gameplay. That's solid expansion pack time. I'd say if you hit 15 hours the price is fully justified.

[Fetrik]

It does seem to add a few new areas, spells and so on. But how nuch, really? Then again i have 300 hours played and will not pick it up before i feel like playing again or see a good discount. I guess it's not the price but the lack of desire to play.

[Toonces]

I'm guessing I'm going to top out at something in the 22-25 hour range on this play-through based on where I am now and what I think is still left.  I had to do some backtracking a few times, though, so a skilled player won't take as long I'm sure. 

There seems to be a lot of pixel hunting in this add-on.  I seem to be spending a lot of time "finding" things or places and some of them aren't intuitive.  Last night's was extremely frustrating.  I couldn't find a certain place to advance the quest.  Eventually I had to exit out and google the solution.  But, even with the solution in hand I couldn't find the place.  So I exited out again, re-read the walkthrough, tried a third time and just couldn't figure it out. 

So, then I started backtracking, thinking I missed an earlier checkpoint or whatever.  But then I got lost trying to backtrack...it was very frustrating. 

When I did finally find what I was supposed to find, I would classify it as "pixel hunting".  There was no real indication that I was supposed to go look where I looked to find what I found, and it wasn't marked in any way that set it apart from anything...in fact, I'm still not sure how I found it other than plain luck.

Like I said a couple of times, I am definitely enjoying it and I feel I got a fair value for my money but Ghostryder, for instance, would absolutely hate this expansion with a passion.  I think the new areas are really well-done....very cool looking.

[Toonces]

When I wrap Dawnguard up, I do plan to get into some mods.  I downloaded a really interesting sounding one the other day.  I can't remember what it's called, survival mod or something like that.  Basically it makes the cold, cold, and you have to dress appropriately build fires, etc. to survive in the really cold places.  I think it might add a level of immersion to the game for me.

I also really want to get my smithing skill up high enough to make that hedge knight armor!

[Gusington]

Thanks for getting your impressions down here Toonces. And above you basically explained why I won't pay the 20.00...I am spoiled by Steam prices. I can't justify the 20.00 if I got Fallout Ultimate for 18.00.

[Toonces]

I understand Gus.  Our gaming tastes are very similar so I'm sure you are really going to enjoy Dawnguard when the price point gets where it needs to and you pick it up. 

I think I really might finish Skyrim.  I was sort of burning out on it but Dawnguard plus discovering mods may have pushed me over the edge to see things through.  I don't think I'll play it through twice, though.

[Gusington]

I have yet to use any mods for it...I don't even know where to start really. I don't even think of RPGs when I think of mods to be honest...I think of TW games and other strategy/tactical games.

[Kushan]

I have yet to use any mods for it...I don't even know where to start really. I don't even think of RPGs when I think of mods to be honest...I think of TW games and other strategy/tactical games.

I would recommend you go http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/ and download the nexus mod manager. You'll have to create a nexus account, which is good for managing skyrim, Fallout 3, and Fallout New Vegas mods. It also will tell you when new versions of mods are released.

I also suggest you watch gophers tutorial videos on YouTube. He walks through how to install the Skyrim Script Extender, and he does mod reviews for all 3 games. His video page can be found at www.youtube.com/gophersvids

[Gusington]

^Thanks Kushan. I am guessing you don't use the Steam mod library.