The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard
Developer(s)	Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher(s)	Bethesda Softworks
Composer(s)	Jeremy Soule
Series	The Elder Scrolls
Engine	Creation Engine
Platform(s)	Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3
Release date(s)	Xbox 360 WW: June 26, 2012 Microsoft Windows WW: August 2, 2012 PlayStation 3 NA: February 26, 2013 EU: February 27, 2013 [1][2][3]
Genre(s)	Action role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard is a downloadable content add-on for the action role-playing open world video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It was developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The Xbox 360 version of Dawnguard launched in English-speaking territories on 26 June 2012, and in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain in mid-July 2012. It was released on Microsoft Windows via Steam on 2 August 2012. Due to performance issues, the PlayStation 3 release of Dawnguard was delayed until 26 February 2013.^[2][3]

Dawnguard revolves around an ancient prophecy predicted by an Elder Scroll. The Dawnguard, an organisation dedicated to hunting vampires, are reformed to attempt to stop the return of a powerful clan of Vampires named the Volkihar, who possess the power to turn into monstrous "vampire lords". The Volkihar's leader, Lord Harkon, intends to use an Elder Scroll to permanently blot out the sun. The player can choose to either aid the Dawnguard or join the Volkihar, becoming a vampire lord themselves in the process.

Gameplay

The vampire lord perk tree

Introduced in Dawnguard are two unique skill trees: one for vampirism and one for lycanthropy. Players are given the choice to either join forces with the vampiric Volkihar Clan, or fight them alongside an order of vampire hunters known as the Dawnguard. Depending on the player's choice, they will be granted access to one of two home bases: Castle Volkihar or Fort Dawnguard, respectively. New armors, perks and weapons, including a crossbow for the Dawnguard, have been introduced. Crossbows will remain loaded while moving in the world, allowing a quicker reaction than bows, at the cost of being slower to reload and reducing the player's movement speed during reloading. Crossbows fall under the archery perk tree and all points assigned to archery will also apply to crossbows. Crossbow bolts can be crafted with enchantments to create bolts with additional magical damage.

For vampires, a temporary transformation into a "vampire lord" is available, working in a manner analogous to the existing werewolf transformation, with the exception that it may be used repeatedly, rather than being limited to once per day. The vampire lord has a new skill tree to level up. Werewolves have also been given a skill tree, which they did not have previously. The vampire lord skill tree contains eleven perks and the werewolf skill tree contains eight perks. Ten new achievements can be earned. Eighteen new loading screens and several new world interactions are present. The vampire lord levels up through kills with its Drain Life spell, or its bite attack, while the werewolf gains experience towards its skill tree by consuming corpses while transformed.

New locations are featured in Dawnguard, including two explorable new worldspaces: a realm of Oblivion called the Soul Cairn, and the Forgotten Vale, a secluded arctic valley. Additionally, large areas such as Castle Volkihar, located on a coastal island, and Fort Dawnguard, located in a small canyon, serve as central quest hubs during the story. A "face sculptor" character is introduced in The Ragged Flagon in Riften, allowing players to change the facial appearance of their character at will. Stronger "legendary" dragons are also present in Dawnguard, appearing randomly throughout the environment, and can be slain by the player character and absorbed like any other dragon (awarding an achievement). Three new dragon shouts (Drain Vitality, Soul Tear, and Summon Durnehviir) have also been included.^[4]

Plot

The player character may begin the expansion quest lines in a number of ways. Town guards can be overheard discussing the return of the Dawnguard, or the player character may be approached directly by an Orcish Dawnguard member named Durak and asked to join the order to combat the growing threat of vampires within Skyrim. Regardless of how it is initiated, the player character travels to Fort Dawnguard, accessible through Dayspring Canyon, located near Riften. They meet with the Dawnguard commander, Isran, who reiterates the renewed strength and threat of the vampires, citing their destruction of the headquarters of the Vigilants of Stendarr as reason to reform the Dawnguard and eradicate the vampires. The player character is given a crossbow and asked to travel to a ruin the vampires are known to be investigating. Upon arrival, the player discovers a vampire named Serana (voiced by Laura Bailey) trapped inside a statue. She is in possession of an Elder Scroll, and informs the player that her family live in a dwelling off the coast of Skyrim, near Solitude, called Castle Volkihar. She asks the player character to escort her safely back to her home. When she has been returned home, her father, the vampire Lord Harkon, offers the player the chance to become a vampire lord out of apparent gratitude for his daughter's safety, or the chance to leave Castle Volkihar safely and return to the Dawnguard. This choice begins the main storyline of Dawnguard.

Volkihar path

If the player accepts Lord Harkon's offer, the vampire lord bites the player character. The player awakens in a room, in front of a shrine to the Daedric prince, Molag Bal. Harkon explains Molag Bal is considered the "father of [his] kind". Thousands of years ago, Harkon was a king and a mortal. He pledged his soul to Molag Bal, and sacrificed "a thousand innocents" in his name. The Daedra granted Harkon and his family immortality by afflicting them with vampirism. Harkon shows the player character how to utilize their new vampire lord form and powers. The player is then tasked with retrieving the Bloodstone Chalice, a powerful artifact intended to aid Harkon's cause, to fill it with water from Redwater Den, and then to add the blood of a powerful vampire. While retrieving the Chalice, the player character is attacked by two of the Volkihar, Stalf and Salonia, who are plotting to overthrow Harkon. After killing them, the player adds their blood to the Chalice and returns to Castle Volkihar.

After receiving the Chalice, Harkon spreads false rumors around Skyrim regarding the alleged discovery of an Elder Scroll, to try and lure a Moth Priest to the land. The Moth Priests are an ancient order, capable of looking upon the Elder Scrolls and deciphering prophecy from them. The player travels to Forebear's Hideout, and captures a Moth Priest named Dexion Evicus. The player turns the Priest into a thrall, and upon reading the Scroll, Evicus reveals to the Volkihar that they need to locate a weapon named Auriel's Bow, as well as two more Elder Scrolls. One of the Scrolls lies within the Dwemer ruin of Blackreach, and is retrieved as part of the original main quest line. The other was taken by Serana's estranged mother, Valerica, when she fled the castle. The player character and Serana journey to a plane of Oblivion known as the Soul Cairn. They locate Valerica and retrieve the final Elder Scroll. Before they return to Tamriel, Valerica warns them to stop Harkon, as he intends to kill Serana to fulfill the prophecy.

The player character learns from the Elder Scrolls that Auriel's Bow is located in Darkfall Cave. The player meets with Gelebor, one of the last remaining Snow Elves, and a Knight-Paladin of the Chantry of Auri-El. He instructs the player how to retrieve Auriel's Bow, by completing a series of tasks and defeating Arch-Curate Vyrthur, Gelebor's brother, who has been corrupted by the Falmer. The player character and Serana confront Vyrthur and discover that he is both a vampire and the creator of the prophecy, and desires to block out of the sun in order to disrupt Auri-El's influence in Tamriel, in retaliation for the god allowing him to be afflicted with vampirism.

After retrieving the Bow, the player character and Serana confront Lord Harkon in Castle Volkihar. They battle Harkon and slay him, ending the threat to Tamriel and to Serana, and the members of Harkon's court acknowledge the player character as their new master.

Dawnguard path

If the player character refuses Harkon's offer and returns to the Dawnguard, the plot plays out nearly identically, albeit viewed from the perspective of the Dawnguard. Serana makes herself known to the Dawnguard, relaying information about Harkon's plan, and pledging assistance to the Dawnguard. In order to enter the Soul Cairn, the player must be blooded as a vampire by Serana or be partially soul-trapped to gain access. Aside from these details, the quest lines follow a similar path to the Volkihar, but it diverges during the last story mission, when the player leads the Dawnguard's final assault on Harkon and his allies. The player and Serana succeed in killing Harkon in a climactic showdown, effectively eliminating the great vampire threat in Skyrim.

Release

Dawnguard was announced by Bethesda Softworks on May 1, 2012 via a teaser image on the Bethesda Blog.^[5] The first trailer for the add-on was released on May 31, 2012.^[6] This showed the first gameplay footage of the add-on, which was later shown in a demo at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012.^[7] Bethesda announced a Dawnguard beta for Xbox 360 on June 1, 2012.^[8] On February 1, 2013, Bethesda announced on Facebook that Dawnguard will be available for the PlayStation 3 on February 26, 2013.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings (X360) 76.16%%[9] (PC) 68.80%[10] (PS3) 77.40%[11] Metacritic (X360) 73/100[12] (PC) 66/100[13] (PS3) 79/100[14] Review scores Publication Score Eurogamer 7/10[15] Game Informer 8.0/10[16] GameSpot 7.0/10[17] GameTrailers 7.9/10[18] IGN 8.0/10[19] PC Gamer (UK) 59%[20] The Guardian [21]

Dawnguard was released to a generally positive critical reception. IGN stated that, "Dawnguard is neither as meaty nor as cohesive as Shivering Isles, its Oblivion expansion pack counterpart, but then again it's not as expensive either. The other issue, as with any Elder Scrolls add-on content, is usefulness... but Dawnguard is certainly worth the investment."^[19] UK newspaper The Guardian was impressed with the content of the game, but felt that there were a few bugs in it; the newspaper stated, "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."^[22] Wired UK was generally positive about the game, writing that the game was interesting and had a good plot: "Dawnguard puts its own spin on the vampire theme by weaving in Elder Scrolls lore and history into the story, and offers Skyrim fans a mostly enjoyable ten to 15 hours of entertainment as a result."^[23] GameSpot enjoyed what Dawnguard had to offer, commenting on its "excellent new areas to explore" and "number of great individual moments", and stating that, "being a vampire lord can feel gleefully evil". However, they found that, "being a vampire lord can also be a headache", and complained about the number of bugs.^[24]

Technical issues

Dawnguard was released on Xbox 360 on June 26, 2012, and later released on PC on July 26, 2012. However, its PlayStation 3 release was delayed. Bethesda released a statement on their official forum stating, "The PlayStation 3 is a powerful system, and we're working hard to deliver the content you guys want. Dawnguard is obviously not the only DLC we've been working on either, so the issues of adding content get even more complicated. This is not a problem we're positive we can solve, but we are working together with Sony to try to bring you this content."^[25] Dawnguard was released on the PlayStation Network on February 26, 2013.^[26]

References

External links

• Official website