Best/worst story DLC ever

[Anbeegod]

Me:

 

 

Best: Shivering Isles

Worst: Knights of the Nine

 

 

Good DLCs:

Tribunal

Shivering Isles

 

Somewhere in between:

Bloodmoon

Dawnguard

Dragonborn

 

Bad DLC:

Knights of the Nine

[winny257]

all of Morrowind was best for me, it was Bethesda's breakthrough!
but there was a DLC that was still better for me *Shivering Isles*, there were a guy that I find absolutely great!   
Sheogorath

 

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eVNWxXrDfx8/maxresdefault.jpg

 

 

 

[Captain Cobra]

 

Worst: Knights of the Nine

 

Found the Elf lover.

[Anbeegod]

 

 

Worst: Knights of the Nine

 

Found the Elf lover.

 

 

 

lol

Sure, more simple storyless killing and fetching DLCs is exactly what we need.

 

Guess hating the Honest Hearts DLC in FNV makes me an anti-Christ.

[EinarrTheRed]

My experience is limited to Skyrim DLCs so for me Dragonborn was the best, Dawnguard was the worst and I'd put Hearthfire as a very ambiguous inbetween.

 

Here's my brief thoughts as to why I made those choices:

 

Dragonborn gave me a new location to explore, new terrain and places to visit.  It had a fairly engaging story line (not the best but it worked well enough) along with some sub and side plots.  One of the main NPCs, Frea, had enough story and introduction that I actually felt reason to be sympathetic to her.  I felt the game gave me reasons to want to help her and her people.  Ironically, I felt she was so needed by her people I didn't want to tempt her away to become a follower because I felt I'd be hurting her people in doing so, so I left it at friendship and stopped by for a visit every now an then.  That's good story.  Miraak was okay as a villian, could have been a bit better but not bad, I really enjoyed killing him, because Bethesda did a pretty good job of giving me plenty of moments and reasons to really dislike the guy.  Also enjoyed every opportunity to thumb my nose at Hermie (and I took to calling him Hermie just because... why not LOL).

 

Hearthfire is a very ambiguous in between.  It gave me some useful content, but it wasn't really an expansion so much as a glorified mod.  Some of it could have been done better (navmesh problems for one which are easily fixed in CK if you know how and that just makes me wonder more why Bethesda didn't do so themselves?), but overall it worked for what it was.  It didn't really screw anything up, it added some useful stuff... so while its far from being inspiring it wasn't annoying either.

 

Dawnguard:  Put in a spoiler cause it kinda turned into a rant without me meaning too.  Short version being, I was VERY disappointed with Dawnguard.

 

 

Dawnguard for me was not only disappointing, it was annoying.  The part I like best about it were the new meshes for structures which I can use to build locations in my own mods.  As for Dawnguard itself, overall it felt like it had been very rushed, poorly tested, and poorly thought out.  The story line was not engaging and at times flatly broke immersion.  Couple of examples, I'm a vampire hunter and I just discovered that the mysterious woman I have inadvertently awakened is a vampire with an Elder Scroll.  Why would I NOT immediately kill her and take said scroll?  Nothing in the situation presents a plausible reason to stop me.  Instead the dialog plays it as though I'm strangely sympathetic to her even though I've got absolutely no reason to be.  So I take her back to Dawnguard HQ and tell Isran.  His response... mr gruff kill em all sleep is for the weak... is to take her back to her family.   Say what???

"But, um, Isran, she's a vampire and she has an Elder Scroll that kinda seems like a really bad idea.  An wait, you want me to take vampire princess back to daddy vampire and kin... alone... riiiiiiiiiight... good one, you really had me going there, so seriously what's the plan?  What do you mean you're serious?  SCREW YOU!"

 

Was not a dialog option we were given.  Worse, later when you get back Isran actually rebukes you for letting said vampire princess go back to daddy vampire with the elder scroll... and I'm like... but you TOLD ME TO!  At which point I saved, beat the snot out of Isran, and with that out of my system reloaded.  I found myself saving so I could do what I really felt like doing (vent my frustration) and then reloading to continue with the increasingly silly story line quite often playing thru Dawnguard.

 

Soul cairn was mediocre and sadly also probably the 2nd best part of the DLC (Forgotten Vale was the part I enjoyed most, slaughtering falmer, fighting two dragons at once... oh look, its Durn, thanks for the air cover buddy!).  At least it was something new, if overly... drab... and purple.  Not that there's anything wrong with purple but... too much of anything man.  Bit monochromatic.  There was so much untapped potential there.  Instead of wonderfully twisted encounters and quests you'd expect in a bizarre pocket of Oblivion we end up on a scavenger hunt for 10 pages of notes... *yawn*.   Durn was cool but even with him some good dialog opportunities were missed.  For example, I felt kind of sympathetic to him (after kicking his ass he was very cool about it, kinda respect that) and so in calling him to Tamriel one of the locations I chose was the top of High Hrothgar, I thought maybe he'd like that... introduce him to Paarthanax, maybe knock back a few barrels of mead, just us dovah and dovahkin at the top of the world.  But sadly, Paar doesn't react at all, Durn takes no notice of either Paar or the location, and it was left to my own active imagination to fill in the role play.  So much for a good deed and a bit of consideration.

 

Serana I found to be extremely annoying.  She's a whiny vampire princess with the WORST case of daddy issues ever (and this coming from a guy who used to date strippers, I've seen some pretty bad daddy issues but she takes the cake).  Almost from the start she seems to latch onto the Dragonborn as her new BFF / boyfriend / savior / father figure... gag.  Worse the scripted dialog almost pushes you into that role even with other NPCs.  Isran holds you responsible for her, even threatening the Dragonborn if she misbehaves (umm, Isran, I'm the guy who killed the world eater... you really wanna try that threat out bud?  Seriously... not gonna end well for you, fair warning); but where's the option to side with Isran, "Hey, don't look at me I was against taking her back to daddy vampire in the first place, that was YOUR idea bud.  I didn't invite her back here either.  But she's got a point, daddy vampire is up to something bad and it involves an elder scroll and based on past experience things involving elder scrolls tend to be a big deal so maybe we ought to... I dunno... hear the fang chick out an maybe work with her to stop whatever daddy vamp is up to.  Lesser of two evils and all that."  Followed by a wonderfully tense relationship between Serana and the Dragonborn as natural enemies who must become allies (not instant BFFs or protector and weirdo love interest); and who knows maybe actually get to know one another in the process, even... maybe... become... friends *gasp*.  (Note, had I been given the chance to actually get to know Serana, and some actual plausible reasons to feel sympathy for her, I might have felt differently about her.  But as it was she felt like this character that was forced on me and whom I was scripted to like and protect whether I actually wanted to or not; when generally what I wanted to do was shoot her full of Sunhallowed arrows).  But instead, we get what Dawnguard gave us which is Dragonborn as instant protector and savior of whiny vampire princess from Coldharbor... gag.  

 

Oh an that fun journey out of the Forgotten Vale after getting Auriel's Bow where Serana endlessly comments on how the bow isn't as shiny as she thought it would be but is still beautiful... yeah... the fact she survived the trip back to Dawnguard HQ is a testament to my self control; er, well, to the number of times I reloaded after killing her because you just want her to shut up and go away.  Yeah, I admit it, I wasted a few dozen sunhallowed arrows just trying to get her to SHUT UP!   When that didn't work... Telekinetic Grip, toss her off a mountain... at least THAT bought me a few precious minutes of peace until she caught up again. (Dear Bethesda, note for the future for such NPCs, please include a dialog option to tell said NPC to SHUT UP!, thank you.)

 

Oh an you can become a vampire lord, or a werewolf.  But they managed to bork even that with perk trees that fail to impress, a clunky forced 3rd person POV that makes either form more difficult to use, and the temporary loss of all the other cool powers you've worked so hard to gain while in those forms.  Ultimately I found vampire lords and werewolves to be far weaker than my normal Dragonborn with his shouts, tempered heavy armor, magic and bow (or sword and shield at close quarters).  In either form you're extremely vulnerable to archers, and a briarheart going all berserk on you can be pretty painful (and fatal) as well; whereas my normal Dragonborn in his highly tempered heavy armor (max smithing, plus enchanted crafting gear, plus alchemy to create smithing potion for max armor bonus) just stands there grinning at that same briarheart asking him if his arms are getting tired yet. 

 

Vampires get a vampiric grip that actually could have been awesome and one of the most powerful abilities a vampire has, but the 3rd person POV makes targeting it a pain (the cross hairs are not accurate) and so its difficult to use to full effect.  Compare that with a mod I made that converts Vampiric Grip to an Alteration spell for mages (Telekinetic Grip, does exactly the same thing) and its awesomely powerful and fun to use.  I go around flinging goats off mountains (because I hate goats who seem to love to run right in front of me), snatching pesky archers off walls, or grabbing that annoying berserker and holding them helpless while my followers wail on him like a human pinata... great fun... all stuff the vampire lord should have been able to do (and technically can) but its hard to do because targeting the spell is hard in 3rd person but easy in 1st person.  I even used Telekinetic Grip to save a follower once as she got knocked off a mountain in a fight and I managed, just barely, to switch and grab her in mid air as she fell and pull her back.  That was a VERY cool moment.  (Don' worry Lydia, I got ya!  Honored my thane! )

 

An where were the missing vampire perks we should have had but didn't get, like the ability to charm someone and make them a vampire thrall?  Where was THAT perk (and it should have been there, end tree perk, allows you to charm / enslave one NPC who now follows you about and fights for you pretty much like the Dead Thrall spell except it affects a living person; and if you have the right perk you can have two Vampiric Thralls instead of just one.  Not game breaking, balanced against other abilities and fits perfectly with vampire lore in game; but nope, we don't get that).

 

So yeah, I found Dawnguard deeply disappointing.  I play through it only to get rid of the annoying hamfisted reminders to do the stupid quest because otherwise I start getting overwhelmed by the urge to slaughter guards for telling me for the millionth time about the Dawnguard.  Shut UP already!  (Also a huge thank you to the maker of Timing is Everything so now I don't have play thru til I feel like it AND I don't have listen to those stupid guards)  That an I still think Durn is cool, even if he doesn't say thanks for the visit to High Hrothgar; plus all those soul gems come in handy so there's that.  Jiub can go find his own damn notes though.

 

An all this is to say nothing of the really stupid bugs, like the fact that just discovering castle Volkihar can bug the entire quest (which I didn't know and being an avid explorer the first time I loaded Dawnguard and played did exactly that and unwittingly borked the quest line which meant I had to start a new game because at the time I didn't know any other way to fix it and didn't have a prior save).

 

As beautiful, engaging and well done as Skyrim itself is, its hard to believe the same people made Dawnguard.  Okay, that turned into a bit of a rant, guess I needed to get that out of my system.  Thanks for reading.

 

 

[Anbeegod]

Dragonborn would be a good DLC to me if it is 40% longer. Hell, the Miraak questline is just about the size of the Companions questline with more complicated dungeons, which is a huge disappointment to me as the story of Dragonborn is intriguing enough that could be a lot more complicated and lengthened.

 

I don't find Miraak particularly annoying in the story aside from the fact that he steals my dragon souls. In fact, the true big bad from the beginning till the end has always been Hermaeus Mora, with Miraak being nothing more than a plaything of him, and I think an ending that allows you to side with Miraak against Mora is absolutely more immersive and convincing, which is done by a mod.

 

 

Dawnguard isn't that bad, at least I find Serana lovable after installing Amorous Adventures. Some of the most magnificent views in the whole game are from Dawnguard as well, like the Forgotten Vale and the Ancestor Glade. Shooting the sun is an awesome plus.

 

But regarding the "choices" part - from when has TES been giving any options to the players in the story? I thought you could only help Martin to end the Oblivion Crisis, kill Ancano and allow the Psijics to leave with Eye of Magnus. TES has never been free in term of story, nor has its story always been logical.

[Henry8t]

A lot of People like shivering Isles ,but i found it was too weird ,too different when i first played it.

Also it was a "must have" for almost every mod that came later, same with dawnguard and dragonborn today.

I didn't like that,back then.

Nevertheless it isnt a bad DLc, just not my taste despite Sheos performance/role in it.

 

About dawnguard...I was never much into the whole "Vampire thing "no matter if seen in Movies or in Games.so i wasnt really that interested to begin with,when they announced the new DlC.

 

 

[EinarrTheRed]

Yeah Dragonborn would have been better if there had been more to the storyline, no argument there.  An there could have been more confrontation with Miraak to really build him up.  What they did wasn't bad and served the purpose, but it could have been more.   You're right too about Hermie, after all those black books, the Discerning encounter you really really wanna do something to "even score" a bit but are never give the opportunity.  Instead I settled for knowing the Oghma Infinium and Black Books were safely locked away and nobody else would be influenced by them, so I'd at least kind of contained Hermie's plots somewhat... but it wasn't very satisfying.

 

To be honest, I think all the DLCs could have done with more development before release.  They were all a bit short on content to my mind.

 

Dawnguard, nah... I thought it was that bad... but to each their own.   

 

So far as best views, I still find original Skyrim is hard to beat for that.  Watching a sunrise from atop High Hrothgar was pretty cool (and one helluva view).  True the Ancestor Glade is beautiful but so is Eldergleam Sanctuary, and Fallowstone cave is fairly impressive as well (I've often thought about cloning that one and using it for a player home, could be really gorgeous with a bit of work).  But some of my favorites were some that were literally nowhere special and I found myself with an unexpected beautiful view that sometimes just made me stop and gawk.  One happened in the Rift, I'm on the road towards Riften among these flame leafed trees and I come around a bend, mist clearing and the sun just coming over the mountains in the distance perfectly framed in the center of the road.  It was breathtaking.  I wish to this day I'd screen shotted it because it was the kind of thing you expect to see on a postcard.

 

An true their stories tend to be pretty linear, I just found the Dawnguard to be the worst of it and that partly because I found it completely uninspiring.  Serana I have never connected with and at this point the suggestion of Amorous Adventures and Serana makes me almost shudder.  LOL   There were times when Serana was almost... fun.   Times when she made comments about a location we were visiting (without being repetitive about).  For example, those same trees I mentioned above in the Rift, she commented she'd never seen trees that color.  There was a moment when I almost started wanting to show her around Skyrim, let her see what she'd missed.  Had they really built on that, used that as a vehicle for build a friendship with her, helping her to see the world from a different perspective (and maybe seeing herself with a place in that world) that could have been a much more compelling story line I think.  Just my perspective on it though.

[Daedric_Cat]

I like all the DLCs, even the much maligned Horse Armor and Hearthfire- I've gotten a lot of use out of those two.

 

I put Tribunal as the worst because I had to put something for the vote. I simply did not like Almalexia and did not like having to do all of those things for her and for Helseth with no other option other than just not do them, as my characters liked neither of them. Otherwise Mournhold is a wonderful place to explore. The Clockwork Ciry was something else.

 

The best? Shivering Isles, of course, followed closely by Dragonborn and Bloodmoon. Solstheim is fun. Some of the best cutscenes in all of TES is in Knights of the Nines and the Orrery. The Forgotten Vale in Dawnguard was beautiful, and I can't do without Auriel's Bow!

[Daedric_Cat]

My experience is limited to Skyrim DLCs so for me Dragonborn was the best, Dawnguard was the worst and I'd put Hearthfire as a very ambiguous inbetween.

 

Here's my brief thoughts as to why I made those choices:

 

Dragonborn gave me a new location to explore, new terrain and places to visit.  It had a fairly engaging story line (not the best but it worked well enough) along with some sub and side plots.  One of the main NPCs, Frea, had enough story and introduction that I actually felt reason to be sympathetic to her.  I felt the game gave me reasons to want to help her and her people.  Ironically, I felt she was so needed by her people I didn't want to tempt her away to become a follower because I felt I'd be hurting her people in doing so, so I left it at friendship and stopped by for a visit every now an then.  That's good story.  Miraak was okay as a villian, could have been a bit better but not bad, I really enjoyed killing him, because Bethesda did a pretty good job of giving me plenty of moments and reasons to really dislike the guy.  Also enjoyed every opportunity to thumb my nose at Hermie (and I took to calling him Hermie just because... why not LOL).

 

Hearthfire is a very ambiguous in between.  It gave me some useful content, but it wasn't really an expansion so much as a glorified mod.  Some of it could have been done better (navmesh problems for one which are easily fixed in CK if you know how and that just makes me wonder more why Bethesda didn't do so themselves?), but overall it worked for what it was.  It didn't really screw anything up, it added some useful stuff... so while its far from being inspiring it wasn't annoying either.

 

Dawnguard:  Put in a spoiler cause it kinda turned into a rant without me meaning too.  Short version being, I was VERY disappointed with Dawnguard.

 

 

Dawnguard for me was not only disappointing, it was annoying.  The part I like best about it were the new meshes for structures which I can use to build locations in my own mods.  As for Dawnguard itself, overall it felt like it had been very rushed, poorly tested, and poorly thought out.  The story line was not engaging and at times flatly broke immersion.  Couple of examples, I'm a vampire hunter and I just discovered that the mysterious woman I have inadvertently awakened is a vampire with an Elder Scroll.  Why would I NOT immediately kill her and take said scroll?  Nothing in the situation presents a plausible reason to stop me.  Instead the dialog plays it as though I'm strangely sympathetic to her even though I've got absolutely no reason to be.  So I take her back to Dawnguard HQ and tell Isran.  His response... mr gruff kill em all sleep is for the weak... is to take her back to her family.   Say what???

"But, um, Isran, she's a vampire and she has an Elder Scroll that kinda seems like a really bad idea.  An wait, you want me to take vampire princess back to daddy vampire and kin... alone... riiiiiiiiiight... good one, you really had me going there, so seriously what's the plan?  What do you mean you're serious?  SCREW YOU!"

 

Was not a dialog option we were given.  Worse, later when you get back Isran actually rebukes you for letting said vampire princess go back to daddy vampire with the elder scroll... and I'm like... but you TOLD ME TO!  At which point I saved, beat the snot out of Isran, and with that out of my system reloaded.  I found myself saving so I could do what I really felt like doing (vent my frustration) and then reloading to continue with the increasingly silly story line quite often playing thru Dawnguard.

 

Soul cairn was mediocre and sadly also probably the 2nd best part of the DLC (Forgotten Vale was the part I enjoyed most, slaughtering falmer, fighting two dragons at once... oh look, its Durn, thanks for the air cover buddy!).  At least it was something new, if overly... drab... and purple.  Not that there's anything wrong with purple but... too much of anything man.  Bit monochromatic.  There was so much untapped potential there.  Instead of wonderfully twisted encounters and quests you'd expect in a bizarre pocket of Oblivion we end up on a scavenger hunt for 10 pages of notes... *yawn*.   Durn was cool but even with him some good dialog opportunities were missed.  For example, I felt kind of sympathetic to him (after kicking his ass he was very cool about it, kinda respect that) and so in calling him to Tamriel one of the locations I chose was the top of High Hrothgar, I thought maybe he'd like that... introduce him to Paarthanax, maybe knock back a few barrels of mead, just us dovah and dovahkin at the top of the world.  But sadly, Paar doesn't react at all, Durn takes no notice of either Paar or the location, and it was left to my own active imagination to fill in the role play.  So much for a good deed and a bit of consideration.

 

Serana I found to be extremely annoying.  She's a whiny vampire princess with the WORST case of daddy issues ever (and this coming from a guy who used to date strippers, I've seen some pretty bad daddy issues but she takes the cake).  Almost from the start she seems to latch onto the Dragonborn as her new BFF / boyfriend / savior / father figure... gag.  Worse the scripted dialog almost pushes you into that role even with other NPCs.  Isran holds you responsible for her, even threatening the Dragonborn if she misbehaves (umm, Isran, I'm the guy who killed the world eater... you really wanna try that threat out bud?  Seriously... not gonna end well for you, fair warning); but where's the option to side with Isran, "Hey, don't look at me I was against taking her back to daddy vampire in the first place, that was YOUR idea bud.  I didn't invite her back here either.  But she's got a point, daddy vampire is up to something bad and it involves an elder scroll and based on past experience things involving elder scrolls tend to be a big deal so maybe we ought to... I dunno... hear the fang chick out an maybe work with her to stop whatever daddy vamp is up to.  Lesser of two evils and all that."  Followed by a wonderfully tense relationship between Serana and the Dragonborn as natural enemies who must become allies (not instant BFFs or protector and weirdo love interest); and who knows maybe actually get to know one another in the process, even... maybe... become... friends *gasp*.  (Note, had I been given the chance to actually get to know Serana, and some actual plausible reasons to feel sympathy for her, I might have felt differently about her.  But as it was she felt like this character that was forced on me and whom I was scripted to like and protect whether I actually wanted to or not; when generally what I wanted to do was shoot her full of Sunhallowed arrows).  But instead, we get what Dawnguard gave us which is Dragonborn as instant protector and savior of whiny vampire princess from Coldharbor... gag.  

 

Oh an that fun journey out of the Forgotten Vale after getting Auriel's Bow where Serana endlessly comments on how the bow isn't as shiny as she thought it would be but is still beautiful... yeah... the fact she survived the trip back to Dawnguard HQ is a testament to my self control; er, well, to the number of times I reloaded after killing her because you just want her to shut up and go away.  Yeah, I admit it, I wasted a few dozen sunhallowed arrows just trying to get her to SHUT UP!   When that didn't work... Telekinetic Grip, toss her off a mountain... at least THAT bought me a few precious minutes of peace until she caught up again. (Dear Bethesda, note for the future for such NPCs, please include a dialog option to tell said NPC to SHUT UP!, thank you.)

 

Oh an you can become a vampire lord, or a werewolf.  But they managed to bork even that with perk trees that fail to impress, a clunky forced 3rd person POV that makes either form more difficult to use, and the temporary loss of all the other cool powers you've worked so hard to gain while in those forms.  Ultimately I found vampire lords and werewolves to be far weaker than my normal Dragonborn with his shouts, tempered heavy armor, magic and bow (or sword and shield at close quarters).  In either form you're extremely vulnerable to archers, and a briarheart going all berserk on you can be pretty painful (and fatal) as well; whereas my normal Dragonborn in his highly tempered heavy armor (max smithing, plus enchanted crafting gear, plus alchemy to create smithing potion for max armor bonus) just stands there grinning at that same briarheart asking him if his arms are getting tired yet. 

 

Vampires get a vampiric grip that actually could have been awesome and one of the most powerful abilities a vampire has, but the 3rd person POV makes targeting it a pain (the cross hairs are not accurate) and so its difficult to use to full effect.  Compare that with a mod I made that converts Vampiric Grip to an Alteration spell for mages (Telekinetic Grip, does exactly the same thing) and its awesomely powerful and fun to use.  I go around flinging goats off mountains (because I hate goats who seem to love to run right in front of me), snatching pesky archers off walls, or grabbing that annoying berserker and holding them helpless while my followers wail on him like a human pinata... great fun... all stuff the vampire lord should have been able to do (and technically can) but its hard to do because targeting the spell is hard in 3rd person but easy in 1st person.  I even used Telekinetic Grip to save a follower once as she got knocked off a mountain in a fight and I managed, just barely, to switch and grab her in mid air as she fell and pull her back.  That was a VERY cool moment.  (Don' worry Lydia, I got ya!  Honored my thane! )

 

An where were the missing vampire perks we should have had but didn't get, like the ability to charm someone and make them a vampire thrall?  Where was THAT perk (and it should have been there, end tree perk, allows you to charm / enslave one NPC who now follows you about and fights for you pretty much like the Dead Thrall spell except it affects a living person; and if you have the right perk you can have two Vampiric Thralls instead of just one.  Not game breaking, balanced against other abilities and fits perfectly with vampire lore in game; but nope, we don't get that).

 

So yeah, I found Dawnguard deeply disappointing.  I play through it only to get rid of the annoying hamfisted reminders to do the stupid quest because otherwise I start getting overwhelmed by the urge to slaughter guards for telling me for the millionth time about the Dawnguard.  Shut UP already!  (Also a huge thank you to the maker of Timing is Everything so now I don't have play thru til I feel like it AND I don't have listen to those stupid guards)  That an I still think Durn is cool, even if he doesn't say thanks for the visit to High Hrothgar; plus all those soul gems come in handy so there's that.  Jiub can go find his own damn notes though.

 

An all this is to say nothing of the really stupid bugs, like the fact that just discovering castle Volkihar can bug the entire quest (which I didn't know and being an avid explorer the first time I loaded Dawnguard and played did exactly that and unwittingly borked the quest line which meant I had to start a new game because at the time I didn't know any other way to fix it and didn't have a prior save).

 

As beautiful, engaging and well done as Skyrim itself is, its hard to believe the same people made Dawnguard.  Okay, that turned into a bit of a rant, guess I needed to get that out of my system.  Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

I felt like I was playing a Bioware game with Serana. Sometimes I have no patience with Bioware's format of having to get deeply involved with the companion characters to advance the plot, or get more sidequests for items or experience. Long cutscenes and intricate conversation trees get on my nerves unless I am in the mood to play those kind of RPGs. Serana made me feel like that.

 

[Anbeegod]

 

I felt like I was playing a Bioware game with Serana. Sometimes I have no patience with Bioware's format of having to get deeply involved with the companion characters to advance the plot, or get more sidequests for items or experience. Long cutscenes and intricate conversation trees get on my nerves unless I am in the mood to play those kind of RPGs. Serana made me feel like that.

 

 

 

 

I'd rather have the BW-type of lengthiness and depth than Beth's shallow stories. Even though DA2 and DAI are disappointing, they're still light-years better in term of story than any of Beth's games (except Morrowind).

[Daedric_Cat]

 

 

I felt like I was playing a Bioware game with Serana. Sometimes I have no patience with Bioware's format of having to get deeply involved with the companion characters to advance the plot, or get more sidequests for items or experience. Long cutscenes and intricate conversation trees get on my nerves unless I am in the mood to play those kind of RPGs. Serana made me feel like that.

 

 

 

 

I'd rather have the BW-type of lengthiness and depth than Beth's shallow stories. Even though DA2 and DAI are disappointing, they're still light-years better in term of story than any of Beth's games (except Morrowind).

 

 

I loved DA Origins the first few times I played it, then it got tedious. DA Awakening was awesome because of high level powers you get to play with. DA2 I liked because the convos weren't so long and the story isn't so overwhelmingly linear. Don't get me wrong, Bioware is great, but I have to be in the mood for it. I loved Jade Empire and Mass Effect. And KotOR is one of my all time favorites. I like only Morrowind better.

 

For me, the open sandbox style is better because I fill in my own story as I play along, what the characters are saying to each other, the longer conversations they must be having, and sometimes it can be surprising when these characters can come alive in your mind, so to speak. Bioware it's all charted out for you, and it gets immersion breaking because I feel that it is ultimately manipulating these characters to get what you want, the desired reactions from them, by choosing the "right" responses in the dialogue tree. Kotor was the only one free of that due to its age- though I have to admit that Obsidian's sequel was fun because of influencing characters to go Light Side or Dark Side, and the game was straight up honest that your character, the Exile, was a master manipulator because of Force Bonds.

 

Sometimes I don't want to deal with other characters and their life stories that you have to help them with. Sometimes I just want to adventure in the game.

 

I don't see either company's game as better. Honestly this is a conversation I've had a million times before with people claiming that Bioware is superior without understanding that some people like a different kind of story, one where they can fill in the details. It depends on your style, how your mind role plays, what you enjoy.

[gallowLeigh]

I always find the Dawnguard story line to be really boring. I'm not a fan of dwemer sites/big caves in general. I loved Apocrypha though. Hemaus Mora is one of the npcs in the game who I still listen to their dialogue in it's entirety. 

[Varamayne]

Being a huge fan of vampires I was sorely disappointed with Dawnguard.

Main reason for that is the fact that there is so little focus on the whole hunters vs vampires ordeal in the first place... and the lengthy dungeon-crawling was boring as heck. Seriously, there werent even any proper vampires to fight in castle Volikhar, just a bunch of skeletons. then you go to the soul cairn and what do you fight there? That's right. Skeletons. Again. So Soul Cairn was a huge wasted opportunity on their part... great concept, poorly executed. Very poorly.

Not to mention all the other dungeons you are sent to are the same generic looking dwemer/caves, and we all know how crap Beth is at designing dungeons... they should at the very least look at ESO, it had some great dungeons in terms of design. I understand that it would have been a little bit too time consuming to create unique dungeons with their own unique assets instead of almost literally copy pasting caves and dwemer ruins but really... ayleid ruins have always bored me to death as well. Something i think they should really work on in the future, perhaps. Hopefully. :c

Being a vampire lord feels slow and clunky, and inconvenient. By the time you earn that form you feel as if you're better off doing your own thing. I did enjoy biting people by finishing them off in melee though. The advantages of siding with Castle Volikhar seem very underwhelming though.

Is it really that hard to create engaging vampire vs hunter content? It doesn't have to be an excruciatingly long dungeon crawl ffs. Just give the player some mildly engaging dynamic quests where he has to intercept vampires from attacking at night, perhaps using someone as a lure. So many tiny and easily achievable ideas. That's not even all, I think Dawnguard has quite a few more glaring flaws, specifically how streamlined the whole plot is, and how little choice you have in the matter with the story not really making that much sense.

I've enjoyed Dragonborn, on the other hand. I haven't finished it yet but so far it feels like a pretty solid DLC with plenty of side quests and new places to explore. Overall though... I think my favourite DLC of all time is Tribunal. Perhaps its that overwhelming nostalgia but I always felt there was something special about Mournhold... and I didn't mind dungeoncrawling in the sewers as much.