Issue 14 of Stencil Mag

The second location to contribute to Skyrim’s varied world is the Forgotten Vale, the old home of the elusive Snow Elves, now teaming with their twisted decendents the Falmer. This area is vast, colourful and home to one of the most epic dragon fights in the game. Finally the two locations that stand out are our new faction bases, Fort Dawnguard and the Castle Volkihar, both of which reflect their hosts perfectly.

Overall we are getting more for our money than a bit of extra story and locations, more gear, including the Dawnguard factions exclusive weapon the crossbow (linked to the archery skill tree). It is slower at reloading than a bow but packs a bigger punch than most other ranged weapons. Last but not least Dragonbone weapons are finally here and I am proud to say they do not disappoint; their design is striking, and their stats are equally impressive boasting the highest stats of any weapon so far seen in Skyrim.

We all felt that horses were lacking in any real purpose, other than the fact they could glitch their way up otherwise un-scalable obstacles. Bethesda were clearly aware of this so finally mounted combat is here, allowing you to charge into combat with powerful melee attacks: simply have a melee weapon equipped and use the L trigger to attack to the left and R trigger to attack to the right, Archery sucks on horse back and you can’t use magic, so it still feels like being mounted is still just a way to glitch up mountains, which is a shame.

Dawnguard introduces some new enemies namely: frost giants, new undead enemies, vampires, gargoyles and a few more that I won’t mention (spoilers). These new foes help to expand and break up the rather bandit and daedra infested world.

The features keep on coming thick and fast with the ability to now change your character’s appearance, which many players will love, no race change but at last you can give your character that new haircut they ‘so sorely needed’. I made my character look older… uber nerdy I know, but I felt it was a nice use of the feature.

With the new expansion being very much based on vampires, Bethesda obviously needed to do something to make being one exciting, so now transforming into a Vampire lord, will A) make you look like Nosferatu and B) allow you access to the Vampire skill tree to start developing your vampire form into a formidable force. Thankfully those of us that don’t fancy being a blood sucking, pant-wearing weirdo, but did want to stay/become a big gnarly werewolf will A) look like a bad ass werewolf, B) have access to the all new skill tree and finally C) sleep well in the knowledge that you are not a lame vampire. Both trees are levelled up through feeding in each of the forms, and I have found they level up rather quickly.

By now it should be clear that what Dawnguard does - is add more to a game that already offered a lot.

New editions to what I refer to as ‘end game’ features such as the introduction of legendary dragons that appear post level 70 will even give hardcore players a shock and certainly offer a test of skill, furthermore new shouts and of course, all the kinect features will give veterans more toys to play with.