TWIG: Dawnguard DLC Review (and 3D Spider-man!)

Dawnguard-castleDecisions, decisions… That’s really what Dawnguard is all about. Skyrim’s first DLC pack is pretty serious, really. It is ancient vampire lords versus a vampire-hunting guild that has existed in Skyrim the entire time you’ve been playing the game, but they are so secretive that you just found out about them, they are the Dawnguard.

After you stumble upon a group of them beating up a vampire in whatever major town you wander into they invite you to visit the Dawnguard, because OF COURSE you are pumped about killing vampires and they want you, the new guy, to find out why they are out and about all of a sudden.

After adventuring through a cave/underground ruin in the middle of nowhere, that once again did not exist until the Dawnguard told you about it, you discover an ancient vampire with an elder scroll strapped to her back like it’s a weapon or something. She tells you not to worry about it, and would like to get home. As she’s a friendly NPC, you escort her to a fog-covered castle on a Northern Island where you make your decision:

Vampire or Dawnguard?Dawnguard-warrior

If you choose Dawnguard then they’ll tell you they hate you but since you brought back their precious elder scroll and its Vampire Holder they will allow you to leave, but if you come back…! You’re breakfast, lunch or dinner. Once you go back to the Dawnguard the real fight against the vampires begins. They’ll give you some fancy armor and you now have access to crossbows, which sound awesome but are a little slow. Very effective, though. You also get armored horses, and the chance to save the world again, assuming you’ve beat the campaign.

Dawnguard-vampire-lordIf you choose Vampire then you get to do all of the go-fetch-this and kill-this tasks for your new ancient friends. There are a lot of reasons to choose the vampire side over the Dawnguard side, because frankly… the vampires really brought their A Game.

1) A new perk tree to work on, see below for all of the options.

2) New powers.

3) Weaknesses (-20% fire weakness, weakness to sun, prevents stamina, magicka and health rejuvenation.)

4) A whole new form.

5) A mission to blot out the sun.  Who doesn’t like eternal darkness?

Dawnguard-vampire-skill-treeVampiric form perks:

  • Power of the Grave: 50 bonus points to health, magicka, and stamina
  • Vampire Grip: A Force Pull style ability that allows you to pull distant targets toward you and choke them
  • Summon Gargoyle: Conjure up some help in battle with one of these menacing monsters
  • Corpse Curse: Paralyze your foes with this magical blast
  • Detect All Creatures: A vampire who wants to live long should stay aware of his surroundings
  • Mist Form: Turn yourself into an invulnerable cloud of mist while regenerating your health, magicka, and stamina
  • Supernatural Reflexes: A slow motion style ability that allows you to move quickly in for a kill while the enemies move sluggishly
  • Blood Healing: Killing someone by biting them restores all of your health
  • Unearthly Kill: Night powers and Blood Magic cost 33% less
  • Poison Talons: Melee attacks deal 20 points of poison damage
  • Night Cloak: A shroud of bats feed on enemies within melee range

Dawnguard-crossbow Dawnguard-vampire-incinerate

One of the disadvantages of taking the new vampiric powers is that you have to give up your status as a Werewolf, which you attain in the Companion quests line. One other disadvantage of taking on this new vampiric power, you are weak to the sun and that really sucks, but if you’re indoors or underground you are fine. Look at that crossbow. It does look very neat, almost Dwemer in design. If you’re a physical combat player than the Dawnguard might be your way to go.

I’ll be honest, I like floating around as a weird bat-like man creature. My first play through will be as vampire, my second as a Dawnguard. The story is shaping up to be what we expect from an Elder Scrolls again: so epic that only you, the chosen one, can save the world, or destroy it. Overall, very entertaining DLC which adds new features to spice up the gameplay that I’ve sort of gotten used to. Between this and Kinect voice commands, I’m happy.

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spider-man-featureHEY! There’s also games releasing this week, but most of them are irrelevant, save for this one. Gameloft, mobile app and game developer, is releasing a new Spider-Man game today for all of our mobile devices, phones and tablets. Look for a review here this weekend by Zach.

It’s an open-environment 3D world where you get to swing/crawl/run around and beat up the baddies the only way Spider-Man can, with snark. And punches. Think of this as your precursor to the movie, which comes out July 3rd.

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