Am I the only one who finds this place surprisingly sinister? I mean, for a video game I find myself really creeped out by the place. I haven't felt quite the same since I played through the Oblivion levels in ES IV. Castle Volkihar is bad enough with all its floor covered bones and "bump in the night" atmosphere, but entering the Cairn really puts me on edge.

To each their own I guess, I found it the least enjoyable quest\dungeon in the game.

that's why we have 47 flavors of ice cream.

The Soul Cairn is one of the most disorienting places that I've ever experienced in a video game. I didn't even know there were three spell books in it when I first ventured into it. Fortunately now I'm a lot more accustomed to it, the only real trouble I have is trying to find the structure that houses the chest with the soul gem that you need to refill your soul, (I'm pretty sure it's near what I call "The Long Wall". )

I think my reason for being creeped out is because I put myself into my character a lot. I RP and don't just play it as a game. As a result, I almost feel as if I were there in his place. Because of the atmosphere of the Cairn, and its really, really sinister background (i.e. trapped souls for all eternity), I almost feel as my character would. It's the sort of place that would make him somewhat jumpy and panicked. It's a place he'd want to get in and out as soon as possible, then get as far away as he can.

I don't know if I'd call it sinister or scary - it's too well lit at default settings to qualify, heh. The first time I played the quest it was unsettling I'd call it, as you never knew what was going to "emerge" and the whole place gave off a feeling of chaos and at the same time stagnant. It is indeed a very atmospheric place that was a nice callback to earlier games, been some time since we saw the Soul Cairn last so it was nice to see it in a modern flavor.

I thought it was creepy the first time I went through and because of my light settings at the time ( 360 ) I had to turn the brightness up. Got snow blinded when I came out cause I forgot to turn the brightness back down.

Ahh, I get it. I keep forgetting that not everyone uses mods. I now remember seeing pics of unmodded Skyrim, where even the really creepy places look bright and low rez. In my case I use atmosphere, lighting and high texture mods. This results in dungeons and especially places like the Soul Cairn looking particularly hair-raising!

Yes, that's exactly what I mean, and with my mods it's got triple the effect. The place is mostly in shadow, where you're half expecting something to jump out at you any second, even outside in the open!

I have yet to play a character on PC through the Dawnguard... coming soon... but not yet. Still looking for a couple of mods... I know I seen them somewhere....lol

To be honest, I've forgotten what exactly my mods add and what is in the original game. I played the very basic Xbox version when it first came out, before I knew about mods and that you could play PC Skyrim with an Xbox controller. When I beat Alduin and found myself wandering aimlessly around I was going to just move onto other games, but then I saw the PC mods. That's when I started to think about RP, and the rest is history! Now everywhere is realistically lit. I have realistic weather and blazing sunsets. plant life and scenery is much more lush and realistic. Dungeons and other dark places are so lit as to make having a torch a necessity. Everything is almost up to next gen console standards. I even have low wispy mist floating through caves, dungeons and other creepy places, as well as a sound mod giving me enhanced special effects! Yes, the Soul Cairn is particularly chilling with all that going on!

Soul Cairn is creepy, yes, but I like it. I'll add my kudos to Beth for it. But it's not the creepiest, to me...that would be umm, the place you go when reading Black Books. Ugh...again, kudos to Beth, but as the player, I really get weirded out going there.

Amazing that the people who use mods for a long time forget what the original Skyrim was like.

I loaded up my 360 game the other day, for sentimental reasons....wow! Even though I thought I remembered, it was a major reminder of the difference!

Not quiet one year of using mods isn't going to make me forget what "vanilla" skyrim on 360 was like. And when I play DiD... even though the game isn't completely vanilla, it still reminds me to be thankful to the Modding community for the excellent work that they do.

I never got to play Dawnguard on the Xbox, so I don't really have anything to go on. I remember vanilla Skyrim on Xbox blew me away. It wasn't its blocky graphics that caused me to go to the PC, but rather the open ended style of the game. I only realised about the better graphics after I bought the PC version. I was amazed that even the non-modded PC version has better graphics! No, my reason was exactly what put me off the console version. Because the game doesn't end I thought I could use the mods to build an on going plot for my character, far beyond what Beth ever made.