I never had the chance to post my thoughts about Dawnguard, having been able to play it off of the Legendary edition. I was wrong about the DLC, I know it gets a lot of hate but I don't understand why. I admit I had my doubts and skepticisms about Dawnguard but after I played it, I found it to be a very underated and good DLC that adds so much to the game. I still have some problems with it but nothing like I had in the past.

The good-

I loved the addition of the face sculptor for both gameplay and roleplaying reasons. Don't like the ponytail hairstyle, well you can switch it to something else for a 1000 gold.

The additional ferry boats. This is probably the most underated feature that Dawnguard adds to the game. For 50 gold you can go to either Dawnstar, Solitude, some other place off the northwest coast and Windhelm. I love that feature because now with Dawnstar you can take a ferry to either Solitude or Windhelm and then have access to the Carriages instead of relaying on fast travel.

Soul Cairn and Forgotten Vale. Both locations are really cool additions and I love the music of the Forgotten Vale.

Crossbows, whoever suggested the idea to bring crossbows back and whoever designed them, should get a raise. I absolutely love the Crossbows, they easily replace bows for me. I'd have a tough time leaving my Enhanced Dwarven Crossbows. It's a shame that there's only 4 types, I would have loved to have seen a Daedric Version. My favorite feature added to Dawnguard.

The Aetherium Quest. Easily my favorite quest in the DLC, one of the rewards is probably the best helm in the game.

The Level Design. I gotta say the level design for Dawnguard is outstanding, I was very surprised at how good the dungeons and levels were.

Now the Bad-

Serana. She is completely broken in terms of AI, conjuring up corpses that adds a huge amount of memory to the file, not to mention buggy as hell. I love the character, the fact that she is voiced by Laura Bailey is a huge plus for me but I hate the gameplay design of her. She's only playable as a follower on PC, otherwise I would only take her when you need to take her. I also don't like the fact that they basically nerfed the Vamp Lord while she's your follower, that's a stupid design decision IMHO.

The Forgotten Vale is a bit empty. I kinda wish that the Forgotten Vale had more content then what it currently has. It's basically only good for a one time, maybe two time trip and that's a shame because it's a beautiful area.

Pretty much one sided in terms of choices of factions, there's no need to pick the Vamps unless your going to play as a Vamp. Not to mention that you can still become a Vamp Lord even if you sided with the Dawnguard, that eliminates the choice factor between both factions. It's basically like being able to get both the Golden Saints Armor and Dark Seducers Armor in Shivering Isles.

In closing I will say that Dawnguard is not as terrible as I thought it would be. Yes it has some flaws with Serana being broken and a lack of meaningful choices but it does add a lot to the game like Crossbows. Also the Vamp Attacks are not as terrible as I thought they would be. I thought that was going to be a huge problem but I definitely overestimated the impact that it would have, assuming that you don't leave the Vamps alone and go after them everytime they attack the towns.

Dawnguard is.... a better love story than twilight.
I hate vampire stuff but I love the Dawnguard DLC and I like vampires in Skyrim.

Yes dawnguard is a good DLC. It also adds dragonbone weapons and they are awesome.

But for me it's the other way around I dont see a reason to join Dawnguard other than RP or IF you want the crosbows. Volkihar on the other hand offers rings, amulets, cattle to feed upon in case you dont want to break into peoples homes, and the vampires rest which offers 10% magic resistance for 8 hours.

Not really. As a vampire, you're no longer part of the Dawnguard and can't receive quests from them.

I'd rather we not even mention tween love novels. But I thought Dawnguard was a good DLC, perhaps my favorite one in Skyrim.

I really enjoyed DG. I've played through on both sides and the main lingering difference seems to be that I'm stuck with more scrolls after siding with the vamps. Also, I love the DG huskies - Didn't use them in combat but took one home as a pet for the kids.
I wanted an option to free the "cattle". I could never bear to feed from them, and there are plenty of blood potions.
Oh, and one of the best things - ancient falmer armour, my favourite.

One thing I liked about Dawnguard was Dragonbone weapons. They look really nice IMO. Oh, and the Face Changer too.

Face-changer, Dragonbone weapons, Vampire Lord, made being a Werewolf viable, crossbows, new dragons, new shouts, new artifacts, new and interesting locations within Skyrim, the best horse ever, the most fleshed out follower in TES. Yeah.. I never got why so many people considered it bad or mediocre.

I know right.

Or why they rate Dragonborn higher.

I can understand that.. even with all the stuff Dawnguard added, Dragonborn still added more (I've made a massive post detailing the content added). I can understand why somebody might like Dawnguard more though. Personally, Dragonborn has the highest lasting appeal out of any DLC I've purchased.

People considered it bad? D:

I love the Dawnguard. I admit, I play on the DG side more often then I do on the Volkihar side. But that is due to the character type. I am trying to decide whether or not my current character should become a Vampire Lord.

People rate DB higher because that thing they like to call... Nostalgia.
I prefer DG.

I like DG for the most part but the biggest bad imo that you didn't mention is that damn red line ruining my vamps face...I stopped playing as one ever since because my once evilly awesome vamp now looks like a clown.

I don't care for crossbows at all nor do I like Serana for reasons you've mentioned but I like some of the quests and the face changer makes the DLC for consoles

Or because DB quantifiably had more content and more content that they personally enjoyed more. Nostalgia helps too, obviously.

It's all preference. I mean, there are people who like Knights of the Nine better than Shivering Isles/Dragonborn/Dawnguard.

Man, everything is a better love story than Twilight, or did you not get that memo already?

I agree with you on the other part too.

Personally, I didn't like Dawnguard, but not because I felt it was poorly done, or badly written (unlike vanilla Skyrim) but mostly because I have zero interest in playing as a vampire and have very little interest in hunting them.

Mainly I bought and played through it was because I wanted to see and experience for myself what the Snow Elves were really about, and I did enjoy that part of it, but in retrospect, it wasn't really worth the price for what I wanted it for. I would never have even looked at it were it not for that one thing.

The only real problem I had with it was some of the highly repetitive radiant quests, specifically the one where I was to expose and eliminate a vampire in Riften.

the only thing i disagree with you its the fav quest for me and the bad about Serana although thats probably im so deeply in-love with her i cant really be a judge about her or because i was playing with the unofficial dawnguard patch so i didnt notice many bugs about her...

Camp attacks really take a toll on my game. As soon as I come out of a building they've killed half the town and around 3 guards.

Which isn't hard to accomplish.

Viking'd

Other than the terrible writing and the nonsensical questline everything was great. Not to mention going through all the trouble to get a bow you don't need.

At the same time, there was more effort put into Dawnguard's plot and the characters involved. You are given a good understanding of their motivation. However, we know little to nothing about Miraak or anyone else in the Dragonborn DLC.

Just comparing the two. It's not that I'm saying it's a masterpiece of storytelling.

It has more to do with preventing Harkon from getting his hands on it.

Not sure you understood the story..

I liked it far more than I thought I would. I'm still pretty mad about the price though. $20 for a DLC is simply ridiculous, you should have gotten all 3 for like 25 or something like that.

Besides that I was and an really happy with it. I have only played once and sides with the vampires. I tried being one before the DLC but changed back because the bad seemed to outweigh the good, now it actually seems to be worth it to play as one.

The ancient Falmer armor is great too. I only use light armor so this was a great addition for my character. Plus the bow you get at the end was great to. I play an archer so this in combination with the new arrows makes for some great new gear with my character.

I still haven't tried out any of the Dragon bone weapons but I'll have to give them a shot.

I guess I'm in the minority that actually liked Serana and uses her as a constant companion.

Really the only complaint I have is about the castle. Volkhrn(?), I was hoping for more showcase type furniture. I wanted some mannequins and weapon talks but it seems as if there aren't any......lame.-if I missed them please let me know as the rest of the castle is great. The vampire feeding cattle are a great addition as I always find it to be a chore to feed before.

TBH Dawn Guard brought me back to Skyrim. It has been sitting on my shelf for the last couple months until about a week ago when I finally bought DG. Now it seems I'm back to playing it just about every day and from what I read there is still a whole lot more that I have to discover.

I'll probably give Dragon Born a shot in the next week or two.hopefully I'll be as part with it as I was with Dawn Guard.