The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard | |
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| Developer | Bethesda Game Studios |
| Publisher | Bethesda Softworks |
| Series | The Elder Scrolls |
| Composer | Jeremy Soule |
| Engine | Creation Engine |
| Genre | Action role-playing |
| Mode | Single-player |
| Platforms | Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S |
| Release dates | Xbox 360: June 26, 2012 Windows: August 2, 2012 PlayStation 3: February 26, 2013 |
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard is the first official downloadable add-on for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, an open-world action role-playing video game made by Bethesda Game Studios. Dawnguard came out for the Xbox 360 on June 26, 2012, for Microsoft Windows on August 2, 2012, and for the PlayStation 3 on February 26, 2013. It has been included in every later version of Skyrim, including the Special Edition and the Anniversary Edition.
The story centers on an ancient prophecy that warns of the sun being blotted out forever. A powerful clan of vampires called the Volkihar, led by Lord Harkon, tries to make the prophecy come true so they can rule a world of endless night. Standing against them is the Dawnguard, an old order of vampire hunters armed with crossbows. The player's character, the Dragonborn, must pick a side: join the Dawnguard and protect the world, or become a vampire lord and help bring darkness to the land of Skyrim.
1 Setting✎
Dawnguard takes place across Skyrim, the snowy northern province of the fantasy world of Tamriel. The add-on opens new areas that were not part of the main game. Castle Volkihar, the home base of the Volkihar Clan, sits on a small island off the coast near the city of Solitude. Fort Dawnguard, the home base of the vampire hunters, is hidden inside Dayspring Canyon near the city of Riften.
Two entirely new regions are added to the world. The Soul Cairn is a gloomy plane of Oblivion where the souls of the dead are trapped. The Forgotten Vale is a hidden, icy valley filled with ancient Snow Elf ruins and the remains of an old religious order called the Chantry of Auri-El.
2 Gameplay✎
Dawnguard keeps the same open-world action role-playing gameplay as the main Skyrim game, but adds new tools, abilities, and ways to play.
2.1 Crossbows✎
Dawnguard introduces the crossbow, a new ranged weapon used by the vampire hunters. Unlike a regular bow, a crossbow stays loaded while the player moves around, so it is faster to fire when an enemy appears. The trade-off is that crossbows take longer to reload and slow the player down during reloading. Crossbows use the same archery skill as bows, and their bolts can be enchanted to add magical damage.
2.2 Vampire Lord and Werewolf skill trees✎
Dawnguard adds two new skill trees that did not exist in the base game. The Vampire Lord skill tree has eleven perks and lets players transform into a powerful flying creature with magical attacks. The Vampire Lord gains levels by killing enemies with its Drain Life spell or its bite. The Werewolf skill tree has eight perks and lets players who already have lycanthropy improve their wolf form. Werewolves earn experience by eating corpses while transformed, which also makes the transformation last longer.
Unlike the normal werewolf change, which can only be used once per day, the Vampire Lord transformation can be used as many times as the player wants.
2.3 Dragon shouts✎
Three new dragon shouts are added. Drain Vitality saps an enemy's stamina, magicka, and health at once. Soul Tear pulls a soul from a dying enemy and raises the body as a temporary servant. Summon Durnehviir calls an undead dragon named Durnehviir to fight for the player for a short time.
2.4 Other additions✎
Dawnguard makes several smaller additions to the base game. Stronger "legendary" dragons appear randomly in the wild, giving high-level players a tougher challenge. A "face sculptor" character named Galathil, hidden in the Ragged Flagon tavern in Riften, lets players change their character's face, hair, and other features at any time. New weapons, armor sets, and crafting recipes are also added, including Dragonbone weapons.
3 Plot✎
The story begins when the player hears town guards talking about the Dawnguard reforming, or is approached directly by an Orc named Durak who invites the player to join. The player travels to Fort Dawnguard and meets the order's leader, Isran. Isran explains that vampires have grown so strong that they recently destroyed the Hall of the Vigilants, a rival anti-vampire group, and that the Dawnguard must be rebuilt. He sends the player to investigate a ruin called Dimhollow Crypt.
Inside Dimhollow Crypt, the player finds a sealed stone container holding a sleeping vampire named Serana, voiced by Laura Bailey. Serana carries an Elder Scroll and asks to be escorted back to her family home, Castle Volkihar. When they arrive, Serana's father, Lord Harkon, offers the player a choice: become a vampire lord and join the Volkihar clan, or leave and return to the Dawnguard.
If the player joins the Volkihar, Harkon explains that he was once a mortal king who gave his soul to the Daedric Prince Molag Bal in exchange for vampirism. The player then hunts down a captured Moth Priest, an ancient scholar who can read Elder Scrolls. The Moth Priest reveals that completing the prophecy requires a special weapon called Auriel's Bow and two more Elder Scrolls.
The path of the Dawnguard plays out in much the same way, but from the opposite side. The player helps Isran rebuild the order by recruiting his former teammates Sorine Jurard, Gunmar, and the priest Florentius Baenius. Serana eventually approaches the Dawnguard herself, offering to help stop her father even though Isran is suspicious of her at first.
In both paths, the player and Serana travel to the Soul Cairn to find Serana's mother, Valerica, who has hidden one of the Elder Scrolls there. They then journey to the Forgotten Vale to retrieve Auriel's Bow. There they meet Gelebor, one of the last surviving Snow Elves, who reveals that his own brother, Vyrthur, became a vampire and is the original creator of the prophecy.
The story ends with a final battle at Castle Volkihar, where the player and Serana defeat Lord Harkon and stop him from blotting out the sun. In the Dawnguard ending, Isran thanks Serana and welcomes the player to continue hunting vampires across Skyrim. In the Volkihar ending, the remaining members of Harkon's court accept the player as their new ruler.
4 Development and release✎
Bethesda Softworks announced Dawnguard on May 1, 2012, with a teaser image posted on the company's blog.[note 1] The first trailer was released on May 31, 2012, showing early gameplay. The same footage was later shown in a demo at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012.
The Xbox 360 version came out first in English-speaking countries on June 26, 2012, and arrived in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain in mid-July. The Microsoft Windows version followed on August 2, 2012. The PlayStation 3 version was delayed because of technical problems on that console. In a public statement, Bethesda said the PlayStation 3 was a powerful system but that adding new content to Skyrim on that platform had proved unusually difficult. The PlayStation 3 release finally arrived on February 26, 2013.[note 2]
Dawnguard has since been bundled into every later edition of Skyrim, starting with the 2016 Skyrim Special Edition for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the 2017 Nintendo Switch version, and the 2021 Anniversary Edition for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
5 Reception✎
Dawnguard received generally positive reviews. The review aggregator Metacritic scored the Xbox 360 version at 73 out of 100, the PC version at 66 out of 100, and the PlayStation 3 version at 79 out of 100.
IGN gave the add-on an 8 out of 10, calling it worth the price but less ambitious than older Elder Scrolls expansions like Shivering Isles.[note 3] Game Informer also scored it 8 out of 10. The Guardian rated it 4 out of 5 and wrote that for anyone who already owned Skyrim, buying Dawnguard was an easy decision.[note 4]
GameSpot gave it 7 out of 10, praising the new areas and the experience of playing as a vampire lord, but criticizing the number of bugs in the add-on.[note 5] Wired UK said the story put a fresh spin on classic vampire themes by weaving in Elder Scrolls lore. PC Gamer UK was the harshest of the major reviewers, scoring it 59 percent.