Skyrim Hearthfire Review

I guess I should begin with an honest comment – I am disappointed thoroughly with this piece of content.

Hearthfire is the new Skyrim DLC that lets you build houses, adopt children and break away from city walls for your own adventurer house in the middle of no-where.

The content on offer will really please some and disappoint others and it really comes down to the sort of Skyrim player you are. If you are a true role-player and you will have opened up the most customisable and large house on offer for your character which will please you no end. A hack n’ slash player or achievement hunter then you will be disappointed with the lack of additional content provided; there are no new quests and limited additions to the standard formula.

My original comment on disappointment is just how I felt with the content. I drive myself into Skyrim as a canvas for my adventures but I didn’t really see the advantages that come along with it. I have a house in Whitetrun which I am exceptionally happy with; it has a blacksmith next door, an alchemist around the corner and plenty of storage to keep my going. The only really advantage of the Hearthfire DLC – apart from the aesthetic – is that it saves you a bit of time wandering around to complete your smithing and enchanting tasks.

Things kick off when a courier delivers you with a letter inviting you to purchase one of three plots of land in Hjaalmarch, Falkreath or The Pale. Visiting the major town in question, hand over 5000 holds to the Jarl’s steward and your transaction is complete. A basic and humble small house is the first section you can build by making plans from the drafting table conveniently located on site. Using the local resources you can do everything from laying floors to adding walls and doors with nails, locks and hinges (created from Iron Ingots) all from the new carpentry table.

The problem I had was that you press a few buttons and it magically springs up in the plot space locations. There is no real feeling of completion or actions and certainly now specific ways of customising your house in full. If, like me, you started the questline with your already well suited adventurer then you have all the resources required to spring the whole process into completion within 10 minutes of starting the DLC. And it’s not all that interesting either. Each plot of land comes complete with an unlimited resource of clay, rock and iron ore so there is no real problems with maximising the options straight off the bat either meaning there is almost no challenge at all. You can even hire in a steward to create the rooms for you and even expand on the interiors.

The initial small house can then be upgraded with a main hall and three additional wings. The disappointment here is that each of the three wings can only be upgrade with one of three room types. You can add domestic options like kitchens and bedrooms or go for a more adventure style set like an armoury or a storage room. There are even options to add an alchemy tower, library or enchanting rooms.

The parameters however are very strict; the greenhouse for example can only be added to the east side of the house, the kitchens must occupy the east wing and an enchantment tower must be on the northern side. I can understand the limitations being implemented especially with such a complete game being used as the framework but it does mean that customisation is a loosely applied term.

One of my biggest gripes is that the game gives you no control over the look of the property and each of the plots settle for the same original architectural design. This isn’t like Morrowind’s various design choices but a set routine solely changed by the wings you build. You can’t opt to build an Orcish or Dwarven style house; which is a big shame for those of us with an eye for something nice to look at.

The little additions are probably the areas that differentiate these house options from those in the main game. You can add a garden, a pen for livestock and an apiary for bee-keeping outside, while you also get access to tools like a smelter in your basement.

The personal touches come from the interiors where you can display weapons and armour as well as ornaments like a stuffed Wolf or mounted Deer head. I’ve spent an abnormal amount of time setting up my armour collections for a cool aesthetic look but when it’s all said and done this isn’t really very helpful apart from looking fancy.

Each wing comes with its own workshop table where you can spit out furniture and storage contains but you get no options on where these will be located within the rooms themselves. It’s you build a chest it’ll always site in the same corner an the ornaments will also be placed overlooking the doors.

You configure a pre-selected kit and only require the minerals and items with which to construct it.

At 400 Microsoft Points, Hearthfire costs about as much as its worth but it's definitely a more interesting way of incorporating useful features into the world than simply having you unlock a pre-built house. The difference between the new options and those already in place is fairly negligible and leaves the whole creation process lacking any sense of achievement.

The tools are fairly poorly explained and the child adoption is never really hinted at until you find one of the young NPC’s with the correct interaction choice.

I really hope the next piece of DLCDawnguard did and some new progression opportunities.

If you like to role-play then this is for you – if you don’t then try to avoid it and spend your £5.00 on a bargain bucket game instead.