Skyrim Dragonborn Personal Review

Last week marked the release of the next substantial piece of Dowloadable content for Bethesda’s huge open-world RPG; The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, called Dragonborn. This new content explores the island of Solsteim, sorry if I’m covering old ground, which was last seen in the Bloodmoon expansion for Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. While the locations has been used before, and is very Skyrim-esq, the design is still subtly different and pulls the player back into Tamriel with a variety of interesting quests to complete, areas to explore and items to collect.

To the south of the island, for instance, is Tel Mithryn, a gorgeous overgrown living village with mushroom style homes and interesting locals. The quests found here, like the catching of a runaway summon-gone-wrong, are interesting and a break from the empire induced stories that headed most of the main game.

The landscape has been designed in the same way as the mainland with players being able to explore every crack and crevice in the search for high level loot and crafting goods. Sadly the giant erupting volcano is an exception to this rule.

I found most of the dungeons spread across Solstheim to be thoroughly enjoyable rummages. They each implement new, if not exceptionally difficult, challenges and puzzle to be solved with some that will leave you scratching your head for a while. Each of these feels distinctly different to anything the game has offered previously and some have enormous interiors – though it’s nothing like Blackmarsh.

The best part of the content though has to be the Black Book realms – outfitted with tentacles, acidic seas and eyeballs in the sky – these make for a fresh creepy experience. I won’t spoil anything for you but this new realm sprouts up a few times and each adventure is just as enjoyable as the last.

This new content also brings with it a selection of new enemies too like the floating Seekers, who clone themselves decoys and the goblin-like Riekling, that sometimes ride wild boards into battle. There are also a host of interesting side quests including a particular favourite from Trisk Mead Hall, just remember not to kill the Riekling’s on sight.

As is the case with most DLC the main quest follows andefficient, if rushed, story about the original Dragonborn named Miraak. Ultimately he is most displeased with you joining his exclusive ‘Club’ and is causing havoc across the land to bring around your demise. The story involves you searching for these ‘Black Books’ and destroying his shrines but, even though the quest is between 6 to 8 hours long, the main questline feels a little unpadded and sped up more than I would have liked.

The biggest new feature for most people is the ability to ride dragons. I should mention that you won’t get to do so until you have learnt all three of the words for the new Dragon Shout, which happens at the very end of the main quest. When you finally do though, you’ll, like me, be a bit disappointed. It’s not a completely passive experience but it’s only a little above that. Yes, you can command your winged beast, to lock onto targets and attack but that’s about it. No airborne quests or other commands just good old brutality. You can’t freely fly around Skyrim, and Solstheim of course, snatching NPC’s with your dragons feet and dropping them to their doom like they often do to trolls – still we can continue to dream.

The new armour and weapons look very cool, but in large quantities this expansion won’t wow you like the first time you stepped out into the world of Skyrim. This is still a great addition to the game and has enough content for the price it is being offered. The island is an enjoyable place to explore and this is still the best piece of add-on content for Skyrim so far.