Dragonborn Again

A few months back, I wrote about the first expansion for Skyrim, Dawnguard, which I seemed to enjoy a great deal more than many reviewers. Figuring it wasn't to my tastes, I skipped over Hearthfire, the second non-story driven expansion that was all about designing and building custom housing in the game. But for the recent third expansion, Dragonborn, I was ready to return to Skyrim -- and very excited, given the enthusiastic reviews I'd seen.

It seems that perhaps reviewers and I don't quite see eye to eye when it comes to Skyrim expansions. Now they aren't completely off base. They hailed Dragonborn for presenting truly new locations unlike any of the landscape presented in the first expansion. And I agree, on the visual front, Dragonborn is a major success. The adventure takes you to Solstheim, an island with both Nord and Dark Elf elements, and features all sorts of oddities from giant monolithic stones to a village made of enormous mushrooms. And looming ominously over it all, the volcano of Vvardenfell seethes ash on the horizon.

But that's only the beginning. The main storyline of Dragonborn has you venturing repeatedly into another plane that's ruled by one of the Daedric princes. Apocrypha, as it it is called, is an alien landscape of books and swirling pages, a hellish reflection of the knowledge coveted by its ruler. The denizens you find there are very effectively spooky, and I felt more tension exploring the area than I did in any other part of Skyrim -- original game or expansion.

But story-wise, this new expansion is rather anemic -- and the story is what I enjoy foremost in an RPG. Dawnguard offered a rather significant new plotline to play (plus a massive, multi-step side quest). Playing it at a rather casual pace, it took me well over a month to get through it. I've been playing Dragonborn at an even more casual pace -- for perhaps a few hours every three nights or so -- and I reached the end of its new main quest line in less than two weeks. Now from what I've read, this expansion includes a considerably larger number of side quests to explore. (And for the moment, I intend to do so.) But I was expecting a lengthier main story here after playing Dawnguard.

And a more complicated one too. Where Dawnguard had many interesting twists and turns (and a fairly compelling new character to travel with), Dragonborn's plot is considerably more rote. Go here, then there, then there, and before you know it, you're done. I kept anticipating some kind of plot twist that simply never materialized.

Overall, I would still have to recommend the expansion. Visually, it's outstanding, and at times might just be the most creepy game you could play outside of a zombie killer with all your house lights off. Just don't expect it to last for long, or for you to be surprised by anything that happens along the way. I'd give it a B- (which may yet upgrade to a B, depending on what I find as I move onto the optional side quest content).