The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Dragonborn DLC - Xbox 360

    Dragonborn is the third released downloadable content (DLC) for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Dragonborn introduces an entirely new area for players to explore, complete with new locations, quests, characters, and skills. While the main quest of the expansion is relatively short and anticlimactic, Dragonborn's other features make this expansion very much worth the money paid for admittance.

    Dragonborn begins as the hero of Skyrim is attacked by a group of cultists. Upon defeating the cultists, our hero finds a letter on one of the cultists which explains that they were under contract to find and kill the one calling himself "The Dragonborn." It appears as though someone from Solstheim, an island located just off the shore of the province of Morrowind, was paying the cultists to complete this contract. In order to unravel the mystery of the cultists, the Dragonborn must travel to this island and investigate the recent occurrences. During the investigation, the Dragonborn will uncover the secrets of the first Dragonborn, find ancient treasures hidden on the island, as well as fight through a plane of Oblivion which one of the Daedric princes calls home.

Daedra sure know how to make a place spooky.

    The island of Solstheim is a mix of Skyrim's snowy environments and Morrowind's alien, volcanic terrain. The Red Mountain, a gigantic volcano in Morrowind, constantly spews ash which covers most of the Southern portion of the island. Fans of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind will love the many references to the third entry in the Elder Scrolls series which are present in the Dragonborn expansion. Music, architecture, creatures, a few familiar names, and many other elements from Morrowind make an appearance. The Northern portion of the island is much more like Skyrim's tundras. Locations on this portion of the island will seem more like those found in the province of Skyrim.

Do NOT eat the mushrooms on Solstheim!

     Dragonborn adds more than 30 new locations spread across the island to explore. New quests which lead to new magical artifacts are littered across these locations, giving the player plenty to do while he or she is enjoying the scenery of Solstheim. The player will also find many new abilities and dragon shouts throughout the expansion, all of which are extremely useful. It would be a crime not to mention that one of these new shouts gives the player the ability to tame the normally hostile dragons prowling the skies and to even ride them.

    Dragon riding is a fun experience, but is somewhat disappointing as the player cannot control the dragon entirely. Once mounted, a dragon will fly in circles above the ground where it first took off. This allows the player to target enemies on the ground and unleash dragonfire upon them, which is fun, but that's as far as controlling the dragon goes. Players are not able to direct the dragon's flight in order to explore the island from the air. Traveling by dragon plays out as fast-traveling with a cart in the basic Skyrim game did. Open the map, click the location you wish to journey to, you appear there after a load screen. There isn't even a cutscene of riding the dragon, just a normal load screen.

How do you drive this thing!?

    The Dragonborn expansion's main quest plays out relatively quickly. If one were to push through the quests it would likely last only a few hours. I found the story to be shallow and somewhat unexplained. I knew what I was supposed to do, I just never felt like it was really that big, or important, of a problem to solve. The final battle seemed somewhat anticlimactic as I never really felt like the enemy was that big of a deal in the first place. The story makes more sense if you read it with the Daedric prince featured in the expansion as the main character, however.

    With simply exploring the locations needed to complete the main quest and little else, Dragonborn will last around 4-5 hours. I exhausted all possible quests and visited every location on the island of Solstheim and the expansion lasted around 15 hours. With a price tag of $15 for the expansion, I would highly recommend that players delve into the many new quests that the expansion offers. I highly doubt that players would be disappointed with the DLC as a whole.

    Overall, I greatly enjoyed this expansion to Skyrim. I am a huge fan of Morrowind, so seeing all the familiar sights and hearing the familiar sounds and music made this expansion worth the money all by themselves. The new locations and quests are very much worth exploring and hold some very interesting puzzles and artifacts. While the dragon riding and length of the story were disappointing, they didn't really affect my opinion of the DLC as there was so much else added. I would highly recommend this addition to the base Skyrim game!

Amulets and Ale Rating: