I am the night

Dawnguard gives you the choice of helping the Dawnguard hunt down the lord of the vampires, or joining said vampires and gaining the powers of evil blood-drinking magic. Is that even really a choice? Who wouldn't want to be a vampire, at least for a little while?

What surprised me most about Dawnguard was that its main storyline is actually quite engrossing. Beyond just siding with vampires or vampire hunters, there is a whole thing here that dives into the backstory of the snow elves, and there are a bunch of interesting encounters to work through along the way.

There are also some side-quests, unrelated to this story, added by the DLC. And while it's not like Skyrim really needed even more quests, I'm certainly not about to complain. Also, there are crossbows, and they are pretty sweet.

Dawnguard's biggest failing is that it just doesn't fit well on the map. The three major new areas - Fort Dawnguard, Castle Volkihar, and the sprawling Forgotten Vale - are glommed onto the edges of the existing world map; scrolling to their icons in order to fast-travel doesn't always work that well. And another area, the Soul Cairn, isn't really on the map at all. Really cool place, but navigating it was a pain.

(It's also a little annoying that, if I cure my vampirism, the Volkihar won't help me anymore. Come on, guys, can't we still be friends?)

Otherwise, this is a solid addition of questing and exploration to Skyrim's already-impressive world.

Better than: Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches
Not as good as: Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep
And if I'm thinking about it: the Dawnguard campaign is really better than most of Skyrim's built-in faction storylines