• Posted February 28th, 2013 at 18:28 EDT by Adam Dolge
• 6 Comments

(continued from previous page) ...face-to-face with Miraak. The main story is too fast for its own good and after about five or six hours, you'll have accomplished your mission and be free to do as you please.

Anyone who spent time in Skyrim knows that the main story is not even half the fun; it's not even a quarter of the fun. The same goes for the Dragonborn DLC. While the story quests are enjoyable and worth the short playthrough, the real pleasure comes from the numerous side quests and getting to know the island's residents—you know you're playing a good role-playing game when you want to know more about the random characters you meet in villages and cities. I spent far more time wandering around the island and chatting up random NPCs than I did working through the main quest.

After you finish the main quest, there is yet another unique experience. The highly touted ability to ride dragons is available after you unlock all three words of a new shout. Keep your pants on; it's not nearly as fun as it should be. Your shout allows you to essentially tame a dragon, hop on its spiny back, and go for an on-the-rails ride. You don't have the ability to freely control your beast, instead you give it commands while in the air to lock on enemies, attack said enemies, and land. Neat! That's really all there is to it. The skeptic could put a lot of fault on this feature, but it's only required at one point in the game. After you try it a couple times, you'll probably never think to give it another go.

It is certainly worth noting that the PS3 version has extremely long load times. This is nothing new for Skyrim players, but if you've been away for a while, you'll have to sit patiently for that dungeon to load up properly. In addition, there are a fair amount of recycled voices for NPCs--there are also excellent new additions. Again, this is nothing new for Skyrim, but at times I thought to myself, "wait a minute, aren't you that merchant I met in Windhelm?" If you have been away for a while, you may notice Skyrim hasn't aged all that well. This is especially true if you've played the PC version with user-created mods. Dragonborn, like Skyrim, has some jaw-dropping environments, but it definitely looks grainy on the console.

The Dragonborn DLC is a perfect reason to jump back into Skyrim. With unique dungeons to explore, an interesting island to uncover, new enemies to defeat, a captivating (yet short) story to play through, and tons of side quests, you'll probably once again neglect your job and family for just another hour (or ten) playing Skyrim. What's worse? If you like it you'll probably want to head back to the mainland and waste another year of your life adventuring in some fantasy land. OK, so that's not a bad thing, just a fair warning.