With The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim being my second-favorite video game of all time, and especially since its downloadable content has been so great in the past, I had high hopes for the new Dragonborn addition. Let’s see how well it lives up to it family.

Dragonborn is the second DLC for Skyrim that has an actual story to complete, much like Dawnguard’s epic tale of vampires. In Dragonborn, you don’t just get more caves and quests in the land of Skyrim, you get an entire separate island to explore.

The premise of the DLC is that another Dragonborn, Miraak, has surfaced and is trying to corrupt the island of Solstheim with the help of an evil Daedric prince. You, as a non-corrupt Dragonborn, are tasked with eliminating Miraak and preventing what could be an even bigger threat than the main antagonist of Skyrim, Alduin, originally posed.

The island is very, very depressing-looking. It is covered in snow and ash, and there are no vibrant forests or glistening rainbows to be found. It’s no wonder that the land is separated from Skyrim; it looks nothing like the original game. This is both good and bad, as it sets the appropriate tone but makes everything look bland.

I enjoy the fact that they changed the landscape, but I just wish it wasn’t so dirty looking. Everything is a deathly-gray, and lines of sight are extremely inconsistent as a result. I know they are going for the atmosphere of a recovering island that is dealing with a neighboring volcano, among other things, but just because they nailed what they were going for doesn’t mean it was entirely enjoyable to traverse. I missed the beauty of Skyrim when I was on Solstheim.

There’s also the new feature of dragon-riding, but it is so disappointing that it’s almost not worth mentioning. To sum up: you can’t actually control the beasts, you can only issue commands. Fighting while riding is sort of like a Pokémon battle and the flying is like an automatic GPS system. It’s not engaging, but it is neat to see the world from so high above.

Miraak is supposed to be all-evil and it is intended for you to hate his guts, but the game doesn’t pull this off. Instead, due to his very infrequent appearances on screen and his lack of visible corruption on the island, Miraak seemed to me like the boring antagonist that I will inevitably have to fight at the end of my journey on the island. I wish I could have seen more of just how evil he was than a few measly shrines around the island. I will give credit to Bethesda for the demonic realm of Apocrypha; it’s a trippy, fresh feel that completely contrasts the boring look of Solstheim.

In the end, the fight against Miraak was, I feel, supposed to be hard. In other reviews, they would say that you’d have to prepare and think very strategically when fighting this guy. What did I do? Constantly shot him with my crossbow and drank a couple health potions. As Miraak fell to the ground, my last hope of Dragonborn being as epic as it sounded fell with him. There is a wonderful surprise for the player when you kill him though, so there’s that.

I still love Skyrim, and I still play Dragonborn as I try to complete everything it has to offer in side quests (and there are a LOT). I just hope that the next DLC is not as much of a let-down as this was.

TES V: Skyrim: Dragonborn gets a 3/5