Skyrim: Dawnguard Review XBOX 360
The world is a vampire.
by Ryan McCaffrey 6/28 2012
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/28/skyrim-dawnguard-review
Don’t accuse The Elder Scrolls of selling out to the modern-day pop-culture
vampire craze. The venerable role-playing series has been in the
blood-sucking business for years, and so there’s nothing to forgive when
Dawnguard, the first expansion pack for endless epic Skyrim, boasts a
vampire-centric premise. In fact, you’ll be thankful Dawnguard went down
this road.
別說上古卷軸系列亦隨波逐流的追了時下流行的吸血鬼風潮。這個可敬的角色扮演遊戲系列早就玩這招好幾年了，無界天際這套無盡史詩的第一片資料片「Dawnguard」，以吸血鬼為背景的故事可是來的名正言順。事實上，你會很感念自己有玩到這片遊戲呢。
That’s primarily because the new campaign – accessed at character level 10
or higher either by talking to city guards or meeting a courier – is
effectively two games in one. As you delve deeper into the mystery of a
vampire plague loosed upon Tamriel, you’ll be recruited by an ancient group
of vampire hunters known as the Dawnguard – and you’ll have the option to
either fight against the neck-biters or become one of them. I chose the
former for my first play-through and plowed through in about eight hours, but
that was with my high-level, high-damage Redguard warrior who didn’t need to
spend time journeying to cities to buy or sell items. Your playtime may vary,
but an average of 10-12 hours is a reasonable expectation. Double it to check
out the other, far more interesting pro-vampire side and you’ve got a
compelling package for $20. If it feels short, it’s only because the core
Skyrim is almost infinitely long.
基本上這片新增的故事──當你的角色十級之後可以聽到城市守備隊員聊天或者碰到一位郵差──可以說是二合一的內容。當你深入調查Tamriel帝國日漸嚴重的吸血鬼問題，你會被一個古老的吸血鬼獵人組織招募，也就是Dawnguard──然後你可以選擇要打爆吸血鬼或是自己跑去變成其中之一。我第一輪的遊玩時選擇前者，大概花了八個小時。不過那是因為我用了高等級、高傷害的紅衛人戰士腳色，所以不太需要花時間回城買東西或換裝備。你的遊玩時間可能會長一些，但大概平均在10-12個小時吧。這遊戲能提供給你的娛樂時間應該可以再加倍，你可以重玩一次更有趣的，站在吸血鬼那邊的美好體驗，這全部只要花你20塊美金。如果你覺得遊玩時間還是有點短的話，那是因為相較起來，五代整體的遊玩經驗可說是無止盡的長啊。
In joining the Dawnguard faction, the expansion pack starts a bit slow. The
new areas you encounter aren’t particularly interesting to look at aside
from a few pretty caves, but even those are a bit puzzling to navigate –
unexpected after most Skyrim dungeons provide a quick way out after you
reach the end of them.
再加入Dawnguard組織的過程中節奏有點緩慢。新增的區域不是說非常有趣，像一些地穴，但即使是地穴也需要一點時間來探索──相較五代的地城都那麼短來說，還蠻令人意外的。
Things ramp up as you progress, however, leading to several breathtaking
battles. One highlight took place in an open arena against a dragon and a
plethora of skeletons. Under the heavy rain and darkened skies of the Storm
Call dragon shout, lighting bolts cracked down upon the undead warriors,
turning them into dust all around me as I dueled the dragon. Another great
scene set on a frozen lake sees you take on two dragons as they dive-bomb
through the ice and rocket back out near you. And still another memorable
moment takes place near the end of the campaign, where I, an ally, her two
summons, and my two summons (one of which was a dragon) went toe-to-toe
against a massive throng of foes on a bridge. It’s just too bad the
framerate chugs during these chaotic climaxes.
時光隨著你的遊玩匆匆過去，帶你進入幾場驚心動魄的戰鬥。其中一個亮點發生在個開放的競技場，與一隻龍與一堆骷髏搏鬥。當我與龍決鬥時，我使用「風暴招喚」龍吼招喚出驟雨與雷電球打爆了那些不死戰士。另一個精彩的場面在你與兩隻龍在冰封的湖泊上大戰，它們衝進湖裡讓冰與碎石朝你飛散。還有一場令人印象深刻的場面，我，我的夥伴，她的兩隻招喚獸與我的兩隻招喚獸(其中一隻是龍)並肩面對從橋的另一端朝我們衝鋒的一大群敵人。可惜的是這個混亂的大場面帶來了一些Lag。
(譯按：有點不確定framerate chug是不是指lag。但光聽這個大場面就覺得...)
The more unique half of the game is the vampire half – a fact the game doesn
’t even try to hide by repeatedly offering you chances to get turned into
one of the bloodsuckers. This branch of the story is wildly different than
its more traditional Skyrim counterpart, largely thanks to the new vampiric
powers. Chief among them is the ability to turn into a Vampire Lord, which is
much more fun than the lycanthropy quest line you may have already completed
in Skyrim. You can float around, transform into a cloud of bats, and of
course feed on human victims. It’s much more empowering than the existing
werewolf abilities, and it’s got its own perk tree to boot.
更特別的另外一半遊戲體驗是吸血鬼的那一半 ──遊戲毫不掩飾地不停問你「想不想變成吸血鬼呀？好嘛好嘛變啦變啦變啦！」這部分的故事分支與傳統的五代故事有很大的不同，大部分來自新的吸血鬼異能。加入他們得到變身成吸血鬼王的能力，比你在本片的狼人任務線裡玩到的有趣多了。你可以飄來飄去，變身成一群蝙蝠，當然還有，吸人類的血。比目前擁有的狼人能力強大多了，而且還有一整個技能術讓你可以強化喔。
Dawnguard is not without its technical quirks – I saw numerous instances of
serious clipping as well as some frustrating world map waypoint weirdness
while playing on a final retail copy of the game – but nothing stopped my
progress or truly impeded my fun.
Dawnguard並非沒有一些技術上的小問題──當我在玩最後零售成品時，仍看到幾處破圖還有一些世界地圖標示點怪怪的──但沒什麼重要的大問題，也不影響遊玩體驗。
CLOSING COMMENTS
Dawnguard is neither as meaty nor as cohesive as Shivering Isles, its
Oblivion expansion pack counterpart, but then again it’s not as expensive
either. The other issue, as with any Elder Scrolls add-on content, is
usefulness. When you get 100-plus hours of gameplay out of the box, do you
really want to spend another $20 for 20-or-so more? That’s up to you, but
Dawnguard is certainly worth the investment.
結論
Dawnguard的內容沒有像四代資料片：顫慄之島那麼龐大又緊密，大概只能算是四代資料片的副本份量而已，但當然，它也不是太貴。另方面，如果你在本片就可以玩超過100個小時了，你還會想要花20塊美金去再多買20個小時嗎？這就要看你的選擇了，但Dawnguard確實是值得投資的一片。
IGN RATINGS FOR THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM -- DAWNGUARD (XBOX 360)
評分
Presentation 呈現
9分
Dawnguard retains Skyrim’s intuitive, user-friendly interface – though now
you can use Kinect to effectively add more hotkeys if you like.
Dawnguard保有上古卷軸五代直覺、友善的介面──如果你想要的話，可以使用Kinect
來增加更多的快捷鍵。
(譯按：這是Xbox360的評論...手把的按鍵的確是有點少。但Presentation講這個大概
是沒什麼好說的意思吧。)
Graphics畫面
8分
This world is still a pretty one to look at, though the new areas –
particularly the large Soul Cairn netherworld –range from same-y to bland
and dull. The framerate drops are annoying.
遊戲中的世界仍然非常美麗，雖然那些新的區域──特別是那一大區Soul Cairn──
景緻有些重複又無聊。Lag有點討厭。
(譯按：Soul Cairn的場景連結中有圖，作者表示除非你很喜歡紫色...)
Sound 音效
7分
We didn’t hear any new music, and the same crop of familiar voice actors
return for extra duty.
我們沒聽到任何新的音樂，而且看來本片的配音人員又加班演出了。
Gameplay 遊玩
8分
More newness awaits on the vampire side of things, but big, incredible
battles await either way.
吸血鬼側的內容很新穎，不過兩邊都有氣勢磅礡的大戰等著你
Lasting Appeal 耐玩度
8分
It’s at least eight hours per play-through, and Dawnguard is easily worth
replaying to see both story threads.
至少有8小時的遊戲體驗，而Dawnguard很容易吸引你重玩兩條故事線的內容。
OVERALL 總評
8分 很棒 Great
(out of 10, not an average)
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