Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a significant progression of the original game’s unique offerings, lifting its most exceptional characteristics to unprecedented heights, with a stunning makeover powered by the RE Engine.
Posted By Kurt Indovina on March 5, 2024 at 2:00PM PST
On my maiden journey into the expansive open land of Dragon’s Dogma 2, I journeyed with three comrades, tracking a young boy suspected of being abducted by wolves. We battled thieves, cut down banshees, uncovered treasure, and fought a colossal troll at cliff’s edge, leading to its demise. These separate incidents were all unrelated, and none pertained directly to our search for the missing boy. However, they all naturally unraveled, shaping the essence of the Dragon’s Dogma 2 world. The eagerly anticipated sequel presents a massive open world where danger lurks in all forms at every turning, and no matter your mission, a cyclops might disrupt your carefully formed strategies by tossing you into the sea.
From my three-hour experience at a preview event, Dragon’s Dogma 2 feels like a continuation of what the first game managed to achieve 12 years ago. It retains its identity as an open-world fantasy RPG, combined with exciting action combat, colossal mythical monsters, and its unique system of player-created pawn companions. While the gameplay remains virtually unchanged, the most noticeable update is the RE Engine-powered makeover, aiming to showcase the game’s principal values in the most optimal light.
Embarking into the verdant, open fields of Vermund (a prominent location within the game’s universe) for exploration and combat with gigantic creatures felt akin to the original game. However, the experience was rejuvenated by enhanced technical and visual finesse. Trekking through vast, endless expanses opening up to small bustling towns brimming with lively residents imparted a sense of meticulous detail and richness. The absence of loading time during these transitions, a standard in many games today, seemed organic and heightened the feeling of entering a town located by a castle’s gate, having just traversed a massive stretch of land. In addition, the game does not offer fast travel, and this further imbues the journey with a thrilling sense of immersion. There is a unique sense of dread and excitement in just escaping a mighty griffin, then realizing you must trek all the way back to the closest town sans the respite of a loading screen.
Bearing this in mind, I am reminded of the radical transformation in the gaming world since Dragon’s Dogma first launched in 2012. Over the course of two console generations, we have witnessed a significant evolution in technology, and games such as Grand Theft Auto V, The Witcher 3, and Breath of the Wild have revolutionized our perception of open worlds. While discussing Dragon’s Dogma 2 with its director, Hideaki Itsuno, I inquired if any developments over the past decade had influenced the sequel. His reply surprisingly pointed towards his own directorial venture, Devil May Cry 5.
“In Devil May Cry 5, the quest was to explore the degree of photorealism achievable in an action game,” shared Itsuno-san. “We aimed towards the limit of integrating photorealism into an action-packed game, and the experience and ensuing feedback profoundly impacted our goals for Dragon’s Dogma 2.
And this influence is evident. During my interaction with the game, I tried a new vocation (class) called the Mystic Spearhand, blending magic and melee strategies. Every move, no matter how stylized, felt convincingly grounded thanks to real-time world reactions. However, the game also maintained a Devil May Cry-esque flair of exaggerated action by propelling my character into the air to execute thrilling flips. In essence, it made me feel incredibly cool, particularly while fighting in tandem with my pawns executing their own set of fantastic moves.
Pawns, the game’s distinctive feature, continue to be user-generated companions that can be traded online among players. By visiting a Riftstone, you can dispatch your pawns into the rift, where they eagerly anticipate being selected and utilized by other players in their quests. The lure of utilizing other players’ pawns is that they can transport items, hints, or data from different players’ realms. This concept remains consistent with the original game, though pawns have developed beyond mere combat support NPCs, now also serving as navigational aids in the game world itself.
Pawns now guide you to your upcoming objective instead of overfilling your display with waypoints. With no preset course of action during my review, I allowed my pawns to guide me towards the mission we were undertaking, either halting and identifying environmental features or gesturing me to follow them in the correct direction. This resulted in an organic progression in my adventure that wasn’t burdened by map navigation and menu screens. While they are unlikely to provide the degree of emotional connection that is possible with the companions in Baldur’s Gate 3, they are much more engaging than in the first game, conversing amongst themselves and reminiscing about their former masters’ adventures. Additionally, they maintain a spirit of teamwork in what is essentially a single-player game. In a world where it’s now common to summon other players for battle assistance, pawns could have potentially acted as a bridge to incorporating multiplayer elements into Dragon’s Dogma. Director Itsuno-san, however, insisted on crafting an experience specifically tailored for a single player.
“I aim to deliver the most entertaining experiences to players, regardless of whether they are playing in single or multiplayer mode,” he stated. “My objective, however, was to design something that was specifically suited to a single player, providing the best possible experience through this format. We could have also created an exclusive multiplayer feature, focusing on providing optimal multiplayer enjoyment. What I was uncertain about was whether we could deliver a stellar experience that integrates both single and multiplayer elements effectively.”
The introduction of multiplayer might result in competition for other players’ attention or detract from the focus on a single objective. Bearing this in mind, I began to appreciate the role of pawns in the game world as facilitators rather than as substitutes for a void in the single-player experience. With the absence of fast-travel and pawns acting as guides, the game ultimately promotes natural and uninterrupted exploration.
Caught in a moment at the foot of a cave, I was faced with a colossal, fiery beast. Adopting the role of Magic Archer, I stood my ground, launching enchanted arrows from a distance as my AI companions tirelessly struck at its legs to topple the creature. The menacing beast retaliated, tossing my allies around like rag dolls and rendering them unconscious. Yet, one by one, the fallen were rescued by their companion who autonomously bore them to me for revival. This act of bravery demonstrated how helpful and intricately programmed these virtual companions were. The added dimension which these AI-controlled companions brought to the game was not something another player could emulate reliably. Not to mention, the satisfaction of being able to high-five your companions post-battle was an exhilarating feeling.
However, the AI was not always perfect. At times, the pawns would take the lead, assuring me they knew the path to our destination, only to guide me to an unopenable gate. Seeing them march in place, facing the stony wall, was disheartening. But being reminded that the game was still not in its final stage, gave me hope that these snags could be ironed out. These minor glitches were overshadowed by the immersive experience of exploring a world teeming with distractions and adventures, inevitable in an unreleased game.
During my explorations, passersby would engage me in their tales, spill the latest town gossip, or provide useful information for quests. These interactions endowed the town with a lively and realistic ambience. Each person appeared to have a purpose rather than merely filling the game’s space. I was intrigued by the boy kidnapped by wolves, the lost valuable orb, and the nocturnally luminescent flowers. The information gathered offered potential quests to embark on of my own accord and at my own pace. All this information was conveniently recorded in a quest log for later reference.
The fiery, sandy dunes of Battahl offered a stark contrast as the other main location in Dragon’s Dogma 2. It provided a variant sample of the game’s population, who were eager for interaction but exhibited a grittier demeanor. In contrast to Vermund, a human-populated town, Battahl was home to the beastren – humanoid felines resembling the khajiit from Elder Scrolls. With its location in the shadowed mountainside, Battahl emanated an underbelly attitude. The quests and stories found here reflected this similar vibe, including a grumpy blacksmith who refused to repair my sword and a bully who challenged me to a solo fight for strolling with a group of pawns.
In the three hours I played, I felt like I had seen a lot, fought a lot, and explored a lot. But I was also left feeling as though I had barely even scratched the surface of what Dragon’s Dogma 2 has to offer–I never did find the boy who was dragged off by wolves. Instead, I was hurled into a dozen other stories, some the game provided to me, while others I formed from my own exploring. And that’s the biggest impression the preview left on me: the danger, the freedom, and the wonderful happenstance of exploring a world that is densely inhabited by thieves, zombies, wolves, saurians, banshees, orcs, trolls, cyclops, and griffins (just to name the few I saw in my short time) trying to kill me at any moment. It’s a lot, especially considering I hadn’t even touched its main story. It feels like a big world teeming with possibilities and I’m excited to see how it all comes together.
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