Dragon’s Dogma 2 is an outstanding sequel that improves on the original’s founding principles, delivering an exhilarating open-world adventure.
By Richard Wakeling @richardwakeling on March 20, 2024 at 8:00AM PDT
Dragon’s Dogma 2 avoids using a conventional fast-travel system. While for most open-world games this may be a fatal flaw, a sign of disrespect for the gamer’s precious time, Capcom has managed to make the lack of this feature a remarkable asset. It’s the game’s tremendous sense of adventure and exploration that accomplishes this. Every time you step away from the relative security of a village or city, it’s impossible to predict the outcome; the only certainty is that it has the capacity to be mesmerizing and well worth your involvement.
In terms of being a sequel, Dragon’s Dogma 2 expands on everything that the original game accomplished 12 years prior. It’s a spellbinding open-world RPG with diverse, thrilling combat and a user-created companion system that remains unique. It doesn’t extend much beyond what the original did, yet technological advancements have amplified its unique strengths, injecting renewed vitality into its vast open world and the multitude of ways you and your surroundings can interact with it. While novelty and innovation may not be at its core, the aspects it emphasizes remain relatively unique.
You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
By clicking ‘enter’, you agree to GameSpot’s
Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
enter
Now Playing: Dragon’s Dogma 2 GameSpot Video Review
After a brief but intriguing prologue, your adventure begins in the country of Vermund, a land of lush green forests, alpine peaks, and the flowing currents of its many winding rivers. The royalty and noblemen of Vermund reside behind the fortified walls of its capital city, and it’s from this bustling location that you can board an oxcart to a small village in the north or a checkpoint city in the west. The latter sits on the border with Battahl, an arid land, home to the humanoid cat-like beastren, where gondolas provide an occasional route over the craggy canyons below. Beyond traveling via oxcart or climbing aboard one of these sky lifts, you’re left to explore this sprawling world on foot, traversing dense forests blanketed by canopies that blot out the sun, elven ruins carved into the sides of mountains, and shifting sands bathed in harsh sunlight and circled by deadly harpies.
There is a method of instant fast travel available, but it works in much the same way as it did in the first game. You can exhaust a costly resource known as Ferrystones to travel to any Portcrystal in the world, but these fast-travel points are few and far between–either as a permanent fixture or an item you can pick up and place anywhere you desire. You’ll use them sparingly and spend the vast majority of your time covering large swathes of land on your own two feet. Considering the 12-year gap between the original game and its sequel, this approach to fast travel and seamless exploration feels like an even bolder decision now than it did in 2012. The open-world genre has become more codified in the interim, yet Dragon’s Dogma 2 makes a concerted effort to ensure that the journey is just as important as the destination.
This is a game as much defined by the journey through a sunken canyon as by the fight you find when you finally reach the valley. The quests set before you are varied, moving you to search for a boy captured by wolves or join an elf in an initiation trial. These challenges may sometimes seem stock, but their execution is far from it. With Dragon’s Dogma 2, you’re never just dealing with one isolated task at any given moment; the game is overflowing with spontaneous instances that continually impress and astonish. I could speak of countless incidents from my 40-hour mission without bringing up a single planned storyline. Designed goals may push you towards a certain way, but they lead to a series of unique happenings that occur organically, throwing giant monsters in your path or arousing your interest with a cave hidden to the side of the main walkway.
I recall embarking on a long voyage that started with expected chaotic encounters with cunning goblins and highway thieves. I initially thought meeting a tri-headed, sorcery-wielding chimera would be the highlight of this excursion, only for a gigantic griffin to descend and give me a brand new set of difficulties. After fiercely attacking the shrieking goat head of the chimera until it finally fell, I zeroed all my strength on the terrorizing griffin. The enormous power of this formidable beast caused every leaf around to tremble each time it pulled back and flapped its wings, but I managed to clamber onto the creature and dug my blade into the back of its head, right before it leaped into the air and sent me hurling down.
Eventually, the griffin retreated to the open skies, which led me to spend the night to replenish my depleted energy. My journey began again the next dawn, only to be interrupted once more by the very same griffin, perhaps bearing a grudge against me. This time, after a great struggle, I defeated the mythical beast before it could escape again, but my journey wasn’t finished. A duo of colossi launched an unforeseen assault amidst the narrow space between two massive rocks, while the ensuing night introduced a swarm of undead corpses whose luminous blue eyes broke the stifling darkness.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a captivating open-world RPG with diverse, thrilling combat, and a unique player-created companion system.
Unrelated encounters that don’t pertain to your initial quest is the beauty of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s open world. Constantly, you’ll find yourself being drawn in different directions. You could be pursuing a quest from a villager in need, an attractive structure on the horizon, a locked gate with a potential alternative access, and so on. Although backtracking is common, the unique nature of each journey eliminates any feeling of monotony when revisiting familiar paths.
None of this engaging gaming experience would be possible without the game’s other commendable features. The game thrills with excellent combat mechanisms, offering a variety of unique vocations to select from. The classes vary from the Fighter who wields a sword and shield, the long-range Archer, new additions like the Mystic Spearhand—a combination of melee/magic build—and the versatile Warfarer. You can choose to play the entire game as one class, but you’re also rewarded for experimenting. Each vocation comes with special Augmentations that grant passive enhancements that you can implement irrespective of your current class. This flexibility allows you to create a sturdier Mage or give a Warrior the stamina typically reserved for a Thief.
No matter the vocation you choose, there’s a sensation of impact with every attack. The clash of axes and greatswords is noticeably intense, with the game slowing down for your most powerful strikes, while enemies fall off cliffs or in flames due to a Sorcerer’s stave. It’s a spectacular style reminiscent of the Devil May Cry game, and attacking huge beasts with purposeful and slow blows takes you back to the prolonged Monster Hunter battles.
Even with all the intensity, the combat feels realistic thanks to the realistic reactions of the game world. When a colossus is toppled and stumbles towards a small opening, it doesn’t just fall through but grabs onto the other side, creating a desperate, makeshift bridge. It only loses grip and plummets after its fingers have been attacked. The camera sometimes struggles to keep up with the explosive action, mostly when a mage has filled the screen with fire or ice. This is an acceptable compromise, considering how engaging the game is. However, the camera can become challenging to handle in tight spaces or when you’re clinging to a terrifying beast. Despite these rare occurrences and minor inconveniences, Dragon’s Dogma 2’s fantastic combat delivers a thrilling gaming experience.
In terms of story, you’re once again cast as the Arisen, repeating a cycle that has occurred for generations. A fearsome dragon rules over the land and chooses you as a worthy challenger to its reign by plucking out your still-beating heart and consuming it. Your ultimate goal is to take up arms and slay the dragon, but before that can happen you need to build up your strength and contend with the disparate politics of both Vermund and Battahl. In Vermund, the Arisen is revered as a sovereign and champion of the people, tasked with protecting the land from the ominous shadow of the dragon. An imposter sits on your throne, however: a False Arisen, put in place by a queen who doesn’t want to lose her power. In attempting to claim what’s rightfully yours, you’ll gradually unravel a mystery that threatens to impact the fate of the whole world.
It’s a decent tale that propels your adventure forward, although it’s light on characterization, which contributes to a persistent feeling of detachment. This makes it difficult to care about the overarching narrative, aside from an interest in unraveling the core mystery. The awe-inspiring scale of its later moments somewhat makes up for its shortcomings, while exploring the differences between the cultures of Vermund and Battahl is also compelling. The beastren nation casts the Arisen as an outsider, fearful as they are of your entourage of pawns and the misfortune they portend.
Much like the first game, these user-created companions are the game’s most exceptional feature. Up to three pawns can join you on your journey, though one is a permanent fixture and your own creation. You can set their vocation and change it as you see fit, equipping skills and upgrades for them just as you would your own character. The other two members of your party are hirelings you can recruit and replace on a whim and are typically created by other players. Choosing which pawns to hire primarily comes down to a matter of party composition. Whether they’re leading from the front, imbuing your weapon with magic, or blanketing the battlefield in meteors, it’s hard not to love the impact they have on combat. But there’s also more to them than simply being hired guns.
The time a pawn spends with other players is retained in their memory. They might recall a treasure chest they opened in another Arisen’s world and then lead you to it, and they do the same when it comes to navigating quests as well. If you prioritize an objective and one of your pawns has completed it before, they’ll offer to lead you to wherever it is you need to go. Rather than being weighed down by having to constantly revisit the map, you can let a pawn naturally guide you, creating an ebb and flow to your adventure that removes the need for menu screens and waypoints. They can sometimes lose their way when you’re interrupted by combat, but I found that hitting the “Go” command would reset them back on the right path.
Pawns perform a similar function after defeating a particular enemy type a certain number of times. If a pawn has enough experience against, for example, an ogre, they’ll share relevant details about weak spots and attack patterns. You can also discover and apply different specializations for your pawn, potentially enabling them to translate Elvish or collect materials, so you don’t have to. While they can sometimes be extraordinarily talkative, often expressing a child-like fascination with the world using antiquated English dialogue, they are considerably less repetitive and more sociable than before. They often chat with each other about previous companions, creating a distinct sense of team spirit and friendship.
The most glaring issue stems from Dragon’s Dogma 2’s performance on PC. Despite my rig exceeding the recommended specifications, except for the CPU, the game typically runs at about 60fps on the “High” setting. Occasionally it does drop to the 40s and further decreases in towns and cities, but it remains playable, if unstable. The obstacle is that this performance is uniform across all visual settings, suggesting poor optimization. Lowering graphical elements like shadow quality didn’t give any performance boost, but ideally, a day-one patch and driver updates could address these issues. However, it is not ideal at the moment.
Nevertheless, these performance problems haven’t discouraged my fondness for this game. It’s rare for a cult classic to get approved for a sequel, especially 12 years after the original release. Capcom has stayed true to the original game’s principles without making Dragon’s Dogma 2 easier to attract a broader audience. They have built upon the original core concepts to create a more expansive and satisfying game that consistently satisfies with its approach to exploration and adventure. While in many respects it feels very familiar, it is a game catered to those who loved the original, despite its flaws and will hopefully appeal to those who overlooked the first game. After 40 hours, my admiration for this unique game keeps growing. I consider it among Capcom’s greatest achievements and wouldn’t hesitate to rank it among their best works.
