Dragon’s Dogma 2 is one of the most anticipated games of this year. Since its release, the game has been caught up in a scandal related to microtransactions. I’ve played over 30 hours and am on the verge of the finale, but I decided to postpone the climax while the game allows it and explore it for another dozen hours. So now I will tell you whether paid items really affect the basic mechanics of the game and whether the game can claim to be one of the best games of this year.
Content
A strange world
The protagonist is sitting in the throne room, and everyone around him is giving him a standing ovation and toasts. The joy does not last long. It turns out that it’s just a dream, and we are actually a prisoner working in a mine with no memory (sound familiar?). In a moment, the mine is attacked by the Gorgon Medusa, which we successfully repel. Taking advantage of the commotion and the spirit’s hint, we try to escape. At the last moment, a disembodied person tells us that the dream is actually a memory from the past, and we are the rightful king whose place has been taken by an impostor.
Strangely enough, the main plot of Dragon’s Dogma 2 is relatively simple and even banal, as for a role-playing game — regain the throne by exposing an impostor (who is very similar to Alistair from Dragon Age: Origins). But the world and its rules are quite interesting and have their peculiarities.
Firstly, this world is ruled by the Arisen, a person whose heart was eaten by a dragon and who is the main character of the game. The world is inhabited by people and animals. Each race has its capital, and both are not without the phenomenon of racism. At some point in the game, if you play as a human, you won’t be allowed to enter the territory of the animals. Even a pass won’t help.
There are also elves who live by the principle of «my house is on the edge». If you play exclusively according to the main plot, you are unlikely to meet at least one pointy-eared one, and their existence is suggested by the description of a gem that is valued by this people.
The player finds himself in the center of a kind of «Game of Thrones» on the minimum settings, and the fervor of this story is not enough to just move on.
But the most interesting thing is not the plot as such, but its presentation, The game does not have a division of quests into main and secondary quests. Only from the description can you tell which quest is the main one and which, at first glance, has nothing to do with the Rebel’s journey. At the same time, the main quest only brings us closer to the end of the game, but does not tell the story in full. To get a complete picture of what is happening, you need to complete «secondary» quests.
For example, we are asked to go to a certain village, as if an impostor comes from there. If you do not complete this quest by a certain point, it will simply disappear. The game certainly warns us that there will be a turning point, but it doesn’t tell us what exactly will change, which quests will be eliminated and which will remain.
The plot outline can be represented as a thick thread running parallel to it, with regular threads — additional quests. All of them lead to the same point, and you can follow the main thread, but to better understand even the main story, you need to involve them all.
Immersiveness is another important feature that radically changes the perception of the game. Most of the main quests are marked on the map with the approximate location of their completion. But there are also those in which you will simply be told what they want from you, and then you will have to look for the location of the quest yourself, carefully reading the description. Let me give you an example.
The game features a teenager named Sven, who has a separate storyline related to our story. Even the beginning of his arc can be different, depending on whether you completed a seemingly unremarkable quest at the very beginning of the game. At one point, we will be given the task «Meet Sven in his room». And if you haven’t come across his room before, you won’t get any signs or markers on the map. However, at this point, you already know who Sven is, so all you have to do is find his room.
Some bosses can only be found by exploring the world and listening to the townspeople’s clues. For example, rumors about the Gorgon Medusa are spreading around the city, someone may even say that she was seen at some ruins and even tell you their name. But this activity will not be a quest, it will not be marked in the journal and will not be displayed on the map in any way. We need to literally find these ruins, and only then try to defeat the legendary creature. However, defeating the Gorgon is not the only activity related to it.
The main pawn
Pawns help to believe in this world and make traveling a little easier. One of the features of Arisen is the ability to create a Pawn in your likeness (in the same character editor as the main character) and control it. A pawn is essentially a living being like the rest of the world’s population, but without its own will. Pawns are endowed with character, which is essentially their state of aggressiveness, and they understand only four commands (forward, next to, stop, help). The rest of the time, including in battles, they act autonomously.
As we travel the world, we meet other players’ pawns. Moreover, you can and should hire them to join your team.
In addition to combat power, other players’ pawns can help with quests. For example, if you hire a pawn that has already completed an active quest with its master, it will tell you how to get to the right place. Similarly, while we are relaxing in the game, our creation also travels the world and helps other players. And if that player has moved further in the game, our pawn remembers everything and can then help in our journey. For example, it can point out a hidden chest or a wall with a secret passage behind it.
In addition, the pawns collect resources themselves, have their backpacks, constantly communicate with other team members and tell different stories. At one point, all the pawns in my team were women, but I noticed this only after one of them commented: «Did you notice that all the pawns in our team are women?
There is also a legend about a mysterious pawn disease. If this disease progresses, something terrible will happen at its peak. Something that even the Rebel will not be able to stop. And it’s not just a fairy tale to decorate a long journey, this disease is really in the game and its consequences are catastrophic.
Pawns have a lot of mechanics and are a separate large component of the game, which is interesting to explore and use in your travels.
One man in the field is not a warrior
There are four basic classes, called vocations here: fighter, archer, rogue, and mage. Gradually, two additional classes are revealed that are, in a sense, improved versions of the previous ones: a sorcerer with powerful spells and a warrior in heavy armor and a two-handed sword. All these classes are available to both the hero and the pawns. Toward the end of the game, you can unlock four more mixed vocations, such as a battle mage, but they are available only to the hero.
The whole battle is an alternation of regular attacks with special attacks and the management of stamina, which is a universal resource for fighting classes and magical ones. Despite the fact that it doesn’t sound very fun, the most important thing in battles is the small details that accompany each fight.
The wolf can grab the hero and drag him a few dozen meters, invite partners, and tear the Rebel apart until the pawns save him. If you play a female character, the ogre will grab you and run as far as possible and start… licking you. Yes, it does this to female characters. If one pawn falls unconscious, the other can bring it to you because only the Rebel can revive fallen companions.
Almost every battle in Dragon’s Dogma 2 with a more or less large monster deserves a separate movie adaptation.
Just like in the first part of Dragon’s Dogma 2, you can try to climb on big monsters and hit them in their weak points. However, this method does not work well for magical classes because standard attacks are fragile, and conjuring something meaningful while on the back of a cyclops is something out of the realm of fantasy. Despite the fact that most people play as a melee class and make the pawn a mage, I chose the opposite tactic.
Playing as a mage for a very long time is boring. Especially when you switch to the Warlock. His spells are powerful, but they take a long time to cast. And they don’t always have the effect you expect. Later on, powerful spells appear that, under certain conditions, can take a whole scale (and even more) of health from a griffin or cyclops. At first, I was surprised at the amount of damage, but it doesn’t change the overall picture, as the wizarding classes are very static. Although magic looks enchanting.
The life reduction system complicates the game. After death or after receiving severe damage, the maximum amount of health decreases. And it can decrease to a level of about 10%. And mages get concussion easily, and while you run from one city to another, it is highly likely that your maximum health level will be close to the minimum. And this is certain death from one missed shot. To recover, you need to rest in a hotel or in a camp. Camps can only be set up in specific places and with the right equipment, which also weighs a lot.
I assembled a standard group of two melee pawns, a healer, and a warlock hero with combat spells. With this lineup, I had problems with only one monster, but he met me too early, so I just ran away from him. In other cases, all battles go smoothly, although they are not easy either.
It’s annoying that there are battles almost every five meters, and often you just want to run around the picturesque scenery. The game lacks the system from the TES series, and other open-world games in general, when you are less likely to run into enemies while traveling on the roads. В Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the opposite, with all the monsters and bandits settling along the paths. Even when traveling by caravan (local taxi), we will encounter ambushes more often than a calm journey.
If a pawn changes class, for example, from a robber to a wizard, then after a while it will remember what a skilled robber it once was.
You’re looking in the wrong place
There were some controversial decisions. For example, to start a new game, you need to delete the save files physically on the system itself. The upcoming patch should solve this problem and several others, but the precedent is not very pleasant.
Also, the game has actually two parallel save files: «Quick Save» and a save at a resting place. This can be an inn or your own home. «Quick Saves» occur at every step, just like in an average modern game. The only problem is that if you find yourself in an unpredictable situation, for example, stuck in textures or jumping on a ledge from which the only way out is to jump into the abyss. The game can be saved at that very moment.
And if there are no teleport or revival stones after death, you will have to die and then be reborn in your last resting place. And given the constant traveling, this save can be an hour, or even several, away from your current progress. You’ll agree that this is not a pleasant situation.
The graphics in the game are not particularly impressive, but the environment is particularly beautiful. Just traveling on foot through the wooded area would be very pleasant, if not for the constant mobs at every turn.
In general, almost everything in the game is good that is not «human», which seems to have been carried over from the original game, which was released on PS3 and Xbox 360. The models look nice and are generally well detailed, but the lack of skin shaders makes people look like plastic mannequins. This is especially noticeable in dialogues. And the facial animation is a complete disaster, nothing saves it.
Moreover, the game’s optimization is hardly exemplary. I played on a PS5 and in moments of intense combat, when the screen is filled with special effects and large monsters, the FPS drops below a comfortable level. It felt like the lowest limit was around 10 fps. On PC, the situation is no better, the game is very demanding on the CPU. According to Digital Foundry tests, the difference between the Ryzen 3600 and Ryzen 7800X3D is almost double, 30fps versus 60fps. At the same time, even the top gaming CPU from AMD does not hold a stable 60 frames.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 already has a very crude machine translation into Ukrainian. You can download it on NexusMod.
I’m cool with microtransactions in single-player games. The fact that some John buys himself some gold won’t affect my gaming experience in any way. But in the case of Dragon’s Dogma 2, there is one nuance. Capcom decided to sell an extremely rare item — the Return Crystal. There are six stationary return crystals (teleporters) in the game, and a certain number of mobile teleporters can be found in the game (at least 10) Mobile teleporters can be placed anywhere on the map, and they are mostly given out for completing quests. I found only one mobile teleporter in over 30 hours.
The problem is not that hypothetical John will buy such portals, but I will not. I’ve already mentioned that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a very immersive game, and constant travel, including by caravan, is an important component of this immersion and atmosphere. After all, you never know what’s around the corner. And after the opportunity to purchase such a rare and important item, the question arises: was the game really designed as I described it, or are the developers just trying to get us to go to the virtual store?
As it turned out, all items have a limit on the number of purchases. You can buy only one portal crystal. That is, you won’t be able to buy ten teleporters at the beginning of the game and install them at every turn. So I’m inclined to believe that the game was designed to be immersive, as the developers stated by emphasizing travel as an important component of the game.
Microtransactions — are always unpleasant, but these are the realities of the current industry. I consider the problem of paid items in Dragon’s Dogma 2 to be somewhat overrated, as they do not have a significant impact on the gameplay and basic game mechanics.
But despite all the problems and criticism, you want to play Dragon’s Dogma 2 for the real unique experience it offers. I once fought a stone golem. I was slowly cracking it open when a griffin suddenly arrived. At first, I was stunned by this duo, but I gathered my strength and managed to finish off the golem. I even managed to shoot about half of the griffin’s life. But the bird just took off and flew away, flying somewhere beyond the horizon. This surprised me no less than its unexpected appearance.
Later, another quest led me to the nest of a griffin that needed to be killed. After completing the task, I began to explore the nest in search of rare resources. Less than a minute later, a second griffin arrived. It was the same one I had fought a few hours ago. He even had the same amount of health as I had left him after the first encounter. And everyone who has played Dragon’s Dogma 2 will tell you a dozen similar stories. But I won’t ruin your gaming experience anymore.
Behind the exaggerated scandals about additional payments lies one of the best games of the year. A real adventure, of which there are incredibly few nowadays. Dragon’s Dogma 2 can be «run through» in 25 hours, and you can see 30-40% of everything it offers. However, I chose to enjoy the real adventure and collect the moments described above for as long as the game will bring me pleasure. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 50 or 100 hours.