Dragon’s Dogma 2 Review – A Genre Giant

The first installment of this series captivated me so much in 2012 that I used its screenshots as avatars on social media for quite a while. I mention this obscure information because the game may have been in decline at the time, but it ended up selling 8 million copies and gained a cult following for many fans, which I would not hesitate to compare to the original version of Demon’s Souls. So, if you have never heard of this series, know that it is much more interesting and of higher quality than you think. This is not so easy to explain, since at first glance the game may seem quite generic. But once you start playing it on your own controller, it will grab you like few others, thanks to, among other things, a great combat system, enemy design and, most importantly: an absolutely stunning, living open world.

• Platform: PS5 (review), XSX|S, PC
• Publication date: 03.22.2024
• Developer: Capcom (Japan)
• Genre: Open world ARPG.
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: non/asynchronous (Pawns)
• Data for download: 64 GB
• Play time: 40+ hours
• Price: 1799 crowns (Alsa)

Down to earth and freedom

One of the things that both parts of this series manage to attract attention at first glance is the extremely natural and earthy visuals, which in almost no way (except perhaps the charming faces of almost all the characters) resemble traditional Japanese games. It feels much more like the game takes place in Europe in the Middle Ages or as if it came from the pages of Tolkien’s books. In comparison, however, there are fewer absurd megastructures – local villages, cities or castles also seem more like something from European history than an exaggerated fantasy. Thanks to all this, of course, our native will feel much more comfortable in this environment.

The emphasis on the realism of the environments and costumes is also reflected in the landscape itself, whose plains, mountains and forests also most of the time resemble our part of the planet, or perhaps Skyrim. This element is extremely important, because despite the gigantic open map, the game quite deliberately does not offer the possibility of horseback riding – you will almost always wander this beautiful vast landscape on foot, unless you think of additional fast travel options, which, however, have limited structure and resources, so you can still implement many routes in your own way. And here is where the best feature of the game is revealed.

This is where the game’s best feature comes into play.

The open world here is incredibly lively with all sorts of monsters, passers-by, ruins, caves and, in short, a stunning flow of completely optional locations and events in which you are free to participate as you wish. This is, without exaggeration, one of the best open worlds in games, it can withstand the amazing experience of exploration that they gave us. legends like Zelda, Skyrim or Elden Ring. The exploration experience is further enhanced by relatively strict rules, with physics playing a big role in where you go and how you get there. There are also some truly scary nights if you get stuck on the road before dark. On the one hand, night means true darkness, with little to no visibility without a flashlight – and most importantly, there are far more, often far more dangerous, monsters crawling out of the darkness.

Monsters, sword and magic

Some fans of the series may argue that its best feature is still the combat. I agree that it is also exceptional and the second part obviously goes even further, especially with completely new professions, such as the teleporting “magic spear” or the insidious “saboteur”, who practically does not participate in battles manually, but influences them, causing all sorts of hallucinations, traps, poisons and so on. The game is based on four basic professions, which are a classic bait for fantasy lovers – a warrior with a sword and shield, a mage with a magic staff, a hunter with a bow and a dexterous thief with two knives. The difference between each of these professions is huge: for example, if you are an archer, the gameplay is more like a shooter than anything else (since you unlock things like zooming, rapid fire, fan fire, magic or elemental arrows, etc. after a while).

The enemies also deserve a lot of attention – given the aforementioned “realism” of the game, one can wonder how dangerous it can be to meet a pack of ordinary wolves. Or how much scarier they look when their eyes glow green at night in the light of your fireplace or lantern. In addition to traditional enemies, the game also generously doses giant mythical monsters, whose appearance on the stage is almost always epic and frightening at the same time. It is enough if some five-ton, ten-meter giant with five “hilbars” rushes out of the forest. Even more terrifying is the attack of a giant griffin or even a dragon (of which there are several types). Then a completely separate chapter is to enter, for example, the lair of Medusa, whose glowing eyes in the darkness of the cave mercilessly petrify any unfortunate person who looks into these eyes at the wrong moment. As for the monsters, here too the “down-to-earth” audiovisual design of the game helps to create a strong and believable impression of them.

Even more terrifying is the attack of the giant Griff.

Experience with larger monsters greatly improves your ability to grab and climb their bodies during combat, something that Shadow of the Colossus made famous. Enemies often have their weakest points hidden above or perhaps under their wings, so you have to make your way to them (so unless you’re playing as an archer or mage, they’ll have an easier time hitting certain objects from a distance). As for the game’s realism, you’ll often see things like a wounded Gryph decide to give up the fight and fly away, so while you desperately cling to its body, it’ll float with you for a kilometer above the landscape, which of course means certain death if you fall. As a result, the game not only creates a great exploration experience, but also a great combat experience.

History lies, the Pawns rule, and consoles can’t keep up.

As for the plot, while the trailers clearly promise fateful dialogue and strong characters, the plot seems absurdly banal: an evil dragon has swallowed your heart, thereby turning you into an immortal resurrected hero destined to save the land by finding and defeating the dragon. But this huge cliché is actually very misleading. Anyone who has read the first part knows that the whole “Dragon Dogma” underlying the story is just an excuse for something much more complex and interesting. But if you don’t know, I won’t give anything away, and I will only promise that the second half of this story will show you something you never dreamed of and only a few games have dared to do – I could name Nier as a specific comparison. This feature of the game was already absolutely amazing in the first part, but in the second part it goes even further and is even better.

The Prophecy promised that the Risen would be supported by unique helpers in their campaign. They are called “Pawns” (which can be loosely translated as “pawn” in chess terminology), they are also immortal and in addition to our world, they also move in the “Rift” dimension, from where they can be summoned using special stone shrines. Just as you can create the appearance and attributes of the character you control, you can also create your main pawn. A good combination is, for example, a warrior hero and a mage/healer pawn. In addition, you gradually add pawns of other online players to your party of four, but you can’t level them up, so you have to rotate them regularly. A pawn that has experienced or discovered something interesting in a game with one player will then speak out in another player’s game and offer to take him to a specified location. It’s a fascinating system full of unique and cool situations. You always control only your character, but you can give orders to pawns. Their automatic accompanying dialogues with you and with each other also work very dynamically.

A pawn that discovers something interesting will be heard in another player’s game.

I fell in love with this game very quickly, just like I did with its predecessor many years ago. Unlike many other games, this one doesn’t push you into the main storyline, you can easily wander around the world for dozens or even hundreds of hours and do all sorts of side activities. Side quests are often very interesting, for example, a messenger decided to run away with his master’s jewel, but lost it along the way – you have the option to find the jewel and give it to one of them, or make a fake copy of it, or a combination of both. This leads to some pretty crazy, funny and tragic situations. The actions in the game world are realistic even without you, so if you don’t manage to save someone, for example, they will die, and you will be out of luck. After completing the story for the first time, I immediately jumped into New Game Plus, where I began training my strong character from the first playthrough, going through new professions and all sorts of combinations of his abilities. Without the need to review another game, I would play Dragon’s Dogma 2 for the third time.

I have more or less one complaint about the game, but it’s a very serious one: the smoothness on the PS5 is unacceptable. The unlocked frame rate sometimes rises above the promised 30 fps, but often drops to 20, which is really very unpleasant and makes it difficult to control, for example, during wild actions. I’m not kidding when I say that at times I felt physically sick, similar to how someone gets dizzy when playing in VR, I actually got a headache from watching the sometimes absurdly choppy spectacle in this game. The developers needed to somehow tame this, even if the game looked worse. Maybe they are already relying on the PS5 Pro? I really hope that the criticism from players is loud enough for a future patch to fix this. However, I did not encounter any other technical problems.