Dragon's Dogma Review

There’s something very peculiar about Dragon’s Dogma, something oddly compelling that despite its rough edges and pace problems, players will want to complete one more quest, kill one more monster and buy one more set of armour. That’s because this game is quietly brilliant.

Despite the fact that Dragon’s Dogma is set in a huge open-world environment and has many quests and items to collect, it is very unlike anything else out there. What time of day it is and where you are genuinely matter in Dragon’s Dogma; when the sun sets and the moon rises, enemies become tougher and roads that may have been safe and abandoned during the day could be overrun with wolves and goblins come nightfall.

Because of this, players need to plan extensively prior to doing anything, whether it’s attempting a quest or simply moving from one safe haven to another. They need to be aware of what time it is and how long it will take them to get from place to place otherwise night will come and the quest will become considerably more difficult than it needed to be.

It’s this that makes the world found in Dragon’s Dogma not just a playground but a genuine living, breathing world. This allows players to become incredibly immersed into the title, making it much more enjoyable. It also gives the game an identity of its own, setting it apart from other role-playing titles currently on the markets and gives the impression that the world is constantly evolving and that there’s always something new and exciting around the corner just waiting to be discovered.

 
Another part of what makes Dragon’s Dogma so brilliant is its gameplay: a healthy mix of sword-fighting, range attacks, questing and adventuring. Whether players are using two small daggers or powerful fire magic, battling enemies is quick and fun but challenging at the same time, giving the gameplay a sense of strategy to it as charging in generally doesn’t work as well as planning before striking.

But the best part of the game is how it keeps things varied. A difficult job for an RPG is to keep the player interested for the whole playtime as they are renowned for being rather long, but what Dragon’s Dogma does is gives the player the tools to change the way the game is as much as they want and as often as they want but does not force it upon them.

When a player chooses to visit an inn they are given the choice of changing their vocation, or changing their “class”. This is brilliant as it does not confine the player to one class like most titles do and make them wish they had chosen something else at the beginning, forcing them to restart to try new options out. If players want to be a fighter then they can but if they take a liking to a bow and arrow, for example, then they just need to save up and get to their nearest inn. The ability to change classes as much as players want as often as players want demonstrates clearly the difference between each vocation and the fact they level up with the character and do not restart back to level one when reselected means you will constantly want to switch throughout the playtime.

Whilst Dragon’s Dogma puts its own spin on the class system, it also mixes things up when dealing with the player’s party. In other RPG’s like Mass Effect, a party is built up as the story continues but in this game, players have the freedom to choose whoever they want in their party. Early on, players can design their own party member and set their abilities but, after connecting online, they can share this new character with other players, swapping them and altering them to their liking. This is absolutely brilliant as it eradicates the need for pointless party members and allows the player to tailor the experience to their liking.

Graphically, Dragon’s Dogma isn’t anything special. Characters and monsters look nice and the world is expansive but nothing really sticks out as being brilliant. It’s all very dull, with low greens and browns and the odd sandy-colour and nothing is particularly detailed. The environment is rather bland but its size makes up for it. However, the game does have problems when it comes to bugs. This isn’t anything on the same level as Skyrim but there are a few minor annoyances; characters being able to run through scenery, enemies and items getting caught stuck in rocks or hovering in mid-air and peculiar sound effects either not happening at all or occurring too late. Whilst these may hinder the enjoyment of the game, it isn’t anything that cannot be fixed in a patch.

Dragon’s Dogma is a surprising game. On the surface, it seems both boring and shallow but dig deep and this title is one with some incredible, huge ideas, like the Pawn system and the way a player can alter their class. But there are little parts, too; for example, players can climb up onto huge monsters and battle them and there is a lot on offer here. Dragon’s Dogma is a very rare game: one that has practically nothing going for it and no huge franchise name attached to it. Yet, despite this, it comes along and pleasantly surprises the player with an enjoyable RPG romp.