Dragon’s Dogma is a game that’s wowed critics worldwide, sold well and most importantly given Capcom a competitive slice of the contemporary RPG cake to gorge on. But what is it about Dragon’s Dogma which makes it such an appealing title at this moment in time, faced with such stiff competition such as Max Payne 3, Ghost Recon: FS and Diablo III? Well, here goes our little assessment.
First of all, Dragon’s Dogma plays like a respectable amalgamation of Skyrim (using runes & fighting dragons), The Witcher 2 (third-person, refined combat, fantasy journey) and Lord of the Rings (in visual style, sound and approach) – which can only be a good thing seeing as those three franchises have dominated the industry for well over a decade now. There’s a certain charm to Dragon’s Dogma’s cheesy, over-the-top dialogue and it’s a charm I feel that works on every playthrough despite which character class you decide to select. Listening to the somewhat insincere “we have triumphed” every time you kill one tiny goblin may push your patience a little, but I swear Capcom have deliberately written sections of dialogue with a mocking homage in mind. One of the earlier things you may remember hearing is “You shall not cast!” (Gandalf, anyone?) when faced with the task of toppling the snake/goat/lion beast – or perhaps the “We must claim mastery o’er the eternal ring” is even less inconspicuous? Regardless of your opinion on the matter, Dragon’s Dogma nails the fantasy style to a tee – it’s just a shame that style may not necessarily be its own!
Graphically, the game offered players nice diversity from the dust-grey “coffee-filtered” next-gen lens we’ve come to expect from contemporary games. Textures loaded well, character models were distinctive (particularly your own, as I made the giant deformed-looking tropical beast that was Heskey) and enemies looked fantastic. Returning to aforementioned Heskey, character creation was as detailed and intricate as I could have expected from a game of its kind – but I doubt anybody would have anticipated how much your creation would feature in cutscenes throughout the game. Perhaps making my hero enormous and disfigured was a bad choice; there were many moments when he would show compassion towards other characters yet for the most part it looked as if he was drinking vinegar through his jaunty, discoloured eyes. I remember there was even an option to make your hero a child which was definitely an unexplored touch – however no matter how small, tall, fat or thin you were you would always be able to run at the same default speed and be consistently good in any aspect (which was good for Heskey, cos’ usually 8ft tanks are slow and lumbering.) In regards to voice-acting, the accents were nice and varied and constantly reminded me of those in The Witcher 2; a true testament to how being suddenly “brummy” can add a lot more depth to a character (I think) than just a basic 2D racist stereotype.
One major aspect which the game excelled at, to my memory, was the fact that the combat was so damn good. Fighting monsters felt exactly as it should, each hack n’ slash swoop of your weapon felt responsive and you could always see the damage you were inflicting on your enemies live (always a nicer barometer of battle rather than just blindly slashing away until one of you drops dead). One bizarre criticism I had though was that often your AI partners were “too” helpful and if you took a step back out of the action you’d rapidly be left with nothing to do. I’m usually one for criticizing my AI team-mates for being piss-poor, never helping you in your time of need (Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Gears of War, Left 4 Dead) but this time they’re just overtly helpful. You can sit back and relax if you feel the need to, which would be fine but because the combat is so tasty I always wanted to take out monsters riding solo, if you get my jist.
A lack of load times, superb combat, wonderful graphics and creative monsters builds up a pretty convincing profile of how much fun Dragon’s Dogma is. This is one assessment that shows, on reflection, that Capcom’s latest RPG whole-heartedly deserves the praise it received on launch-day.
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