Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

This game is fantastic, but unlike what this store page says ("multiplayer is only available between GOG users"), multiplayer actually doesn't function at all. There is a bug with the servers that prevents you from receiving rewards from other people using your pawn (which is your customizable companion in this game, if you're unaware), which makes it difficult to progress in late-game content without grinding. I have also read several unconfirmed reports on the subreddit that you actually can't access other people's specific Pawns at all. Dragon's Dogma is a great game, but as much as I hate DRM... you should buy this game on Steam instead.

I first played a pirated copy of this game when I did a test purchase from some shady online store. I had no idea what this game was, and was pleasantly surprised. Enjoyed it so much I finally bought a copy on Steam. I was amazed it was playable on an old core i3 laptop with integrated graphics (albeit with big black borders at 640 x 480 @ 30 fps). I had fun playing most of the classes with a single character, since the game allows you to switch without creating a new one. Mostly did multiple runs of the Bitter Black Isle DLC boss while offline. For me this was a 4.5 out of 5 game, since I'm mostly into repetitive offline single-player hack-and-slash type games that can run on potato. But you might not enjoy this for the following reasons: - story is very basic - a lot of fetch quest, and quest does not indicate which ones are the main quest line - graphics are decent but in 2023 already dated - not really much to do in the open world, there's only 2 cities and a lot of empty areas - while the combat and magic might appear cool, they get repetitive. Even enemies get repetitive as they only have a few enemy types - does not have Dark Souls level of challenge. While some skill is required to beat bosses and mini-bosses, leveling up your character and weapon stats will have more effect. - GOG version of the game has no online features If those don't turn you off then you can try getting this on sale.

...so I played this - and loved every minute of it.

This game is extremely average in many regards, lacking in certain aspects but entertaining after all. The game offers many features each with their own strong and weak points. - Customization: There's plenty of options when creating your main character and companion. You can choose from many defaults and go deeper into the modifications if you wish. In terms of equipment you can choose from a decent variety of well designed and immersive armours and the clothes to wear underneath. - Leveling system: Very poorly explained in game but somewhat simple. The stats are leveled automatically depending on your class. Each one boosts your attributes differently when leveling up. You can purchase class changes and swap at the vendor to manipulate your stat growth. - Mechanics: The fighting and skill system is OK. Choosing one class or another feels very different as warriors are incredibly slow but powerful while rangers are more reliant on positioning. Still, the AI is terrible as some enemies will sometimes ignore you and other times they'll pile on you granting a kill no matter what you do. Enemies can keep comboing you in succession rendering you unable to move. You can heal all you want but you'll die regardless since their combo will never stop (and we're talking about mere bandits, not bosses). You can make very cinematic moves sometimes timing well your abilties and combat can be a lot of fun. Missions are really dull and uneventful though. The game is filled with menial tasks like "talk to people around town" or "escort diiferent NPCs from A to B over and over". - Story: Dull and cliché to the extreme. You are the chosen one to kill the great evil. Characters are very uncharismatic. Companions are literal zombies with no will or personality (and this is another thing not explained in the game but you can make them totally useless in combat via dialog). -Graphics and sound: Very monotone ambience and forgetable music. Monster design is simple and unoriginal.

Admittedly, I found the style of the game a little less than inspiring during my first hour or so of play, but I soldiered on and actually found myself liking the game more as it progressed. It was growing on me, which was pleasing as I learned more about the mechanics of play and how to do different things. However, sixteen hours into the game I started 'discovering' that the scripting of many quests is simply abysmal. There was an early sidequest I had apparently failed without realising, because I'd proceeded naturally through an early main storyline checkpoint, again without realising it would affect any sidequests, because they're mostly your bog standard fetch this, find that, escort him/her type fayre. Whilst failing a sidequest shouldn't be an issue, when you fail 'sidequest A' and then subsequent sidequests are reliant on its completion, suggests a poorly scripted and broken quest mechanism. Indeed, if you've failed 'sidequest A' then the game shouldn't even be offering 'B, C, D,' etc, as part of a linked string of quests. Essentially, what that led to was wandering around a large game world trying to fulfil subsequent quests, that can never actually be completed, all because 'sidequest A' failed, and meaning that characters and locations mentioned in the subsequent quests never appear. I only discovered that by looking through guides online, which often pointed to the broken and poorly scripted quest mechanisms. The only recommendations were to do certain sidequests in a specific order of sequence, before accepting or doing others. Truth be told, these quest problems make Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen seem like a game that doesn't know what it wants to be, whether that's an open world sandbox, an RPG adventure on rails, or a mixture of the two. The problem with the latter is that it utterly fails to connect the two with any coherence. There's a good game here, but sadly, one that's buried in bugs and poor scripting that ruin the experience.