Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Big, explorable world. Tons of secrets and optional dungeons. Loads of loot to gather. Ability to mix and match various classes allowing for tons of customization. One of the very best character creators. The ability to share party members with other players and to hire theirs on in turn. Community challenges and special bosses. Unique combat mechanics that require a more thoughtful approach to battle than your average RPG (cutting off a hydra's head requires you to literally climb onto its neck and hack it's head off). And to top it all off, PC performance. It does take some time to wrap your head around how the pawn system works. Pawns, or the mercenaries you hire, can be unstoppable killers or useless due to their behaviour (the AI isn't universal; it can change from pawn to pawn), so it will take some experimentation to build a good party of pawns, but that's part of the fun. Sort of like managing a sports team: bring in new pawns when the old ones fail and keep changing things until you find pawns you like. And if you just can't stand the pawns...solo it with your avatar. Creating a build that can solo the game is also a fun challenge. The game has a few quirks but, in terms of raw value and gameplay, this is easily one of the very best RPGs around. It's almost criminal how rarely anyone mentions this game.

I could write a long winded review about how great this game is, but I'm not going to. Others have written why this game is great, and you can read their reviews. So why bother writing anything at all? Because I want to highlight something you can't do in any other game: You can kill a giant by knocking it off a cliff. I giggled when it happened. Then I looked over the edge of the cliff and said, "Yup, he's dead." And giggled some more. I think I'm going to stay up in the mountains to look for someone or something else to knock off the cliff. At least the view up there is pretty.

As the title says. This game should've never been ported to PC........ or at least in the poor state that it's in. Though the game is good as I played it on console, the PC port sucks. As any gamer knows a game can be very good but if the controls suck then sadly the rest of the game suffers for it and this game is no exception and so that's why I can't/wont recommend this game on PC. If you have a console then I would suggest you buy it on there and forget about this PC ported train wreck.

While this game is a bit clunky it has THE most exciting monster fights in any action RPG ever and has so much variety to the gameplay and the world itself. Off the beaten path is where you'll find some of the best adventures in this game and if you love a challenge then prepare to be ground to a fine paste many times over if you are ill prepared. I cannot heap enough praise on this one title alone so go play it now to see the full glory of it yourself.

One of the best, if not THE best, third person action RPGs I have ever played. It rewards you for learning and punishes you for refusing to adapt to its ever changing monsters. The combat is visceral, and gives a weighty feel to every movement, from a simple swing to the launching of a brigand fifteen feet in the air. The Ferrystones and Port Crystals are an interesting and helpful system. Using them allows you to fast travel to anywhere in the world you want, as long as you've been there and placed one of those Port Crystals down. Overall well polished and extremely fun, if you're brave enough to face the dangers that lurk in the darkness.