Quite old yet heavy on my storage although that wasn't what turned me off. The game, or rather, the MC Talion, doesn't control well, he's supposed to be a swift ranger with magically enhanced speed yet I feel like I'm controlling a tank even if the animations are all flashy. Game and combat look really fun it's just not fun to play. +Settings and controls are clearly designed for consoles with limited options.
The game is damn good, not a lot of Roleplaying but it has great Action and enough character building. The Story is geniunely interesting although somewhat poorly told, NPCs themselves are rarely interesting. The few musical themes are simply phenomenal and are used with perfect timing, it sends shivers down my spine. Combat is really fun and willl only get better over time but in Bitterblack Isle (DLC) the poor balance between classess will lead to issues for those using Physical Melee vocations. World is too big and, at times, empty or littered with repetitve enemies. The main quest is a bit slow and makes you travel across half of said world way too often. Sidequests are only interesting when they add involve new bosses. Bitterblack isle has none of the pacing and story issues of the main game and, when the enemies are designed with melee in mind, it's the peak of Dragon Dogma's gameplay.
I refunded the game only a few hours into it, I'm not gonna say it doesn't get better but I heavily doubt it does. The story, characters and their presentation couldn't be more generic in an uninspired way. Bad guy wants to start a nondescript apocalypse, Prophet immediately says you're the chosen one and all the characters you interact with are either Orcs or barely dressed women (Not that I have anything against spicy characters but it says a lot about how lazy their team is when all the female bodies, including MC's sister, are the exact same). I'm pretty sure the BBEG's armor is just from Oblivion's Mythic Dawn and everything else is Unity asset store material. I'd give more examples about the story and voice acting but I can't remember them, again, it's not so bad it's fun it's just bad. The camera and control mapping is awful, imagine Gothic but it doesn't make sense even after learning the controls, the mouse has acceleration that can't be toggled off. The game has 3 classes with somewhat of a stealth subclass, Archer, Warrior and Mage, all of them are clunky when moving and transitioning between animations. Archer aims automatically, the 3 active skills are interesting but 3 skills on a cooldown aren't enough to keep the game fun, you're gonna be spamming Lclick a lot. Warrior's fairly similar, spam Lclick to attack and hold Rclick to block, there's no dodging or movement while doing all that and blocking has no timing and enemy combos are damn long so you just hold block for half a minute then spam attack for another 30s. Warrior's skills are instant AoE's with different seasonings, no thought to using them. Mage's has something going for it, feels no better than the others in a fight but there's a deep Spellcrafting system which feels like a mix between Morrowind and Tyranny. Exploration and encounter desing are, once again, poor, loot is locked behind levels so there's no point in exploring areas ahead of the story and enemies are just... standing.
