DRAGON39S DOGMA DARK ARISEN REVIEW PC
With the PC port, technical limitations have been lifted, and the frame rate problems that were present in the earlier versions are now non-existent, with the game running at a constant 60fps. The medieval setting looked great back in 2012, and it still looks great today. You also get to assign one of three major classes to your character-fighter, strider, or mage-each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages in battle. While the character models can suffer from looking a bit too generic, there are enough options here to make your character feel personal to you, with the ability to control their voice, weight, height, posture, and individual facial features. The game offers an impressive amount of character customization for both your main pawn and yourself. It’s a neat idea that adds a fun sense of community to the game without ever actually turning it into a co-op experience. (You will find that you will need to do this often, as these extra pawns do not level up.) The use of the Rift is where the game comes closest to a multiplayer experience, as the pawns that can be found wandering about the Rift are the creations of other players online. Providing that you have access to a Rift Stone, these supplementary companions can be swapped out at any time if you find that your current choices’ skill sets and levels are not fit for a particular quest. These two additional pawns are chosen from the Rift, a mysterious realm where pawns wonder about aimlessly, looking for a master. You get to design your main pawn very early on and can choose up to two others to accompany you later in the game. Your party in Dragon’s Dogma is made up of pawns, who are followers that exist to serve you as the Arisen. The different types of actions, from sheltered spike to skyward slash, make every enemy encounter fresh and exciting and are all accompanied by unique animations. Hitting the shoulder buttons will bring up a set of new combat skills to be unleashed, which can be changed and modified as the game progresses. The combat system is brilliant, though, featuring an impressively varied move set that makes you feel like you are controlling a skilled warrior, not just randomly hitting buttons to win, as can often be the case with hack-and-slash style gameplay. As a result, I often found myself favoring fleeing rather than fighting. These fights certainly are no easy feat and can swiftly send you back to your last checkpoint if your combat skills are not up to scratch. Once you move outside of a city’s walls, you become fair game to any gangs of goblins and bandits lurking in the shadows. Not only will you have to prepare yourself for the missions, but you will also need to make sure you are ready for any battles during the walk over to the mission. Simply traversing the landscape is a challenge by itself. This is not a game for casual players, and its tough difficulty will be what either attracts people towards it or drives them away. Instead of dying, you have become the Arisen, a special ‘chosen one’ who is the only person capable of slaying the heart-stealing monster, a terrifying task that must be done if you wish to reclaim your heart and become whole again. But, surprisingly, this doesn’t kill you. Failing to put an end to the destructive beast with a few gallant swings from your rusty sword (like that was going to do anything), you are thrown across the ground and promptly have your heart snatched out of your body by one of the dragon’s gigantic claws. The titular dragon, glimpsed at in the prologue, attacks the peaceful village that is home to your avatar. After this action-packed prologue, the story jumps forward to a sleek cinematic that would give the opening of The Hobbit a run for its money. The story begins with a prologue showing an unknown warrior battle through a mysterious temple as he and his company are attacked by a fierce dragon. If you haven’t, then here’s a quick run-down of why this ambitious action RPG still stands out as an impressive but flawed achievement. As this is more or less a straightforward port, you will know exactly what to expect if you’ve played the previous versions. Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is a port of the expanded version that was released in 2013, which included improved features and a new area, forebodingly christened Bitterblack Isle. Now, four years later, the PC port has finally arrived. Back in 2012, Capcom released Dragon’s Dogma for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.