Dragon’s Dogma! Do you remember the game? The original release of Capcom‘s cult-hit RPG was released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 back in 2012 with a team of developers with credits from games like Devil May Cry and Resident Evil. Dragon’s Dogma flew under the radar a bit when it initially launched, but its popularity slowly rose as more content became available and word of mouth spread. Our original review for Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen can be found here: https://coin-op.tv/dragons-dogma-dark-arisen-review
Fast forward a year, 2013. Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen launched on Xbox 360 and PS3 once again. Dark Arisen was a “game of the year” of sorts in that it contained all the previously-released DLC, along with some new quest-lines and locations. The re-release was generally well-received, but it missed the PC platform to much disappointment. Now 2016, Capcom has finally released a version of Dark Arisen on the PC.
As a brief reminder, the gameplay of Dragon’s Dogma takes a bit from the different games the creators had worked on. One class has some hack and slash elements ala Devil May Cry, others have more ranged attacks. One of the things people love about the unique combat is the boss battles and their parallels to Shadows of the Colossus. As you’re battling these giant monsters in the world you can grab and climb up them to do more damage. Along with this is the pawn system, where you can create pawns and send or receive them from players on the internet, allowing you to get help on tougher battles overall. None of this has really changed in Dark Arisen, and it all still plays well. The player movement in and out of combat is a bit janky, in that sometimes you’ll melee an enemy on top of a rock or partially clipping into a wall, but generally the combat flows and feels fine.
As far as PC specifics go, I was running the game on an Nvidia GTX 980 so had no issues pushing everything to the max. I assume it’d run just as well on lower cards as well, as the game is a few years old, and never really looks amazing. Having 1080p resolution and 60fps fluidity really does help, though. The visuals themselves look fine when you remember the game is now 4 years old. You’ll see some pop in issues, and some low quality textures, along side poor facial animations but nothing that will force you to stop playing overall. As a PC port the game is solid, and some of the smaller kinks may get worked out by patches or even mods. Also to note, I used an Xbox One controller paired with the Windows wireless dongle and all worked perfect, so controller support is there as well.
Overall Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen on PC is just as solid of a game as it was on Xbox 360 and PS3. Maybe now even more solid given the bump in resolution and framerate. If you enjoyed the game back in 2012/2013 and are itching for another go you shouldn’t regret another purchase. If you’ve never played Dragon’s Dogma, this is a good time to do so (and potentially the last release of it). I’d say the more people who buy this release, the higher chance we’ll see a sequel as well! So go give it a shot.
Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen PC Gameplay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbsgDXvUIKA