Anticipation and expectation was high. I was ready to explore a new galaxy and create new stories in a sandbox world from Bethesda.
Fast forward 4 weeks into playing Starfield and it was about then that I realised that no matter how much I wanted Starfield to be fun and engaging, it just wasn’t to be. The exploration was boring, the space travel was paint by numbers and most of the missions were rinse and repeat. Looking back now, I think it was probably focus tested to within an inch of its life and suffered from being too safe and trying to be too many things to too many people.
Now fast forward to the 22nd March 2024. Starfield had been put down and my Game Pass membership had been deactivated (I bought game pass specifically to play Starfield).
What’s that in the distance?It looks like a gaggle of lunatics bounding in from the horizon, arms are flailing, fire is being emitted in every direction, ogres are swing fists, Griffins are swooping, it’s absolute bedlam and it seems like the kind of fun that I want to be a part of!
That my friends is Dragon’s Dogma (2).
Dragon's Dogma 2 for me has become the antidote to the sterile nature of Starfield and I'm all in on this madness.
This is the open world that I wanted. Every corner turned feels like an opportunity for fighting, discovery or whimsy. I think it’s the closest that I've come to recreating the feeling of open world amazement since I first played Fallout 3 on my trusty Xbox 360.
There’s something about it’s un-sanded edges and it’s bedlam that makes me smile every time I play it. There’s also something about a map that opens up as you go along with minimal waypoints that just begs to be explored. It honestly feels like I am creating my own adventures as I peer into each crevice of the map and discover new areas and mini boss fights with my merry band of pawns at my side.
It’s also a game that doesn’t suffer from the 1000 quests per minute syndrome that Starfield suffered from. In Starfield, if you so much as overheard 3 words from a random stranger's conversation then a quest would pop into your quest log and leave you scratching your head as to how the hell it got there. With DD2 taking on quests is very deliberate and not just a box ticking exercise as you have to pay attention to what the NPC tells you as you may not be given the details of exactly where to go in the quest log. I’ve actually taken to writing additional quest info delivered by NPC’s into a notebook that I keep handy on my desk whilst I'm traversing the towns and caves of Dragon’s Dogma 2.
I never played the original Dragon’s Dogma and I only heard of it in passing from the fine folks over at WayPoint and Remap Radio (Austin Walker and Patrick Klepek) as they would enthuse at the unhinged gameplay from the original. Coming into DD2 cold makes me feel like I missed out on the 12 years of anticipation between DD1 and DD2 but I’m so glad I picked up this gem upon its release (just in time for me to be able to buy it as my first game on my brand new PS5) as I get to experience this brand of controlled bedlam for the first time in 2024.
If you ever wanted to feel wonder and smile a bit more whilst you are playing a video game then this my friend is the medicine for you.
(take a look at Britt’s review, which is a review from a wonderful soul who got hips deep into the original and has awaited the sequel with bated breath for the last decade or so)
It’s also a game that doesn’t suffer from the 1000 quests per minute syndrome that Starfield suffered from. In Starfield, if you so much as overheard 3 words from a random stranger's conversation then a quest would pop into your quest log and leave you scratching your head as to how the hell it got there. With DD2 taking on quests is very deliberate and not just a box ticking exercise as you have to pay attention to what the NPC tells you as you may not be given the details of exactly where to go in the quest log. I’ve actually taken to writing additional quest info delivered by NPC’s into a notebook that I keep handy on my desk whilst I'm traversing the towns and caves of Dragon’s Dogma 2.
I never played the original Dragon’s Dogma and I only heard of it in passing from the fine folks over at WayPoint and Remap Radio (Austin Walker and Patrick Klepek) as they would enthuse at the unhinged gameplay from the original. Coming into DD2 cold makes me feel like I missed out on the 12 years of anticipation between DD1 and DD2 but I’m so glad I picked up this gem upon its release (just in time for me to be able to buy it as my first game on my brand new PS5) as I get to experience this brand of controlled bedlam for the first time in 2024.
If you ever wanted to feel wonder and smile a bit more whilst you are playing a video game then this my friend is the medicine for you.
(take a look at Britt’s review, which is a review from a wonderful soul who got hips deep into the original and has awaited the sequel with bated breath for the last decade or so)
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