It is early in the New Year and a virtual dead zone for new game relieces. So I went out and bought a game that I was on the fence about... Dragon's Dogma. The short of it is that I like it!. The long story is; it is a good solid game, full of a lot of fun, but not perfect. DD kind of reminds me of an old school RPG. One of the main gripes of the game by some is that the fast travel is very limited in a game that is HUGE! I actually like this as modern games seem to make everything way too easy and do too much hand holding of the player. The quick travel uses single use stones that will port you to the main town. The stones are extremely expensive until the later parts of the game where you will have tons of money... this will limit their use in the first half of the game. But this leads into one of the koolist things in the game... night! In the day as you head out of town to a dungeon all is fine. But when you exit the dungeon an hour later it may be night time. The night is almost like a living creature in and of its self. Your measly little lantern, which was fine in the dungeon, seems woefully inadequate in the open at night. And at night is when the undead arise and the goblins become more bold. So after surviving the harrowing plunge through a deep dark cave, your beaten up and weary team will have to brave the darkness and fight to make it back to the Castle and the safety of the Inn. You will either love or hate this... and I for one loved it! It added a real sense of adventure that many games just cannot match. You can have a group of 4 adventures you plus 3 A.I. and it all works out well. Your A.I. mates are not brilliant, but not stupid either... and for the most part they hold their own and act accordingly. The game is huge, but not as large as Skyrim. The graphics can range from breathtaking to rather bland... but all in all it looks good. One of the bigest selling points of the game is the epic battles with epic creatures. Climbing up a giants leg on your journey to bash him in the head with your swords just never gets old. Some of the fights can take a good 10 minutes or more! By the time you beat an epic beast you feel like you just survived an epic encounter... then realizing that it is now night you have to drag your banged up band of adventurers to the nearest camp for some R&R was amazingly fulfilling and fun to me. The story is utterly forgettable, which is a big strike against the game... but IMO the gameplay and sense of adventure more than make up for it. In the end this is a game you will either love or hate. But if you can forgive the weak story, lots of walking around, limited use of quick travel, you will be rewarded with epic battles, huge areas to explore, and a ton quests to accomplish. Perhaps I should have put this in (Music, TV, Movies & other Media)
