Dragon’s Dogma 2: The First Hands-On Preview

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When it was released eleven years ago, Dragon’s Dogma stood out as a bold open-world action-RPG that didn’t conform to any pre-existing mold for the genre. From its one-of-a-kind Pawn mechanic that encouraged you to frequently swap out AI controlled companions from a network populated by creations from other players to its action centric combat that had you climbing all over giant monsters in order to specifically target weak points and bring them down to size, there’s nothing quite like it. Even to this day.

My big takeaway after playing an hour of Dragon’s Dogma 2 is that Capcom is doubling down on everything that made Dragon’s Dogma so unique, with a big focus on refining and polishing those elements to a shine. And in that regard, they’re succeeding. Pawns do everything that they did in the first game, but their contributions to both combat and navigation are more immediately noticeable. Melee combat feels more impactful and weighty, and exploration through its now seamless open world feels equal parts rewarding and dangerous. That said, after an hour of killing the usual Dragon’s Dogma rogue’s gallery of goblins, cyclops, saurians, harpies, bandits, and attempting occasional Griffin, I couldn’t help but wish that I experienced something that truly felt new in this sequel.

My demo began right outside the human kingdom of Vermund and gave me free reign to go wherever I wanted. I had a handful of quests that I could follow, with my Pawns already set with knowledge of those quests, meaning I could simply let them lead the way and not have to deal with constantly bringing up the map and making sure I was still on course. Pawns having experience and knowledge of quests is not new to Dragon’s Dogma, and occasionally they