Dragon's Dogma 2 - a spectator's review

I don’t play that many video games. But I do enjoy watching other people play them. Number one son is in town and playing Dragon’s Dogma 2. Which is a great watch. The environments are huge and detailed, the level of interaction with them is impressive and the characterisations are brilliant, particularly the voice acting.

You play “The Arisen”. You’ve been killed and marked by a dragon with which you share a sacred bond, which results in the dragon popping up and giving you a kicking whenever one of your companions says something stupid like “Together we are unstoppable”.

As the genuine Arisen you are heir to the kingdom and all kinds of good stuff, but it turns out that another arisen has got there first, and so you need to start by untangling the mystery of your imposter. Add a bunch of side quests and the action soon becomes very engaging. At some point I suppose there will be a fight with the dragon, but I think we’ll have to build up to that bit.

You are aided in your quest by a bunch of “pawns” who are characters you can recruit to help you in your mission. Your “chief pawn” (we called ours ‘Gary’) is a permanent fixture but the others can be swapped in and out as you find better fighters, mages and whatnot around the place. They all consider working for “The Arisen” a great honour and so hiring and firing is all very amicable.

It’s great fun and done with a lot of panache. Occasionally you notice that the ambition of the game slightly outpaces your console, with our PS5 chugging a bit when things on screen get complicated. But I would strongly recommend it if you’re looking for somewhere to spend the next six months or so….