Preview: Dragon’s Dogma

Lately I feel as though gamers may be living in a new golden age of RPGs. Since the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, we’ve seen other fantastic open-ended and large scale fantasy games such as Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning hit stores. Now, there is a new entry in the genre and it looks every bit as fun and interesting as those that have come before. The game is Dragon’s Dogma from Capcom, and last week I was fortunate enough to be invited to THQ’s offices in Melbourne to go hands-on.

Dragon’s Dogma  is very much in the vein of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. You play as the “chosen one,” prophesied to return and save the world from some form of badness. There is a massive world map to explore and includes all of your standard RPG locations like forests, mountains and wilderness. Where Dragon’s Dogma differs and brings something new to the experience is its implementation of a party system and your “Pawns”.

In Dragon’s Dogma you are not a lone warrior, fighting against the odds with nothing but your trusty sword in hand. You have friends…well, seeing as though they’re called Pawns, they may be less friends and more expendable manpower. But, the depth and dynamic changes to combat afforded by your Pawns is really interesting and a real breath of fresh air for the sandbox RPG genre. You play in a party of up to four which includes your character, your main pawn and two other interchangeable Pawns which are able to be hired throughout the world map or from the Rift…but more on that shortly.

Those of you who have played the recently released demo would be aware that when you create your character you are also required to create your main pawn. This character remains with you throughout the campaign and can’t be fired, traded or lost. They level up with you and gain experience and knowledge about enemies as you fight. During one battle against a giant stone golem, my main pawn shouted hints to me about techniques and tactics that would allow me to end the battle much more quickly. In another battle with a Chimaera my pawn shouted to me that I needed to destroy the goats head first to disable its ability to cast magic and heal. With the goat’s head dead, defeating the snake and lion heads became a breeze. Finally, during a battle with a Cyclops my pawns enchanted my sword with lightning (which I assume the Cyclops was weak to) and told me I needed to remove its helmet to get at the eye. Pawns prove to be an invaluable asset while playing Dragon’s Dogma and are a fresh take on an old concept.

There are a wide variety of pawns in the game to choose from, spanning the various classes, different levels of experience and ability. While there are many to choose from in the main game world, it’s in the Rift that the number of pawns at your disposal becomes truly apparent. You can enter the Rift at any of the game’s Pawn guilds. Inside, it’s a dark and shadowy world with ghostly figures of available pawns wandering around you. These however, are just a fraction of what is available. The search function of the Rift allows you to specify sex, class, level, experience etc and will then search for all available pawns that match your criteria for you to choose from. It really becomes interesting when you take your game online. This infinitely broadens the scope of Pawn selection. Any player is able to upload their pawn to the Rift while they are not playing which allows their pawn to be hired by any other player in the world. All experience gained on this little sojourn stays with your Pawn and on their return you may even receive a nice gift, if the player who hired your pawn was suitably impressed.

In the build I played the game ran really smoothly and was quite pretty. There was plenty of detail in the world and special mention must be made of the draw distance. You can see for miles all around you, and while the view gets blurrier the further you look, the distance is very impressive. Better still, everything you can see in the distance is an area you are able to visit. Getting around the world map is going to take some exploring too. Fast travel is available, but limited. To fast travel, you must use a “ferry stone” which, I was informed, is a very rare commodity within the game. Once the stone is used you are able to select from a limited list of already visited locations. The reasoning behind this system was to ensure gamers explored the game world rather than just jumping from place to place. Whether it works or becomes an annoyance remains to be seen.

If you are a fan of sandbox RPGs then Dragon’s Dogma might be for you. With a big, detailed game world, tight combat mechanics and the Pawn system Dragon’s Dogma is looking very promising.

Dragon’s Dogma is in stores 25 May 2012 for Xbox 360 and PS3.