Reviews// Dragon's Dogma

Although arriving at that distant tower depends entirely on how prepared you are to tackle the variety of creatures that stand between you and your intended destination. Ranging from the smallest - bats, rats and spiders the size of a dinner plate, through the middle sized goblins and giant lizards to the colossal ogres, trolls, cyclops and, of course, dragons. All of which are perfectly capable of killing you quickly and efficiently if you wade into battle as you would in most other games.

There is one difficulty setting and that is firmly fixed in ‘hard’ mode. It's not quite as challenging as its distant cousins Dark and Demon’s Souls, but it certainly is not far below them.

Thankfully you're given a wide set of tools for dealing with the dangers of this fantasy world; your first line of defence comes in developing an almost realistic sense of caution and respect for the land around you. Fail to heed the warnings offered during loading screens at your peril. Second is a deep, complex and yet intuitive combat system.

There are three starting classes; fighter, strider and mage. A fighter relies on brute strength, swords and shields and plays like a well thought out barbarian. The strider bares the hallmarks of the traditional rogue archetype - twin daggers and keen archery skills, the mage does exactly what it says on the label - casts spells, wears robes and generally kicks bottom. You can advance to a number of mixed classes or advanced vocations, making nine in total.

I chose to play as a strider for my first play-through, she was tall, lithe and didn’t weigh very much at all. Usually in this kind of game body type is just an aesthetic choice, but in Dragon’s Dogma it has ramifications - light characters can move a lot faster than heavier ones, but on the other side of the coin they cannot carry as much and if you get over-burdened you cannot sprint as far nor keep up a steady jog at the same speed as a lightly encumbered character.

Stamina drains from you during combat actions and sprinting. Completely draining the orange bar beneath your green life bar means that your avatar will grind to a halt, doubling over and wheezing like any real person would do if they tried to sprint a hundred meters carrying their own weight in loot.

At this point one of two things will occur - either your pawn will come and give you some encouragement, restoring a tiny fraction of stamina allowing you to move again, or an ogre will decorate the local fauna with your brain-juices.

This brings me to yet another refreshing (although at times infuriating) mechanic that Capcom has implemented - as you take damage a portion of that damage remains with you, meaning that you can only restore a limited amount of your total health bar with the free-to-cast healing spells metered out by your pawns. Once again two things can happen to restore full health; either consume potions and other curatives to make up the deficit, or sleep at an inn.

Easy, you might say. However, in this game there is no quick travel such as there is in Skyrim or Kingdoms of Amalur. There are Ferrystones, which are single-use items that take you back to the capitol city of Gran Soren, but once there they are consumed and you must purchase more and they only work one way. You will be running everywhere and you will get very familiar with the immediate vicinity of the grandest city in Gransys.

That may sound boring but it is far, far from it. As you gain strength you will no longer fear creatures that you once skirted around out of fear for your life and there is nothing more satisfying than the moment you realise you don’t have to run any more.

My first victorious battle with a Cyclops lasted about thirty minutes. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was determined to bring the beast down at the expense of my endurance and my entire stock of curative. Five hours further into the game I ran across a band of three of these creatures, they fell before my rain of arrows and flaming blades in rapid succession - the quickest in just over twenty-seconds.