Culture

Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Genre: Action RPG

Dragon’s Dogma has you forming a ragtag band of roguish adventurers, traversing an awesome untamed landscape and killing large fantastical beasts like griffins and chimeras as an afternoon’s work. “But wait!” you might cry, “isn’t that like every other fantasy videogame I’ve ever played?” The answer, at least at this stage, is: Sort of.

The principal difference between Dragon’s Dogma and your bog-standard open-world fantasy game is that is that, first and foremost, it is a game about combat rather than a developing story or leveling up an avatar. Its development team includes Devil May Cry alumni, and it claims to take influences from Shadow of the Colossus. The latter, especially, are colossal shoes to fill. If Dragon’s Dogma can replicate the thrill of climbing over the bodies of tremendous monsters half as well as Shadow then that would be quite an achievement. At this point it is, at the very least, possible to cling to a griffin’s ragged mane and wail away at its head as it flies chaotically though the air.

Your party, too, are not a group of characters that are worth becoming emotionally attached to. The game refers to them as pawns, which hints at their intended purpose. Your one permanent pawn develops as you do, and exists (if you have an internet connection) in a cloud where other players can recruit him or her. Your loyal lackey makes it alone, and returns to your party with the sparkling loot and invaluable practical experience that they gained in their own adventures.