Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen Review – A Worthy Return to the Wild

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen Review

The original Dragon’s Dogma was released in 2012 and almost immediately became a cult classic. The game’s 2013 Dark Arisen expansion is widely considered to be one of the best and truly game-changing DLCs ever. Naturally, there was a great deal of anticipation for Dragon’s Dogma 2, which arrived in 2024 to a generally positive response. The game’s emergent combat and environments, the unique pawn system and excellent character/class system were impressive. The biggest knock against the game was its tepid narrative and glaring lack of endgame content. Sure, there’s always NG+ but that doesn’t really change much of the base experience. The Dark Arisen expansion hopes to address these complaints.

Dark and Light

Even before the Dark Arisen expansion, Dragon’s Dogma 2 has received a number of significant, free updates that have added welcome quality-of-life features, fixed bugs and performance issues and generally made the game even better. Dragon’s Dogma 2 has a combat system that’s top-tier, incredibly fun and often surprising. Its AI-controlled pawn mechanic keeps getting better, and it’s sort of shocking that another game hasn’t copied the idea. Aside from some repetitive dialogue responses, your three-pawn squad feels very satisfying to fight alongside and the expansion brings even more sophistication to their repertoire.

The biggest complaint about the base game was a lack of late game/post-game content. Dark Arisen addresses this in two ways. First, it introduces a very large new and frozen region called Norgan, and a new big bad in the form of a Fallen Dragon. Although technically available early in the base game, the Norgan content is recommended for players at level 40 or higher. I can attest that taking a level 30 character — or even one in the low 40s — and pawns into Norgan is a recipe for a frustrating time.

For those with high level characters, however, Norgan is an icy playground with lots to offer. There is a new status effect — called Chilled — to contend with. New enemies, new traversal techniques and new pawn behaviors — like their inability to guide through blizzards — keep things really challenging and interesting. And Norgan is not all snow and ice, either. There’s quite a bit of environmental variety, including a number of ruins and indoors spaces, all very much focused on verticality.

The Under-40s Get Some Love, Too

Players who are somewhere south of level 40 get some new content in the form of Lost Rites dungeons. Scattered around the base game map, players progress through increasingly difficult rooms and waves of enemies in each dungeon to an end boss. The rewards are legendary weapons and gear. Lost Rite dungeons can also be revisted and farmed for materials. There are a dozen Lost Rites dungeons, with difficulty keyed to the region of the map. From my experience, even level 20 characters struggle in the easiest of the Lost Rites dungeons. These new dungeons include new enemy types as well as variants of familiar ones. Many of the Lost Rites dungeons have special conditions for entry, like using your main pawn only, or no magic weapons.

Those hoping for a new vocation or two will be disappointed. However, with the recent update comes the addition of two new weapon ability slots. Pawns now have the Guardian specialization, which prioritizes the Arisen’s survival. Pawns also have new dialogue responses specific to Norgan and its particular environment.

Although there are no new vocations, weapon variety has been increased. There are over 150 new weapons and armors. Of course, these are split between the various vocations. New gear (called Relics) must be appraised using Rift Crystals to unlock powerful weapons and armor that boast unique stats and skills. Hopefully, this system will be carried back into the main game as well. There’s also a new transmog feature, but only for Norgan weapons and armor.

In addition to the new gear, there are quite a few enemy types. In reality, many of them are reskins or variants of base-game monsters.

The Wish List

The pre-expansion update introduced a number of quality-of-life changes, like more flexible fast travel, more weapon effect slots, a better photo mode and multiple game saves. Even without paying for Dark Arisen, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a fantastic ARPG.

There is at least one mod for the base game that adds generative AI to Pawn responses. It would be great to see this in an update or maybe Dragon’s Dogma 3, if it happens. The lack of new Vocations is disappointing. Unlike a game like Elden Ring, Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t really allow for cross-class characters. New weapons help, of course, but they remain locked to specific Vocations.

It’s hard to estimate how much gameplay time comes with Dark Arisen’s $30 price tag because each player approaches it differently. One trip through the new campaigns, side quests and Lost Rites dungeons will take at least 25 hours. 25 additional hours with a great game always sounds like a very good time.

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen might not be the ultimate expansion, but it is a substantial one. The new content is excellent and there’s even more for mid-level and post-game players to enjoy. New players get the benefit of recent updates, but they’ll need to have a couple dozen levels of time invested to survive any of the new stuff. Of course, getting there will be a pleasure. Dragon’s Dogma 2 Dark Arisen is a must-have expansion for current players already enjoying one of the best ARPGs on the market.

***PS5 code provided by the publisher for review***