Dragon's Dogma for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

DRAGON'S DOGMA...

Robotic NPC's. They wait at their spawn points for interaction with the player -- instead of NPC's that react and interact with the world (ie SKYRIM). In DD you will never see your enemies fighting each other.

Loot distribution. DD has distributed loot across Gransys in old-style fighting game fashion -- chests, boxes, and coins find their way to every nook and cranny of the wilds instead of solely logical places like tombs, cabins, castles, etc. This "video game logic" of loot placement pulls one out of the world of Gransys and into something akin to say... GOLDENAXE.

Story. DD fails to deliver a compelling plot and there are a lot of mundane quests (main and side). If you're looking for an immersive storyline, go with SKYRIM, DRAGON AGE, etc. DD has an interesting beginning and end with little story meat in the middle.

Graphics. DD is a mixed bag. There are some beautiful landscapes mixed with generally mediocre character models (who never lipsink well!). Except for creatures, you never see anything graphically rivaling SKYRIM. At the same time, the art direction and character design of DD is very different from SKYRIM, and that can be a selling point for the Nord-weary.

Combat. Hacking, slashing, and crawling around on giant monsters never gets old. It's fast, furious, and treacherous. This is where DD shines... and puts SKYRIM to shame!

Pawns. Creating an ally who will join other people's games via internet, fight with them, get rated by them, and return with new loot, skills, and knowledge strangely addictive.

Danger. Few games can make you fear the coming of night or leaving a path. DD does just that. With true darkness, no consistently available fast travel, and an over-abundance of night time monsters, DD is often a race against the setting sun for safety. Exhilarating.

In the end, DD plays like a half-finished RPG with a great combat mechanic -- rough but still fun. High hopes for a DD2.

Great game, rented here and just kept it. For those that like RPGs with the freedom to explore you will enjoy this game. The Pawn system is great, and adds a new element to the RPG open world games.

Pros:
- Fun, once you get past the first few levels and can actually fight something on your own, until then its like your the sidekick to the pawns.
- Pawns- You get to create your own, a slim down version of creating your main character, then you can recruit two others. The pawns allow you to customize your team a bit more than a lot of other games out there, and yours is getting recruited all the time (though they never actually leave you). I love getting the message that my pawn just returned from helping others after a trip to the inn.
- Explore - not on the same level of Skyrim, but they did a pretty good job with it, I really enjoy out manuevering the pawns and watching them run in circles trying to figure out how to catch up (turn your back long enough and they just show up though).
- Not stuck in on class - You can change classes which is a nice change to games that require you to pick one in the first place.

Cons:
Fast travel is available for a price and only goes to one location (eventually two). No mode of transport other than walking/running, so the travel gets a bit old.

Not as open in the exploring content as I would like. It is better than games such as Dragon Age, but less than Skyrim, so good but not great.

All in all this is a great game, and has good replay value, highly recommend it.