Dragon's Dogma 2 is off to an “exciting” start. The game undoubtedly has many qualities and hits a nerve with players, but publisher and developer Capcom doesn't just cover itself with fame. In addition to some technical quirks and unsatisfactory performance, gaming tempers are currently primarily heated by the game's monetization model. If you would like to find out more about the hustle and bustle, you can follow our news on the topic or check out the Steam reviews, which were good to positive a few hours after the launch. However, this rating – which was previously basically good – has now been downgraded to “sufficient” by swarms of angry gamers who are taking issue with Capcom's DLC policy. We don't want to go into the topic any further at this point, but we encourage anyone interested in the game to do their research before purchasing in order to avoid unexpected annoyances.
Update, this is new
We have comprehensively updated this technology test and, above all, carried out additional benchmarks. You can find the new numbers on page 2 of the article, including comprehensive analyzes of CPU load and a VRAM-related graphics downgrade. We are still mapping the release status of the game, there have been no updates from Capcom yet – just a roadmap.
Dragon's Dogma 2: Overview
The launch also represents a certain challenge for us, as we only received test access shortly before the official launch and therefore far too late. The launch of Dragon's Dogma 2 also coincides with the extremely pretty and very performant Horizon Forbidden West – a test is also in the works. Since our resources, not least time, are limited, we prefer a short test/first impression of the Capcom role-playing game to the beautiful Sony adventure. Like many open-world adventures, including Horizon, Dragon's Dogma 2 offers a tutorial as well as a kind of newbie area. In this you will learn the basic mechanics of the game in the first few hours of play. We haven't left this part of the game in Dragon's Dogma 2 yet. We are already in the open world with our test access and characters, but in a still limited area in which the game still guides us and takes us by the hand.
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Dragon's Dogma 2 | REVIEW | A true feast for all adventurers!
With the successor to Dragon's Dogma, which was released in 2012 for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, the Japanese game manufacturer Capcom has an exciting title on offer. The open-world role-playing game Dragon's Dogma 2, like its predecessor, fuses a Western-style open-world RPG with the flair and influence of Japanese role-playing games and flavors the mix with cool third-person action. The game gives you a lot of freedom. Holding hands clingingly and chasing players through the fantasy lands using glowing question marks, flashing icons and quest markers was obviously less the developers' intention. This seems a bit old school these days, but in the age of supervised gaming it's almost refreshing. In terms of gameplay, it's well implemented in Dragon's Dogma 2 and encourages exploration.
Dragon's Dogma 2 – Raytacing GI/AO in comparison (RTX 4070, WQHD native)
After creating your alter-ego in the remarkably extensive character editor and escaping from slavery inspired by freedom, you control your resurrected character as the so-called “Arisen” in a third-person perspective through the expansive landscapes and dark dungeons. As in the predecessor, you will have so-called “Pawns” at your side, NPCs who will support you in your adventures and bring various skills with them. The Pawns can, for example, hold onto enemies, enchant your weapons, heal you and support you with buffs, offer you opportunities for joint combos in fights or collect items and materials. You create such a pawn according to your wishes, while the other two optional companions can be “borrowed” from other players. So far, so similar to the first part. If you would like to find out more about gameplay, quest design and story, we recommend the extensive test by our colleagues at PC Games.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 PC: Settings
Unlike its almost 12-year-old predecessor – the PC version was only released in 2016 – Dragon's Dogma 2 now uses the RE engine. The RE stands for the first two letters of “Reach for the Moon”, roughly “reach for the stars”. The MT framework engine used in the predecessor is finally history. The REngine has been used since Resident Evil 7 – in Dragon's Dogma 2 for the first time in a large open-world scenario.
Dragon's Dogma 2 PC: System Requirements
The system requirements stated by Capcom seem moderate at first glance. However, the open world design and modern streaming, which enables the fantasy world to be displayed with almost no loading screens, represent a challenge compared to the much more linear design of the more recent Resident Evil parts. This is visible not least in the relatively high CPU requirements and the required memory capacities, according to the minimum requirements, 16 GiByte of RAM is required, and the graphics cards listed in the minimum specs are both equipped with 8 GiByte of graphics memory.
Minimale HardwareEmpfohlene HardwareWindowsWindows 10 (64 bit)/Windows 11 (64 bit)Windows 10 (64 bit)/Windows 11 (64 bit)CPUIntel Core i5 10600 / AMD Ryzen 5 3600ntel Core i7-10700 / AMD Ryzen 5 3600XRAM16 GB RAM16 GB RAMGrafikkarteNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 / AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT mit 8GB VRAMNVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 / AMD Radeon RX 6700APIDirectX 12DirectX 12Festplattek.A. ca. 60,5 GiByte Belegung80 GiByte empfehlenswert (SSD)Performance-Target1080p/30 Fps2160i/30 Fps (Interlaced!)
According to Capcom, at least a Radeon RX 6800 or Geforce RTX 2080 Ti for native Full HD with 30 fps is required for optional ray tracing. According to official information, frame rates in Ultra HD with these GPUs can even drop below 30 fps when ray tracing is used. What's also notable is that Capcom specifies 2160i here, i.e. 4K including interlaced upsampling. With interlaced rendering, only every second image line is calculated, then the other one in the next frame and the result is calculated temporally. Roughly speaking, interlaced rendering corresponds to “upsampling performance” or 50 percent render scaling. 1080p is therefore the same pixel density to be calculated per frame as 2160i. However, differences are to be expected in terms of performance and, in particular, memory requirements. In addition to interlaced rendering, FSR “3” (without frame generation) and DLSS (also without frame generation) are also available. You can find out how Dragon's Dogma 2 actually runs on the following page.