Dragon's Dogma
The biggest issue for me, and a deadly serious one, is that the
developers are absurdly stingy with fast-travel. In interviews, they
said that this was meant to emphasize the idea of perilously journeying
through the landscape. Ostensibly, players will discover things along
the way, explore the significant differences between day and night, and
have random encounters with fearsome creatures before arriving at their
destination. This is all fine in theory, but the problem
is that there's no value in crossing the same well-traveled strip of
land a dozen times over, and it's even worse when the player reaches a
level at which wandering monsters no longer pose a threat.That said, if some people try Dragon's Dogma
and walk away disappointed, I wouldn't blame them. I certainly shared
that sentiment more times that I liked. However, when not scratching my
head over the wheezy story or gritting my teeth as I retraced my steps
from the central castle to the local encampment for the thousandth time, Dragon's Dogma
came alive with grand-scale role-playing that I won't soon forget. In
between the missteps and oddness, there is an awful lot of awesome on display, and that's a hard sandwich to resist, condiments or not.
and walk away disappointed, I wouldn't blame them. I certainly shared
that sentiment more times that I liked. However, when not scratching my
head over the wheezy story or gritting my teeth as I retraced my steps
from the central castle to the local encampment for the thousandth time, Dragon's Dogma
came alive with grand-scale role-playing that I won't soon forget. In
between the missteps and oddness, there is an awful lot of awesome on display, and that's a hard sandwich to resist, condiments or not.