After waiting over a decade for a new title in the series, the release of Dragon's Dogma 2 on PC hasn't got off to a great start. The anticipated fantasy RPG suffered from some pre-launch controversy due to limiting the console versions to 30 FPS, but the PC port isn't faring much better. And worse? The game has got plenty of microtransactions despite being a single-player.
In the hours since launch, the potential Game of the Year candidate has been sitting between 'Mixed' and 'Mostly Negative' on Steam, currently sitting at the former as I'm writing this article. The major issue is due to the fact that even those using the best graphics cards and the best Intel CPUs or best AMD CPUs are suffering from stutters and performance problems.
Most games usually bottleneck the GPU, which is how it's supposed to work. However, Dragon's Dogma 2 is CPU-intensive, due to the fact that all of the NPCs in the game are fairly unique in their patterns and the way they behave. Unlike most games, where NPCs are practically props within the world, Capcom's RPG sequel has an impressive set of characters, for better and worse.
In a statement with IGN, a Capcom representative confirmed that the company is looking into the problems, adding "In Dragon's Dogma 2, a large amount of CPU usage is allocated to each character and dynamically calculates the impact of their physical presence in various environments. In certain situations where numerous characters appear simultaneously, the CPU usage can be very high and may affect the frame rate".
After explaining the problem, the representative added that "We are aware that in such situations, settings that reduce GPU load may currently have a limited effect; however, we are looking into ways to improve performance in the future".
Personally, I've been running the game on PC using a 4080 and an AMD Ryzen 7600, and I've had a decent experience. Areas with heavy amounts of NPCs will cause some minor problems, but considering I'm running the game at all High settings, ray tracing, all the while using DLSS, I've had a pleasant time. However, it's fair to say that many people won't be running expensive hardware, and these performance issues are major problems that need to be fixed ASAP.
There's the surprising release of microtransactions for the game, despite it being a single-player experience. Many of the rewards are obtainable by playing the game, but the sheer amount of, admittedly minor, microtransactions are fairly disappointing. They're not required, and are a waste of money for those who purchase them, but it's annoying to say the least.
Despite a disappointing launch for PC, the game has received rave reviews across the board, including a review from our sister site, Gfinity, which gave the game a huge 10/10. Hopefully, some fixes and performance adjustments will put the game into a better shape for players to enjoy.