It’s that time of year again! We’re counting down the days to Christmas with our own little “advent calendar” – one new game to play over the holiday season each and every day.
As the year winds down, things get really busy. We’ve got Christmas parties to attend, the end of year rush on work, and all the rest of it. But it’s also a time where we take holidays, find a moment to relax, and enjoy the company of others. This is the best chance to catch up on some key games that you might have missed from the year… or just play that multiplayer game that you’ve been waiting to get a crew together for.
Day 24: Dragon’s Dogma 2
I like to finish this little countdown each year the game that impressed me the most of all in the year, and this year that game was Dragon’s Dogma 2. I wasn’t even the world’s biggest fan of the original, but the sequel really doubled down on the vision, and this time around it really clicked with me. Unrelenting, challenging, and a near-perfect example of how an open world game can use “random” qualities to build emergent storytelling, Dragon’s Dogma 2’s most impressive quality is that it was willing to be disliked by some players in order to be absolutely loved by some others.
I can’t guarantee that you’ll love Dragon’s Dogma 2. But I wholeheartedly recommend trying it to find out. It breaks so many “best practices” for game design and, as I noted in my review, is often a “big, beautiful mess”. But it’s also the most distinctive, creative “blockbuster” you’ll play in years, and giving it a chance might just be the best Christmas gift that you can give yourself.
