If you had any hopes for Monster Hunter Wilds, you may want to reconsider.
Capcom’s latest release, Dragon’s Dogma 2, is marred by abysmal performance, regardless of whether you’re playing on console or a high-end PC. Additionally, it features egregious microtransactions for mundane features such as in-game fast travel and even character customization.
Despite the single-player game itself costing $70 to purchase, there’s no denying that the long-awaited sequel to Dragon’s Dogma 2 epitomizes the worst aspects of modern AAA gaming.
The anticipation for Dragon’s Dogma 2 was monumental, and its release just a day ago has already made it Capcom’s most successful single-player game to date. The game peaked at over 200,000 concurrent players on Steam alone.
However, the excitement quickly fades as consumers discover that the game is plagued by several significant issues, with the game proudly sporting a “Mixed” reception on Steam with just a 45% positive rating from over 21,000 total reviews.
One of the primary issues revolves around Capcom’s greed. Despite the game’s $70 USD price tag, a standard for AAA titles, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is disappointingly unoptimized on both PC and console platforms. Despite being built on Capcom’s advanced RE Engine, known for its optimization in more confined game titles like recent Resident Evil entries, it struggles in an open-world RPG environment, indicating a significant hurdle.
The inclusion of DENUVO anti-tamper DRM, a controversial measure within the PC gaming community, is one of the game’s notable features. This DRM is infamous for impeding gaming performance.
Additionally, the game utilizes the Enigma Protector, another layer of DRM that Capcom has been incorporating into games released even a decade ago, with two layers of DRM encryption laid over it, the performance of Dragon’s Dogma 2 is absolutely terrible.
For PC gamers, it’s evident that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is heavily CPU limited. To maximize performance on PC, you’ll need an exceptionally powerful processor like AMD’s Ryzen 7 7800X3D to handle the heavy lifting effectively.
According to Digital Foundry’s technical analysis, the console versions of the action RPG are also suffering from poor performance, with framerates frequently dropping below the 30 FPS mark, with the game constantly hitching / stuttering likely due to the immense CPU limitations of the XBOX Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles themselves.
PC Gamer’s findings at 1080p native resolution are noteworthy, showcasing the performance of high-end hardware like the Radeon RX 7800 XT and GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, which average around 40 frames per second.
However, the experience wouldn’t feel smooth due to the abysmal 1% lows of 20 frames per second. A CPU bottleneck is evident, as there’s minimal difference in frame rate performance between the Arc A770, Radeon RX 7800 XT, and RTX 4070 and 4070 Ti graphics cards when paired with lower-end CPUs like the Ryzen 5 5600X or Intel Core i7-9700K, both of which are outdated by today’s standards.
To maximize performance in Dragon’s Dogma 2, you’ll need a modern Zen 4 / Raptor Lake CPU. However, even with such expensive hardware, you’ll only manage around 60 FPS at 1080p, which is disappointing.
On the other hand, Digital Foundry achieved a stable 60 frames per second using NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, which is priced at $1800 on Newegg currently. Paired with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, the fastest CPU for gaming performance, the setup smoothly maintains 60 frames per second at maximum settings with global illumination, even at 4K resolution, but will dip down heavily when inside cities.
However, it’s worth noting that the “4K resolution” is achieved with DLSS enabled and set to the “quality” preset. This essentially means that the game is running at an internal resolution of 2560×1440 instead, which is more or less the common ground for modern PC gamers, and with such extravagant hardware to maintain a smooth 60 FPS at such a resolution you can forget about playing the game at 4K native on near $2000 GPU.
In reality, if you have a modern machine, you should still be able to enjoy the game without many issues, as long as you avoid enabling Ray Tracing global illumination. Disabling it can improve performance by around 10%. However, if you want to take advantage of it, you’ll essentially be compelled to enable either NVIDIA DLSS or AMD’s FSR upscaling technologies, even on resolutions as low as 1440p and 1080p, to achieve high enough framerates with a higher level of detail. Otherwise, you’ll need to adjust your in-game graphical settings to find the optimal balance for your system.
If your system is outdated by several generations, you’re essentially out of luck. Playing Dragon’s Dogma 2, even at 1920×1080 resolution, might be unattainable on the minimum requirements of an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card.
The game is heavily CPU-bound and doesn’t significantly reduce CPU overhead when increasing resolution which would normally put more strain on the GPU instead.
Woeful system performance and constant stuttering aren’t the only problems that the game suffers from, having two layers of DRM laced over a single player game is one thing however what if I told you that Capcom are attempting to nickel and dime their players when it comes to in-game mechanics such as fast travel and character customization?
To begin with, many individuals on social media are defending Capcom for this decision, arguing that you can earn these items in-game without spending any money. While that may be accurate, it sets a dangerous precedent.
This mirrors mobile gacha games, which are designed to make progress as inconvenient as possible within a shorter timeframe. Dragon’s Dogma 2 offers items like the “Art of Metamorphosis,” which permits editing of your character after creation.
Here’s an interesting tidbit: the “Art of Metamorphosis” DLC, for example, has garnered mostly negative reviews on Steam, boasting a rating of just 21% for this supposedly “optional” package. This score is based on 88 reviews in total.
Oh, and did I forget to mention that purchases of such DLC cannot be refunded? So over 88 retards have willingly paid $1 for the privilege of customizing their character mid-game with majority of whom left a negative review.
Interestingly, despite shelling out $1 for a mid-game character customization, you’re still unable to change your character’s body type or race. So, for any transgender individuals out there, I hereby grant you permission to cancel Capcom for this clearly bigoted limitation.
The reason for this limitation becomes apparent when you realize that your character and progression are entirely dependent on Capcom’s online servers. In Dragon’s Dogma 2, there’s no option to delete or wipe previously created characters and start anew.
Once your character is created, it’s tethered to Capcom’s servers, which seem incapable of allowing players to modify their character’s gender and race.
Your progression is essentially locked, as you don’t have access to previous versions of your save file. If you want to create a new save, you’re out of luck. Despite being marketed as a $70 single-player title, it feels more like a live service game. PC players have attempted to manually create a new save by deleting their previous ones.
This isn’t the only time character customization has been restricted. Capcom previously implemented similar features in Monster Hunter World, where players could spend $3 USD on a single-use voucher to edit a single character. Unlike in Dragon’s Dogma 2, however, players were able to change their character’s gender in Monster Hunter World.
In the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4, Capcom made several controversial decisions. Not only did they omit various sections of the original game, supposedly to modernize it by removing problematic quips and voice lines, but they also introduced a range of purchasable downloadable content for the single-player experience.
This included locking the original game’s soundtrack behind a $25 paywall and offering weapon upgrade tickets, additional costumes, and weapons for purchase. Additionally, those with the brainpower of a game journalist could spend an extra $4 to highlight the games 100+ treasures on their minimap if they so desired.
Capcom does this simply because they’re testing the waters, to see how stupid you, the consumer are. Corporate bootlickers will justify these heinous DLC additions which should not ever need to exist by clarifying that such features can be earned in-game, Dragon’s Dogma 2 has various DLC additions to a $70 single player title which hard locks your character down to Capcom’s servers, you must delete your save if you want to truly customize your character again properly.
You have the option to buy “Rift Crystal” packages containing 500, 1500, or 2500 crystals for $1, $3, and $5, respectively. Despite being obtainable through in-game activities like completing side missions and defeating monsters, these crystals are essential for hiring and upgrading pawns, your AI companions.
DLC packages like this should never be a part of any game. Capcom is so “generous,” they’re even selling Wakestones for a dollar each, which can revive you or other NPCs if perished. They also offer Portcrystals, used to establish fast travel points, since the base game lacks a fast travel system common in many other games of the genre.
Earning hub locations in-game isn’t necessarily poor game design, but the fact that Capcom charges money to skip the grind for them underscores their predatory practices. It’s reminiscent of Ubisoft selling XP boosts in single-player Assassin’s Creed titles, where the game is deliberately slow and tedious.
If the product is convenient, its demand stems entirely from inconvenience.
Capcom’s persistence in releasing such DLCs indicates they consider them lucrative enough to justify adjusting gameplay to promote digital purchases. Moreover, the company’s implementation of multiple layers of encryption-based DRM aims to prevent users from modifying their $70 single-player game with cheats.
However, considering the modding scene in games like Skyrim and previous Resident Evil entries, it’s likely that this approach also aims to deter the creation of “shameful” game mods featuring adult-oriented character models with nudity.
So, it’s no wonder the game is receiving such negative feedback. Capcom has shamelessly introduced egregious microtransactions at the last minute, impacting gameplay. Performance-wise, the game is a disaster, regardless of the platform you’re playing on, largely due to the combination of DENUVO and The Enigma Protector, which severely limits CPU performance on PC.
Furthermore, there’s only one save slot, with no official option to start a new game or restart. You’re stuck with the character you created at the beginning. While Capcom offers the ability to redesign your character, you can’t change your race or gender, so once you’ve committed to a choice, you’re stuck with it.
Additionally, the game largely relies on reused assets and monsters from the first installment, with little original content. The combat system is chaotic and visually confusing, particularly when paired with the game’s poor performance.
Moreover, the game is filled with simplistic fetch quests, lacking depth or innovation. Capcom’s aggressive marketing tactics involve collaboration with social media influencers such as Asmongold and a transgender porn actress.
It’s also worth noting that review outlets have given the game glowing reviews, possibly influenced by Capcom’s tendency to exclude outlets that provide low or realistic scores from future events or coverages.
Once more, there’s a significant gap between consumer reception and the reviews made by journalists. Many individuals are expressing outrage over the disastrous launch of Dragon’s Dogma 2 and have refunded the game, especially concerning the inclusion of microtransactions that allow players to purchase for instance an in-game key to escape from prison just once.
Despite high levels of anticipation and hype surrounding the game, paying customers are once again left with the short end of the stick, due to Capcom’s concerns about piracy and the modification of game files, combining two DRM encryption solutions resulting in poor optimization.
Their reputation as “Crapcom” is well-deserved, and it’s doubtful that the backlash will prompt them to change their approach. They seem intent on incorporating egregious ESG themes and values into their games, as evident in titles like Street Fighter 6. This is further compounded by their lackluster DLC additions, such as costumes for custom characters, and their infamous TMNT collaboration, where Capcom charged $15 per turtle costume in SF6.
Monster Hunter Wilds will almost certainly expand upon Crapcom’s philosophy, further pushing pay-to-win microtransactions, with core gameplay mechanics designed to pressure players into purchasing absurd digital accessories like waypoints, revivals, and prison escape keys by making in-game items harder and slower to obtain / access.
