The first Dark Arisen expansion for the original Dragon’s Dogma has a well-lauded place in video game history as the expansion that “fixed” the base game, sanding down the rough technical edges and tweaking things to make the notoriously obtuse RPG more approachable. It also added hours of new content, spiraling an already heady story directly into the heavens on the back of dragon wings. Dark Arisen 2 isn’t as transformational as the first one was, primarily because many of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s biggest issues have been fixed through incremental patching since it came out in 2024. But the new content here definitely flies in the same ambitious skies as its predecessor, pushing the story and world design to new heights, even if some of the new progression options get left behind.As with Dragon’s Dogma 2’s base campaign, Dark Arisen 2’s story remixes themes from the first game without being a simple retelling. Like in the first, another Arisen has been rumored to exist, something that shouldn’t be possible and demands your immediate attention. This takes you north to the frozen mountains of Norgan, a place that is largely abandoned save for the single settlement at its border (and the steady stream of visitors coming from other lands to investigate what’s been lost under all that ice besides you).What I said about Dragon's Dogma 2 (2024)Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a strange and wonderful game that seems haunted by some of yesteryear’s bugaboos. It is a retelling and reimplementation of all of those wonderful ideas from the 2012 cult-classic, including an awesome dynamic world and some of the best combat in the genre that integrates a subtle but amazingly complex physics system. On the other hand, its finicky ally AI, clunky climbing, choppy frame rate, and camera with a habit of going haywire at the worst times are all “features” I wish hadn’t been brought back for another round. Even so, there’s an action-RPG here that’s richly rewarding and incomparable to its contemporaries if you can be patient with its quirks and open to embracing its hands-off open-world and quest designs. - Jarrett Green, March 20, 2024Review: 8Read the full Dragon's Dogma 2 review.The expansion’s story also meanders in similar ways to the base game, with plot points getting sidetracked by little tasks or other happenings, but it didn’t feel as distracting since a lot of the “help me and I’ll help you” quests are relegated to side stories. As a whole, this roughly 20-hour main quest is solid, lacking in nuanced writing or ground breaking storytelling but bursting with a tangibly broody mood, big moments, and some genuinely interesting lore. It’s meditation on how a hero of destiny chooses their fate (if they get a choice at all) is unsubtle, and spends far too long at the end really sending the message home, but it sticks it.For those who don’t mind a lot of filler with their killer, there are plenty of people with tasks thoroughly less vital to the survival of reality that need doing. A couple of those quest lines stand out – one where you help the son of the village’s leader become brave and tough enough to follow in his footsteps, for example – but most are just a flimsy excuse to run around the world and beat up enemies.The frigid Norgan region is delightfully dense with things to find and see even if its smaller than most other regions in Dragon’s Dogma 2. What it lacks in square footage on a map, it gains in a sprawling sense of height that stretches from it’s jagged icy peaks down to winding underground caverns that spread wide and interconnect. Navigating up and down the rocks is a treacherous and daunting road at first, but climbing hooks can be used on specific poles scattered throughout to bridge elevations without the fuss. It feels almost like a Zelda or Metroid game in ways this series never has before.Combined with how dungeons and caves tended to loop back on themselves, revealing exits or opening doors that served as their own shortcuts into and out of zones, and Dark Arisen 2 felt almost like a Zelda or Metroid game in ways this series never has before. The abundance of portcrystals scattered around the map is another navigational relief. There are more in Norgan than there are in Vermund and Bathall combined, making travelling to different zones far more reasonable than it was in the base game.Note that reasonable doesn’t necessarily mean easier. The portcrystal’s abundance is a practical matter, as ox carts wouldn’t last long in the harsh environments. Norgan’s wintry winds often pick up, turning snowfall into blinding whiteouts that threaten to freeze you to death if you aren’t protected by special winterized gear or new consumables designed to stave off these frost effects for a limited time. These came in abundance pretty regularly so I never felt like my life was in danger out there, but the scrambling effect it has on the minimap and how generally hard it is to see or navigate in real time made them a threat worth waiting out at camp.Norgan’s crumbling castles and snowcapped cliffs are a welcome change of pace from the rolling hills and dense hinterlands of Vermund and he craggy deserts of Bathall. It’s also not all snowy wastes. I was surprised to see a break in the snow drifts when I came across a festering poisonous swamp. It matches thematically in that everything in it is dead (or maybe wishes it was), but areas like that and the crystal caves deep below the mountains subverted my expectations for the region in a welcome way.The bulk of what you’ll find hidden in the snow are Spoils, a new gear type that appears in generic shapes (long weapon, aegis, etc.) at first, but is revealed to be a usable piece of equipment when appraised by one of the new NPCs. Rolling the dice for new gear was not particularly exciting, and it further isolated me from having any real attachment to my equipment in a game that already had an abundance of junk to constantly ignore. There are at least things outside of raw stats to consider, as each piece of gear can potentially have special attributes that grant passive abilities or enhance specific weapon skills – but no single piece of gear stayed in rotation long enough to be something I relied on much, with the deluge of experience points I received strapping a rocket to my leveling almost immediately. I can see how these could fit into an endgame grind, but participating in a lottery in hopes to get incrementally stronger as my levels reaches the mid 100s is the sort of loop that I, like The Arisen, simply don’t have the heart for. New skills and abilities for every vocation can be learned from obelisks that dot the ridges and tundra in Norgan. Each have multiple tiers of offerings, and while the first are available for purchase with rift points immediately, the rest need to be unlocked with offering flames, earned in Dark Arisen 2’s second big campaign: the repeatable 12 Lost Rites dungeons scattered across Vermund and Bathall. Each skill is welcome, though outside some of the powerful new spells available to casters, I don’t think many of them change the balance of vocations in any significant way. Trickster is more active now that you can do additional things with your incense clone, like possess enemies and have them attack their kin. But if you have a favorite class, I’m not sure these new offerings will change the tier list already in your mind. The Last Rites dungeons range from short gauntlets of monster battles to sizable delves deep into danger. Some have unique designs that lean on a particular mechanic or require specific prerequisites before you can enter them – one where your Arisen must be an Archer/Magick Archer and whose rooms are filled with shootable support pillars to help collapse terrain onto enemies stands out. I haven't finished them all, as some only appear during the last act of the original story, but I haven’t found any of the ones I have completed to be a significant challenge, especially with the enormous power spike granted from grinding through Norgan first. The new recurring boss from them, a giant Beholder-like eyeball monster, is a fun fight, though.Norgan’s new slate of monsters can be pretty gnarly early on. Some are just stronger versions of baddies you’ve seen in the past, like the barbarous beocarns who are essentially just bigger bandits. But the brand new foes, like that baphomet-shaped lesser demons who sling spells and enhance their own physical attacks with elemental boons, can be pretty intense dance partners. Giant yetis with gaping mouths that stretch the length of their bodies might be some of the most grotesque and memorable enemies in the series. I really loved the little freaks hiding out in the tundra.