TLDR; if you liked dragons dogma, you'll like dragons dogma 2.
Story like the first one can be the weakest part, however the combat more than makes up for it. The world is absolutely packed with dungeons, secrets, and hidden items so there's plenty to find if you're the type who likes to explore. I was pretty thorough in my playthrough it took me right around 67 hours to complete, but i missed over 2/3 of the collectibles and multiple quests I'm sure. Quests can be a bit archaic when it comes to getting the good outcomes but that's par for the course with a DD game.
I'd give it a 7/10 in its current state, but it seems like DD2 Dark arisen is slated to fix basically every gripe people have with the game, and will no doubt boost my rating to 9-10/10.
Pros:
-Looks incredible, the shading and environments look amazing when exploring.
-The combat is really really good. Warrior is super satisfying to play this time around, and theres like 10 vocations to play with (warrior, thief, archer, mage, etc.).
-Exploration is top tier, everywhere you go theres a hidden chest, obstacle to overcome, or collectible waiting to be found.
-There are a lot of dungeons in this game to delve into, some rather short, and some were pretty huge.
-A lot of quests had multiple outcomes depending on how you handle them.
-Different "factions" to interact with with their own distinct identities(Elves, Battahl, Vernworth)
-The pawn system is just as robust as the first game, even more so this time around with the specializations, you'll be constantly rotating out pawns to fit your current objectives.
-Pawns feel a lot more "alive" this time. See a drop you dont want to make? throw your pawn down there, and have them catch you. Take your giant sword, and use it to spring board your pawn up onto a cyclops head so they can stab it in the eye. Rolled up ladder you can't reach? throw your pawn up there and have them lower it for you. The more times they fight something (either in your world or another arisen's) the better they are at identifying openings/weaknesses/etc.
-The Dopamine hit you get when your pawn returns from assisting another arisen is unparalleled in video games.
-The Dopamine hit you get when you hire someone's pawn, and they inform you that you've found/done something their arisen hasn't makes you feel superior every time.
- High fiving your pawn after dog walking a dragon never gets old.
Cons:
-Performance can be kind of sluggish at times, but not really enough to make too big of an impact (at least on my hardware), I can only recall three or so times my frames really dipped to sub 30fps.
-AI pop in is obnoxious. You can be fighting goblins and the game will spawn an oxcart and next thing you know you've accidentally decapitated the poor thing.
-Definitely some unfished/cut content (which is par for the course for a DD game sadly)
-Quest design can be frustrating to some, you can very easily lock yourself out of some desirable rewards on accident (meteoron comes to mind)
-Dragonsplague is a stupid, annoying thing to add. If you arn't careful your pawn can contract dragonsplague that if left untreated can soft lock your run immediately with no other gameplay additions (the ENTIRE CITY OF VERWORTH CAN DIE)
-Armor layering and selection took a BIG step back in this game, you only get three real armor slots, head, chest, and legs. No more gloves, boots, shirt, pants, etc.
-Enemy variety can get a bit stale especially in the late game
All in all, if you like DD1, you'll like DD2. If you haven't played either its still a REALLY solid RPG (GO PLAY DD1 DARK ARISEN RIGHT NOW).
