Dark Arisen scores 89 on Metacritic, 88 or 89 on OpenCritic

The review embargo for Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen lifted on 8 October 2026. This roundup puts Metacritic at 89. OpenCritic is 88 in the headline and 89 in the body of the same report, so the aggregate was still moving by a point.

Outlet scores spread widely. Vice, DualShockers, and Xbox Tavern gave 10 out of 10. RPGFan scored 9.5. Push Square, Hardcore Gamer, Gfinity, Gamers Social Club, and The Outerhaven landed on 9. GamingTrend, DayOne, and PSX Brasil scored 8.5. IGN, RPG Site, CGMagazine, and TechRaptor gave 8. Screen Rant and RPGamer gave 7.

The higher write-ups treat the expansion as a large continuation rather than a short add-on, and as a reason to come back, including for players who dropped the game over performance. Middling pieces say the campaign brings the base game to a comfortable length while the rough edges and the high difficulty stay. At the bottom of the list, the new content is called a disappointment, with fights that soon feel like repetitive button presses.

The original Dragon's Dogma launched in 2012, and its Dark Arisen expansion in 2013 is still talked about as one of the strongest DLC releases in the medium. The sequel arrived in 2024: combat, the world, pawns, and vocations drew praise, while the story and a thin endgame drew complaints. The new expansion is aimed at those gaps.