Here’s why players are so unhappy with Dragon’s Dogma 2 launch on Steam

One of the most anticipated gaming releases of the year, Dragon’s Dogma 2, finally launched on March 22. While many are having fun, there are thousands of dissatisfied players, mostly on Steam.

Valve’s platform is the only one where Dragon’s Dogma 2 is available on PC. In the first hours after release, it gathered mostly negative reviews, with players bombing it for two reasons: microtransactions and performance issues.

Microtransactions in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Let’s address the elephant in the room first. There are a total of 21 microtransactions you can buy as soon as you start your journey. Most are minor convenience items that are obtainable in the game, like Wakestones and Rift Crystals. Others include an item that lets you recustomize your character using the character editor. This is one of the main talking points among the community, as the game only has one save file and doesn’t let you edit your Arisen until you reach the Rift Crystal vendor in Vensworth.

Players are also complaining about how you need to pay for fast travel by buying a Portcrystal, which marks a location to which you can teleport. But you can also get Portcrystals by exploring the game, and you still need to collect Ferrystones to be able to fast travel to them.

While most of the items sold as microtransactions can be unlocked by playing, it’s understandable how players feel. The community mostly agrees single-player games shouldn’t have microtransactions at all, and seeing them has encouraged many players to refund Dragon’s Dogma 2. To make matters worse, the game doesn’t explain many things at the start, so lots of players believe microtransactions are the only way to get these items, which just isn’t true.

Performance issues in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Another glaring issue is performance among PC players. They’re reporting severe FPS drops in cities like Vensworth that are densely populated with NPCs. This led to players killing a bunch of characters just so the game works better.

“Awful performance cannot maintain a steady 60fps regardless of settings,” one of the Steam reviews reads. “Denuvo, bad optimisation, micro transactions,” another one adds.

The game clearly doesn’t run as smoothly as many players wanted, with it often dropping to 30 FPS or lower, especially in cities or combat. If it makes you feel better, the console experience is similar, and it seems there’s no immediate fix for console performance—at least as of now.