Dragon's Dogma 2: Free Two-Hour Trial for RPG Fans

Continuing our theme from the Steam sale recommendations under a tenner, let's swap out money for time. What can you achieve in the celebrated open-world "anecdote generator" Dragon's Dogma 2 in two hours or less? That's the duration of the free trial now available on Steam. For context, this is about the same amount of time Capcom gave me to preview their latest action-RPG. In that brief window, I managed to become the worst wizard in Dragon's Dogma 2, but I’m confident you can do better. I'm already bracing for the inevitable comparisons and feeling a little insecure about it.

The trial runs until July 19th at 6pm BST, 10pm PT, and 1pm ET. You can check it out here on Steam. If you decide to buy the full game, your trial progress will carry over. You can even extend your trial slightly by using the free Character Creator & Storage tool to pre-kit your character.

So, what can you do in those two hours, aside from outshining my preview performance and exposing my shortcomings? I’d recommend focusing on leveling up a class to experience the deeper ability design. Additionally, hiring and firing as many player-created Pawns as possible will give you insights into secrets and sidequests they’ve encountered in their worlds.

Here, we're big fans of a Dragonic adventure, but Dragon's Dogma 2 has received mixed reviews on Steam. Complaints range from performance issues to an empty world and an underwhelming story, with some players finding the game's design a bit chaotic. One major controversy at launch was the spread of the dragonsplague, an ailment affecting Pawns through online interactions, which could result in major story characters being killed off (though you’re unlikely to encounter this within the first two hours).