Dragon's Dogma 2 is back in the limelight now after its 2024 launch thanks to its Dark Arisen DLC, which lands tomorrow – and is apparently superior to its 2013 predecessor.

A whopping 13 years ago now, the original Dragon's Dogma RPG from Capcom got its own Dark Arisen expansion, and admittedly, I loved it. Everything from the Bitterblack Isle to the formidable foes the DLC boasted had me in a chokehold – and this week, the new Dragon's Dogma 2 Dark Arisen content threatens to do the same.

And, what's more, it appears to be impressing critics more than its decade-old predecessor did.

Over on Metacritic, the Dragon's Dogma 2 Dark Arisen expansion boasts a solid score of 84. That's pretty dang good, and the small snippets provided from reviews solidify as much.

One outlines how the DLC has "made Dragon's Dogma 2 a must-play RPG," for example, while others say it accomplishes what the original game's own follow-up content did and then some – so, yeah.

It seems as though it's shaping up to be quite a time.

As for the original Dragon's Dogma and its own Dark Arisen DLC… well, it's got a score of 81 on the platform. That's not bad at all, but it's notably a few points under its successor, which is exciting.

The new take on Dark Arisen's chaos is mere hours away at this point, so I do also wonder what fans will think of it. For reference, the OG expansion's got a "user score" of 7.9 – will tomorrow's prove even higher?

I certainly hope so. We're talking everything from enhanced gameplay to new adventures in snowy, unforgiving Norgan and even an improved character creator, as though I didn't spend enough time in it a couple years back.

All that's left to do now is wait, I suppose. If you've not preordered it yet yourself, Dark Arisen is live on Steam and other platforms for $30 – a small price to pay, should critics' thoughts on the DLC so far ring true.

Capcom enlists Ron Perlman for Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen promo, hopefully pays him more than the sandwich and $40 he got for Fallout.