Crimson Desert is a huge and incredibly detailed game with massive scope and lofty goals. After almost six hours of hands-on time, I still cannot fathom the true size of this title.
It’s a wonderful combination of some of gaming’s biggest hits. Like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the world is huge and multi-layered, with sky islands and puzzles. There’s smatterings of Red Dead Redemption 2 with a camp of NPCs to support your adventures. While its physics-based combat and huge boss battles evoke Dragon’s Dogma 2. These are all very ambitious games, and Crimson Desert follows suit.
There’s a lot to love here, and the game is quite sizeable — anyone itching to dive into this world had better make some space.
Nathanael experienced the first four hours of Crimson Desert, followed by some time in later half of the game, thanks to Plaion ANZ. All screenshots and video footage in this article has been captured by Nathanael at the preview event.
Every Fight Feels Epic — This Is Combat That Hits Hard
There are certainly skill trees and new abilities to unlock, but most of your time will be spent fighting bandits, rescuing villagers and helping factions reclaim portions of the map.
It’s a great thing then, that the combat feels awesome. The typical enemies that you fight are relatively easy to beat, which makes you feel powerful, while keeping you challenged by throws groups of them at you constantly. Characters have spectacular finishing animations that roll straight back into combat. One moment you’ll be throwing dudes over your shoulders, the next you’ll be charging headfirst with your shield and chucking enemies into ravines. I singlehandedly regained control of a mill, joined in a massive clan battle and fought wandering bandits along the roads outside of town.
There are also plenty of weapon options, both mundane and magical. Main character Kliff starts with a longsword and a huge shield, which is great for the combination of offence and defence. I was also able to try a huge two-handed greatsword that used wide, sweeping attacks to take out groups. Then in some of the later game, I had a spear with huge reach, with the ability to throw magic after special attacks.
Crimson Desert Shakes Up Learned Abilities — Who Needs Tutorials?
Learning seems to be a big part of the game. Through your adventure, you’ll have to learn everything, from new moves to weapons, and recipes. Everything you collect will appear as “???” until you study it further. This is true of the objects you collect, as well as items in shops and things you find lying around.
Some skills you even have to learn by watching: the first was the Axiom Force ability, which I picked-up in one of the Abyss sections (like the Sky Islands from Zelda). It’s used to punch puzzle objects and also to double jump by firing it into the ground below you. As you’d expect, I then had to use the ability to complete some puzzles before moving on.
In one moment, a group of sellswords challenged me to a duel. It became an all-out brawl in the market square with the entire town watching. This was a perfect way to learn a new ability while building my own reputation in town. As part of this fight, I was able to unlock a forward kick ability by watching the knight use this against me.
Seemingly a good variety of skills and abilities will be unlocked through watching NPCs enact them in the world. To learn the fishing skill, I had to head to the docks and watch a fisherman doing his thing before I could cast a rod myself. And like the kick ability above, the same is true of combat abilities.
Leaving A Mark On The World — Camp Development Has Me Excited
One element of Crimson Desert that really impressed me is the many ways that you can interact with the world around you. You can access a regional map that looks like its straight out of Game of Thrones; the various factions each have their own colours, and you can liberate regions to recolour them for your factions. Liberating regions and gaining a reputation with local groups was cool and satisfying. Travelling outside of town, I could push bandits out of areas and reclaim them for the displaced locals. Doing so gained me items and gold, as well as access to a bounty board.
The conflict between the Black Bear tribe and Kliff’s Greymanes is central to the story. One story beat I played through saw me assault a snowy mountain fortress. This fortress showdown against one of the Black Bear chiefs was spectacular. While fighting bandits on the road is simple and flashy, boss battles are where you really test your skills, the clashes feeling more like a fighting game than a traditional RPG.
The camp development system also stood out for me. The Greymanes have a camp where you can return to rest and resupply. But you also have quests to take on with your faction-mates, as well as customising your own house.
At camp, all of the NPCs that you’ve recruited hang about doing their thing, running shops and providing support. I was most excited about sending crews on expeditions around the map. Accessed through a sub-menu at camp, and you can select individuals to send out into the world to take bandit hideouts, reclaim map zones and gather resources. Many of these quests will actively impact your game and your place in the world as your clanmates help expand your influence.
There’s Three Playable Characters, But This Is Kliff’s Story
In my playtime, I had the opportunity to test out the two additional characters that you have access to in Crimson Desert. Oongka is a burly orcish warrior. His fighting style uses a huge axe and wide sweeping attacks. Being very large, he is also able to easily lift and throw enemies with some sweet wrestling moves.
The other player character is Damiane, who fights with a rapier, rifle and magic. She is very different to both Kliff and Oongka, with fast and fluid movement, favouring parries over shield blocks, and trading strength for maneuverability.
Once you have unlocked the other two characters, you’ll be able to swap between them at will in spectacular fashion — think character switching in Grand Theft Auto V. These transitions are breathtaking and show the breadth of the world as you zoom over hills and valleys to the alternate character. Each of these supporting characters has their own weapons, skill trees and unlockables. However, it’s Kliff’s story, so you can swap around, but most of the game will be spent playing as him.
Crimson Desert is already shaping up to be huge, ambitious, and full of surprises. What we’ve seen so far is just a taste — there’s so much more waiting to be discovered, from The Abyss to dragonriding, new skills, and epic battles across a living world. I can’t wait to dive back in when the full game launches.
Gamers can ride into Pywel when Crimson Desert comes to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam on March 19th. It retails for about AUD $110.
Access to this preview was provided by the publisher.
