Crimson Desert Review

Developed and published by Pearl Abyss, Crimson Desert is the new RPG causing a storm in the gaming world. Its attempt at trying to make a triple A game has some players purring and others turning their noses up. Why you ask? Well because the game is a virtual ADHD experience where they have lifted some of best and interesting concepts from other games and crammed it into this giant, fidget toy sandbox RPG.

                You play as Kliff the Greymane. A strong clan member with good heart, a strong fighting spirit and Scottish accent. Then, whilst at your camp with your fellow Greymanes, you are ambushed and decimated by the Black Bears; a ruthless clan that despises and wants to wipe out all of the Greymanes. That’s where things get a little weird as it seems like you are beaten and killed and thrown into a river. Except you didn’t die, or not in the common sense anyways. A magical being and a child take you this otherworldly place called the Abyss. You are told you are to play an important role in bringing justice back to the land of Pywel. You are then given magical abilities that allow to fly/glide, a force push ability and the ability to attach a magical leash called an axiom force onto an object to magically move them.

                Now I mentioned it was a bit weird but that is because his death – or faux death – is never addressed properly, and that’s even after many hours sunk into the game. Also, as he looks to gather the Greymanes back together to restore the clan’s strength and yet no one acknowledges his powers or seems to have the same abilities as Kliff. I love the new powers and the fact they are used to traverse this massive land and solve mystical puzzles. But it’s just a bit jarring where clan members will often want you to travel by horse to get to a destination which is fine as part of a quest. But as soon as the quest is over Kliff can just fly back to camp using his powers or better still he can teleport back with aid of mechanisms called Abyss Nexus.

                Graphically this game is a mixed bag. It looks decent, there is so much content on the screen at once and there are occasions where there are swarms of enemies and everything looks good enough. They are obviously games that have far better graphics but it doesn’t stop this game from still looking beautiful. There are sandbox games with larger maps but often they feel barren in areas so a lot of space is just wasted. In Crimson Desert it feels big enough that you are getting massive value for money, but confined enough that it doesn’t become overwhelming.

                The gameplay is remarkable but it is a grower and some will struggle to get the hang of it. The controls don’t help (I will explain why later) but the story being quite farfetched and with so much content being thrown at you, it can feel like a fever dream. Within the first few hours you are killed and then revived. You are helping a beggar with some coin and he takes you to a secret area with treasure and then you help a boy fetch his cat from a roof only to discover the boy is a magical being called a Shai. It seems you are being tested to make sure you are kind hearted and it doesn’t end there. You suddenly find yourself helping a couple with their chimney as it needs sweeping. So kind you has to pick up a broom and climb the roof to clear the chimney and here was my first experience with awkward controls. 

The combat in the game is pretty simple though with some complex elements thrown in. You just have to hold the right bumper or right trigger and Kliff will just work his way through a combo. But there are special moves that you can learn which involve certain button combinations. It reminds me a little bit of the combat from the Batman Arkham games or from Assassins Creed, and some have likened it to Elden Ring too but I haven’t played that yet myself. You fight swarms of enemies or tough bosses so you have to learn some defensive work too with the block button and eventually learning to parry or counterattack. You can then utilise your new spirit power to force push enemies to help stun them, or eventually learn a move that prevents all projectiles from hitting you which you can then use the stored energy against them to stun them and get some good attacks in (got all that?… – ed)

                The combat is enhanced by the variety of weapons on offer and special gears you can slot into them to produce different benefits. You can fight with a sword and shield, a two-handed weapon or with a bow an arrow. Other options do open up later on in the game when you experience some of the other Greymanes that you can play as. There is a large skill tree to work through and you don’t level up in the conventional way. You can earn enough experience which in turn generates an Abyss Core which is used to level up something in your skill tree. But those same Abyss Cores can also be used to upgrade your weaponry too. But other than combat experience you also obtain these Abyss Cores by completing specific puzzles scattered around the land. You can also find Sealed Abyss Cores scattered around the land which give you a challenge you have to complete to unseal it. These can be as simple as killing enemies in a particular way within a time limit but they can get far trickier.

But the gameplay doesn’t just stop at combat and puzzle solving. There are other quests on offer like fetch quests or exploration. Some even involves some detective work and deduction. As you gather more of your fellow Greymanes together even more gaming elements are revealed. There is a big crafting element to the game too. You can craft weapons, food, potions clothes, dyes and even magical tools.  But for each crafting section you need to find and gather ingredients and resources so you have to do a lot of scavenging. If you treat certain animals well like dogs or cats that you come across you can eventually tame them as pets. They can then repay you by helping you pick up resources from fallen enemies which is very handy but on the other hand they can also be a nuisance due to some button choices. You can also organise your fellow Greymanes and send them on tasks to bring back resources to the camp. The more you explore the map the more options of tasks become available which help you grow your camp and also help with upgrading your gear so its something to be taken seriously.

                As for content, this game is filled to the brim, almost to the point of spilling out. You can be hours into the game and barely scratch the surface of the main story. It is encouraged to progress the story to some extent as you eventually unlock the 2 Greymane companions Oongka and Damiane. In very GTA V style you can switch to play as these other characters. You can complete missions as them instead and they both feel different enough to play as so it’s a fun new experience to travel the land as one of the other characters. Not only that you can also choose to summon them to help you tackle big scale battles which can be daunting to try and take on by yourself which is cool.

                Now for the drawbacks. Some have been improved with patches and I am sure they will continue to improve, but the first thing you will notice even having been improved are the loading times. When you launch the game, you are taking to a very Assassins Creed style walk through an electronic walkway like you are hooking into the matrix. It can take about a minute give or take from clicking load game to being able to gaining control of your character.

But my biggest bugbear are the button choices. In the modern age we are spoilt for choice for button options but it seems the developers at Pearl Abyss made decisions like we were using a 2-button controller. The button for jump? X; the button for climb? X; the button to pick things up? X; the button to pet your dog? You guessed it also X. Countless times I tried to pick things up only to jump or pet the dog. The same goes for when trying to climb only to end up petting the dog. When you want to talk to important NPCs you have to hold left bumper and A and sometimes if you want to give them a gift its left bumper and X. But there is also a stealing element to the game where you take things with a five-finger discount, which they cleverly decided to also make the steal button left bumper and X and yes, accidents happen a lot.                

That being said this game has gown on me massively. It was a slow start as it does seem very confusing to begin with, but now I can’t get enough. It seems there is a strong community for this game with finding hidden treasures and helping solve some of the trickier puzzles. People have likened the game to Zelda Breath of the Wild, Eden Ring, Assassins Creed, Batman Arkham, Just Cause and even GTA V. That’s a lot of games to be likened to and yet I still feel it has an identity of its own. It’s also massive with easily hundreds of hours of content to explore should you so wish, but even just following the main campaign will take a lot longer than most other titles for sure.

Conclusion

Despite the AI controversy around the launch of Crimson Desert, I’ve found a lot to enjoy during my time with the game. There is a lot of content to explore, and freedom to do so at your own pace and style. So much so, that even with some annoying interface and controller decisions and an initially confusing storyline, I found myself compelled to keep coming back and enjoying the moment to moment experiences.