Crimson Desert is a monster. It is truly huge, both in the size of the map and the sheer amount of things to do in it. You’ve got an expansive story, have to fight an army of enemies all at once, building up your camp and collecting allies, fishing, hunting, and there’s also the puzzles floating in the atmosphere as well. It’s a collection of influences from all over the place combined with a unique style that sometimes hinders the experience, as much as it helps.
The opening of the game is somehow both slow and fast-paced, consisting mostly of you wandering around trying to figure out controls while completing seemingly random quests that clumsily establish that Kliff, the protagonist of the game, is a really nice guy who helps beggars. But you don’t really know much at all beyond the things you learn in the very beginning – you’re a Greymane, which is a faction, the other Greymanes are missing or dead after a big battle, and you’re trying to get a handle after miraculously surviving. Because of this, the opening feels a bit haphazard, pushing you between seemingly unrelated nonsense. At one point you clean a chimney, which I still haven’t had to do again at any point since. I did clean some solar panels at one point, though.
Solar panels? In a fantasy RPG? Surprisingly, yes. This is far from the typical RPG and Pywel is anything but your typical fantasy map. Sure there are swords and magic, but there’s also giant floating castles in the sky with runes on them, robots, research, and the Abyss – a vaguely defined place that is, despite its name, high up in the sky and full of puzzles for you to solve.
Exploring this world is mostly a delight, helped in no small part by how absolutely stunning it is. I still stop just to look around at the scenery and not just because it’s so pretty. It’s also full of secrets and things to find, like caves hidden behind waterfalls or behind weird metallic walls that can only be accessed with certain abilities, castles full of crabs that have valuable ores on their backs, and plenty encampments filled with bandits that are just waiting for you to turn up and destroy them with a series of Stone Cold Stunners.
Which brings us to combat, which is a messy, over the top, frustrating, and brilliant thing. In addition to the usual light and heavy attacks, you’ve got unarmed attacks, actual wrestling moves, a charged overhead swing that is particularly powerful, the ability to dazzle enemies by reflecting light off your sword, and that’s really just for starters. With all of these and more, you’ll devastate large groups of enemies, and we’re talking some Dynasty Warriors numbers of enemies. Your wrestling moves have a shock wave that knocks nearby enemies down, you can pick up and throw them at or off things. It’s full of incredibly enjoyable and satisfying ideas that combine to just generally make you (and the other two playable characters) an unbelievable badass. It is a hell of a lot of fun despite having quite a few weaknesses, such as some areas having enemies that can just grab you instantly, causing you to have to complete a QTE to escape, or flying enemies which are always a frustrating pain to fight.
The biggest issue with it, however, is the bosses. They’re pretty terrible a lot of the time, if not all the time. They teleport around, breaking your lock on as they do, constantly launch huge attacks that can knock you around whilst also having a limited area to fight them in that covers the screen with a countdown if you stray too far. They’re the biggest motivation I’ve had for upgrading all my equipment as much as possible, and even then I still have to take 30 different food dishes with me to chow down and heal whilst I’m fighting. Imagine Dark Souls boss fights, but not actually balanced and with complex, inconsistent controls, to get in the way. Mostly I consider them things I have to get through, but there are a handful that I enjoyed, though I suspect it was only because I’d upgraded all my equipment so much.
The controls are an obstacle to you throughout the game as they try to cater to so many things that they’re impossible to remember. You eventually get used to many of them but they’re complex enough that even a hundred hours in you may still occasionally mess them up. I do think that the complexity of the controls is inevitable considering the amount of options you’re given here. At least now you can customise them if you choose to as well. The bigger issue though is that they can be unresponsive, which is particularly frustrating in combat when you’re surrounded by a thousand enemies and pushing the buttons doesn’t trigger the specific attack you’re trying to use for some reason, causing you to unleash a few light attacks at nothing before getting flattened instead.
Threading all this together is a story that seems like it should be involved, but is delivered in such a ham-fisted fashion that you don’t necessarily know what’s going on a lot of the time. I’ve mostly been content to go with the flow because playing the game is so enjoyable just to explore and upgrade things in, but if you require an involved story you won’t find it here. It’s a shame, because there’s clearly thought behind it, it just isn’t explained very well most of the time. It’s also delivered by near flawless voice acting with motion captured performances, though the latter aspect does seem like they were directed to really exaggerate their movements, and there is an awkward pause between every single line, making conversations feel really unnatural – this also isn’t helped by Kliff’s weirdly short and often ill-fitting responses, like a simple “Yes” after eight sentences from an NPC.
Pearl Abyss have said they’re going to rework the story somehow, though exactly how that will shape up is anyone’s guess as it must be a huge undertaking. They have proven that if anyone can, they can, through the sheer amount of changes and additions that have been made since release. For the last six or seven weeks, at the time of writing, there has been a patch every single week, and they haven’t restrained themselves to bug fixes. You can ride wyverns now, have pet raccoons amongst apparently a hundred other animals, I have a permanent bear mount to ride into battle now, plus the addition of some new legendary mounts. Difficulty options have been added, item storage and inventory management has been improved, and on and on. It’s amazing what dedication (and a thoroughly different societal approach to sensible working hours) can do.
Crimson Desert is uniquely difficult to review – it’s taken us three months playing on and off to get around to it for a reason. On paper, the poor bosses, messy and sometimes unresponsive controls, lacking story, and easily being one the jankiest games I’ve ever played should be pretty big issues, but the best parts of the game shine through anyway. Sure, combat has issues, but it’s bombastic in the truest sense of the term, explosive and powerful, as well as a bit disposable, and it’s more fun than I’d had fighting in a game for ages. Developing my camp has been a particular delight, in spite of numerous needlessly lengthy and superfluous missions related to it. The world is beautiful, expansive, and over 100 hours in I don’t think I’ve uncovered more than half of the map yet or mined its many secrets. All the issues basically become mild annoyances, unable to stand before the breadth and gorgeousness of the world, or unique and creative mechanics that aren’t really seen anywhere else.
