Pearl Abyss, the team behind the MMORPG Black Desert Online, is looking to expand its horizons with Crimson Desert, a single-player action-adventure game. Despite jumping into a whole new genre altogether, the team is taking what it learned from its first game and implementing it into Crimson Desert by focusing on realism and creating open environments that seem full of life. At the same time, it’s clear that the studio has taken inspiration from various games that have come out in the last ten years by incorporating specific mechanics that players may recognize from other titles.
Right off the bat, I noticed how much The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild influenced the team. Pearl Abyss uses many fun features from the game, such as implementing a stamina bar that strongly resembles the one in Breath of the Wild. The game even has a mechanic that almost mirrors Link’s glider. In addition, another feature allows players to enter a focus mode that would enable them to shoot multiple arrows at once, which functioned a lot like DeadEye does in the Red Dead Redemption games. That’s not to say all of this is a bad thing. It made the game much more enjoyable because it took a lot of iconic parts from other games and molded them into something of their own. The nice cherry on top is that the character strongly resembles John Snow from the Game of Thrones TV series.
Combat is brutal, satisfying and unforgiving
Crimson Desert, in many ways, plays like a Souls-Like game. It has a stamina bar that you have to keep an eye out for. Timing your attacks is necessary, and parrying and dodging are essential to ensuring your survival. Even though it has features similar to those of the genre, Crimson Desert does do enough to stand out. For example, the character you play has a mana-like bar that indicates how much power players can use. This can allow them to do heavy attacks with their fist, which will leave enemies open for attacks when hit. It can also be used to launch players in the air to help them get out of a situation or, if they want, switch to their bow and arrow to get a few shots off safely in the air before they land.
When you’re not in the air, there are plenty of ways to get the upper hand over your enemies. One of my favorite things was using my sword to blind opponents. I loved it so much because, when done correctly, your character would reflect the light from his sword to shoot right into his opponent’s eyes, which would leave them open for an attack. That was one of many ways I could get the upper hand. If the right combos were pressed, I could throw them across the battlefield, punch them in the nose, or even perform an anime-like heavy attack.
Crimson Desert features boss battles that push you to your limits
One shocking thing was how unforgiving Crimson Desert can be. During a boss fight, I was going up against a normal human who was built like a grizzly bear and moved much faster than I initially anticipated. This made the fight extremely challenging because my character quickly became a human rag doll the second he got his hands on me. The bullying didn’t stop there. Another boss fight took me to an area that looked ripped from a horror story. Once my character approached the fight zone, he was greeted by Hexe Marie, a boss with powers that allowed her crows to attack me during the fight. As soon as it started, she summoned a horde of minions made of rocks and vases that came to aid her in the fight. Needless to say, this made attacking her and staying alive more of a challenge.
Even though it was by no means easy, it was still very enjoyable. Like many Souls-Like games, half the fun is memorizing the patterns of your enemies and knowing when you should go in for an attack versus when you should parry/dodge. It made killing them more enjoyable because I knew it wasn’t easy. Plus, it’s incredibly satisfying to land the killing blow after you’ve just lost half of your health because a boss threw you at a brick wall. Or because they landed a powerful magic attack on you.
By far, one of the strongest things about Crimson Desert wasn’t the combat or different weapons you can use. It was the world. Everything looked incredibly beautiful and created this sense of exploration. I could easily picture myself wandering around the lands just to get a better look at everything. During my time with the game, I found myself running around to ensure I got a glimpse of everything I could because of how great the environment looked. Crimson Desert does a fantastic job of creating a cinematic environment and making everything look wallpaper-worthy.
One of the things that hurts the game is how busy the screen can get. Like other games, such as the Jedi Survivor series, Crimson Desert will flash colors that indicate when you need to do various actions, such as blocking, dodging, or even when you gain HP or perform certain attacks. As helpful as it was at times, it became too much and took up much of the screen. This made it hard to tell where my character was, which made the fights more challenging than they needed to be. Unfortunately, this became a larger issue when I was fighting Hexe Marie because her minions were on the battlefield, and that’s not to mention her second form, in which most of her attacks were magic-based. I often found myself spamming the dodge in hopes of surviving the color splash on my screen.
My time with Crimson Desert was nothing less than extraordinary. The game is still in early development, but the portion of the game that was presented to me felt extremely clean and polished, and I can’t wait to see the finished product.
