Crimson Desert - Preview

[HiddenX]

Polygon checked out Crimson Desert:

Crimson Desert’s wild combat left me skeptical at Gamescom

Targeting and camera issues hampered the otherwise flashy action

With one of the game industry’s most popular MMOs, Black Desert Online, under its belt, developer Pearl Abyss is shifting to a single-player open-world action game with Crimson Desert. As someone who dabbled with Black Desert but lacked the dedication to stick with it, I’ve been looking forward to Crimson Desert’s solo-minded approach and I enthusiastically embarked on a hands-on slice of the game during Gamescom. Yet while Crimson Desert teems with dangerous, mythical threats, my fiercest opponent reared its head on a systems level.

Crimson Desert unfolds on the vast continent of Pywel and puts players in the bloodstained shoes of brooding mercenary Kliff. A band of fellow swords-for-hire accompanies Kilff on his mission to save this beleaguered land, though I didn’t see much of it in the Gamescom demo, which focused on melee action via four selectable boss fights.

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Thanks Couchpotato!

More information.

 

[Redglyph]

After watching Fextralife's video in Couch's thread, I have the impression this game is far from finished. The devs aren't sure yet if there will be quests will be like. It seems to be mostly about combat.

According to him, the devs insist it's an action-adventure game and not an action RPG.

 

[JDR13]

After watching Fextralife's video in Couch's thread, I have the impression this game is far from finished. The devs aren't sure yet if there will be quests will be like. It seems to be mostly about combat.

I just finished watching that one. Yeah, he thinks it's still at least a year or more away from release which is disappointing but not too surprising.

According to him, the devs insist it's an action-adventure game and not an action RPG.

I like that they're being honest about that. Many developers try to promote their games as RPGs just because they have a few elements.

I'm starting to feel like this might end up being closer to something like Black Myth Wukong but with an open world. The Fextralife guy mentioned Assassin's Creed at one point, but I don't see that.

 

[Redglyph]

I'm starting to feel like this might end up being closer to something like Black Myth Wukong but with an open world. The Fextralife guy mentioned Assassin's Creed at one point, but I don't see that.

I don't see that either. It looks like the combat is inspired from Soulslikes, but I don't know if it's just an impression or if death is part of the game loop, if there are bonefires, etc. Whatever it ends up being, I find most strange that it started as an MMORPG and is now a SP action adventure. The devs have apparently no clear idea of what they're going to do with it.

 

[JDR13]

I find most strange that it started as an MMORPG and is now a SP action adventure. The devs have apparently no clear idea of what they're going to do with it.

Especially since they've never done a single-player game before. That, and I thought Black Desert was fairly successful.

 

[Farflame]

After watching Fextralife's video in Couch's thread, I have the impression this game is far from finished.

Thanks for the video. I watch the channel but not always. Its surprising for me if there are still undecided things. My impression is that...

- Before 2023 they had open world ARPG in mind...
- Then they want mainly own spin on Elden Ring (+ AC) that will be bigger - hence the idea about 20-40 bosses. Because of this they scrapped some ARPG ideas so there is now more simple character progression.

1m not happy about this but... what can I do?

 

[Farflame]

Thanks for the video. I watch the channel but not always. Its surprising for me if there are still undecided things. My impression is that...

- Before 2023 they had open world ARPG in mind...
- Then they want mainly own spin on Elden Ring (+ AC) that will be bigger - hence the idea about 20-40 bosses. Because of this they scrapped some ARPG ideas so there is now more simple character progression.

1m not happy about this but... what can I do?

Sorry for this post... @HiddenX can delete it.

 

[Couchpotato]

Thanks for the video. I watch the channel but not always. Its surprising for me if there are still undecided things. My impression is that...

- Before 2023 they had open world ARPG in mind...
- Then they want mainly own spin on Elden Ring (+ AC) that will be bigger - hence the idea about 20-40 bosses. Because of this they scrapped some ARPG ideas so there is now more simple character progression.

1m not happy about this but... what can I do?

Exactly it's not the same game anymore.

They want a piece of the Souls-Like pie now.

Anyway to me it looks like a combination of God of War and Dragon's Dogma.

 

[JDR13]

Thanks for the video. I watch the channel but not always. Its surprising for me if there are still undecided things. My impression is that...

- Before 2023 they had open world ARPG in mind...
- Then they want mainly own spin on Elden Ring (+ AC) that will be bigger - hence the idea about 20-40 bosses. Because of this they scrapped some ARPG ideas so there is now more simple character progression.

1m not happy about this but... what can I do?

20-40 bosses wouldn't be bigger than Elden Ring or even close.

It's hard to say if character progression has been simplified since we never knew much about it to begin with. It's also possible that less complexity might actually end up being better. They may have started with a larger vision and then realized it was more than what they're capable of pulling off.