With a 71 percent “Mostly Positive” rating on Steam at present, Crimson Desert is slowly but surely making its way up in approval. Granted, for everything we like about the game (story and Kliff’s personality of a doorknob notwithstanding), there is a lot that needs to be improved. Let’s delve into 15 of them here, starting with the reason that so many players decided to refund…
Controller Remapping
This goes without saying, especially on consoles. The sheer number of functions in the game, coupled with attack commands, results in quite the workout for one’s hands, and not in a good way. While the development has acknowledged this and is currently preparing a patch, it should explore offering multiple different presets on top of full remapping. At least its most recent patch is a good step, adding shortcuts to select menus on the mouse and keyboard. Opening the Inventory by pressing I – it truly is a brave new world.
Colliding Actions
Have you ever jumped instead of looting a chest? Missed that prompt to mount your horse because it wasn’t precise enough? Or even my personal favorite – held L3 to grapple but ended up clinging to a ledge or sitting down because of the positioning? If you’ve faced any of these situations, congratulations and condolences. Suffice it to say that a high-priority Interact button – or even cutting down on the sheer amount of situational uses for the same button – would be amazing.
Mask Off
In theory, it makes sense that you’d need a mask to steal things out in the open. Avoiding witnesses and making sure that the guard doesn’t have a proper description of your face is essential. But why do you need a mask to take things when no one is around? For that matter, why is it considered stealing when trying to loot some items from a recently cleared bandit camp? Curious, but regardless, there needs to be a change to what’s considered “stealable.”
UI Overhaul
With the latest patch, the development team has begun improving the UI, which is good. But it’s only the start. Why can’t Kliff look at letters and documents within the inventory (complete with the whole “Learning” animation) rather than going through the animation of pulling it, and then holding L1 to read it? Why is it so tedious to navigate? Why do some items get their own dedicated slot, thus saving space, while others don’t? Credit where it’s due, though, as food items will now automatically register to a quick slot after picking them up rather than requiring you to do so.
More Camera Options and Improved Lock-On
Four camera options may seem like a lot, even if one of them (first-person) is useless for anything beyond observing close-up details. It wouldn’t hurt to have more, but above all else, the lock-on mechanics desperately need to be improved. Soft lock-on triggering on nearby enemies instead of prioritizing a boss is just baffling, and the speed of hard lock-on often can’t keep up when the target suddenly leaps out of view. Extra points for making it so that environmental objects don’t block my view in a boss fight.
Skipping Cutscenes
Remember the fuss before launch about cutscene fast-forwarding? “Who would possibly do this in an RPG?” they said. As it turns out, the answer is: Anyone who didn’t want to see the same boss fight cutscenes again after dying. While a recent patch made it so that recently viewed cutscenes would speed up faster, it’s time for a skip button.
Objective Distance in the Journal
A basic UI element that many games (like Cyberpunk 2077) mastered is actually telling you how far certain missions are from your journal. Crimson Desert desperately needs this, especially when you’ve activated a mission…only to be told that it’s on the other side of Pywel, thus forcing you to go back into your journal and choose something closer.
Press/Hold Toggles for Controls
I like my current DualSense – it’s a nice metallic grey that stands out. You know what I don’t like? Having to constantly rotate the right stick for a High Jump, or having to mash X to increase the speed of certain actions like Nature’s Grasp or moving levers. On the topic, why not give players the option to hold down the Sprint button instead of constantly tapping it, and the longer it’s held, the faster they’ll go (which thus leads to more stamina drain, like the current system)? Simplifying that one QTE to not get beaten to death by an enemy would also be nice (and no, I don’t care that they nerfed the difficulty twice).
Better HUD Scaling and Readability Options
UI accessibility also needs a much deeper revamp, especially with the lack of scaling options (you can decrease the HUD size, but, bafflingly enough, not increase it). Better contrast options and higher ceilings for text readability are also a must, especially with the sheer amount of information the game throws at you.
Fast Travel Woes
Initially, I didn’t mind the Mysterious Energy question marks, since they pushed you to investigate unknown areas and often unlocked Abyss Nexus points for fast travel. The problem is that some also lead to Abyss Cressets, which are also puzzles that require completing before you can use them to fast travel. If there’s no Abyss Nexus point nearby, then better get to solving it (though the latest patch has since added more points). It’s also worth noting the annoying restrictions for fast travel, like when on a mount or free-falling. Why not just remove these? At least make it so that Kliff dismounts when hitting fast travel on a horse.
Mount Permanence
Before launch, Crimson Desert showcased several different kinds of mounts, including a dire wolf, raptor and bear. Well, not all of them are permanent. After inflicting enough damage on said creature, it can be temporarily mounted, and not registered like your horses for later use. It would be one thing to have this for a select few mounts, but on such a wide scale, it feels like false advertising.
Dragon Cooldown
On another note, there’s the dragon mount, Blackstar, which is obtained when progressing through the storyline. A cathartic moment where you feel like all those days of traipsing on horseback are behind you…until you discover that it has a 15-minute time limit and a 50-minute cooldown. And unlike everything else in this game, you can’t “wait” or “rest” to bypass the cooldown. I sure hope it doesn’t affect a main story mission, which is horribly balanced against the dragon, thus requiring multiple restarts – oh wait. Why are these MMO design decisions in a single-player game? Your guess is as good as ours, but their removal should have happened yesterday.
Skill Tree Improvements
Learning new skills and having the freedom to decide which ones to unlock without worrying about stamina, health and spirit is great…until you realize that some, like High Jump, are unusable without a specific stamina threshold. A warning about this would be nice, if not temporarily gating off some skills until you can actually use them. Also, better panning through the skill tree would be appreciated.
Boss Invincibility Windows
Yes, I know that “specific enemies and bosses” have had their attack and health reduced, and you’ll consume less stamina when blocking attacks. Kearush the Slayer also had some adjustments, and good riddance. But what about boss invincibility windows? There’s nothing quite like dodging and looking for an opening to strike…only for your hit to be null and void because a boss has already activated their ultimate attack, which means no damage. If the invincibility windows must remain, then at least restrict them to the actual attacks rather than the start-up or even ending frames.
Artifacts for Damiane and Oongka
One of my biggest peeves that remains unchanged is the fact that Damiane and Oongka require their own Abyss Artifacts to unlock and upgrade skills. Between spending them on upgrades for equipment, and upgrading Kliff, who’s mandatory during most of the story, so you have to pay attention to him, this feels annoying. At the very least, they should receive some free Artifacts, maybe 10 or so, when first unlocked. Whether you spend them on Kliff or something else is completely up to you, but at least it opens up options for those who want to play Damiane or Oongka.