We’re coming to the end of a very long wait, with Crimson Desert now less than a week away from its final release. We went back and took a gander at all of the showcases that the developer has done in the run-up to the game’s launch, marvelling at how ambitious Klyff’s upcoming adventure truly is.
It isn’t uncommon for games in a specific genre to adopt a couple of nifty features from their peers, weaving them into their design to make an experience feel authentic. But Crimson Desert is going a step further. It isn’t trying to be just an open-world, or an action title, or a cinematic experience. Instead, it’s blending them all into a potent mix of varying design philosophies.
It’s looking like a combination of individual ideas that carried the finest games of the last decade on their own, and it feels like it’s chasing the strengths of those titles in its push to be a game like no other. Don’t believe us? That’s okay. We’ve come prepared.
Join us as we explore why we think Crimson Desert is a game that’s aiming to be the best by learning from the very best.
1. A Sandbox Full of Surprises
We’re kicking things off with GTA 5, which was a masterpiece in presenting you with unscripted moments, letting you loose in a world where there was controlled chaos just waiting to unfold at every turn. It was a game that felt like it could generate a story outside of its main narrative almost all the time, with physics-driven encounters, combat that could thrust you into a situation you didn’t sign up for, and a game in which travelling from point A to point B could turn into hours of entertainment.
Pywell might not be a world that’s as modernized as the one we explore in GTA 5 but it certainly has the same potential for unpredictability that’s just fun to engage with. There’s so much for Klyff to do, and so many ways to discover it all. It’s the same energy as Rockstar’s classic, just wrapped in a fantasy setting.
2. A World That Feels Alive
We turn our attention to Red Dead Redemption 2, and its take on the Wild West as it began its decline, making way for a modern world in which the rule of the law took a firm hold. Stepping into Aurthur’s shoes felt like an authentic way to leave your real life behind and indulge in some cowboy adventures that felt so real thanks to a world that was able to function independently of you while still managing to respond to you at the right moments.
We’ve already commented on how Crimson Desert puts you at the front of a group that’s desperately trying to survive, similar to Aurthur’s efforts to salvage his gang, but Pywel’s environments, dynamic weather, and its people are all ways in which you fall under the impression that life goes on even in Klyff’s absence. It’s a world that’s more than a decorative setting to facilitate gameplay. It’s one that’s inhabited, and not just by you. That’s a design pillar that automatically makes it feel alive in a way that’s been quite rare in modern gaming.
It’s chasing a simulation that presents realism, not just scale.
3. The Freedom To Experiment
Next up is Tears of the Kingdom, a game in which you were given everything you need to succeed, and then left free to figure out how you wanted to use it all. We loved that one thanks to a simple distinction that set it apart from other titles: it was always about what we could do in any situation over what the game wanted us to do.
Crimson Desert might take a mechanics-heavy approach to providing us with that freedom, allowing us to choose how we move around in Pywell, how we approach our own journey, how we fight our enemies, and of course, the kind of hero we want Klyff to be. Player agency and expression were at the core of Tears of the Kingdom, and it’s looking like Crimson Desert has taken that sentiment to heart.
4. Stories That Matter
Our next stop is The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. Geralt shares a lot in common with Klyff, as they are both gruff protagonists who are among the last members of their respective factions. But the similarities go beyond the two of them, with Crimson Desert’s narrative ambitions going beyond a checklist of disconnected missions to tell its story.
Like The Continent, Pywell has many factions that don’t necessarily get along, and Klyff must navigate nuanced relationships between them to achieve his own goals. Distinct political and social layers are present throughout Pywell, and it’s a world where conflict matters beyond just swinging swords around. It aims for a sweeping journey through a world in turmoil, the potential to have layered interaction with its people never feeling too far away.
Its grand fantasy ambitions are there for all to see, and we’re eager to see how they play out.
5. Elegance and Beauty
The deadliest warriors don’t just kill, but do it with style and make it look easy. And who better to demonstrate that sentiment than Jin Sakai, whose battle to save his home in Ghost of Tsushima has continued to be among the finest additions to the open world genre?
Granted, Klyff may not have the extensive training of a samurai backing up each swing of his sword, but Crimson Desert’s combat looks grounded even as he takes on fantastical beasts and warriors who shouldn’t have the powers that they do. There’s a scenic beauty to each fight, a sort of grace to player and enemy movements that make it quite tempting to capture a moment that showcases the deadly elegance and brutal efficiency that often follows the best warriors around.
The game brings the same readability of battles, duels that feel impactful, and a sort of visual romance that accompanies you on your travels in a way that’s very reminiscent of Sucker Punch’s successful first outing in the Ghost franchise. It doesn’t want action for the sake of it, but rather uses the action to give you the feeling that you’re a hero worth embodying.
6. Blending Spectacle and Scale
It’s time to put Crimson Desert in conversation with another PlayStation classic. It’s Horizon Forbidden West that has our attention for this one, with its scale and mechanical variety feeding into the spectacle that it had us experiencing with our jaws on the floor.
Just like Aloy’s adventures across the vast frontier brought an experience that showcased some excellent production values and a constant shift between exploring the world and interacting with its set pieces, Crimson Desert aims to bring a multitude of activities and game states that constantly interact with each other.
Pywell’s a place that blends its ethereal beauty with a gameplay loop that flits between things to do so often that you’re probably not going to remember what you wanted to do when you first picked up your controllers. Its blockbuster pacing and a wide breadth of mechanics make for a world that’s frankly so grand it can seem unreal, constantly feeding you with new ways to engage with it.
7. Not Every Wanderer Is Lost
Let’s take a look at Skyrim, and the manner in which it encourages you to just pick a direction and set off, secure in the knowledge that you’re going to find many things to interest you along the way. The joy of discovery is often a facet of open world experiences that keep players invested in the worlds that they’re exploring, and Skyrim is arguably the best game in that area.
Well, Crimson Desert might just manage to recreate that sense of discovery with its caves, off-road discoveries, lingering ruins of a world long gone, and side quests that feel like they’re powered by your own curiosity. It’s a game that seemingly understands that the best open worlds are ones that reward distraction, indulging the impulse to just go off the beaten track and treating it like the most natural of thoughts just as any great adventure title should do.
8. Fights That You Feel
Our next stop is Dragon’s Dogma 2, and we’re looking at how combat in that one felt so dynamic, with every move having impact and weight for both sides of a battle. Taking on a monster was a visceral part of the experience, requiring a sort of surgical precision to take down threats that could squish you like a bug. That those encounters could happen so spontaneously as you went about your business made them all the more engaging, the messy way in which you were forced to take down formidable foes being a highlight of each fight.
Crimson Desert’s large-scale battles had us remembering our time with the Arisen, with fights often feeling rougher and heavier than typical RPG combat systems that emphasize a sort of structured approach to a fight. There’s a constant fight for control of the battlefield in Klyff’s world, a tug-of-war that you can’t really predict until you finish a fight and remain as the last one standing that has us very excited to draw our blades over the weekend and beyond.
9. Fantasy With Flair
Where Winds Meet is next on our list, and we’re focusing on its freedom of movement blended with stylized action that’s all rooted in a world identity that’s very specific in what it aims to achieve.
It’s another title that aims to blend different genres into a cohesive experience while also staying true to its own ambitions. Crimson Desert is attempting the very same feat, and is shaping to be an effort that might just pull it off.
You see it in the way you move around the world, with the freedom to fly (sort of), or stick to the tried and tested method of jumping on your horse and galloping away into the distance. You see it in the way the action starts off grounded before it evolves into larger-than-life set pieces that are rooted in a tale that’s tailored towards letting those in it find their own paths to their destinies.
They are both games that blend their ambitions well, and invite their players to do the same once they dive in. They want mobility and their action to feel less like a necessity and more like a visual and technical treat.
10. The Art of Intimidation
No list of open worlds is going to be complete with Elden Ring, and it definitely has a place here thanks to how exploring The Lands Between often came with the risk of being pummelled into oblivion by a threat you were definitely not equipped to take on.
Crimson Desert is poised to replicate that feeling, having you venture into the unknown before discovering that you were certainly not ready for what you found. While that’s probably not ideal in real life, Pywell makes that a thrilling part of diving deeper into its secrets, focusing not just on variety but on a sense of wonder and awe at the things it has waiting for you to just stumble upon as you indulge your curiosity.
It wants you to feel like you’re only a small part of a much bigger picture, and that might be a powerful way of selling the fantasy if it’s handled correctly.
The Pieces Of A Great Puzzle
That it’s taken this long for Crimson Desert to get to its final launch makes it feel like it’s going to be a puzzle that’s complete because each piece of it adds something to the overall picture. It’s a game that doesn’t try to imitate all the great titles we’ve talked about, but rather take the best facets of what they presented and put its own unique spin on them.
The obvious risk is that it could crash and burn under the weight of its own ambitions but if the developer has managed to stitch these moving parts together cohesively enough, Crimson Desert could be a game that feels like nothing that the genre, or its players, have ever seen before.
Here’s to hoping that we’re right about this one, and that we’re about to visit a world that stays with us no matter how many years go by after we leave it.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.