Pearl Abyss debuted the first of three-part series diving into Crimson Desert, its massive open-world action RPG launching in March. Between the new playable characters, dizzying amount of activities and secrets, and sheer scale, the showcase reinforced just how gorgeous the game really is.
Of course, the development team is sitting idle despite going gold last week. “We have gone gold. Now comes further, further optimization to make the game run as good as it possibly can,” said director of public relations at Pearl Abyss America, Will Powers, to IGN. “And that’s as important of a part. So that’s the phase we’re currently in between now and launch to make sure that the experience when players eventually get their hands on the game is as smooth as possible.”
While confirming that PS5 Pro support for Crimson Desert (with options to disable the excessive particle effects), further details have yet to be revealed on console resolutions and frame rates. That said, Pearl Abyss’s proprietary engine, BlackSpace, is capable of some impressive feats, even without upscaling technologies like DLSS and FSR.
“Yeah, we’ll show 4K 60 native, sure, with ray tracing on, that’s not done through DLSS or FSR, that’s done natively in-engine. And then if you want to further optimize, then you can tweak all the settings and do all the things, but we want to show that you don’t have to… like, the game itself should be able to stand on its own.
“I’m not going to say that the game is absolutely perfectly optimized, but within the engine, it’s using every single thing. So it’s as optimized as it can be within that space. That’s not possible otherwise. And so rendering thousands of trees within draw distance, it does those things better than an off-the-shelf engine could because of that.
“Off-the-shelf engines weren’t able to deliver the uncompromised vision that the developers set forth to create with this game. So, they needed to create their own engine in order to deliver on that vision.”
Crimson Desert launches on March 19th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC – over five years since its original announcement. The story starts with the Greymanes, a mercenary faction, split up after a battle against the Black Bears, prompting Kliff to travel throughout Pywel to reunite them. However, there’s also the mysterious Abyss – a power residing in the skies that various forces want to exploit.
While players can become embroiled in the affairs of various other factions, liberating territories and laying siege to fortresses in massive skirmishes, there are plenty of other secrets to discover.