I know, I know. “It’s been almost three weeks,” you say, and I can’t help but not talk about Crimson Desert. More of a testament to the sheer number of things there are to discuss about this massive not-so-hidden gem, this behemoth that’s overtaken all conversation. Between the sheer attention to detail, the players who are still in Hernand (you guys know there’s a desert in this game, right?), and those finding all kinds of crazy things that no one could have expected, it’s a lot to unpack. And it’s matched with a similar enthusiasm from the development team, who have been incredibly quick (and/or physically/emotionally taxed) to address the most important feedback.
So believe me when I say that it feels a little bad to point out something that really breaks the game. No, not in a fun, boss-deleting way like infinite explosive arrows, but a major design flaw. What makes it even crazier is that you won’t notice it until you’re already dozens of hours in.
Assume, for a moment, that you’re not a permanent resident of Hernand who knows everyone in Howling Hill Camp better than your own family. Imagine that you’ve been traveling throughout Pywel, liberating quarries, taking down the Lunar Court, cleansing Sanctums (and taking on their various Blades), and sending the Black Bears packing. With each new location returned to the nicer factions, the world becomes that much safer. However, it also becomes emptier.
What does that mean? Well, in a nutshell, enemies that you’ve slain or simply driven away by prolonged butchery of their allies don’t respawn. That’s the so-called game-breaking design bug. Enemies stop respawning.
And I’ll be honest – it didn’t really hit me at first. Why should enemies respawn, especially after clearing out bandit crawls and other hives of scum and villainy? If I’m systemically hunting the Black Bears, why would they stick together? Heck, they thought they annihilated the Greymanes in the beginning, so what better karma than to see them so thoroughly purged, including any enemies that should patrol the world. But what does that mean in a game like Crimson Desert, where combat is one of the core appeals?
Think about it. As you’re collecting Abyss Artifacts, what’s one of the biggest thrills? Unlocking a new skill and trying it out, especially if it’s a combat skill. How about unlocking a new piece of gear or weapon? Or discovering the four elements? Sure, there’s more than enough exploration, and several systems to facilitate that, but for the most part, the entire purpose of that is to obtain cool stuff, either for the sake of personal upgrades or wiping out enemies in even more extravagant ways. Trying out different builds is another major appeal, especially when you start slotting different ability cores into the same weapon.
Without any enemies to fight, that’s one major aspect of the power fantasy removed. It gets even worse when factoring in the Sealed Abyss Artifacts. Not all 141 of them require combat to unlock, but there are still plenty that do. If you’re lucky, you would have completed Trials like defeating five enemies with a shield without taking damage, or slaying 30 enemies within 30 seconds with a spear, and not lack any targets for assassinating five sleeping enemies at night, or taking out an elite using only guns.
Speaking of guns, this is a great time to discuss Damiane and Oongka. I’ve mentioned this before in my qualms with the progression – how you need separate Abyss Artifacts to upgrade their skills. Toss in gear and even with the new Refinement Tokens, it becomes extremely challenging to min-max both characters alongside Kliff, much less experiment with their builds. If you decided to leave playing as them until the late game (which you’ll probably do, given the lack of resources), then there’s an absolute lack of enemies to fight. And there goes any reason to really bother with these other unique characters.
Of course, it’s not like there isn’t other stuff to do. You could challenge different optional bosses (albeit only once), complete various puzzles, or attend a whole range of activities that don’t require any combat. However, this kind of issue is one that other open-world games solved years – heck, some more than a decade – before. As much as we make fun of the Radiant quests in Skyrim and Fallout 4, the fact that they’re even present means no shortage of combat encounters. And once again, Crimson Desert is a game where combat is the backbone. Take out any reason for players to fight anything, and as many have noted, it goes from being an open-world action-adventure to simply an open-world adventure.
Now, there are several ways that the development team could address this. The short-term solution is to simply allow enemies to recapture camps, forts, and whatnot, forcing the player to liberate them again, and that’s a decent band-aid. However, some have suggested a more detailed faction wars system. Imagine the dozens of different factions battling each other for supremacy, and Kliff being able to ally or go against each of them for unique benefits. It may even provide an incentive to use the Mission Dispatch for sending Greymanes to different fronts. Considering the sheer number of factions, it’s kind of surprising that Crimson Desert didn’t ship with this already.
Granted, this could mess with the Contributions system (not to mention the whole thing about Kliff and his crew being morally good), but it certainly creates a whole lot more intrigue than simply, “The good guys won, the bad guys disappeared, the end.” It’s something that probably could have been more easily justifiable if there were more morally grey factions to work with, rather than strictly good/evil groups, but I digress.
Another, more straightforward fix is to introduce New Game Plus. All your Abyss Artifacts, equipment, money, skills, inventory, and Howling Hill Camp upgrades carry over to a new playthrough. The entire map becomes available to liberate once more, and while you can still use any unlocked mounts, special exceptions like Blackstar require playing through the story again. Besides tougher foes, the developers could spice things up by introducing modifiers, perhaps even new attacks or late-game enemies appearing much earlier. Otherwise, add some new activities that players can engage with ad nauseam for their combat needs. A horde mode. Boss rush. A siege mode. Mission replay. The list goes on.
Some may argue that the current system is fine – it’s a video game after all, one that already provides hundreds of hours of entertainment. Why do you need it to last forever? Of course, this isn’t what anyone is arguing – simply that if there’s content, much less an entire combat system, that hinges on fighting regular enemies, then gradually removing said threats as you progress doesn’t make any kind of sense. I don’t always need challenging encounters to limit-test my end-game build. Sometimes, I just want to let loose against a crowd of jabronis and watch them fly amid the explosions. Why deny someone that simple pleasure? Furthermore, why give them all these optional challenges via Sealed Abyss Artifacts and then not even give them the means to complete them?
Once again, there are multiple ways that the development team could approach this issue, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were already working on something to address it. That’s one benefit of speaking up and letting them know about Crimson Desert’s shortcomings – sooner or later, it will do something, creating a better experience for everyone. And really, that’s all anyone can really ask for.
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.