Crimson Desert, the first single-player RPG from the Black Desert developers, is turning out to be an absolute hit
If the name Crimson Desert sounds familiar to MMO aficionados among you, that’s because it is. It’s a single-player action RPG from Pearl Abyss, the same people who developed Black Desert Online, so Crimson Desert had gone unnoticed by me until I tried it out today.
I have to admit that Black Desert is stuck in the back of my mind as an MMO that I just don’t have time for. Especially because anything with a microtransaction shop where you can pay with cash – no matter how well it is implemented – leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
It was with this touch of cynicism (which remained hidden in a largely open mind) that I went to Gamescom today to play Crimson Desert. It was the first real look at the game since its wild debut trailer. I was both surprised and delighted to be playing something that, Odin wills it, is shaping up to be an absolute blast.
Crimson Desert claims to be an open-world game in which you play as Kliff, a Viking protagonist who gets caught up in a bloody battle between ultra-brutal clans who do things like wave axes around, say words like “dick-wasters,” and (I’m checking my notes here) start scampering around on all fours like Vordt from the Boreal Valley after downing three cans of home-brewed energy drinks.
Combat feels like a cross between Moonshine from Breath of the Wild and Dragon’s Dogma 2 that’s been laced with gasoline and then set on fire. The still-work-in-progress tutorial I played was incredibly aggressive, pitting me against groups of about five burly men in furs who weren’t afraid to hassle me like they needed my lunch money.
Judging by the hour or so I spent with it, Crimson Desert’s main selling point is that it’s not afraid to mess you up. In just 50 minutes, I was:
- Thrown off a cliff
- Beaten to death with clubs and swords
- Strangled into the ground by not one but two different Viking warriors
- I got thrown 15 meters in the air by a stone crab I was crawling on in Shadow of the Colossus (I’m not entirely sure about the gliding mechanics, but honestly it was more fun to eat dirt)
- Shot five meters into some boxes
Watch on
I am not sure if this is entirely deliberate, but I believe it should Crimson Desert’s penchant for thrashing you around is one of its best features, and it helps that the combat system, while complex, actually seems pretty good.
In the demo, I had access to a shield that allowed me to either block attacks with my sword or, best of all, use my opponents’ momentum against them by using a round shield to send them flying to the other side of my body. I could knock my enemies into fire, roll to change position, and escape vicious holds by dodging at the right moment. I could also dodge while drawing my bow for a slow-motion trick shot à la Max Payne.
The only odd thing was that I felt like I was playing a high-level martial arts game in a Valhalla skinsuit – but honestly, that’s kind of the special spice that makes Crimson Desert so interesting. I can’t speak to the other elements – like the open world and what looks like a remnant of a crafting and cooking system – as the demo only included the tutorial and a few fights with four different boss enemies.
But when it comes to brawling, Crimson Desert’s foray into violent nonsense has been a delight so far. It feels, in some ways, like a studio breaking free from the doldrums of the MMO monetization hamster wheel. Regardless of my opinion of Black Desert, Crimson Desert is shaping up to be something worth a serious try.
