There are moments in any gamer’s life that justify our hobby – and we’re not just talking about a Half Life 3 reveal, no, nothing of that grandeur. The Crimson Desert Deep Dive is one of those instances, and we genuinely can’t believe what we saw in the latest trailer.
Pearl Abyss delivered one of the coolest deep dives in recent memory, and it doesn’t look like we’re getting just another one of those action games with a generic open world and sidequests, not at all. It feels like the developer is sitting on something special here, but we’re still not entirely convinced, if what we saw is actually what we’re going to get.
The Crimson Desert Deep Dive looks like a game that wants to be everything at once: A cinematic action adventure, a systems-heavy sandbox title, a fantasy road trip with an emotional story, with some cool boss fights added in for good measure. But is that truly realistic to pull off?
It’s one thing for sure, it’s exciting. When a game promises the world, our question is: If something looks too good to be true, is it truly? Let’s talk about it a little.
What Did The Crimson Desert Deep Dive Reveal?
The Crimson Desert deep dive focuses on the protagonist Kliff and the open world of Pywel, and showcases a couple of features we were questioning to begin with. The mercenary faction, called the Greymanes, appears to be more intricate than we previously thought, since they seem to be tied to a mysterious realm called the Abyss. True, that name won’t win any creativity prizes anytime soon, but consider our interest piqued at the very least.
The combat was showcased too, with melee, ranged tools, grapples, finishers, and a good portion of mixed martial arts mixed in, although we wish they would finally ease up on the spectacle that is the screen-filling particle effects – we truly do. Hopefully, we can turn those off or at least minimize a little in the final game, since we love the grounded and heavy feel of the combat shown so far.
Having talked about grappling, traversal was a cool part of the Crimson Desert deep dive, and we’re not talking about just being a knight on horseback – although that’s an option too, of course. Kliff can climb, glide, and use different mounts, including a mother-effing dragon and weird-looking machines. The fact that we don’t have to traverse this ginormous world on foot is a relief, and could make for fantastic moment-to-moment gameplay.
Another aspect we desperately wanted to talk about is that Kliff might not be the only playable character we get to control. More than one character was shown in the Crimson Desert deep dive, suggesting the game will occasionally shift perspective and playstyle, probably within story-relevant parts of the game, but that bit is pure speculation at this point.
As you can see, a lot of new stuff was shown, but we still fear developer Pearl Abyss might have bitten off more than they can chew, even despite the recent delay of the title. This isn’t to say we mistrust the dev team, but it all just sounds too fantastic to be true. So what do we think, we can expect from Crimson Desert?
What Can We Realistically Expect From the Open World Action Adventure?
The game is in the name already, or rather in our headline here – we don’t think the game is going to be a fully-fledged RPG, we have to pull this tooth, if that’s what you guys were thinking. The Crimson Desert deep dive made that perfectly clear, although how many RPG elements (conversations, choices, gear, level-up systems, etc.) will find their way into the finished product remains to be seen.
A world built for spectacle and motion
Everything shown suggests an open world designed around movement and set pieces. Not just walking between icons, but climbing, leaping, gliding, and stumbling into chaos. That’s a good sign for pacing – a lot of modern open worlds feel flat because traversal is functionally just “hold forward.”
Combat that’s more action-first than RPG-first
As previously mentioned, the Crimson Desert deep dive was flashing a certain action game DNA more than traditional RPG combat loops. Think strong animations, big enemy reactions, and a focus on momentum. If Pearl Abyss keeps the controls tight and the encounters varied, it could be one of those games you play just because fighting things feels good, although we hope to still get an emotional story with well-written characters. We truly do.
Systems that create unique stories (when they’re allowed to)
The reveal keeps hinting at a world that wants to react, you know, stuff like factions, roaming events, emergent trouble, the like. Maybe not on the same level as certain The Elder Scrolls titles, but still. Even if only part of that works, it can go a long way in making the world feel less like a curated theme park. Looking at you, Ubisoft.
What We’re Expecting We Will Get After Seeing the Crimson Desert Deep Dive
Let’s make our final words short and sweet. The end result of Crimson Desert will land as a visually stunning, combat-heavy open world game, which will most likely be at its best in curated encounters and story missions. The optional systems, considering they’re so varied from what we’ve seen at the Crimson Desert deep dive, might very well vary in quality.
We’re expecting a strong main story that naturally shows off the best bosses, the coolest moments to show off the traversal systems, and the most polished story beats, even with cinematic storytelling in between. The side content might be a bit less cinematic and cool, because let’s face it – even games like GTA do that, we just hope the contrast won’t be too stark.
The sandbox itself will be fun, especially if you’re a fan of experimenting with the movement and resulting chaos, even if the open world might be a bit uneven. Some activities might feel like a must-see, whereas others could very well feel like slightly dusty leftovers, no doubt stemming from a more ambitious, early plan on the drawing board.
But folks, honestly? For us, all that still feels like a win. If the core game is good, and the Crimson Desert deep dive didn’t just gloss over the flaws, the personality and scale will do enough to make this one of the more fascinating open-world titles in recent memory. What it needs now is discipline – more than anything else, we reckon.
