Crimson Desert, developer Pearl Abyss’ first foray into single player action games, has been something of a mystery to me. Having run the circuit of Korean MMORPGs, I was more than familiar with Black Desert, the game that more or less put this developer on the map. But when Crimson Desert was announced, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. It had all of the visual trappings of Black Desert, but with more and more information revealed about this title, it was clear that Pearl Abyss was insistent on making something entirely different. Perhaps to showcase that it can do more than just make stunning looking, and complex, MMORPGs.
I was able to select from a total of three different bosses to test my mettle. The first was the Staglord — a warrior with an imposing figure that wore the carcass and head of his namesake like a mantle of proven bravery and strength. This is certainly what Pearl Abyss wants you to think, as a short cutscene preceded the encounter, rife with dialogue that felt like it could be at home in Elden Ring, though to little effect. Either because I wasn’t given context to his place in the scenario of the game, or that it felt a little overdone.
Regardless, I dove head on into combat and was summarily shown my place. The Staglord bashed his shield against my body, flinging me back into a corner and decimated me with a few swings of his sword. Determined not to allow this to happen a second time, I was a bit more careful in my approach. I was given the option of using a sword and shield in combination with a bow and arrow, with a few different kinds of munition available. But given the frequency at which he attacked, and how many of his stylish flourishes were wrapped in dizzying particle effects, I mostly stuck to dodging and countering when I could.
That’s the thing about Crimson Desert: it definitely feels like it’s going to be a game that will require you to make the most out of all of its systems. The Staglord taught me this the hard way, as he dipped and dodged and frantically kicked out against his shield between gobbling up food items. I never quite used all of the special combos or moves that required me to push multiple face buttons at once, and instead hammered the back trigger and bumper as though my life depended on it. It wasn’t graceful or involved much finesse, but I managed to defeat him and take his weapon for my own. I was informed during my time with the game that there were other weapons scattered around the arena that I could pick up and use against the Staglord, but I was too preoccupied with staying alive to really look around the area.
That and the camera was an absolute mess.
Crimson Desert is a gorgeous game, the snow deformation in the area where I fought the Staglord was impressive, and the bursts of white, red, and green particles to signify what kind of attack was coming — blockable or unblockable, with green signifying that I had perfectly dodged — distracting. On top of that, there is no true lock-on feature. At least nothing comparable to Capcom’s Devil May Cry or Dragon’s Dogma. This works to Crimson Desert’s detriment, as the more I whittled away at the Staglord’s health, knocking him into phase two and subsequently phase three, I was swiveling my camera around at lightspeed to dodge his attacks that tracked my movement.
Thankfully, the second encounter with the newly unveiled Hexe Marie went far easier. Damning the protagonist of Crimson Desert, Kliff, the sultry looking witch burst into a swarm of crows, this time in an arena that looked like a deserted and dilapidated medieval European village. Again, there’s clearly some story there as Hexe Marie went on about how Kliff had apparently killed her son, and how he was going to be some kind of substitute — or something more, as it quickly turned into some implied sexual attraction.
The fight itself was simple enough, however. At least by comparison to the Staglord. Hexe Marie conjured up minions made of pots that would drop poisonous puddles when killed, but at this point I’ve seen more than a handful of fights like this play out in similar action games. So I did what I do best, and ignored the enemies and went straight for Hexe Marie and brute forced my way through the encounter.
By doing this, I actually bypassed taking a lot of damage, and before I knew it, Hexe Marie had enough of me and escaped in a whirlwind of feathers and dark magic. This boss fight was around two stages, with some more complex dodging required at the tail end, but if you more or less walk up to her and make sure not to stand in pools of swirling purple and black ichor, the encounter is relatively easy. This showed me that players will need to diversify their builds in Crimson Desert if they want to have an easier time in certain fights. Naturally, you can just whack away at everything with your sword and shield, but that won’t always be the best solution.
With what little time I had with Crimson Desert, it’s hard to gauge what kind of action game it will shape up to be. It isn’t much of a surprise that Pearl Abyss has chosen to push back the release date for their first single-player title to 2025, as it’s clear the game needs some refinement and the addition of much-needed quality-of-life features, like an actual targeting system. But it looks gorgeous, and I am, at the very least, eager to see what the open-world exploration in this new IP will be.
