On Tuesday, August 22, at the Gamescom Opening Nights Live 2023 event, a new trailer for the game Crimson Desert, a project from South Korean developers from Pearl Abyss, was presented. The trailer literally blew up the presentation, turning Crimson Desert into one of the most anticipated games of the near future. The video turned out to be beautiful and dynamic, which immediately made it stand out among others – the developers put together the game by taking mechanics from everywhere.
First of all, it is worth noting that the game looks beautiful and atmospheric. The graphics in Crimson Desert give a head start to almost all Western game makers. And it’s not only about the technical part, but also about the style. Working with light, choosing colors – the artists did their best!
The appearance is very reminiscent of the recent Final Fantasy 16. No matter how anyone criticizes it, the latest “Final” had no problems with this particular component. Magnificent views, well-drawn characters, combat effects, magic and monsters. The combinations are almost perfect; they immerse the player in the virtual world headlong. Let’s hope that after the release there will be, plus or minus, the same level of graphics as in the video. Otherwise, you can expect a scandal on the level of the first Watch Dogs.
From the world by thread
But this is not the only thing that makes Crimson Desert an interesting project. If you look closely at the trailer, you will notice dozens of mechanics and other elements taken from different games. Almost every part of the project was borrowed from somewhere.
The combat system reminded me of a mixture of three franchises at once: Assassin’s Creed (the last trilogy), Dark Souls and the last two games in The Witcher series. The way the character uses the bow is pure Assassin. Valhalla immediately comes to mind, because it was there that this type of weapon was most effective. The dodge animations are similar to the rolls from Souls mixed with the bounces from The Witcher. I wonder how this will work in practice? Will the character receive invulnerability frames while dodging? Or is it just a visual resemblance? Let’s see! The main character, by the way, also holds the shield almost like in “Dark Souls.”
And, of course, it’s all seasoned with something of its own on top. In the game you will even be able to grab enemies and throw them, jump over walls and effectively destroy a lot of things – even entire buildings. And this combination makes an interesting cocktail.
There was also a moment in the video where a QTE element popped up during the battle – when you need to press the right button in time for the character to perform an action. In the combat system, the role of reaction will be even greater, since the player will not only need to dodge blows in time, but also press the right buttons at a certain moment. There was something similar in the Yakuza series games, but fortunately they didn’t go overboard with it. And they approached these moments in a special way, foreshadowing the QTE with a mini-cutscene (although not always). I hope Pearl Abyss also understands this and won’t get carried away.
The exploration component is largely based on the last two parts of The Legend of Zelda. In the video, we are shown how the main character climbs walls and trees, climbs onto the enemy, and also descends on an analogue of a glider (they came up with a cool image for him, by the way). And there is not a hint of a stamina bar anywhere!
In the trailer, we are shown islands floating in the air and a descent somewhere through a dark tunnel. Both, as you might have guessed, were in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. And it seems that the developers completely copied this element from the Nintendo game. If you think that this is impossible, because the game itself was released quite recently, then you are mistaken – for the first time we were shown flying islands in “Tears of the Kingdom” 2 years ago, at E3 in 2021.
Also, puzzles were borrowed from The Legend of Zelda and Genshin Impact. In the trailer, the character uses mechanisms and solves puzzles. A certain part of the mysteries in the trailer are tied to certain buildings – some have a futuristic look. Most likely, in this game we will find a symbiosis between magic and technology. In part, something similar happened in almost all Assassins, when the character encountered simulation bugs. But there it was an element of the general setting, because these games have always been science fiction.
The animations of climbing on buildings from the trailer also refer to the games of the Assassin’s Creed series and its parkour. Or rather, to its simplified version from the Odyssey. There you could generally cling to anything without fear of falling.
The video also shows a couple of systems from the Red Dead Redemption duology. At one point, the main character steals a wagon, like Arthur Morgan or John Marston. In another moment, the character tries to break in and tame a wild horse.
The message board quest system is borrowed from The Witcher and various JRPGs. The character literally takes flyers with instructions, tearing them from there. In the video, the hero takes one with a drawn sheep, and we are shown how he carries it.
The trailer spent a lot of time interacting with the animals. It seems that in the game we will be doing everything from animal husbandry to hunting monsters. Well, fishing is present in almost every eastern game – the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans. And these mechanics look like MMOs, but more on that below.
There is also an interesting point – the character restores his health by drinking water. Then I immediately remembered the good old Prince of Persia from the 2000s, where the character was treated in exactly the same way. Perhaps these places will be an analogue of bonfires or a moving point that restores the character’s strength.
MMOs and other concerns
We all know that Pearl Abyss used to make MMOs. They created and released Black Desert Online. And for MMO projects such a number of mechanics and activities is quite common. These games are initially designed for almost endless gameplay – the more activities, the better. But Crimson Desert is a completely different matter – it’s a single player game! Players are already tired of projects that last 100 hours or more, and the new game Pearl Abyss looks exactly like that. Crimson Desert, by the way, is officially part of the Black Desert universe.
But even if we assume that such an approach takes place, and the overload of activities and mechanics does not cause any discomfort, then one more question remains: “Will the developers be able to competently combine all this?” It may well turn out that the most banal fishing and “give and fetch” quests will turn out to be even more tedious and annoying than they already are. It’s not for nothing that they say that you need to know when to stop.
And with the combat, it seems, everything is not so smooth – a lot of things were mixed. It’s quite possible that 90% of the capabilities will not be needed. Well, you know, for example, in slasher films it happens when you learn a huge bunch of different techniques and combinations. But in the end, you go through the entire game using only two basic attacks and a dodge.
The next concern is the technical part. It is quite possible that we will see a downgrade of the visual component, but this is not the main problem. The biggest concern is optimization. In Black Desert Online, this element was a debatable issue – performance constantly fluctuates from patch to patch. And who knows which side of the coin will fall at the time of Crimson Desert’s release. And Korean developers have never been famous for well-polished projects, to be honest. All that remains is to cross your fingers, in the hope that Pearl Abyss will not follow the path of current trends.
Analysis
As a result, the gameplay trailer presents Crimson Desert as a beautiful and atmospheric game with a huge number of different elements borrowed from everywhere. Such a volume raises concerns – will it all fit well? After all, we have a single-player project here, not an MMO.
But if the developers still manage to pull off their plan – release a game that competently combines deep, interesting, and simple mechanics – this will be a victory for the gaming industry and players. This game is definitely worth waiting for – but don’t expect anything supernatural.
