Crimson Desert Preview – Jaw-Droppingly Detailed Gameplay Depth

I had a chance to play Crimson Desert for about an hour at Summer Game Fest Play Days, and I’m finding it hard to put into words just what I played. That’s not because it’s bad or anything, just that my mind was constantly being blown with just how ridiculously detailed and how incredibly deep the gameplay systems are. 

To get it out of the way, I didn’t see anything about progression, open world, questing, whether there is some faction reputation stuff – nothing like that. The entirety of my time was spent on the combat and the traversal mechanics. 

Crimson Desert Gives You a lot of Tools to Get Around

The demo took place 20 something hours into the game, so I had a lot of tools at my disposal. It was like learning to drive but someone stuck me in the cockpit of a plane. Can I drive it like a car? Sure. Does it do a whole hell of a lot more, like fly? Of course. 

For getting around, you can obviously run around and have a trusty steed, but there’s a lot lurking under the hood. Your character, Kliff, has access to a lot of abilities that let him do things like launch himself into the sky and transform into shade-like figure to glide across the land.

Kliff can also launch himself in a straight line to a point far in front of or above him. Point to the roof of a building and Kliff will go flying that way in a straight line. You can even choose the tops of trees to use that as a launching point to glide. I was terrible at it but comboing that grappling hook-like function with the glide makes traversal really quick. 

At the end of my demo, the developer helping me showed me a whole lot more mechanics that we didn’t have time for. In one, he showed me that you could use that grappling hook mechanic as an anchor point to swing around something sort of like Spider-Man. 

Combat in Crimson Desert Is Vast, Versatile, and Very Satisfying

I’m going to be honest when I talk about the combat. I definitely don’t remember everything I was shown, as it was so dense, so many systems working together, so many choices for how to approach any given combat situation that it was truly mindboggling. 

You can string together combos with the shoulder buttons, use a special ability to slash out to do some more damage, then animation cancel that to swap to the second weapon you have selected to get the combo going more. You can also charge up your sword with an elemental attack and unleash a series of strikes.

Also, suffice to say that each weapon plays very different and combos with it are wildly different as well. Each one suits a certain playstyle and will operate a little differently. It’s pretty standard stuff, like a sword and shield, two-handed mace, etc. For example, I could spin around and cause all sorts of devastation with the two-handed mace.

Once I learned the many ways to combo enemies, the developer asked me if I liked wrestling. Crimson Desert has a robust grappling system that will let you throw people any direction, grab them by the head and shoulder drop them to the ground, and throw them into other enemies. 

You can combo a launching attack that sees Kliff leap forward, kick your enemy, grapple them quickly, and then swing them around like Mario does to Bowser in Mario 64. 

There’s even a wheel you can use to change the elemental affinity of your weapon at any time. It has a cooldown and a bar it uses, but that can set up some nice combos in the environment as well. For example, I was warned of standing in a puddle when using an electric weapon. 

At the end of my demo I had a pretty intense boss fight in the keep of a castle with a heavily armored knight. Quickly, it was obviously that my basic attacks were doing no damage to him and I had to figure out another way to defeat him. 

We had knocked over some pillars and they laid on the ground. I was reminded that earlier in the demo I had done a sequence where I had to pick up a large beam to then slot it in a stand to re-fly a banner at a location. Just as I picked up that large beam, I could pick up a pillar.

Kliff has some sort of telekenetic powers that let him pick up large objects, so I went through a sort-of complicated sequence of activating powers with L3 + R3, selecting the beam, mashing X to lift it up, grabbing it with triangle, turning towards the boss, and then swinging it down to crash on him. 

Fight the boss, stagger him, smash him with a pillar. Turns out that works really well against heavily armored dudes.  

There was more I was shown that this game could do but I can’t remember it all. It felt like it was one of those games that you could try just about any button combo or multiple button press and it would do something for you. The team said as much while I was playing, letting me know there were a lot of hidden mechanics not necessarily described to the player but those that experiment would be rewarded.

The Graphics Are Gorgeous, Physics Impressive

The final thing I want to mention is the setting for this demo. It’s one of those settings I’ve dreamed of seeing done well in a game, just waiting for technology to allow us to experience it. 

Kliff is tasked with rescuing a friend fighting in the middle of a war, with his side besieging a keep. So, you have to make your way through a battlefield, the encampment outside the keep, over the castle walls, and through the castle to find your friend and defeat their leader. 

The excruciating detail of the large-scale fight was astounding. It was beautifully chaotic with friend and enemy soldiers fighting all over the place. I wasn't just funneled down some pathway with invisible walls of background fighters in the distance either.

I could go anywhere and everywhere to interact with the hundreds of soldiers all duking it out at once on screen if I wished. The visceral mayhem I waded through is not something I’ll soon forget.  

The physics of watchtowers exploding in a satisfying way, seeing them crumble or their individual boards flying apart was amazing to see among all the fighting, fire, and so much more. 

Crimson Desert Preview | Final Thoughts

Every look we’ve seen of Crimson Desert has been intriguing, and I can say that my hands-on time exceeded my expectations many times over. It was breathtakingly beautiful, animated perfectly, and had very dense, well-connected gameplay systems that can be engaged with satisfyingly for any level of player. It's a game with al ot of complex systems but you can choose what you want to engage with.  

If they can nail the open world and story, Crimson Desert may be this year’s biggest hit. Look out Clair Obscur. 

Crimson Desert was previewed at Summer Game Fest. It is set to release late this year for PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Seriex X|S.