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0 I was luckily enough to be invited to London by Pearl Abyss to play their up-coming game Crimson Desert. There I watched a video explaining the game’s combat and some information about each of the four bosses. Afterwards we got to get hands on with the game, and what a treat it was.
Warning! GIFs in this article contain flashing lights.
Skill is the key
Within this preview event I got to play as the main character Kliff in a small segment from the game. In the full launch we will get to venture into the large continent of Pywel, but sadly I didn’t get to see this, this time! I’m looking forward to checking out the various towns and biomes we might get. If you’re looking forward to Crimson Desert, why not check the Steam Page here and give it a wishlist!
Gameplay
The focus of the 60-minute demo was to show us how the combat feels. Unlike other RPGs where you would tie a skill to a specific hot-key, Crimson Desert aims for their combat to be more engaging. Imagine a fighting such as Tekken, but in an open-world fantasy game. Kliff can kick foes with great force or stop them with his force palm. Which itself is built up with a spirit meter.
These two stood out the most to me, due to them allowing further extension when making combos. For example, jumping then using Force Palm will give Kliff more air time. Allowing him to slow down time and auto fire with his bow (if done correctly). For those seeking a challenge, I believe you’ll find it here with Crimson Desert. The one I struggled with the most was keeping my stamina up, I kept struggling to maintain my bar since building it back up. Or, as comedically put by one of the team, “A skill issue”.
The two bosses I beat
During my time with the preview build I could select four of the in game bosses to take on. Each one had a star rating for us to know how long in particular they would take to fight. While playing, I did manage to beat two of them (barely). Firstly, I tried my chances with Staglord, he’s a beefy-looking Barbarian. And just as mean as he looks. With powerful charge attacks and AoE moves, I had to learn fast on how to counter or stop him. One of Pearl Abyss team was helpful and explained that the environment was also a tool we could use to our advantage.
Next up was Hex Marie, a dark and powerful sorceress. She continuously summons monsters to overwhelm Kliff and when they’re killed, drop mines. These mines cause a poison/bleed effect that slowly chipped at my health. What I liked was although, I could run an attack her, Crimson Desert pushes you to find better solutions. So that’s what I did, with Kliff’s bow I launched up in the air firing off explosive arrows. This was my ticket to closing the distance to Marie.
The two I didn’t have time to fight.
The other two bosses I didn’t fight because of my limited time, were The Reed Devil and Queen Stoneback Crab. Out of the two, I really wanted to fight the Queen most, however, the fight was labelled as long, and I didn’t want to waste time on one boss.
With that, I’ll do my best to explain what each had to offer. Reed Devil was a fast attacking foe that uses a variety of slashes that will keep you on your toes. At some point in the fight, when he has taken some damage, he will summon totems. Kliff will have to destroy these with his various tools and strong skills before being able to hurt the Devil again.
And lastly, and the one I regret not fighting, the Queen Stoneback Crab. Unlike the other three, she is more of a puzzle boss, which I loved the sound of. In the video they showed I would have had to locate three weak-points on the body then climb up to them and stab them. Much like the game Shadow of the Colossus. Sounds easy, but with the Queen causing upwinds that keep knocking you off. That could cause a lot of problems.
Puzzle Combat
There are two reasons I wanted to fight the Queen in Crimson Desert. One, I prefer fighting monsters. And two, it wasn’t just a normal fight, it was creative and showed that the devs don’t want all their fights to be the same. A puzzle-style fight really helps when breaking up the game’s flow. You think you’re gonna need to prep big for a boss, but nope, just do this and don’t fall off. I just love it, a good example from my memories is probably The Bed of Chaos from Dark Souls 1. It didn’t just require you to hit it over and over.
Other Features to mention
I was told Kliff will also be able to climb various terrain, and glide through the air thanks to his skill Crow Wing’s. You’re able to carry two different weapons with you. One neat feature is the ability to pick up weapons from the ground. Cooking will be available in the game, however, I’m not sure if crafting/blacksmithing will be. There wasn’t a lot of detail on the cooking feature, but it will be typically used for buffs.
Since we at Thumb Culture believe, everyone should be able to game without issue, I did ask what kind of accessibility options in Crimson Desert we can expect. So far the options are limited to remapping your buttons to better fit your needs, and I might have heard a hint of aiding in colour blindness. However, I’m not certain.
Final Thoughts
The preview left me feeling bitter-sweet. Bitter because I want to get better at the game, and sweet because I’m looking forward to what Crimson Desert’s final product will be. The combat is intricate and encourages the player to try new ways to beat the bosses. Because in the end, it will come down to each player’s skill to beat the bosses. Although don’t get me wrong about the demo, I was limited to what I had at my disposal. I was told we can look forward to cooking dishes for buffs, finding weapons and armour to increase attacks. And a whole wide world filled with interesting locale/people.
But this is what “I” was told, so hopefully when the Crimson Desert Launches sometime this year. We can really see what we get.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this preview.
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