Crimson Desert Review
Gameplay mechanics:
Controls 6
Some of the controls are obtuse or require pressing a combination of buttons that do not feel natural or comfortable
Pacing 4
The rate in which you acquire new abilities at the beginning of the game is breakneck, but the elemental powers are hidden behind hard to find abyss sky islands that you might not find in 100hr, even if you are looking for them.
Core loop 9.5
This is the saving grace for this game. The exploration of the world, and the secrets that are hidden within, is the main draw for me. Secret bosses, hidden dungeons, puzzles, mysteries. Stumbling upon a massive God-like snake in my early hours of the game was a standout experience.
Narrative:
Character development 4
Kliff is such a bland and emotionless MC. Some conversations with a random peasant would really show how bad it is. This no-name faceless npc would be voice acting his heart out, and Kliff would just say, "Yes". Though revealed at the end of the game that it is plot relevant, it was too little too late.
World building 7
Hernand, Pailune, Demeniss, Delesyia, and the Crimson Desert. All of these locations feel unique and have a culture that feels believable for the landscape.(Mostly) Delsyia is a land of technological wonder that feels out of place in this fantasy game, with mechs, jetpacks, and robots. Again, this is explained in a post Epilogue hidden book series in game, but that didn't feel right to me.
Visuals:
Art direction 8.5
My biggest hang up for the art direction was the out of place technology. It was a huge part of the late game and I disliked every time a steam powered super robot would be fighting me while I knew medieval knights are in the kingdom next door. However, the art for all for the heraldry, architecture, armor, and abyssal sky islands had amazing attention to detail and I loved all of it.
Technical performance 10* (on my system: RTX4090)
The game did not look good for the first 100 hours of gameplay because of one setting. Ray-reconstruction was off and that made the game look like ♥♥♥♥. It looked amazing and played amazing after turning that on.
Audio:
voice acting 7* (The 7 is for everyone other than Kliff, Kliff is a 2)
sound design 7 It did the job, not great, not terrible.
Replayability 0
Most of the quests, including many of the mandatory main story which include ride your horse into town with Yan for the 6th ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ time, are the most mind numbing garbage quests I've ever played. Spend 6 minutes riding into town with someone, they leave you to do some bogus MMO-style collect quest, then meet them at another location for some more of the most DOGWATER one sided "dialogue". Kliff responds with "Alright." I would NEVER want to play through 60-70% of the quests again. If I ever feel an itch to play this game again, I will boot up my post Epilogue save file instead.
Final Score 6/10
Very fun and worth my time and money, but a lot of the quests felt rushed or wrong. Things would happen just to happen. Quest maker over here where you have to save a dragon for some reason, never mentioned before or after, just do it because a quest marker said so.
Flawed game with missed potential.
