2025 is not only shaping up to be an exciting year for gaming but an extremely ambitious one, too. Grand Theft Auto VI is on the horizon, Battlefield is returning to its roots, and then there’s the small matter of Nintendo’s Switch 2 release! Whatever genre or franchise you enjoy playing, 2025 is—and will continue to be—a year epitomized by ambition. Just ask Pearl Abyss, the studio behind an ambitious project of its own: Crimson Desert.
Despite the abundance of competition on show within the gaming industry, Pearl Abyss is pushing full steam ahead with Crimson Desert, an upcoming open-world action-adventure located in the beautiful yet brutal continent of Pywel.
The story centers around Kliff Macduff, the main protagonist and a skilled warrior who’s caught up in a conflict involving powerful factions vying for control. Attempting to reconcile his past, Kliff will take players on an adventure filled with discovery, exploration, and thrilling battles as they witness the chaos that surrounds him and his band of mercenaries. With the continent locked in war, players will face trials to uncover the truth of the catastrophe looming over Pywel and fight to restore its long-lost peace.
I recently had the chance to try out Crimson Desert at CCP Games’ London studio, and despite heading into it with some reservations, I came away pleasantly surprised and excited for what’s to come. My initial skepticism stemmed from the existence of seemingly comparable open-world action-adventures like Assassin’s Creed and Ghost of Tsushima, two titles that have either received a new installment or soon will. With it being another reminder of the competition on show this year, I remained curiously wary of how Crimson Desert aims to stand out from the ever-growing crowd, and it didn’t take me long to find the answer.
Before I was able to get stuck in, I was shown a short video tutorial that covered the different aspects I’d get to experience during my time playing the game. This particular demo focused on the game's battle and combat mechanics, with four boss fights of varying difficulty available to choose from. The controls for combat were fairly complex, so much so that I had a printed controls guide placed on the table in front of me for guidance. The complexity of the controls is mainly due to the array of combinations available to use during fights, and while it felt overwhelming to begin with, it was quite easy to pick up along the way.
One of the first things that caught my attention when jumping into Crimson Desert was its stunning visuals. I’ve enjoyed my fair share of graphically breathtaking video games over the years, but the BlackSpace Engine takes realism to a whole new level, with the attention to detail leaving me very impressed. My playthrough was displayed in 4K capped at 60fps, and as well as looking good, the gameplay felt solid, too.
The world of Crimson Desert is vast and filled with various landscapes, including forests, deserts, and snowy mountain ranges, all of which I could see in the distance before and after boss fights. A nice touch I became aware of was the ability to change the camera view using the DualSense touchpad, which included first-person. This will not be available during combat, but it can be used as you explore the surrounding world, particularly handy if a close-up view is required.
Aside from the graphics, another thing that stood out to me was just how much variation there was between boss fights. From my first encounter to my last, each boss possessed their own unique abilities and skills, which meant I had to approach them differently. Similar to other action-adventure role-playing games, boss fights came with that dreaded enemy health bar at the top of the screen, and just when I thought the fight had concluded, it was far from over. Instead, there would be a short cutscene before I was thrown back into combat, with the boss’ health regenerated and their level of aggression noticeably upgraded.
While the numerous attack combinations came in handy when attempting to take down enemies, I found the stamina bar just as important as my sword and bow—more on them shortly. Whenever I would dodge, run, or jump, my stamina soon depleted, leaving me no choice but to take a heavy blow more often than not. This put a huge emphasis on timing dodges perfectly, because if I didn’t, my health bar would feel the consequences.
In terms of the weapons I had at my disposal, I was equipped with a sword that I looted from my first boss fight along with a shield, and a bow and arrow. I’ve got to say, I had a blast with the bow, quite literally. For most of the boss fights, I was advised to use the exploding arrows to achieve significant damage against my target. I followed the advice and equipped the exploding arrows using the easily accessible weapon wheel, and with each successful hit, I’d decide to follow up with a sword attack combo before retreating back to restore health and stamina. However, some of my enemies moved very quickly, so again, timing was everything.
In one particular boss fight, I came up against the gem-crusted Queen Stoneback Crab, which was the most challenging within the demo. I had to climb onto its back and destroy weak spots before progressing further into the fight. Disguised as a gigantic rock, it would attempt to fling me off as I navigated its treacherous arena, succeeding more often than not. Equipped with superpowers and the ability to fly with Crow’s Wing, I could navigate my way back down whenever I was put up into the air by this mythical creature, which goes back to my point about variation and approaching each fight differently.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to explore and free roam during the playthrough, nor did I have the opportunity to try many features or mechanics unrelated to combat, but it was clear to see just how big the world is going to be when the full game releases. Each boss fight location was situated in a different setting accompanied by contrasting weather and colors, however, giving me a small taste of what awaits throughout the land.
It may seem cliche to say, but from my short time with the game, Crimson Desert managed to succeed in standing out from the crowd by being, well, different. Although it offers characteristics seen in many other titles like The Witcher 3, Elden Ring, and Dark Souls, it has enough to separate it from anything I have played before. Managing to find a nice balance between reality and fantasy, it looks set to give players a little bit of everything.
No battle felt repetitive and no setting looked familiar. Everyone and everything had its own personality and vibe which made it a refreshing experience, and considering this was just a brief demo playthrough, I can’t begin to imagine just how impressive and varied a full, unrestricted world is going to be. I went into this demo worried that Crimson Desert would just be another typical open-world action-adventure with the same old atmospherics and features we've seen before, but from my own personal experience, I'm confident that there's more to it than meets the eye.
At the time of writing, Crimson Desert is scheduled to release this year, although it does not currently have a fixed release date. When it does eventually launch, intrigued gamers can enjoy it on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Our thanks go to Pearl Abyss and CCP Games for inviting us along to get a hands-on preview of Crimson Desert's combat system via the demo.