Crimson Desert PS5 Opinion

Ah, Crimson Desert, the game that seemingly does everything. It's honestly been a long time since I was so interested in seeing how a title turns out — and I mean that on a fundamental level, as you can probably tell from the headline.

Sitting here now, it feels like Crimson Desert has the potential to be something truly special; an open world adventure that helps define this console generation.

But it could also be a bit of a disaster; an utterly overwhelming experience that crumbles under its own ill-advised mechanical weight. How often do we see a game that could feasibly arrive at either of these extremes?

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And let's face it, the recent round of previews from press and content creators haven't exactly given us clarity. It's obvious that Crimson Desert isn't the kind of game you can fiddle around with for a few hours and expect to know what it's all about.

Crimson Desert PS5 Opinion

The scale of this project has appeared borderline absurd for years now. With every additional trailer and developer interview, we've seen or heard about something new — often something crazy.

You can fly a dragon! You can pilot a mech! There's an entire separate world hidden away in the sky! There are actually three fully playable characters! The combat system has the depth of a fighting game! It just goes on and on and on.

But to be fair to Pearl Abyss, it has tried to temper expectations every now and again — which I think is an especially intriguing aspect of the game's marketing.

Case in point: the Korean developer has reiterated time and time again that Crimson Desert is not an RPG. This point has stuck with us here at Push Square because we called it an "open world RPG" in an article headline once, a couple of years back — and the game's PR got in touch with us to ask if we could change it to "open world adventure".

I think Pearl Abyss is a bit wary of the game being compared to role-playing juggernauts like The Witcher 3 — a game where you embody a character through choice and consequence.

Crimson Desert PS5 Opinion

Everything we've seen of Crimson Desert strongly suggests it's an experience that puts action and exploration first. It's got a story, it's got characters — hell, it's apparently got great voice acting — but you're not going to be engaging in too many thought-provoking conversations, decked out with dialogue choices and the like.

And look, we could be here all day debating what makes an RPG an RPG. From my perspective, Crimson Desert has more than enough RPG-style gameplay elements to warrant the tag, but I can understand the effort to avoid such categorisation.

Because at the end of the day, a game can live and die by the expectations that players have upon booting it up. If people start going around calling Crimson Desert the next Witcher 3 then that direct comparison comes with some immediate baggage.

Crimson Desert PS5 Opinion

But this is what I'm getting at — it's been years since I saw a game have so many different expectations arrayed against it. Crimson Desert is still, in a shocking number of ways, an unknown entity — and that's despite us having been presented with hours of gameplay footage up until this point.

I suppose that stems from the fact that it isn't a sequel — it's essentially a new IP from a studio that's never produced anything like this before, built on an exclusive engine that's packed with the kind of graphical features that make people mutter the term "next-gen".

It's an exciting AAA prospect from top to bottom, and in our current industry, they don't really come along all that often.

Think about how safe most big budget games feel. Then think about how mental Crimson Desert promises to be. Sure, it's ticking a lot of boxes in terms of broad appeal — the open world, the Western fantasy setting — but I'd argue that you simply don't push for something this all-encompassing if your goal is to play it safe.

Crimson Desert PS5 Opinion

Ultimately, I think this is a game that most people are going to have to play for themselves — myself included. I can see it getting rave reviews, but I can also see it confounding those who don't quite understand what they're getting into.

To some extent, it reminds me a bit of Dragon's Dogma 2. I adore that game, but you almost have to approach it in a way that separates it from surface-level comparisons. That's not me saying you just don't get it if you dislike Dragon's Dogma 2, but again, expectations can cut deep.

So yeah, I'm downright fascinated to see how Crimson Desert fares, especially once it's out there in the wild. This one could go anywhere, but I'll be hoping that it strikes a very special chord.

What are your thoughts on Crimson Desert? Do you think it's destined for success, or will it divide opinion? Look out across the countryside in the comments section below.

How do you feel about Crimson Desert?