| Crimson Desert | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gameplay & Story | Release Date | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Follow Kliff, the leader of the Greymanes Free Company, as they travel and fight through brutal hardships in the Pywel continent. Read on to learn how it plays, what it’s about, and everything else we know so far.
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Crimson Desert Gameplay
Crimson Desert places players in the heart of large-scale battles, where hundreds of NPCs clash across expansive fields in real time. The game follows Kliff as he navigates a series of missions that range from manning cannons and toppling enemy fortifications to rescuing allies under siege.
Traversal is designed to feel both practical and dynamic. Kliff can ride his horse for speed, glide across landscapes using the Crow’s Wing ability, or employ Axiom Force for enhanced maneuverability, which doubles as both a movement tool and a tactical option during combat.
Combat
Combat emphasizes adaptability and player choice. Kliff can switch between weapons, chain together a variety of offensive skills, and rely on precise dodges or blocks to create openings. His Axiom Bracelet adds an elemental layer to combat, imbuing attacks with fire, lightning, or ice to burn, freeze, and stun enemies.
Players can also chain their attacks with punches, kicks, and grapples. By chaining these and your weapon attacks with slides, well-timed dodges, counters, guards, and even glides can lead to unique combos.
Equipment Enhancement
The player’s equipment can be used to customize their playstyle, allowing a wide array of weapons like the sword and shield, greatswords, axes, various ranged weapons, and more. Blacksmiths can enhance the equipment’s capabilities for the price of materials that can be obtained via mining, hunting, going to hidden locations, or taking down powerful enemies.
Other NPCs will also allow the player to customize their equipment with special stats and effects.
Skills, Artifacts, and Observation
Kliff will gradually obtain more skills and abilities as he acquires powerful relics called artifacts. These grant various effects, like flight, and enhance core stats like health and stamina. They can be obtained through boss fights and by solving puzzles hidden across Pywel and the Abyss.
There are also certain skills or special attacks that can be obtained by using the Observe feature. By honing Kliff’s focus, he can observe and learn from others performing specific moves. He can also use this feature for non-combative skills, like fishing.
Mounts
Mounts can be used to the player’s advantage, like bears that can dish out melee attacks and mechs that can deploy artillery.
Two Other Playable Characters
There are two other playable characters, each with their own playstyle: Damiane and Oongka. The former is a glass cannon who is focused on dealing high damage and agility, while the latter is an AoE damage-dealer who focuses on both strong attacks and defense.
Open World Exploration
Traversal
Crimson Desert has players explore the five regions of the open-world continent of Pywel and the mystical realm, Abyss. There are a variety of movement options, such as basic walking and running, climbing, and gliding. Mounts can also open new and faster ways to explore the world, like horses, mechs, and even dragons.
Fast Travel Points and Puzzles
Scattered across the wilderness, the densely populated towns, and the ancient ruins are various fragments of the Abyss. Among these are the Abyss Nexus, which grants the player the ability to fast travel.
Moreover, some fragments of the realm contain puzzles and mechanisms to be solved. Some physics-based artifacts can grab and move around objects, similar to the Sheikah Slate’s Magnesis function in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Quests
Various residents and factions will give quests, all of which can be tackled in any order. These are scattered throughout the game, ranging from participating in grand-scale battles to driving wagons for merchants.
Factions, Stronghold Reclamation, and Units Deployment
Factions will either be friendly or hostile to Kliff and the Greymanes. Friendly factions will give quests, while hostile factions will take control of strongholds, which can be liberated and returned to their former owners. Rewards from participating in these faction-based activities will be equipment and resources like lumber, stone, and more to be used to rebuild the Greymanes camp.
Moreover, units recruited back into the Greymanes camp can be deployed to whittle down enemy ranks, even when the player is elsewhere in Pywel.
Camp Building
The Greymanes camp can be rebuilt after the attack by the Black Bears. Upgrades to the camp will become available as Kliff travels and obtains resources, with merchants even stopping by to sell their wares and goods.
Home Decoration
One of the features of rebuilding the camp is the ability to build and customize homes with a variety of furniture. Players can move around decor, like chairs, tables, and more, and change their orientation.
Cooking, Farming, and Ranching
Before embarking on a journey, players can also purchase or cook food in the camp. Food can replenish health, spirit, and stamina, with some even enhancing the player’s combat capabilities. Finding more recipes in the overworld will increase the cooking options.
Ingredients can be gathered from the overworld or harvested from the player’s own garden in the camp, which they can use to grow crops. They can also gather meat and other products from ranching.
Outside of the camp, players can also use bonfires to cook food.
Daily Life
There are a variety of activities that Kliff and the others can engage in. They can give gifts to NPCs, go fishing, hunting, or gather materials.
Minigames
There are a few minigames that are available in Crimson Desert. A few of these include brawling with residents and gambling.
Law and Order
Committing crimes will increase the player’s bounty, making both residents and guards hostile against Kliff and the others. They can fight their way through, pay fines, or even serve jail time
Character Customization
Players can customize Kliff, Damiane, and Oongka’s hairstyles, hair color, beards, eyebrows, tattoos, and wardrobe color. Color customization is possible with the use of dyes, which can be collected or brewed.
Mounts such as horses and mechs are also customizable, letting players change the color of their different parts and armor.
Crimson Desert Story
Crimson Desert is a single-player, narrative-focused game that centers around the Greymane warrior Kliff’s exploits in the continent of Pywel. While the conflict between the Greymanes and the Black Bears warrior factions is the center of the early section of the game, it will also explore mystical threats that threaten the land.
There are a ton of side stories and hidden challenges in the game that can be freely tackled in any order. Many of these quests revolve around the factions, houses, and organizations in Pywel.
Crimson Desert Plot
Crimson Desert puts players in the shoes of Kliff, a rugged warrior and the leader of the Greymanes, a band of peace-seeking warriors from the region of Pailune, as he and his group are thrust into an ambush from a rival, the Black Bears. After surviving the slaughter, he must pick up the pieces, rebuild the Greymanes, and fight against the threat these mercenaries pose.
However, a bigger threat looms: a mysterious force seeks to open the gates of the realm of the Abyss and take its power. Fragments of this realm have fallen to Pywel, and it is up to Kliff to restore its broken balance.
Crimson Desert Setting
Crimson Desert is set across the five main regions of the vast continent of Pywel: Hernand, Pailune, Demeniss, Delesyia, and the Crimson Desert. These large regions house various factions, organizations, and residents from all walks of life, with distinct environmental features, from the densely populated stone cities in Demeniss and Delesyia to the arid red sandy dunes of the Crimson Desert.
Moreover, the Abyss, a supernatural realm holding mysterious power, can be explored later on, putting players through mythical temples and ominous gardens.
Crimson Desert Characters
Kliff
Kliff is the stoic leader of the Greymanes and the protagonist of Crimson Desert. He is fiercely loyal and guided by a strong sense of morality. He is played by actor Alec Newman, who played Adam Smasher in Cyberpunk 2077.
Damiane
Damiane is one of the two additional playable characters in the game, functioning as a glass cannon that can hit hard and fast with her rapier and pistol. She is down-to-earth, a fierce fighter, headstrong, and guided by a strong sense of justice. She is played by actress Rebecca Hansen, who is best known for her work as Alfira in Baldur's Gate 3 and Eve in Stellar Blade.
Naira
Naira is one of Kliff's Greymane comrades and fought in the ambush set by the Black Bears. She was shown using a bow and shortsword and was among the last to make a stand against the mercenary group. She is played by actress Emily Barber, who is known for her role as Violet Hayward in The Alienist.
Myurdin
Myurdin is the leader of the brutish Black Bears and the one who led the ambush of the Greymanes. He looks down on their rival group's ambitions of achieving peace, believing that there is nothing nobler than their selfish pursuit of "wine, wealth, and women". He is played by actor Alastair Parker, who is known for his role as Blackwall in Dragon Age: Inquisition and several characters in The Witcher 3.
Oongka
Oongka is one of the two additional playable characters in the game, boasting high AoE damage and defenses. Despite most depictions of Orcs being centered around their brutish love of battle and war, he is wise and philosophical. He is played by actor Steward Scudamore, who played Rictus in Arcane and Boz Ghaidos in the TV series Carnival Row.
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