Crimson Desert - Before You Buy

And we're back with another episode of

Before You Buy, that show where we give

you some straight up gameplay and our

first impressions of the latest games

releasing. It's me, Jake Baldino, and

today we're talking about Crimson

Desert. There's been a lot of hype about

this big, splashy openw world game. Man,

it's been in development uh by Korean

studio Pearl Abyss for many years now

with some incredible looking visuals,

but hype can be a dangerous thing. Now,

how is the game actually? Is it actually

fun to play? Well, it certainly is.

Crimson Desert is like well inspired

clearly by so many other big games from

like The Witcher to Skyrim to Tears of

the Kingdom to even a little Monster

Hunter manages to feel like a unique

experience. Sometimes it's a weird

experience and I think some types of

gamers are just going to completely be

turned off by some of it or just nope

out. But ultimately, this feels like a

big ambitious, sometimes goofy, but

passionate video game theme park to play

around in. Basically, if you can put up

with some BS here and there and are okay

with great gameplay, but not a very

compelling story, at least so far, then

you'll have a blast in this world, man.

Fun combat, rewarding exploration. The

game does not hold your hand. It gives

you a generous amount of game and

content and just great music and

visuals. I've really enjoyed my time

here. Now, keep in mind this is a

massive game, like staggeringly big. One

of the biggest we've seen in a long

time. And and this is just going to be

our first impressions here. We've been

playing a review copy, and this footage

is captured running on PC and is

spoiler-free. The footage you see here

only scratches the surface as we keep it

to early stuff to avoid spoilers. Now,

another thing, another uh disclaimer

about footage here. This is the PC

footage. We did not get our hands on

console version of the game. And I've

seen a lot of questions out there about

the quality of console graphics and what

players on Xbox Series S X, PlayStation

5 base, like what they can expect. And

so, we're not messing around this time.

Keep your eyes peeled for that. When the

game launches, as soon as it launches,

we're going to get to work capturing

footage on those other consoles to show

you guys. Essentially, we're going to do

a second before you buy video. That's

going to be a summary of some of what I

say here. uh but with a lot of extra

thoughts and and lots of gameplay for

those console versions so you could see

for yourself and make sure that

everything is copathetic, you know.

Anyway, enough of that. First things

first, Crimson Desert drops you into

this medieval fantasy world filled with

knights kings maidens goblins

monsters, dragons, and then weirder

stuff like some crude robotics and high

fantasy technologist stuff. You play as

Cliff. He is a warrior of the Greymanes,

one of many factions in this world. And

uh after being killed by a rival

faction, you're revived by an

otherworldly force and thrust back into

the world, but with some superpowers. In

the early hours of the game, it's up to

you to just get your bearings, reunite

with your Greymanes, build a camp and a

home, and then go out on a bigger

adventure. Now, I'm going to rip the

band-aid off here with a negative. Uh,

but for me personally, the first like

eight hours or so of this game are not

good at all. It gets much much better

after that. Like it really picks up.

Now, I know hearing that I I know some

JRPG fans know what I'm talking about,

but for some people this might come as a

shock. The game just has so many

gameplay systems and mechanics that it

takes hours to slowly introduce you to

all of it. Like, it trickles out. And uh

even then, it still actually manages to

gloss over some things. There's going to

be stuff that they don't explain to you.

Look, if a game has a lot and it it

takes a lot of time to explain it all,

that could be fine, I guess. It's not

the game's fault. It's just that the

quests they give you here, the things

you need to do are all just pretty

boring. The game has a lot of weird,

nonsensical moments that feel like

disjointed, like stuff was cut from the

game or or maybe it's just put in place

to like annoy you or slow you down. your

motivation is basically very little and

the game gives you minimal story reasons

to really care at the outset. I was

nervous kind of thinking to myself like

you know what's the what's the big deal

with this game? This this seems kind of

lame. But I stuck with it and once this

game opens up it really opens up and

it's a ton of funding.

Uh fun expressive combat that makes you

feel powerful while keeping the game

challenging. Loads of variety to it. The

ability to play as other characters with

their own unique spins. Uh and then you

switch to them GTA 5 style. There's base

building crafting fishing mining

bounty hunting, mounts, robots,

jetpacks, riding dragons, weirder and

weirder enemies. This is a game where

the developers threw the kitchen sink at

you. You could do tons of stuff. And

I've talked about games like this

before. But the difference with a lot of

other games we've mentioned in the past

that take this approach, here in Crimson

Desert, most of it doesn't feel cynical

or halfass or including so much just to

check boxes. Most of the systems here

are done right and they feel good and

are nicely implemented down to like

chopping a tree down or placing a table

in your house to the feel of a parry or

horseback controls. But the biggest

thing I think is combat. There's a lot

you could do here with it just because

the move set slowly builds over time.

You have a block, parry, light attack,

heavy attack. You very quickly get a

kind of force push ability that expands

into more. And you know, you think

that's it. It it sounds pretty simple,

but uh the move set expands greatly

through your magical abilities, but also

through a pretty damn solid skill tree

with lots of different things to unlock.

As much as it's a very hacken slashy

style game, there's a surprising amount

of like ability combos you can stack on

one another and just pull off some

really cool [ __ ] that makes you feel

powerful. Uh the strike of a sword, a

parry, all of that feels really good.

The way Cliff will rend his sword into

someone and pop the sword out with like

a little flash of gore and the enemy

flying away, it's just satisfying. And

again, as the move set expands, this

just gets more and more fun. The game is

happy to throw tons of enemies at you

and let you go hog wild. If you want to

use a bow and arrow to snipe out some

guys and stealth around, that's fine.

The stealth is a little weak, but at the

very least, when you crouch and move

around, uh the map adapts to show you

enemies vision cones, which is cool.

But, you know, typically I would thin

the herd a little bit and then go all

out with combat. If you're like me,

you're going to be playing and you're

probably going to end up like unlocking

things and then using them a lot. like,

you know, getting the ability to throw

dudes, eventually getting the ability to

like choke slam clothesline dudes, but

then more massive magical abilities like

a ground pound and just like all kinds

of effects you can stack on one another.

So again, combat with a pretty simple,

straightforward foundation uh that gets

surprisingly complex. And that's a big

part of what I'm saying here is like,

you know, when the game really opens up,

it gets a lot more fun because you get

to just do all this wild stuff and how

all these systems, again, starting with

small foundations and building upon

that, uh, all kind of lead to fun player

experimentation. The game's not holding

your hand. It's letting you just figure

out what you can do, how capable you are

just by messing around. Kind of like

figuring out your favorite tricks in

like, you know, Tears of the Kingdom or

something like that. The game has a lot

of moments that hit the same way. Not to

mention the fact that like while Cliff

is very much a Sword and Shield type of

guy, you do have some weapon variety

there as well. And then switching to

other characters uh to get another