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Official Launch Trailer | Crimson Desert

There's something so ******** yet alluring about this game. Like there's a 99% chance of it being abysmal dogshit and a 1% chance of it being the greatest game ever made for years to come.

I haven't really been paying any attention to this, but even in that trailer, I was already over the particle effects. Hopefully, there's a way to lessen that.

They are giving it away with AMD CPUs. Perhaps looking at the historical list of hardware game giveaways will help you set appropriate expectations.

I boughteded it, bros. I'll report back an hour or two after launch.

Rienen wrote: ↑ March 12th, 2026, 15:26
I haven't really been paying any attention to this, but even in that trailer, I was already over the particle effects. Hopefully, there's a way to lessen that.

There is a full slider from 0-100 for particle effects, I've seen screenshots of the menu, though I don't know what 0 looks like

DRM added, but they could have announced way back not 7 days before launch ... I wonder if Digital Foundry will have tested the game with DRM

Game can be enjoyed offline, internet being required for day 1 patch, per here

Players will need an internet connection to complete the initial setup (day 1 patch) and ensure they have the latest version of the game.
Once installation is complete, the game can be enjoyed offline.
We’re also committed to continually improving performance and enhancing the overall experience through future updates and patches. An internet connection will be required to download these updates beyond the initial setup.

A "leaked" early review of the game (the video has since been deleted from youtube):

► Show Spoiler

- it is not a narrative focused game, not an RPG. It’s much better than Black Desert in narrative, but not close to say Witcher 3 or Kingdom Come. It’s mostly about epic moments and battles.

- Combat is INCREDIBLE. He’s never seen such combat on a large scale. Like a character action game (DMC, Ninja Gaiden) set in a massive open world

- Combat has lots of player expression and depth. Different moves depending on positioning/direction. For example grapple command from behind is a suplex, from the side it’s a throw. Attack animations dependent on where you hit.

- The player is not only able to use trees as slingshots, but can also use enemies as slingshots. Presumably with some of the giant creatures we’ve seen in trailers.

- Absolutely no handholding, quite complex mechanics. It’s not a soulslike, but like a souls game you have to get used to the rhythm of its combat. It’s a slow burn and very steep learning curve for the first 8 hours, but when it clicks you’ll love it.

- Crazy verticality even without the sky islands. The world design and mission structure is like RDR2, the mechanics are like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

- Massive game. 50 hours in and he’s still in the first area.

- Gushes about the music, says it’s “******* awesome, ******* awesome, ******* awesome”. Compares it to the Witcher 3. Ambient music also incredible and beautiful, slow and ethereal.

- Incredible atmosphere. Epic sense of scale, like Shadow of the Colossus / BOTW. Fantastic music helps elevate it. Nighttime is actually dark, like Dragons Dogma.

- Says game is lacking QOL. Confusing inventory. Quest items stay in inventory after finishing said quests. Limited inventory and no storage methods in your camp, so no storage. Only a bank where you can exchange currencies. They’ve asked Pearl Abyss about it but haven’t received a response.

- When you clear a camp, bodies despawn from the enemies you’ve killed after you wipe the enemies out. Meaning you have to leave an enemy or two alive so you can loot, unless you want to lose it. Or just loot during battle.

- Other minor issues. Says it’s stuff that can be fixed though.

Overall he thinks the game will get an 80/85 on metacritic from journalists. Only because of the very steep initial learning curve and the lack of QOL. It depends on whether they can overcome the learning curve and look past the QOL, after which wouldn’t be surprised if it got 90+, even a 95. Calls it an unpolished diamond.

Thinks users will love it. He says it’s his “favorite open world game ever”, even above Elden Ring, RDR2, Witcher 3 BOTW, KCD2 which he’s played and loved.

I refuse to pay more than $20 for a viddy game. Principle of the matter.

+ denuvo feels nice

Maybe my imagination is dead, but it just looks like all other UE5 slop with maybe a few unique things, but there's zero coherent theming in that trailer. All spectacle, zero things to make me care.

Crimson desert originally was a mmo but they scraped the idea and started working on a single player game

"What if we have steampunk machines, but they're powered by magic. Also, we'll have a Chinese architecture level. Yeah, and do pirates, too"
This describes every high fantasy game now. How is this different from the setting in Veilguard, Highguard, Avowed, Immortals of Aveum, Forspoken, and so on and on.
Just pick a concept and do it well and uniquely.

sheet wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 15:12
Just pick a concept and do it well and uniquely.

the concept is magic steampunk machines with chinese architecture and pirates

sheet wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 15:07
Maybe my imagination is dead, but it just looks like all other UE5 slop with maybe a few unique things, but there's zero coherent theming in that trailer. All spectacle, zero things to make me care.

Strange how a game with an in-house engine somehow looks like UE5 slop. Did you even watch any footage

Game looks cool, is it worth trying black desert before this? I've had it in my library for 8 years untouched.

I was going to try it because it uses their in-house engine until they announced denuvoshit

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 15:35
I was going to try it because it uses their in-house engine until they announced denuvoshit

I, too, was going to pirate it until they made it so that I couldn't pirate it

Oyster Sauce wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 15:38

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 15:35
I was going to try it because it uses their in-house engine until they announced denuvoshit
I, too, was going to pirate it until they made it so that I couldn't pirate it

If they wanted me to buy it why did they price it at $70?

Wealth extraction from price-insensitive buyers.

Controversial opinion: game sales are pay-for-early-access with extra steps

yangg wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 10:53
the mechanics are like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

Will my weapons break in every single fight? Will I be unable to complete quests because of the weather? Will the game be a boring chore?

I was going to buy it when I saw the combat, but when those BOTW-esque gameplay moments took centre stage, I'm not so sure anymore. Maybe on sale.

Bhaalspawn Jr wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 17:11
Will my weapons break in every single fight?

I am/was genuinely surprised by the amount of crap I got from people when I said this was enough for me to drop the game and never want to try it again. I get what they were going for with the design. It's just a **** design, in my opinion.

Rienen wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 17:46

Bhaalspawn Jr wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 17:11
Will my weapons break in every single fight?
I am/was genuinely surprised by the amount of crap I got from people when I said this was enough for me to drop the game and never want to try it again. I get what they were going for with the design. It's just a **** design, in my opinion.

AFAIK there's mods to fix it if you play it on an emulator
(I have not played the games, just saw people discuss it)

game looks like Unreal Engine Korean Slop.

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 17:48

Rienen wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 17:46

Bhaalspawn Jr wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 17:11
Will my weapons break in every single fight?
I am/was genuinely surprised by the amount of crap I got from people when I said this was enough for me to drop the game and never want to try it again. I get what they were going for with the design. It's just a **** design, in my opinion.
AFAIK there's mods to fix it if you play it on an emulator
(I have not played the games, just saw people discuss it)

There is. I only played the game for about 40 seconds though because that's how long it took me to remember I ******* hate Zelda

Shillitron wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 18:17
game looks like Unreal Engine Korean Slop.

Most original and educated opinion itt

Apparently Crimson Desert won't have weapon durability so why even mention it here. People would've talked about it if it were the case.

Rienen wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 17:46

Bhaalspawn Jr wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 17:11
Will my weapons break in every single fight?
I am/was genuinely surprised by the amount of crap I got from people when I said this was enough for me to drop the game and never want to try it again. I get what they were going for with the design. It's just a **** design, in my opinion.

Bro, I thought I had entered the twilight zone when that game came out. Everyone was calling it the best game ever made, but I thought it was dogshit (and I was a big Zelda fanboy). I actually persevered with the weapon breaking system until I got to the part where you had to light these lanterns with a torch, but the ******* rain kept putting the torch out. Waited forever, but it just kept raining, so I tried resetting, disconnecting from the internet, changing the switch's clock, and when I loaded back in? Yup, it was still raining. When it finally stopped after what felt like an eternity, I went a little further, and had to climb this mountain to reach the next destination. Guess what? IT STARTS RAINING AGAIN. And Link starts slipping down the mountainside and tumbles all the way down to the bottom...

Never dropped a game faster in my life.

Awful design. And the mainline games are forever ruined because it sold so well...

Bhaalspawn Jr wrote: ↑ March 14th, 2026, 01:33

Rienen wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 17:46

Bhaalspawn Jr wrote: ↑ March 13th, 2026, 17:11
Will my weapons break in every single fight?
I am/was genuinely surprised by the amount of crap I got from people when I said this was enough for me to drop the game and never want to try it again. I get what they were going for with the design. It's just a **** design, in my opinion.
Bro, I thought I had entered the twilight zone when that game came out. Everyone was calling it the best game ever made, but I thought it was dogshit (and I was a big Zelda fanboy). I actually persevered with the weapon breaking system until I got to the part where you had to light these lanterns with a torch, but the ******* rain kept putting the torch out. Waited forever, but it just kept raining, so I tried resetting, disconnecting from the internet, changing the switch's clock, and when I loaded back in? Yup, it was still raining. When it finally stopped after what felt like an eternity, I went a little further, and had to climb this mountain to reach the next destination. Guess what? IT STARTS RAINING AGAIN. And Link starts slipping down the mountainside and tumbles all the way down to the bottom...

Never dropped a game faster in my life.

Awful design. And the mainline games are forever ruined because it sold so well...

Game gets a lot less frustrating after you did the first big boss/dungeon at the snowy bird village then you get an ability which lets you jump in the air 20meter or so. But I also prefer the N64 titles, Botw only really had shrines for progression and those were so easy to find, compared to heart containers from earlier games.

can this **** come out already im ******* bored

Chill *****, play something else. I'm currently doing a playthrough of Skyrim, with DAc0da, Vigilant, Glen-Moril, Unslaad, Beyond Reach and Lordbound. Pretty fun tbh.

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Crimson Desert

Crimson Desert

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th

Crimson Desert - Launches March 19th