Crimson Desert: Patches and Continuous Improvement
The action, open world RPG Crimson Desert has been patched five times since it launched on March 19th and there have also been multiple hotfixes. At first glance this isn’t anything unusual. New games have bugs and issues arise once a game is released and played across a much wider variety of hardware than in QA testing. However, if you read the patch notes that accompany these sizeable downloads it quickly becomes apparent that developer’s Pearl Abyss are not just addressing bugs and software glitches. They are actively engaging with their player base and responding to suggestions and requests from that community. Although this is not a unique approach, what is surprising is the speed and quantity in which these player driven changes are happening. There seems to be an active ongoing process to refine the game and eliminate some of its “rough edges” and the players are contributing to this process with their feedback.
The action, open world RPG Crimson Desert has been patched five times since it launched on March 19th and there have also been multiple hotfixes. At first glance this isn’t anything unusual. New games have bugs and issues arise once a game is released and played across a much wider variety of hardware than in QA testing. However, if you read the patch notes that accompany these sizeable downloads it quickly becomes apparent that developer’s Pearl Abyss are not just addressing bugs and software glitches. They are actively engaging with their player base and responding to suggestions and requests from that community. Although this is not a unique approach, what is surprising is the speed and quantity in which these player driven changes are happening. There seems to be an active ongoing process to refine the game and eliminate some of its “rough edges” and the players are contributing to this process with their feedback.
As of today, 11th April, the latest patch upgraded Crimson Desert to Version 1.03.00. This included some very interesting changes and improvements to the game. The option to hide various weapons from being displayed on your characters back was a welcome addition. As were settings to customise the in-game camera’s behaviour. This has been a major issue for players when trying to manipulate objects using the Axiom Force ability. Teleportation via the Abyss Nexus has been refined, allowing the player to do so while mounted, falling, swimming or climbing. Cut scenes can now be fast forwarded through, as opposed to just skipped. There are also a wealth of minor quality of life improvements such as font size, improved lighting (especially indoors) and water surface reflection detail. A lot of additional graphical related controls have been added within the game settings. Further details for the latest and previous patches can be found at the Pearl Abyss website.
The developer’s have also published a comprehensive list of features they intend to add to Crimson Desert in the immediate future. Many of these are potentially game changing, no pun intended. The most notable is a difficulty setting for boss fights, something that has been a bone of contention since the game’s launch. Following on from this is the ability to replay boss fights which could be an invaluable practice tool. Another proposed change is the re-blockading of previously liberated regions or fortifications. This would certainly add to the notion of a “living world” and keep players engaged and building their reputation with certain factions. There are also a lengthy list of UI improvements and such as mount and pet menus, a wardrobe system and various storage facilities for consumables and collectibles. Pearl Abyss even have plans to further increase the draw distance and graphical fidelity of the game, which is amazing considering how notable the graphics are at present.
In the past I have seen many developers “talk the talk” regarding a game’s future but totally fail to deliver on the promises they’ve made. This situation with Pearl Abyss seems somewhat different. Some of the specific changes listed in the DEV Update post have already been delivered in the latest patch. This proves that the developer’s are not just acknowledging player feedback but quickly and efficiently delivering the results. At present there is a schedule to implement all the proposed changes by the end of June. This will not only improves the quality of Crimson Desert for those who have already bought the game but offers a great incentive for those who are considering doing so or have it currently on a wish list. In the current climate of underperforming triple A games and studios failing to honour their own roadmap, Pearl Abyss seem to be doing much of the heavy lifting when it comes to repairing gamer and developer relationships.
The Philosophy of Crimson Desert
13 days after its release, market analysts estimate that Crimson Desert has already earned $200 million across the four main platforms (PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S). The game is certainly proving popular among gamers with the internet awash with live streams and “let’s play” videos. However, reviews are mixed both among gaming journalists and YouTube influencers. Common complaints about the game include that it is slow to start, the controls are poorly laid out on all platforms and that developer’s Pearl Abyss have done a poor job of explaining most aspects of the game to new players. Although such criticisms are true to a degree, I think these complaints highlight how many gamers are conditioned to expect new titles to follow a specific pattern with regard to pacing, narrative exposition and learning in-game systems. A pattern that Pearl Abyss has chosen to ignore, instead favouring an old school approach.
13 days after its release, market analysts estimate that Crimson Desert has already earned $200 million across the four main platforms (PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S). The game is certainly proving popular among gamers with the internet awash with live streams and “let’s play” videos. However, reviews are mixed both among gaming journalists and YouTube influencers. Common complaints about the game include that it is slow to start, the controls are poorly laid out on all platforms and that developer’s Pearl Abyss have done a poor job of explaining most aspects of the game to new players. Although such criticisms are true to a degree, I think these complaints highlight how many gamers are conditioned to expect new titles to follow a specific pattern with regard to pacing, narrative exposition and learning in-game systems. A pattern that Pearl Abyss has chosen to ignore, instead favouring an old school approach.
Today I resumed playing Crimson Desert after a week long break (I was on holiday). I decided to explore the world rather than resume any specific quests, so I just took off in a random direction from the Greymanes camp in the Howling Hills. My avatar travelled on foot as it allows you to go “off-piste” and traverse difficult terrain more efficiently than on horseback. I climbed a small plateau that was nearby for no other reason than to see if there was anything of note at the top. Due to stamina limitations, I had to climb up in stages, pausing on ledges as I went. When I reached the top, I was rewarded with a staggering view across Pywel. It was then I noticed that the regionally specific ambient music that plays intermittently had stopped. The only sounds that were audible were the environmental sound effects. There was no dialogue or prompts to do anything. Just stillness and an opportunity for me, the player, to reflect upon the game and how it makes me feel.
Contemporary RPGs eschew such moments. Instead of organic personal reveries, players are funnelled in contrived set pieces. Instead of genuine stillness, we’re presented with confected vignettes that telegraph their unsubtle emotional intent. Characters inner monologues become a verbally incontinent means to steer the player in the “right direction”. You want to think? You haven’t got time to think as there’s a game to play. Gaming is a process nowadays and no longer a medium for introspection. Video games are also becoming increasingly driven to meet the needs of those that play them for a living and not so much for pleasure. Hence the languid pace and player driven play style of Crimson Desert has bamboozled those gamers who want a quick and efficient play through before the next big title is released. As for silence in a game, it is a quality that frightens some players and is not welcome.
Crimson Desert, although filled with many modern game systems and mechanics from other big titles, has also thrown in a suspiring amount of “old school” concepts. Many of which hail from the halcyon days of the MMORPG genre. The first 30 hours or so of the game are still essentially part of an overall tutorial. The player is encouraged to peruse the various in-game menus to glean the information they need to play. They are free to do this at their own pace. As to what quests one does, it again comes down to choice. The game won’t nag you if you go off exploring doing side quests rather than the main story. From time to time, you’ll realise that you’re struggling with content due to gear or a skill being missing. You then have to correct this yourself. Again the game will not pester you. In fact the prompts that are available can be disabled. You the player are in charge, or adrift at sea, depending on your perspective.
Perhaps the most noticeable thing that Crimson Desert does is that it give the player time and space to stop and just be present in the world. You are encouraged to consider a vista or visit a settlement and pet a cat or goat for the fun of it. Such things are not treated as frivolous indulgences but essential to the enjoyment of the game. Developers Pearl Abyss do not feel that the key to happy gaming is being micromanaged and kept busy. Something that I feel is a very North American mindset. Instead they provide the player with such a dynamic and immersive world, that they cannot help but take time out to come to terms with it. Hence gamers who expect a process driven, conveyor belt approach to both story and “learning the game” struggle to come to terms with the philosophy of Crimson Desert. They have either forgotten or never known the non-didactic nature of older video games. For those who do it’s a breath of fresh air.
Crimson Desert: Initial Thoughts
Last night, I spent the first 45 minutes after the launch of Crimson Desert, watching the 92GB pre-downloaded game files slowly decompressing and installing. I finally launched the game at about 10:50 PM GMT. I then waited a further 5 minutes while shaders were downloaded. It took me about 15 minutes or so to read through the various game settings and choose those that are optimal for my PC. I suspect even if you have a beast of a computer, you’re still going to have to spend some time tweaking settings. As for those players like myself with a gaming rig that is somewhere in the middle of the game’s specifications, be prepared to do a lot of fine tuning both within Crimson Desert itself and your Windows settings.
Last night, I spent the first 45 minutes after the launch of Crimson Desert, watching the 92GB pre-downloaded game files slowly decompressing and installing. I finally launched the game at about 10:50 PM GMT. I then waited a further 5 minutes while shaders were downloaded. It took me about 15 minutes or so to read through the various game settings and choose those that are optimal for my PC. I suspect even if you have a beast of a computer, you’re still going to have to spend some time tweaking settings. As for those players like myself with a gaming rig that is somewhere in the middle of the game’s specifications, be prepared to do a lot of fine tuning both within Crimson Desert itself and your Windows settings.
I can run the game at 2K with a mixture of Ultra and Cinematic graphics settings. I’m getting about 60 FPS when standing idle but the moment my character does anything substantive, the frame rate drops to about 40 FPS. However, this isn’t a deal breaker for me. Lengthy loading times are a reality due to the scale of the open world but the game plays animated sequences over them to distract from the waiting. The only technical issue I had initially was the game music intermittently cutting out while other audio, such as sound effects and dialogue, continued as normal. This was resolved by turning off “Signal Enhancements” within the “Advanced” tab of “Speaker Properties” in Windows.
Upon starting Crimson Desert, you’re dropped into the story of a rapidly unfolding conflict between two factions. There’s nothing unusual about this story telling trope but when the fighting starts you get a lot of on-screen information regarding combat that is hard to digest. Fortunately, this part of the game is effectively a tutorial so the enemies are relatively weak. Your character is injured and awakes in an unexplained realm which they traverse and thus learn the game’s various movement mechanics. They are subsequently transported back to reality, healed and acquire a mount which they use to travel to Hernand, the first major quest hub, to begin the main game. Upon arrival, a primary quest is granted but the player is free to start exploring the town and surrounding area. It is a reactively safe area so presents a perfect opportunity to start looking through the various menus such as inventory, quests, skills etc. There are a lot and this aspect of Crimson Desert along with some others make the game feel very much like a single player version of an MMO.
The combat controls for Crimson Desert on the PC are based around left and right mouse buttons, which are used for light and heavy attacks. These are appended by using the CTRL and ALT keys to guard and dodge. Other keys are similarly used for other abilities requiring your hand movement to be dextrous. There was a similar keyboard layout for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and I struggled with that initially, although I did finally master it. Apparently, if prefer to use a controller the layout used is incongruous and the keys cannot be re-mapped. Hence a game with an abundance of systems also has a complex control layout, making the initial learning curve quite steep.
This is why I think it’s important to take your time in the first major quest hub and take the opportunity to explore the immediate world and figure out the different ways to interact with it. Also to spend time familiarising yourself with the games systems. Crafting is an important part of the game, especially making consumable that buff your health. Although a single player game, Crimson Desert does not have the complex branching dialogue options of other RPGs. NPCs provide quest prompts in a more arbitrary fashion. Sometimes you may just hear some dialogue while passing them that provides a clue. You will frequently have to use your menu to organise your inventory and switch between equipment. These menus often have multiple pages, so you have to drill down to access the data you require. The game seems to provide only the most essential information via on screen prompts and encourages you to explore both the world, GUI and menus on your own.
Some players will find this initial complexity and the measured pace of the opening hours of Crimson Desert frustrating. If you’ve played Skyrim, then jumping into Witcher III is not a culture shock, because they are broadly similar with a lot of common systems. Crimson Desert is very similar to the initial pace of a MMORPG and I suspect that there is a requirement of a substantial time investment before the story elements, familiarity with the game’s systems and players confidence align. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised to learn in the next few months that a percentage of players who usually favour single player games, abandon Crimson Desert simply because it has a much more measured pace at the start of the game. I can also see old school MMO players warming to this title because there are so many parallels.
With regard to the games aesthetic and style, Crimson Desert is a singularly handsome game with an incredibly well realised world. The draw distance is very impressive. This is something that the game keeps in reserve until one specific sequence at the beginning of the story, where you cross a bridge and suddenly see a valley stretching out to your left. It is a stunning revelation and something that is already becoming a common point of note in the various YouTube videos about the game. The game certainly seems well optimised to accommodate as much graphical performance as possible. The sound design and ambient music is also very impressive. The voice acting for the English version is broadly very good, although a few performances remind me of dubbed Hong Kong movies from the seventies. Some of the language is quite choice as well and I was surprised to hear the use of the word “cunt” within the opening 5 or 10 minutes.
So far, despite quite a lot of fine tuning the game settings, my interest is certainly being held by Crimson Desert. It seems to be a huge game with a great deal of content. Something that will take months to complete. Furthermore, to accommodate the scope of its vision, the game goes about it in its own unique way. That may enthral some players and annoy others. I usually come to RPGs and similar games, several months after launch. Hence there are a wealth of player curated resources available, telling you come to complete quests, create and optimal build and where the best gear is located. This time round I have started playing right from launch and so I am flying blind by my own standard. Oddly for me, that is proving to be fun. It is also nice to play a game that hasn’t been designed around a relatively short life cycle. I suspect there is plenty of life in Crimson Desert and that it potentially could have the longevity of Skyrim. As ever, time will tell.
Pre-ordering Crimson Desert
I have been aware of the online interest around the open world action game Crimson Desert for a while now. One of the things that has intrigued me about it is the scope of the game. The word “hype” has been bandied about by a few gaming websites. However, from what I have observed, developers Pearl Abyss have not been excessively hyperbolic themselves, with regard to the manner in which the game’s systems and mechanics have been marketed. Now that the press embargo has been lifted, the pre-release reviews seem to confirm that everything we’ve seen in promotional videos in the run up to the launch, is in fact present in the game. So far the initial critical response has been very positive and it has been hinted that the game may well be a genre milestone. Perhaps Crimson Desert is just a rare example of a game that has not had a rushed development and isn’t launching prematurely for business reasons.
I have been aware of the online interest around the open world action game Crimson Desert for a while now. One of the things that has intrigued me about it is the scope of the game. The word “hype” has been bandied about by a few gaming websites. However, from what I have observed, developers Pearl Abyss have not been excessively hyperbolic themselves, with regard to the manner in which the game’s systems and mechanics have been marketed. Now that the press embargo has been lifted, the pre-release reviews seem to confirm that everything we’ve seen in promotional videos in the run up to the launch, is in fact present in the game. So far the initial critical response has been very positive and it has been hinted that the game may well be a genre milestone. Perhaps Crimson Desert is just a rare example of a game that has not had a rushed development and isn’t launching prematurely for business reasons.
As I still had some money left from my birthday, I decided to pre-order Crimson Desert today. The standard edition of this single player game retails at £55 and the deluxe version at £65. As usual I spent sometime looking for the best deal that I could find online and eventually purchased a digital deluxe version for £54, saving £11. I could have found a cheaper key but I prefer to by from vendors that I’ve used before. This minimises the risk of being scammed or purchasing a region locked key that requires a VPN to activate, or some other complex workaround. The vendor will make the Steam key available nearer the launch date. I would expect it to be on or near the 17th March, when the game can be pre-installed 48 hours ahead of launch. According to the Pearl Abyss the game installation is 150GB in total which is a quite a size. Like many modern games it is now recommended that the game is run on an SSD.
It is becoming increasingly important to check a game’s minimum specifications before purchasing these days. In the past there was a degree of “wriggle room” with regard to whether a new title would run on your PC. However, nowadays it is a far more exact science. I can run Battlefield 6 in 2K but if I alter the game settings beyond what is stated in the game specifications, then the overall performance drops dramatically. According to the specifications for Crimson Desert, I should be able to run the game somewhere around the “recommended” settings. I am curious to see what sort of graphical quality that provides, although there is much that games can do these days when running on average hardware. Upscaling being a useful “get out of jail” card if necessary. I’ll know for sure on Monday 19th March at 15:00 PT, 22:00 GMT and March 20, 7:00 KST, when Crimson Desert launches. No doubt there will be a follow up post with my initial thoughts on the game.