- 2 days ago
- #impression
- #commentary
- #crimsondesert
My first impressions for Crimson Desert.
#impression #commentary #crimsondesert
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:25 Graphics
01:08 Controls
05:11 Story
09:02 Main character
11:10 Combat
13:29 QoL stuff
15:27 Identity crisis
16:52 Conclusion
#impression #commentary #crimsondesert
Like, share and sub!
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:25 Graphics
01:08 Controls
05:11 Story
09:02 Main character
11:10 Combat
13:29 QoL stuff
15:27 Identity crisis
16:52 Conclusion
Category
🎮️
GamingTranscript
00:00All right, let's talk about Crimson Desert. This is going to be a first impressions video,
00:05since it's impossible to finish this game two or three days after it got released.
00:10Only judging by the size of a map, one can summarize this is definitely going to be at
00:15least 100 hours worth of gaming. So that being said, what do I think about the game, or more
00:22specifically, what do I think about its systems? Well, let's start with obvious, for the majority
00:28of people that is, which is graphics. Normally I don't really care about graphics, because in this
00:33day and age, if the graphics are not good enough, obviously you're going to have a huge problem.
00:39However, when it comes to Crimson Desert, graphics are really good. I actually like how the game
00:44looks like, what kind of vibe is giving me in terms of visual fidelity. I wasn't running it on max,
00:50because essentially there is no point as far as I'm concerned. I am mostly a gameplay guy rather
00:56than visual fidelity guy, so that's my reasoning. Also, like I said, it would be very surprising
01:02that the game looks relatively bad. And not to mention, you could have seen in previews how it
01:07looks like. Next element that you immediately get exposed to is pretty much control scheme.
01:13One word that I would use in order to describe control scheme is unintuitive, especially if you're
01:20gaming on PC, which is essentially where I'm coming from. Other words that I would use are
01:25awkward and overcomplicated. For example, if I want to talk to an important NPC, I first need to hold
01:34control, and then I get a prompt by using the E key in order to talk to said NPC. Why
01:41do we have this?
01:42What was the point of introducing two keys in order to talk with the NPC, where in other games,
01:49only one is required in order to engage into conversation. Moreover, if you know that you
01:55have a dedicated NPC that you need to talk to, why isn't the game automatically starting the
02:01conversation? You could keep yourself within a certain perimeter from the character, and then
02:07the game is going to automatically initiate the conversation. Another blatant example how overcomplicated
02:14the controls are is when you are using a horse. If you want to gallop on a horse, you need
02:20to
02:20continuously keep pressing shift. So if you imagine your hand on the keyboard, and you're using the
02:27standard WASD input, the only way that you can do that is using your pinky. So what you have basically
02:34is me hammering the pinky in order to achieve the speed that is required for horse to gallop.
02:40And pretty much what the outcome is, is basically my pinky begging for mercy. Now I ask you,
02:48why can't you go into gallop mode by simply double pressing the shift key? Why do you need to gradually
02:55build the speed with the horse? You can have the normal speed, and then you can have ludicrously fast
03:01speed, because nobody wants the speed that is in between. Either you go relatively slow, if you're
03:07going through town for example, and you are roleplaying and you don't want to bump into NPCs,
03:11or you go mega fast because you want to get from point A to point B as fast as possible.
03:17And let me
03:18tell you, these are not isolated cases. Holding control in order to kinda target where you are
03:24going to jump, or holding control when you are targeting using a pickaxe, or anything remotely
03:30similar that requires precision. I can understand that we have a button which tells you where you're
03:36supposed to jump, because there are jumping puzzles and that's all nice and fine. But why are we having
03:42the same thing for, I don't know, mining or woodcutting? Simply step towards a mining node, press the key,
03:50and that's it. It's that fucking simple. So when I was reading that people said that the controls alone
03:57may then refund the game, I can 100% understand. My comment would be that the game basically fights
04:04you instead of empowering you. And if you have an experience that's going to be 100, 150 hours,
04:12even 200 hours, and you are continuously struggling with the keyboard and mouse combo, especially if you're
04:18on PC, it's only natural that you don't want to play the fucking game. Because every single input is
04:25causing you frustration. It can be pretty much said that control prompts are just prolonging the game
04:31for absolutely no reason, because you are essentially nonstop trying to figure out how to do something
04:37instead of doing that thing fluidly, like it should be. And before you start saying that controls are
04:44fine, I would like to point out that even developers released a statement saying that they are aware of
04:50these issues, they are taking feedback from the players, and they will try to work on this problem
04:56in order to make the experience more bearable. So any type of argument, as far as I'm concerned,
05:03that the controls are just fine, basically is meaningless, since the people who made the game
05:08acknowledged already that there are issues. Okay, so you kind of soldier through the controls, right?
05:14Next thing what you are exposed to is basically the storyline. So what is the storyline all about
05:21within these seven or eight hours that I already played the game? One word that I would use in order
05:27to explain the storyline is absolutely being disjointed. And I'll give you a proper example. So you start
05:34the game by attending a funeral of this guy, he seems to be an important figure, and everybody's
05:40super sad that he is dead. You do some talky talk with your buddies in this cabin, and suddenly you
05:46get ambushed. There is some kind of a fighting struggle, blah, blah, blah, and your character ends
05:51up dying. But fret not, he isn't dead permanently, because we know he's not going to be dead. He gets
05:57resurrected for whatever reason, I don't know. At this point, I am still speculating what is the
06:03reason of this resurrection. And then all of a sudden you get teleported to this temple,
06:09you do something in that temple, and then you wake up at the riverbank, where this guy says he
06:15fished you out, and you're basically good to go. In this particular situation, the first thing that
06:21comes to your mind is revenge. You want to get revenge on the people who attacked you, you want
06:26to rebuild your clan, and that's essentially what's going to be the main thread of the story.
06:31If you think Crimson Desert does the same, you are sorely mistaken, because after that
06:37particular point, the main character absolutely has no say in the whole situation what happened
06:44to his clan. The main quest doesn't even mention anything about revenge whatsoever. Of course,
06:50there is a main quest, but you know what you're doing? You are saving cats, you are giving money
06:55to beggars, you are saving noble women from sewers, and you are cleaning chimneys with a broom. I shit
07:02you not, that's basically how it starts. And then later on you figure out that the beggar person and
07:08the noble lady are some kind of a sky wizards or something along the lines, and then you get
07:14teleported to the sky temple or whatever the fuck that is, you do some puzzles, which by the way are
07:20completely unnecessary, and then they reward you giving you wings, so you can fly, or rather you
07:26can glide. And I'm following this particular main quest, and I'm thinking to myself, what the fuck
07:32is actually happening? Why isn't the main character doing something to find his lost comrades? Why isn't
07:39he rebuilding? Why isn't he chasing for intel or something like that in order to figure out where
07:44the people who attack them, or your clan that is R, so you can exact revenge. But no, that's not
07:51happening at all. You are doing absolutely everything other than what the initial story thread was all
07:57about. I have never ever seen this in any game that I've played, and I played a lot of games.
08:04Now,
08:04if you don't really give a shit about main quest whatsoever, and you want to kind of roam around
08:10and do all kinds of shit, that's probably going to be okay for you. For me, however, like I said,
08:16this absolutely makes no sense, and since I am a story-orientated person, this is pretty much stopping
08:22me from getting into the whole story. Because at the end of the day, there is a story, but the
08:28way
08:28it's presented, it's abysmal. Naturally, after a couple of hours, you finally get to a point where your
08:35character kind of starts building from scratch and finding his previous comrades. But it's happening
08:42so sudden, there isn't any buildup, there isn't anything that would warrant this thing happening
08:48in a sense of a natural story progression. And only after some time, you get to see these
08:54elements and bits and pieces. And if you haven't endured that much by that time, you probably abandoned
09:01the game altogether. What's also not helping when it comes to the storyline is the main character
09:07himself. The way I would describe him is generic, bland, and he is just there because he has to be,
09:15in a sense that there has to be something to push the story forwards. It's very hard to connect with
09:21him
09:21emotionally, to remember his personality if he even has one, because as far as I have been able to
09:27witness, his personality is as deep as a puddle that manifests after a short period of rain.
09:34This guy gets resurrected, talks to these Skywizard people, gets these magical wings to glide around
09:41the world, and yet never comments in a meaningful way saying something along the lines of, why is this
09:47happening to me? What is the purpose of this? What do you, Skywizard people, want from me? Because one can
09:53easily assume that it was them who resurrected him. But the game never explicitly said so. So you are
10:01constantly thinking what he would say and how he would act, but because he is a character that's
10:06already pre-made, it's very hard to connect with him. So overall, in first eight hours or so, you could
10:13say that the story has severe pacing issues, lack of cohesion, and especially weak character arc. And you
10:20know what's funny? When you eventually set up your camp, you get introduced with this other character,
10:26this woman, just like that, out of the blue. She is there because she's running from something,
10:31and you know, can you let her be in your camp for a while? Because it's a good place to
10:35hide.
10:36And I'm like, why the fuck would I want to play with her? I don't even know who this fucking
10:41woman is.
10:42I am barely grasping to figure out what Cliff is all about, and now you are pushing this woman
10:47on top of everything? Who the fuck thought this was a good idea? Because I most certainly don't
10:53think it's a good idea for obvious reasons. Because if I have to explain these things,
10:59since they are so obvious, then obviously we have a huge fucking problem. Oh sweet Jesus,
11:04I really didn't think that I'm going to be exposed to this bullshit, but apparently I am.
11:08Okay, moving on. Let's talk about combat. What's combat all about? Well, considering we already
11:15talked about how controls are bad, naturally, combat is going to suffer. There's no other way
11:21to describe this. Also, for some strange reason, the game is trying to overwhelm you on every corner.
11:29Basically, too many mechanics are introduced too quickly, systems are layered on top of each other
11:34with no clarity. And to be honest, it feels like an MMO design forced into a single player game.
11:40And that's basically how combat is. You have multi button combos, you want precise timing,
11:45and you need to remember long input chains. Essentially, you are struck with poor onboarding,
11:51just like the rest of the game. Now, I want to make one thing clear. If the game has a
11:56lack of guidance,
11:57meaning that it doesn't explain everything and gives you vague directions, I don't have a problem with
12:02that. I will basically figure stuff out, mostly on my own errors, and then move forward. But not
12:08everyone thinks like me, and some people want a system that kinda gradually evolves and gradually
12:14becomes more complex. There is nothing wrong with complexity, but throwing everything at people at
12:21once is definitely a problem. Another thing that is tied to combat is difficulty spikes and imbalance.
12:27For example, certain bosses require full system mastery and give you little room for error.
12:33One blatant example is the goblin guy with the rapier that you're fighting in the main quest.
12:39He hits like a truck, and even if your gear is fully upgraded, or at least reasonably upgraded,
12:45like it was in my case, you still feel like you're being punished too much. It took me several tries
12:51to kill him and I managed to do so. But if you are forcing a player to fight that type
12:56of a boss
12:57early on, so to speak, in the main quest, there is definitely going to be frustration,
13:01and you will 100% feel that this is basically an inconsistent challenge, compared to the enemies
13:08that you fought before. I would add that this combat looks amazing, because it's all flashy and you
13:14have a lot of moves, but it looks better than it plays. Because there is too much complexity,
13:21there is a poor learning curve, inconsistent combat identity, and messy chaotic fights.
13:26Again, not great, not terrible. Next point that I would like to raise is all about quality of life
13:33stuff. For example, the game during conversations has a fast forward options, which is a great thing,
13:39but then you have other conversations you cannot even skip. You cannot access your inventory by pressing
13:44I. Instead, you need to press escape, and then you need to navigate into your inventory,
13:49which is weird because you can just press M to access the map. Again, the inconsistency is staggering.
13:56As if two different people were designing these things, never talked to each other,
14:00and both of their logics, so to speak, were implemented. Quickwheel, for example, is accessed by F1,
14:07where you can choose your weapons and armor. And when you are performing minigames, for example,
14:12the arm wrestling thing, you need to smack E like there's no tomorrow in order to kind of keep the
14:18tension with your arm. But then you are basically ambushed by the prompt, which is button R,
14:24in order to hit that sweet spot, which will make your arm go a bit on the other side in
14:29order to defeat
14:30the guy that you're currently arm wrestling. Then we have this mechanic where Cliff learns about the world
14:36around him by essentially looking what people are doing. And in certain situations that is fine,
14:42but he applies this to everything. For example, you go to a merchant in order to buy stuff,
14:47and there are multiple items that only have question mark instead of the said item icon that
14:53should represent it. So he needs to learn about that particular item. And I would understand if this
14:59is something exotic that he never saw. But this motherfucker needs to learn about bread,
15:04beer, leather straps. I mean, who the hell thought this was a good idea? Is Cliff mentally challenged
15:10that he never saw these things? Or maybe when he was yeeted in the water, he smacked his head so
15:15hard
15:16that he basically forgot the basic things in life. I don't really know what to say about this. This is
15:21basically one of those things that sounds good on paper, but absolutely looks dogshit in reality.
15:27As I was playing the game, I could very clearly see that it has an identity crisis.
15:32Game feels like MMO in disguise. You have system heavy design, you have clunky UI and controls,
15:38and you have grind like mechanics. Since we have been told this is a single player RPG,
15:44you naturally expect other things. But what we got is basically a single player MMO hybrid.
15:50And speaking of hybrids, it's very clear to me that this game is trying to borrow as many elements
15:56from other games as it is possible. For example, the Sky Wizard people are giving me Isu vibes from
16:03Assassin's Creed. You have big open world stuff like Red Dead Redemption 2. You have gliding stuff
16:09from Breath of the Wild. Then you have these various points of interest that you explore like you do in
16:15Skyrim. And then you have these investigations, kind of a thing that you do in The Witcher.
16:19Normally, I don't mind games borrowing from other games, especially when it comes to mechanics that
16:25are really good. But I would say that maybe too much borrowing is not a good strategy,
16:31because essentially what can happen is your game losing identity. Like I already said,
16:36we have an MMO DNA identity problem crisis, but now we also have a mechanics crisis. Because you cannot
16:44really point out with confidence, especially in the early hours, that this game has something that
16:50is core to it. I could go on and on about other elements that I also noticed when I was
16:56playing this
16:56game. But to me, it boils down to this. You have really disjointed story, control scheme is not
17:03helping you navigate the world properly. The main character is as bland as a boiled egg. And combat
17:10is inconsistent, messy and chaotic, but not in a good way. And when you combine only these elements,
17:18stuff is not looking very good for this game. Because if the game cannot capture me within couple
17:23of hours, and instead requires of me to invest serious time in order to start noticing a potential
17:31glory that it kind of hides somewhere in like 30-40 hours mark, then we have a problem. Because not
17:37many people are going to tolerate this, and they are just going to stop playing, either by simply
17:43refunding the game, because Steam only gives you two hours to refund, or they will just put the game
17:48aside and wait for better days that might manifest through patches and fixes that developers are
17:54going to produce. Which means that if you want to play this game, and you have issues with what I
18:00already described, you're not going to have a very good time. If you, however, don't really care about
18:05these things, you're maybe playing the game with controller, because apparently it's better than
18:11keyboard and mouse, you don't really care about the narrative, you just want to explore the wide,
18:16wide world that the game offers, and you're willing to soldier through in order to uncover all the depth
18:22and mechanics that the game offers, then 100% you're going to be okay. In my case, however,
18:28since I want to review this game properly, and that means playing it from start to finish,
18:33I really don't have a choice. I need to soldier through this, because reviews aren't going to
18:39ride themselves out of the blue. So I guess it's up to you. You have this video, you have other
18:45videos,
18:45you have reviews, make up your mind, and decide whether or not shelling 70 euros, 80 dollars,
18:52or whatever the equivalent currency is, is acceptable for you. All I know is that I didn't
18:58have a single expectation from this game, and pretty much in these 8 hours I got severely disturbed
19:04and disappointed. But hey, that's life, you win some, you lose some. Anyway, I blabbed too much already,
19:11so I'm just going to end this video. Thank you very much for watching, and that's it from me, until
19:16the next one.
19:17I'll see you next time.
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