Hello there. Welcome to The Cseekly Recap. I’m your host, Csomm and here I'm going a bit deeper into the topics that I’ve covered in my shorts.
#thecseeklyrecap #gamingnews #opinion #discussion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA4XfmU8O-g&t=744s
Like, share, subscribe and all that good stuff!
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:14 Crimson Desert Remarks and General Blabbing About It
22:08 Outro
Sources:
Article 1: https://twistedvoxel.com/crimson-desert-confused-narrative-off-the-rails-development/
Article 2: https://twistedvoxel.com/crimson-desert-confused-narrative-off-the-rails-development/
Article 3: https://n.news.naver.com/article/001/0015985300?sid=105
Article 4: https://crimsondesert.pearlabyss.com/en-US/News/Notice/Detail?_boardNo=76
#thecseeklyrecap #gamingnews #opinion #discussion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA4XfmU8O-g&t=744s
Like, share, subscribe and all that good stuff!
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:14 Crimson Desert Remarks and General Blabbing About It
22:08 Outro
Sources:
Article 1: https://twistedvoxel.com/crimson-desert-confused-narrative-off-the-rails-development/
Article 2: https://twistedvoxel.com/crimson-desert-confused-narrative-off-the-rails-development/
Article 3: https://n.news.naver.com/article/001/0015985300?sid=105
Article 4: https://crimsondesert.pearlabyss.com/en-US/News/Notice/Detail?_boardNo=76
Category
🎮️
GamingTranscript
00:00Hey hey hey, it's time for another edition of the Cheekly Recap.
00:04I'm your host Chom and I'm here to go a bit deeper into the topics that I've covered
00:08in my shorts.
00:09The footage behind is from the game Crimson Desert.
00:12Let's get the show on the road!
00:14Our first topic of the day is going to be all about Crimson Desert.
00:18It's a bit obvious because everybody is talking about it, but more importantly I have a lot
00:23of things to say, so I guess it's only natural to tackle this particular topic.
00:27You could see it as a continuation from the last recap, because I already mentioned
00:32it there, or rather last week, so I don't know, it seems natural to me to speak about
00:38these things.
00:38Anyway, as you are well aware, the game released on March 19th, 2026.
00:43And even though I knew the release is going to happen, I still wasn't hyped about the
00:48game, I didn't have any expectations whatsoever.
00:51And to be honest, it's a healthy way to approach when you are trying to review a game because
00:56if you are subjective to a point of everything is awesome and I just want to play it because
01:01I expected this game, or rather I was waiting for the game for so long, it's not going to
01:07be a good review.
01:07Or at least in this case, first impressions.
01:10I have already witnessed people hyping this game to no end, so to me it was a breath of
01:15fresh air to approach this from a complete blank position.
01:19And that's what I did.
01:20I played the game around 8-10 hours and I produced my first impressions.
01:25By the way, you can check it if you want, I'll put link down below and also some kind
01:28of a floaty thing up there so you can click on it if you wanna.
01:32Anyway, it's safe to say that the game did not impress me at all.
01:36Fact being, I was actually surprised to see other people giving huge scores, over 80 or something
01:43like that.
01:43And for the first time in my life, I reckon I agreed with a review that was produced by
01:49these big ass gaming sites like IGN for example.
01:53I generally think their reviews are appalling, but for some strange reason, it appears that
01:59they are actually doing their job really good in this particular situation.
02:03Maybe they didn't get enough money and they weren't sugarcoating it like they usually do.
02:08Anyway, enough about them.
02:09What I wanted to say is that while I was playing the game, I noticed several issues.
02:14Again, I need to emphasize this, I did not have any expectations from the game whatsoever.
02:19The only thing that I had, or rather I still have, is my experience of playing games my whole
02:25life.
02:26So naturally, when we are talking about this particular aspect of my, let's say, way of
02:32reviewing games, you do have certain expectations in terms of how systems should work based on
02:38the previous experience.
02:40Not to mention, you need to take into account certain things that the gaming industry already
02:45achieved and is now a standard how to do things.
02:49For example, we all know when you're playing on mouse and keyboard, for example, that you
02:54should have shortcuts to these specific menus like inventory, map, skills, stuff like that.
03:00This is completely normal to expect because we have been experiencing these things for years.
03:06So essentially, this is where my expectations are coming from.
03:10And that's how I approach any game that has the similarities of the games in the same genre.
03:18So in the case of Crimson Desert, because it's marketed as an open world action adventure
03:23game, I'm going to draw similarities and comparisons from the games that are marketed like that.
03:30One of these games is a Witcher 3 Wild Hunt.
03:33It's an action role-playing game.
03:36So in that sense, you expect to have certain things that Witcher 3 has.
03:41And to me, that's completely reasonable and a good benchmark to compare stuff.
03:46Obviously, I don't expect the level of story that the Witcher 3 has, but at the same time,
03:52why the hell not?
03:53Anyway, I started playing the game and immediately I noticed several issues.
03:58First obvious problem were the controls, or rather the control scheme.
04:02To me, they made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
04:05And you can argue that its control scheme is a bit unorthodox, and you should invest certain
04:12time in order to get used to the controls itself.
04:15And then we are coming back to the original point that I made in this particular video,
04:19which is, we already have a very successful control scheme defined, even since the Witcher
04:263 was released.
04:28And then there were a fuckton of games who already used the same control scheme.
04:33Latest example that I would use would be Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.
04:37The way that you operate your inventory, the way that you fight, the way that you interact
04:42with the world, the way that you interact with your horse.
04:44So to me, it was just so disappointing to see that they are trying to do something that
04:51absolutely has no sense whatsoever.
04:53Even though we have several examples how things are being handled in this particular department.
04:59And I'll give you a couple of examples.
05:02So back when I was doing the first impression video, galloping couldn't be achieved normally
05:06by holding shift key.
05:08Instead, you had to press it like there's no tomorrow, continuously.
05:12There weren't any shortcuts.
05:13You couldn't open your menus just by pressing, let's say, I for inventory.
05:18You had to go to a separate menu and then find inventory and then click on the damn thing
05:24in order to open your inventory.
05:26These are the things that I'm talking about.
05:28So naturally, if the control scheme is messed up, everything is going to suffer no matter what
05:33you do because you use the controls to play the bloody game.
05:36That's why to me combat felt weird.
05:39Interacting with the world felt weird because it's all tied to this particular system.
05:44I mean, one simple example would be you interact with the NPCs.
05:49If you want to talk to a NPC that's a quest giver, you need to hold control in order to
05:55initiate
05:55another input, which is E.
05:57And then you can talk to the NPC.
05:59If you're thinking just approaching to the NPC and starting a conversation like that,
06:04you cannot because there is an invisible circle like a force field that prevents you
06:08from doing so.
06:09Then I noticed that certain things, activities in this particular situation were overcomplicated
06:16for no apparent reason.
06:17One example I always give is the wood cutting.
06:20The process of getting materials from a tree is so exhausting.
06:25I could understand they're going for certain, I would assume, realism.
06:29But if you are going to do so, I very well expect a realistic outcome from cutting a tree
06:36and not getting, I don't know, two or three wood planks instead of whole damn tree having
06:41at least 10 wood planks in it.
06:42So in that sense, when I mentioned these things all over the internet on various forums and
06:48stuff, I was basically attacked by people saying that either I'm a hater or that a control
06:54scheme is basically a skill issue.
06:57And then a couple of days later, a CEO of a company or other developers are saying that
07:03they're going to produce patches in order to fix the controls.
07:07And I'm thinking to myself, if the controls are perfect, like majority of people are saying,
07:12then why are developers fixing these things?
07:15Because if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
07:18But apparently it was broke as fuck, so naturally they have to fix it.
07:22Otherwise, you are not having a great time.
07:24And even today, as of recording of this video, a new patch just landed, I think patch 1.01,
07:31where they are addressing more issues when it comes to control scheme.
07:35Most notably, what I have seen is the galloping has been fixed in order to be more, I would
07:41say, natural or according to already established rules, how to handle a horse or any mounted
07:47creature in that manner.
07:49And I have to say, all credit goes to devs because they are really trying to fix this
07:54particular problem.
07:56But sadly, first impressions are first impressions and that's how it's going to be forever.
08:01That doesn't necessarily mean that the game is going to be bad forever because it's just
08:05a first impression and a game as a product is something that can always be improved upon
08:11if the developers so desire.
08:13And clearly the desire is there.
08:15Okay, so we covered the whole control scheme.
08:19Well, what about story?
08:20Same as the control situation, the story is also a huge fucking mess.
08:26In my first impressions, I mentioned it being disjointed.
08:30In other words, it does not possess the usual story elements that are the foundational building
08:36blocks of a narrative, which means that you have a situation when the story starts with
08:41something powerful, something that grips you in the beginning, then a lot of things happen
08:46in the middle of it and then you have a proper conclusion.
08:49And sure enough, Crimson Desert starts really damn good.
08:53You have a compelling reason why things are happening.
08:56And I immediately assume that this story is going to be your classical vengeance path.
09:03But then for whatever fucking reason, instead of you following that particular story, the
09:09first quest that is the main quest asks you to do the following.
09:14Try out arm wrestling minigame in this tavern.
09:17Give coin to the beggar.
09:19Save noblewoman from the sewage.
09:21Get a cat from the rooftop.
09:24And finally, clean the chimney with a goddamn broom.
09:28This is the main quest of this particular game.
09:31I shit you not.
09:32You can go check it out how it happens.
09:33It's just word for word what I already said.
09:36Not to mention the main character that's completely bland is not really helping you out in order
09:43to get into the whole narrative or the story in general.
09:46And this might be explained by this article that came out saying that the game had a chaotic
09:52development because from a last minute story to internal power struggle and toxic positivity,
09:58the game's issues might run deeper than expected.
10:01Basically, there was this story that was all fleshed out and then the power struggle happened
10:06and then the story was thrown away and was substituted with what we have now.
10:11Obviously, we cannot prove these things or verify the identity of people who actually
10:17came with the story and shared it with the general public.
10:21But I always say where there is smoke, there is fire.
10:25And to me, if you have this particular situation where the story isn't gripping at all and the
10:30main character is not helping because his responses to the situation that's happening around him
10:36are nonsensical to say the least, you could say that one might expect to have issues going deeper
10:43into the whole story and the game itself because there isn't anything gripping or compelling happening.
10:50And that's precisely why I have problems with it.
10:52So naturally, I went online to see what other people are saying.
10:56I mentioned my problems and the response that I got was as follows.
11:01This game is not about a story.
11:03You should ignore it because you are playing it wrong.
11:07You're supposed to focus on open world.
11:10You're supposed to do your random exploration.
11:13And you should treat the story as something that's not important at all.
11:17I don't know exactly when it happened that most of the people lost their goddamn common sense.
11:24But apparently, that's a thing now on the internet.
11:26I have never seen a situation where somebody would say that the story is there just because
11:32it needs to be there and you shouldn't take it into consideration, and that I am playing
11:38the game wrong because I'm focusing on it so much.
11:41It seems to me that this game, or rather the people that are commenting in this particular
11:46way, especially when it comes to story and controls, have some kind of a cognitive dissonance
11:51combined with confirmation bias and tribalism.
11:54Or in other words, people are defending their investment and identity rather than evaluating
11:59the game objectively.
12:01Naturally, you can never evaluate certain elements of the game in an objective manner, so to speak.
12:08And obviously, we are talking about the story here, which again, can be highly subjective.
12:13But I'm not talking about this.
12:15I'm talking about the construct of the story, which is completely lacking.
12:20And that cannot be easily defended in any way, shape or form, because we have already
12:25established that the story is lacking those basic building blocks that makes a story a
12:31story.
12:32And that's basically what I'm arguing here.
12:34And I will always take Skyrim, for example, in order to showcase this.
12:39So it's pretty much established that the story, or rather the main story of Skyrim, is not
12:44that great.
12:45However, it possesses all the necessary building blocks in order for someone to point out that
12:50this is an actual story.
12:52You have the beginning in Helgen, where the dragon attacks.
12:56There is a continuous incentive from both you and external factors to deal with the dragon
13:02situation, because it threatens the whole world.
13:05And this is how the story is constructed.
13:08There is this main narrative that's continuously followed throughout the game.
13:12And then you compare the Crimson Desert, and then people say, well, the story gets better
13:17after 20 hours or so.
13:18So you're telling me that I need to slog through the game 20 hours or something like that.
13:23And in the meantime, I gotta kind of construct things into my head and find explanations for
13:29the things that are happening, because the game is not explicitly saying so.
13:33Just to get to a point in the game, which is again, 20 hours plus or something like that,
13:38depending on how you're playing the game, in order to get some kind of a semblance of
13:42a story.
13:43I know what's going to happen.
13:45It's a classical revenge or vengeance story where you want to rebuild everything that you
13:49have lost.
13:50But the way that it is presented to the narrative, so to speak, is completely atrocious.
13:55So obviously, first impressions are going to be bad, because if I am spending 8 hours playing
14:01the game, and the game, or at least the story element of it, is completely lacking, I am losing
14:06my interest in it, because yes, I can do stuff around it, but when I go back to the story,
14:12it will be like, why am I doing this?
14:13What is my incentive to engage with these people, these NPCs, these story elements, when there
14:18is none?
14:19And like I said, people obviously attack you, because again, you are a hater, you're playing
14:23the game wrong, it's not about the story, it's not about this, it's not about that.
14:27Well, turns out, the Pearl Abyss CEO himself admits the story disappointed players, even
14:32as the game dominates Steam and sells millions.
14:35However, the damage has already been done, and they cannot revamp the story that easily,
14:40so he basically said that he is going to just ignore that element of the game and focus
14:45on gameplay, because that's more important to them.
14:47So, if you don't believe me that the story is bad, there is the man himself, the CEO of
14:53the fucking studio, that says that the story isn't that great.
14:56So, everything that I was saying was justified, but again, we have the cognitive dissonance
15:02that's hitting people left, right and center, basically preventing them to see the actual
15:07problem that I'm pointing out.
15:09And I can respect people liking the game, more power to them, I wish I was as oblivious
15:15as them in order to enjoy the game, because it seems like there is a lot to do, or at
15:20least
15:21that's what I am seeing based on the size of the map.
15:24But it makes you really wonder, if you let these things slide, and you don't really say
15:29anything, then who knows, maybe in the future we're gonna get the same slop that we are getting
15:35in Crimson Desert when it comes to the story and when it comes to the controls.
15:38And hopefully people or other developers are going to have more common sense not to repeat
15:44these mistakes, because this would be detrimental to the whole industry, and we would basically
15:49go backwards instead of forwards when it comes to improving the general systems, most notably
15:55user experience through input.
15:57Naturally, there are some other things that are not that great when it comes to this game,
16:01but it's safe to say that this game is definitely not a masterpiece, nor it deserves the 10 out
16:09of 10 or 100 out of 100 score.
16:11And when I see people giving these high scores, and I see all the issues that the game has,
16:18it makes you really wonder, are these people gaslighting others on purpose in order to gain
16:23something in forms of, I don't know, use, money, prestige, or something else?
16:29Or the standards are so low and people are hyped to no end that they don't really see what
16:34the hell is going on around them.
16:36Because whether or not both of these claims are actually true, the common denominator here
16:41is that this is a worrisome behavior.
16:44I remember back in the day when the game sucked, or there were issues that the game had, you
16:49would simply speak them.
16:51And then if people would be like, okay, you know, I can live with that, I'm going to play
16:54the game, sure.
16:55But then there were others who were like, okay, you know, this is something that I can live
16:59with, and I don't mind shelling money in order to experience this particular situation.
17:05Because this is the core of the problem.
17:08People have preferences, but you still need to tell the truth as much as you can, and provide
17:14facts as objectively as you can, in order to inform the consumer that the product has
17:21problems, and then the consumer is going to make a decision whether or not they can live
17:25with these particular problems.
17:27But today, if you say that the game is bad even in one small element, you are immediately
17:34attacked from the other side, which is fanatically defending the game no matter what, and then
17:40you have the other side, which is fanatically attacking the game in any way, shape, or form,
17:45whether or not there is a problem to begin with.
17:48I think this tribalism, like I said before, is going to be the death of all of us, because
17:53at the end of the day, this is going to hurt everyone in the future, since if the people
17:58or developers who are making the games go something along the lines of, well, these people did
18:03this, so I think we can kind of smuggle ourselves and do the same, and then they flop, it's going
18:08to be like, oh my god, our game was amazing, but it flopped because of the bad people on the
18:14internet.
18:15You know, the usual narrative, especially what was happening lately with the games like Concord,
18:19or that High Guard game, or whatever.
18:22People are just getting captured in their own bubble, they don't get external information
18:26about whether or not the product is good, and then you have a situation where someone spends
18:31200 million dollars on a game that's actually dogshit, just because they didn't want to listen
18:36to people who actually have experience about these things.
18:41That's why you need to playtest these things.
18:43And that's why, according to some news outlets, the control scheme was being reported during
18:50playtest as problematic, but the developer just refused to acknowledge it, or flat out
18:55ignored it, and just shipped the game as is, and then when the problems occurred, now they
19:00are patching it as fast as possible, because, you know, why should you do these things before,
19:05when the problems are already acknowledged, when you can do it afterwards, and break yourself,
19:10and crunch yourself to death in order to fix issues that have already been reported.
19:15I really don't understand this way of thinking, and to me, this is just backwards way of doing
19:21things, and it can never end up in a good way.
19:23And apparently, I have babbled about this so much, that I actually completely forgot about
19:29any other articles that happened today.
19:32You could say that I'm passionate about this situation, and I wanted to share my thoughts
19:36a bit deeper, but at the end of the day, I don't really mind, because, again, raising
19:41opinions about these issues can only do good, because my goal has always been, and it always
19:49will be, to improve the games for the future generation.
19:54Because if we are having these problems now, I really don't want to see them in the future,
19:59just because one game did this, and then the others are going to get more bolder to do
20:04this stupid shit.
20:06This goes against any type of common sense, and I really hope that I'm not going to see
20:12this situation again.
20:13But anyway, it seems that sharing criticism is working, because developers are releasing
20:20the patches, and fixing things that are broken, and that's always a good sign.
20:25Now, they cannot fix the story, and basically, it is what it is, but if the rest of the game
20:31is enjoyable, to a point that you can be like, okay, I can kind of ignore the story, because
20:36it's dumb, and I can kind of invest 20 hours into the game, in order for story to get better
20:42along the way, then maybe you could ignore the story, or rather, you could just acknowledge
20:49that it's shit, but you're playing the game for other reasons, because it's giving you
20:53less frustration in one department, or in other words, you are having more enjoyment in,
20:59let's say, 80% of the game, while 20%, which is a story, is going to be just something that
21:04you're going to go over, in order to finish it eventually, and that's basically that.
21:09I still am not going to jump into the game yet, because right now, I am playing Death Stranding
21:142, and I'm having a blast.
21:16But when I'm done with that game, I will probably go back to Crimson Desert to see what's happening,
21:22start from fresh.
21:23Maybe my second impression is going to be better than the first one, so I reckon I can
21:29make a comparison after several patches have landed, in order to see whether or not the
21:34game actually is more enjoyable than it used to be when it initially launched.
21:40Again, if you expected more news, I am sorry, because I got kind of stuck into this particular
21:46situation, but I'm sure that people who are watching this are going to forgive me, kind
21:51of, sort of, maybe, who knows, we will see.
21:54You can always bitch down in the comments if you manage to get this far, and tell me
21:58if I did it good or bad.
21:59I do read what people write, and I try to better myself in order to, I suppose, achieve a better
22:06quality of this thing, whatever I'm doing.
22:08And that's basically it when it comes to the news that I covered this week.
22:12Technically, it's only one huge news, but it is what it is.
22:15Thank you very much for watching, and as always, I encourage you to leave comments.
22:19I read all of them, and I'm very happy to interact there with you guys.
22:24If you enjoy this content, consider liking it and subscribing for more discussions like
22:28this.
22:29And that's it from me, until the next one.
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