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Crimson Desert got another, much longer gameplay trailer during Gamescom 2023, and it has reignited interest in the game anew. The last time we saw the game in action was so long ago that the latest gameplay trailer shows innumerable improvements and unexpected changes to the overall creative direction. While Crimson Desert still does not have a release date, the number of people looking forward to Pearl Abyss’ foray into single-player open-world action-adventure games has reached new heights. But at the same time, the lofty heights Pearl Abyss is aiming for have led some fans to be cautiously optimistic.
Pearl Abyss has been hard at work on Crimson Desert for many years now. The game was initially revealed way back in 2019, with an expected release date of 2021. But when 2021 rolled around, the developers decided that the game needed a lot more work, and they did not “want another Cyberpunk 2077 situation” on their hands.
Pearl Abyss’ Shifting Goalposts For Crimson Desert
Taking inspiration and learning from the success of others is an integral part of game development or any creative process for that matter. Crimson Desert proudly wears its inspirations on its sleeve and tries to improve upon them in terms of execution. But it seems as though the developers are unable to set a scope for their biggest game to date and want to make sure it trades blows with the best of the best by replicating what they did to some extent. And much of that foreign DNA is clearly visible in the most recent trailers and the older ones as well.
The very first gameplay trailer for Crimson Desert back in 2020 showed that the climbing mechanics were very similar to Zelda: Breath of the Wild. And that the combat and world design resembled that of The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. That only became more obvious with the latest Gamescom trailer for Crimson Desert, which even showed The Witcher 3′s mission board recreated by Pearl Abyss. While that is completely normal and actually exciting, it’s the Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom inspirations that are where things get complicated.
Pearl Abyss – Perfectionists Or Aimless
An important message from the #CrimsonDesert team: pic.twitter.com/pKJPBNyW3P
— Crimson Desert (@CrimsonDesert_) July 29, 2021
For the uninitiated, when developing a game of this scale and budget, the features, scope, vision, timing, and creative direction are finalized well in advance. That doesn’t seem to be the case here at all. As mentioned before, Crimson Desert’s development kicked off years before 2019, and the Gamescom trailer shows Sky Islands from Tears of the Kingdom as well as the accompanying mechanics. The Sky Islands and freefalling were first shown in the first Tears of the Kingdom trailer in late 2022.
This means that the developers over at Pearl Abyss saw the Sky Islands in the Tears of the Kingdom trailer # 1 in late 2022, and decided at the point in time that they wanted this feature in Crimson Desert. This isn’t a small addition one can make on a whim and isn’t a very efficient method of developing such a massive video game. If this continues, Crimson Desert is bound for development hell.
Crimson Desert’s Release Date Is Nowhere In Sight
The first gameplay trailer for Crimson Desert showed a ton of frame drops, clunky animations, combat, and an unacceptable amount of hair clipping. But the latest trailer shows a lot of improvements in some of those areas, except for some of the animations, interiors, and model clipping, which are still a little rough around the edges for now. But graphically speaking, Crimson Desert is an absolute spectacle, especially in action, and online video compression probably doesn’t do it justice.
Not only that, but we have not seen even a snippet of what Crimson Desert’s narrative will offer. To top it off, we haven’t even gotten a single dialogue since the game’s original reveal trailer. So if you were thinking that Crimson Desert is nearing the completion of its development, that probably couldn’t be further from the truth.
For now, the most recent estimate we have from the team regarding the release date of Crimson Desert is Autumn 2023. The Gamescom trailer we just saw confirms that even that is probably impossible. Considering how long it takes to implement such in-depth mechanics in a massive world, even a release in 2024 seems too good to hope for.
If the development team continues to be inspired by new releases every year, the chances of Crimson Desert ever being a finished product are slim to none. If they cement the feature set, they have and polish it to their high standards, Crimson Desert could quite possibly become one of the best open-world games ever made.
