2026 is a new year that brings with it new opportunities. One such opportunity will soon be the ability to play Crimson Desert, which itself promises a quiver full of experiences to let fly from your longbow of senses (or, er, something like that). Whether you want to fight a dragon, fly on a dragon, ride across open plains, fight a towering boss, or just roleplay as somebody called Kliff with a 'k', Crimson Desert has you covered.
Set in the world of the wildly popular MMORPG Black Desert, but offering an entirely separate and self-contained adventure, Crimson Desert is a single-player open-world action game. You step into Kliff's sweaty yet heroic boots shortly before he and the other Greymanes – his fellows in arms, and found family – suffer a brutal ambush by their sworn enemies the Black Bears. With most dead and the survivors scattered, Kliff sets off to reunite what remains of the Greymanes and exact his revenge.
What's for desert?
Your adventure, like Kliff's, will be a solo one – but that doesn't mean nothing has been taken from its MMORPG heritage.
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"The success of Black Desert Online has shaped our approach in several important ways," a Pearl Abyss spokesperson tells us. "The team’s extensive expertise in crafting large, vibrant, and visually rich worlds helped lay the foundation for Crimson Desert’s seamless open world – further enhanced by the capabilities of the BlackSpace Engine." The developer credits its new in-house engine with enabling it to expand Crimson Desert from the original vision, allowing both "game and engine to develop alongside each other when needed," according to Pearl Abyss.
"Black Desert’s combat legacy also influenced the game’s direction," the studio tells us. "Its intuitive yet deep action system evolves in Crimson Desert into a more cinematic and tactile form, combining a wide moveset arsenal, elemental enhancements, weapons, wrestling-inspired moves, and timed dodges and parries that let players create their own distinctive combat style."
This evolution of the combat system can be seen in the trailers and gameplay footage released thus far. Kliff fights and leaps around with an athleticism and variety of techniques more commonly seen in linear action-adventure games, a far cry from the more limited moveset often seen in games with social features to lean on. The intention, it seems, is to bring the intensity of more claustrophobic experiences to the open world of Pywel.
"Boss battles play a crucial role in shaping the game’s intensity, variety, and sense of progression," Pearl Abyss explains. "For example, the Staglord, a towering stag-like boss, is so massive that grapples and wrestling-inspired moves are completely ineffective, forcing players to rely on precise timing and movement to avoid its powerful charges and wide-range attacks."
We experienced the might of this particular brute in our latest Crimson Desert hands-on preview. "In contrast, the Queen Stoneback Crab requires players to use specific mechanics and environmental cues to break through its defenses, showcasing how different bosses encourage different strategic approaches. These encounters aren’t isolated set pieces, they embody Crimson Desert’s core combat philosophy of reading patterns, adapting abilities and equipment, and leveraging the environment."
As you organically explore the world, you can come across these stories, become involved in them.
While there will be combat – and lots of it, including large-scale battles – Pearl Abyss is going to great lengths in an effort to offer a varied adventure.
We've already seen several different environments, such as fields, towns, mountains, lakes, and castles, all supported by real-time weather thanks to the new engine. As well as meeting new people (and fantastical creatures) and introducing their insides to the outside world, you'll also be able to take part in some cooking, puzzle solving, fishing, and resource gathering. Then there's how you'll be getting from one activity to another.
You can use your trusty legs, if you're old school. But you'll also be able to ride mounts, including – yes – at least one dragon. It remains to be seen how often that tasty opportunity will arise, but we already know that there will be some Zelda-style skydiving, and the ability to glide both at great heights and not-so-great heights with the Crow's Wing skill. We've even seen Kliff operating some sort of machine that looks like a medieval-flavoured mini mech…
The intention is for Pywel to feel like a living, active world that is not for you, but around you. "The world feels truly alive," Pearl Abyss says, "with countless NPCs engaging in large-scale battles while everyday life plays across villages and cities. There are many stories and incidents happening across the world involving a wide range of Pywel’s residents. And as you organically explore the world, you can come across these stories, become involved in them, and help out with requests, solve problems both big and small".
In today's gaming landscape, players enjoy an embarrassment of riches when it comes to open worlds. A fantasy flavor, too, is far from uncommon. The promise of a combat system with the dynamism and depth of a linear action-adventure here though is intriguing, and let's face it, the prospect of being able to ride a dragon and carpet your foes with flame is basically irresistible.
Pearl Abyss seems passionate in its quest to deliver a believable world filled with variety and wonder; and if they pull it off, there's no danger of your interest falling off a Kliff.
