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Say what you will about Red Dead Redemption 2, the finer details in Rockstar's open-world Western are second to none. A game that's gotten close, however, is Crimson Desert from Pearl Abyss, as an environment artist on Arthur Morgan's great misadventure heaped praise on the RPG's water.
In a first-impression video, David O'Reilly, a water artist on Red Dead Redemption 2, focuses especially on the hydrophysics of Crimson Desert. "This water is amazing," he gushes. "There are all sorts of interesting things about how they're handling the water in this game. They're using, effectively, a live particle simulation."
He then makes a proclamation that's truly something worth Pearl Abyss keeping to heart. "Finally, a game's come along that does better rivers than [Red Dead Redemption 2]," O'Reilly says, without an ounce of hyperbole.
"I say that as someone who helped to make those rivers," he continues. "I couldn't be more pleased to see this, we've made some progress. They really know their rivers here, and this tech is really helping them to just push these rivers. They're absolutely fantastic."
Water is a notoriously difficult part of game design. Getting fluidity right is tricky enough, but then you have the reflective nature and how it fills different spaces, and the physics of characters moving through it. Rivers, then, are a whole other challenge, because they have to flow and look naturally formed and such.
Hence, when games do them well, it's noteworthy. O'Reilly mentions there are flaws, because it's a delicate art. "There's one, and I'm not sure whether it's a bug or an efficiency thing," he states, then saying he'll address that in a later video.
We'll see what insights that brings. In the meantime, if you're playing Crimson Desert, take a second to appreciate how the streams of Pywel glisten in the sunlight.
