Baldur's Gate 3 publishing director Michael Douse is certain new open-world game Crimson Desert is the software equivalent of the Bride of Frankenstein, just a jumble of parts awkwardly stitched together with the goal of appealing to anyone.
Douse explains in a March 28 Twitter thread, "Crimson Desert is fun to play, but it is such a cynical amalgamation of borrowed mechanics. It is Now That's What I Call Gaming plucked off a gas station shelf, for better & worse."
Developer Pearl Abyss' Crimson Desert has more gameplay options than a fish has scales. Our four-star GamesRadar+ Crimson Desert review recognizes it's "far better as a sandbox than as a story," writes reviewer Joel Franey, with "cattle rustling. Investment banking. Dye manufacture. Civil infrastructure. Mining. Bounty hunting. Mech piloting. Sumo wrestling. Import and exports. Card hustling. Puzzle solving. Interior design," and, inconceivably, much more.
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"Expect a lot more of this in premium & F2P," Douse continues to say about Pearl Abyss' kitchen sink approach to design. "There is less risk in it."
But even a Bride of Frankenstein commands respect – if not for its creator's vision, then at least for its personal style. Douse reiterates about Crimson Desert that, "By no means is it bad, it's fun."
He also admits, "Is it more cynical than any other big AAA open world game that borrows from its own past? Probably not. At least it's adding spice to the stew, rather than removing it."
"It would be sick if it gets its Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen moment," Douse concludes, referencing Capcom's chunky RPG from 2012, now with cult status. Its "momentum points toward it."
Crimson Desert is a questionable RPG but an excellent medieval life sim, and I fed Kliff bugs for 5 hours to prove it.
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