In large games with vast worlds, there is always the risk of becoming fatigued and losing interest before the end. MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz, however, can’t get enough of Crimson Desert even after nearly 100 hours. What is the reason behind this?
Games with large open worlds often suffer for me. From the franchises of GTA and Assassin’s Creed alone, there are several titles that I started with great joy but never wanted to finish. Even Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws lost me. It took years and numerous playthroughs before the credits of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion finally rolled across the screen.
The reasons for this are manifold. Sometimes I find exploring the world unenjoyable because the map is cluttered with symbols and I’m not actually discovering anything, just working through to-do lists. Or many of the activities feel too generic and formulaic. Highlights or exciting challenges, in whatever form, are missing – yawn.
Moreover, every open world benefits when I enjoy traveling through the zones, and when the world is atmospheric and continually offers something visually appealing. The best sign that I’m having fun: when I repeatedly forego the comfortable fast travel.
Among my favorite open-world games of the past 10 years are Red Dead Redemption 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man, The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine (“hust”, a trick I hope you forgive me for to bring Geralt into it), Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and – of course – Elden Ring. Oh, and brand new: Crimson Desert.
Karsten has been looking forward to Crimson Desert since the first trailers. In the past 3 weeks, he has spent nearly every free minute on the continent of Pywel. Almost 100 hours have been clocked up.
An open world that offers the best of many worlds
The fact that the world of Crimson Desert ranks among the best in the open-world genre for me has a variety of reasons. The simplest reason: even after nearly 100 hours in Pywel, I can’t get enough of wandering through the world of this action-adventure and simply exploring.
That Crimson Desert achieves this is largely due to the fact that the developers from Pearl Abyss have incorporated elements in their world design that other open worlds have already done very well.
Similar to Elden Ring or Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Crimson Desert guides players through the world by enticing them with seemingly exciting points of interest on the horizon. The multitude of mountains and towers, as well as the Abyss in the sky, provide the foundation for this. You can constantly look down from somewhere at lower locations.
The enormous draw distance only supports this. In all four cardinal directions, special locations emerge from the fields, mountains, and forests. And even on truly dark nights, when you can barely see your hand in front of your face, Crimson Desert stimulates the explorer’s heart. Just lift the lantern, and immediately several warmly glowing, yet undiscovered places catch the eye.
On the next page, it continues with the fantastic laws of physics that operate in Pywel.
