Michael Douse, the publishing director for Baldur’s Gate III, has touched on Pearl Abyss’ Crimson Desert in a series of posts on X, describing the open-world RPG as haven basically thrown everything into the pot in order to appeal to as many people as possible.
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. Expect a lot more of this in premium & F2P. There is less risk in it.
That’s not to say Crimson Desert is a bad game though, as Douse added, “By no means is it bad, it’s fun. 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.”
Crimson Desert was released on March 19 for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S, and Pearl Abyss announced just recently that the game has sold over four million copies worldwide.
[Source – Michael Douse on X via GamesRadar]
