Crimson Desert feels a gritty take on Zelda Tears Of The Kingdom, with potential

Crimson Desert has some interesting ideas, but its identity feels a little all over the place.

Playing it at this year's Summer Game Fest event was my first time giving it a try for myself, but you can find a full preview on our website.

Despite its gritty medieval realism, Crimson Desert has more in common with The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom rather than titles you’d expect like The Witcher III: Wild Hunt or Elden Ring.

There’s plenty of hack-and-slash gameplay to be enjoyed, with a variety of weapon combos to unleash on hordes of enemies.

My demo took me through a colossal battle for an enemy keep, and I was genuinely impressed with how much real-time action was going on at once. I had to trek through hundreds of clashing soldiers, occasionally stopping to lend a hand to my brethren as they pushed the opposing force back to their base.

While swiping with melee weapons was good fun it’s the magic attacks that felt the most impactful. Fiery explosions, levitating objects and swinging them at enemies, and even grappling up buildings with a magic arrow that you can also swing from all added together to form an impressive arsenal. In more Your character also has a magical equivalent to Link’s glider in Tears Of The Kingdom. It was tricky to get to grips with just how much you had at your disposal but my demo was from a good few hours into the game, so in the full thing you’d be more than accustomed with your abilities by then.

After fighting my way into a keep I took on the boss, which is where my enjoyment started to dwindle ever so slightly.

It didn’t feel obvious when to dodge or deflect attacks, so incoming damage became more of an annoyance despite the unlimited revives the demo included.

The method of attack for the boss itself also felt very Demon Souls-like, as rather than attacking normally you instead have to break his poise, grab a pillar with your magic abilities, levitate it, and grab onto it before swinging it at the enemy. It’s a cool idea and it was very cinematic, but it was a lengthy process just to deplete the boss’ healthbar slightly. This needed to be repeated a few times and while it did feel satisfying to finally bring the pillar down on the boss for the final time it felt more like relief than actual victory.

The most fun in my demo came from exploring the open-world. It’s enormous and gorgeous, and I was impressed to learn that if you could see it you could probably travel there, including the towering mountains that made up the game’s background.

Your character’s magic also has uses in the open-world, for example an ice ability can create a block of ice in water. Use it in a river and you have a makeshift raft you can stand atop and slowly drift downstream. I’m interested to see what other bits and bobs you’ll be able to experiment with in the full game.

Overall I liked playing Crimson Desert, but it feels like there are a few teething issues it needs to work out before being a truly great open-world adventure game. What it has in abundance is potential, and I’m interested to see how its identity develops as time goes on.