Crimson Desert trailer draws Skyrim, Witcher and God of War comparisons

A newly released 15-minute overview trailer for Pearl Abyss’ open-world RPG Crimson Desert has amassed millions of views in about 24 hours and is drawing comparisons to franchises like The Witcher, God of War and Skyrim, Polygon reports. The trailer highlights fluid combat and expansive exploration along with a faction system, flying mechanics, crafting, hidden treasure inside puzzling ruins, climbing gameplay, controllable mechs and hints of political intrigue.

The omniscient narrator says, “You can pretty much go anywhere that captures your interest.” Online reactions, Polygon says, largely fall into two buckets: excitement and skepticism. Highly upvoted comments praise the mash-up of beloved series — “This is like open world [medieval], modern, future everything combined into one,” and “Feels like you take the best of all our favorite franchises and put in a single game” — while others warn it looks “too good to be true” or say “There’s gotta be a catch man.” Polygon notes the chatter resembles the hype that trailed Bethesda’s Starfield.

In a Polygon preview of a Gamescom 2024 demo, combat was described as a mix of Sekiro and Shadow of the Colossus’ creature-scaling, but the demo also suffered from particle-filled gameplay and a lack of lock-on options, leaving the outlet cautiously optimistic.

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