After a series of patches, many players praised Crimson Desert, but even those satisfied with the project note that the novelty is slowly gaining momentum.
Dinga Bakaba, the studio director of Arkane Lyon, who worked on Dishonored, drew attention to the game and shared his opinion — a new gaming experience awaits gamers under the familiar guise:
It's interesting how Crimson Desert works in reverse compared to most games of this type. Usually the beginning seems magical, and over time you begin to see the mechanisms: "ah, this looks like that game", "this will be repeated" and so on. But in the case of Crimson Desert, it's different — from the very beginning it seems to expose its gameplay component. Sources of inspiration, controls, systems — that's all you see at first. However, after a while, all this fades into the background — magic appears, and it doesn't disappear, because you have already accepted its rules and basic elements.
Dinga draws a parallel between Crimson Desert and board games:
It's like immersing yourself in a board game, when at first you only see the field and the rules, but then you enter the "magic circle" correctly — and the real fun begins. And Crimson Desert really unfolds over time: the game doesn't throw out everything it has at once, but on the contrary — it continues to introduce new things, gives already known systems greater meaning and makes them interact with each other.
The developer noted that most of the Crimson Desert game systems are "saturated" and "implemented naturally in the game world", and in some places Pearl Abyss allows itself "tonal liberties with (smartly designed) fun".
As a result, all this adds up to a "unique gaming journey: from game to magic and discovery".
Dinga suggests that this specific structure of Crimson Desert gives players a sense of satisfaction from overcoming the requirements of the game and making discoveries:
Perhaps that's why many people feel that the time spent in Crimson Desert pays off and leaves a "personal" impression. In an era of rapid consumption, it's nice to come across a game that "hooks" not because it gives in to the player, but because it resists.