u/CascadianCadence

Kliff in Solas Plate Armor

I've had the game since a few days after launch, I have almost 200 hours in, slowly working my way thru the epilogue (I def rushed the main quest a bit, hoping to get to the meat of the story) I'm 32, and I've been a gamer pretty much my whole life. I remember watching my dad play games like MGS, FFVII, MediEvil, Abe's Oddworld and more on his PlayStation. I remember watching my older cousin play GoldenEye and Legend of Zelda on his N64, and then I fell in love with games like Sly Cooper, Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, when I was younger and then Elder Scrolls & Fallout when I started to reach adolescence.

Crimson Desert is *almost* everything I've ever dreamed about in a game. Beautiful, huge open world, with many different biomes/regions and factions. I'll touch on some of the things that absolutely hit in this game (for me) and some other things that PA drastically misses on (imo).

Kliff in Scorchflame Plate Armor/Dark Marksmen Cloak

HITS:

Let's start with CD's many good and even great qualities. As I've mentioned, their open world stands out to me. The world feels familiar and also brand new to me. It is literally gigantic, thoughtfully designed and detailed (mostly) and exploration for the most part feels fun. The armor and weapon customization is a lot of fun, too. I love being able to deck out my characters however I'm feeling, right down to the color and material of weapons and armor, that makes for a really fun time. The mount system is also sick, I mean, horses, wolves, bears, elk, DRAGONS?(take that Hogwarts Legacy) even a MECH SUIT? Holy moly. I gotta bring it back to the world real quick--sometimes the world feels so alive and like I can immerse myself in it, akin to a GTA world or a Bethesda world. Boss fights are challenging and can be fun, really can bring one the sense of accomplishment after defeating an Ancient, or a similarly tough boss. Puzzles are just the right amount of challenging, and if you want more challenge you can always go up into the Abyss (whole other layer of an already enormous world) where you can get a wonderful birds eye view of this gorgeous and expansive world. Pets are also pretty cool, as well as being able to summon your other two main comrades.

https://preview.redd.it/3i9a3ogg26gh1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=f5de6084bab8100582ea2b8c2d48edfc34c749e2

MISSES:

Ok let's go over what I see as what PA could have done better. Let's start with character creation, with a protagonist as speechless as Kliff, I feel like it would have been quite easy to implement a character creation at the beginning of the game, and keep the main character either silent (a la Fable or Betheda games) or just use Kliff's lines and hire 3 or 4 different actors to read the maybe 30 lines he says in the whole game lol. I will only briefly mention the lackluster story, because boy that horse is dead. (Waiting till after story update/DLC drops to start a New Game.) I would have loved a better bow/ranged weapon system, it just feels a little half baked. I don't know why I can't go roaming with my bow unsheathed like a hunter or a ranger. Pretty lame! Also would love daggers to use as actual weapons. I know we have the dagger slot for assassinations and for plunging into a wall to climb, but it would be super cool to dual wield daggers and go rogue on some bandits. Stealth system also feels half baked and like it's almost impossible to do sneaky stuff. I know Abyss Gears and elements are kinda like this game's version of magic, but it would be so cool to have a better magic system, for more mage leaning builds. A camping system would be great, to be able to create a fire/grindstone/tent so you could get buffs for resting in your own bed/tent. Would also add to immersion and role playing. The last thing (I'm sure I have more hits and misses, but this is getting long) is it would be SO SICK to have like a settlement/fortress system (a la Fallout 4) where we could design, customize and build our settlement at Howling Hill (or Pailune, haven't done the move, not sure if I want to lol). So like we could collect resources to build different tents/stations/buildings and after enough leveling up/upgrades you'd upgrade to a fortress, then maybe a town, then put a castle there or something. That would be so dope!

https://preview.redd.it/i502exxh26gh1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=0ec27759d53b2a898525864b4842656f7ce7a3a9

I'm sure I missed some of my thoughts, but so did PA in putting out this game, haha, as much as I love it (haven't played anything else since I got it) I can't help feeling like they rushed release (maybe in order to release in the same year as GTA6?).

I would like to thank Pearl Abyss, thank you for creating the game of my dreams, an open world, third person, fantasy action adventure game like this is one I've been waiting for, for a long time. And they are attentive with updates! Thank you for caring! And to you, reader, if you've made it this far, thank you!

I had my 83 Tercel hit on N Winooski across the st from Barrio today, I had been home from work for all of an hour and went out to my car to the right rear side of my car hit with enough force to scoot the whole rear end to the left about a foot. It was a white Ford truck, I’ve got the license plate, and am hoping whoever it is sees this and comes forward before I report a hit & run tomorrow and your insurance goes up!

EDIT: police report and insurance claim filed, thanks for the help