At first, we see how simple the mechanics may seem, since it is based on what we have seen in all games of the genre, blocking, dodging, counterattack system, strong blow and light blow. But the title takes this combination to a completely different place, since it integrates a system similar to what can be found in Black Desert Online regarding the launch abilities, those known as “super armor” and “iframe”.
In the first case, we find a protected ability, which will allow enemies to harm us but will not cut our character’s animation, allowing us to launch a devastating attack to finish them off. On the other hand, we have the iframe system, which essentially gives the player the ability to become immune while launching a long ability that cannot be canceled, such as grabbing and throwing characters.
How combat works in detail
As we have explained, the fundamental idea of the fight is to offer the player the possibility to attack, defend and dodge, but by including skills that have the two aspects that we have mentioned before, the game becomes much more versatile. First of all we have the simple blows, which are the mythical ones of R1 and R2, light and powerful, while we can also dodge, run, jump and even throw a kick at our enemy to cut his animation and destabilize him.
Like many other games, Purple Desert It has a perfect blocking system, as well as a series of skills that we will not be able to block completely because they will completely exhaust our resistance bar and leave us completely exposed by having an animation in which we will see the character exhausted.
But this is where what we previously called “super armor” comes in, and these combos will allow us to receive reduced damage from enemies but be able to attack them instantly after completing the skill.
To all this we must add the grip system, which will allow us to grab an enemy of medium size (including humanoid bosses the height of our character) and throw him to the ground with an attack that will leave him motionless for a while, long enough to deal him a blow that will practically finish him off.
This is the boss experience in the new Pearl Abyss game
In almost every game that features an action combat system of this type, we can find a very important mechanic, the boss system that will prevent us from continuing the story. We have been able to see four of the most powerful enemies in the game, an extremely fast swordsman (Reed Demon), an incredibly strong Viking type (Deer King), a Yeti-like monster that has devastating attacks (Cloverhorn) and a giant hermit crab (Queen Rockcrab).
The first boss mentioned presented a mechanic in which we had to try to find the perfect moment to hit or catch him, since after hitting him the enemy would disappear in a cloud of smoke. The second boss is a little easier for those who are used to games like dark-souls, since it is based on dodging and making attacks when he does not have his shield up, since this will make him counterattack us.
On the other hand, the third boss can be a bit complicated if you don’t use the “super armor” system since in one go he will send us flying in the air and take a lot of life from us (the character’s Ragdoll animations are quite funny). And finally we have the hermit crab, a boss in which you have to look for certain vulnerabilities in order to eliminate its shell and kill it.
What makes Crimson Desert a unique game
There are plenty of titles that attempt to pull off original combat with extremely fluid gameplay, but there aren’t many that manage to make it a little more challenging than normal fun. Purple Desert It is a game that manages to mix all these elements and offer the player a truly new experience. We were able to test the PS5 version, and although some aspects still need to be polished, after an hour of testing we can say that this is the case. It seemed like they had only done it after ten minutes.
The game is entertaining and we are looking forward to seeing how its open world will be presented, since for the moment we have only been able to try a few bosses without being able to explore the map.
