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Crimson Desert is one of the games generating the most interest for 2025. The game, developed by Pearl Abyss, This promises to be an action experience developed in a gruesome open world and incredibly colorful.
A title that I had the chance to play this week for a little over an hour. A test session prepared for the occasion, during which the company allowed me face four of the bosses that will be available in the final game. A contact that leaves aside exploration and narration to present its strong point: combat.
A little insight that allowed us to see for ourselves that what we have seen so far in the game's trailers is not just a coincidence or a decoration to make it more visible. Quite the contrary, it seems just as agile and dizzying as it appears. and with an above-average amount of attack options and abilities. It seems incredible how many combinations an Xbox controller can have…
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This prepared demo had five phases or zones. The first, more introductory, puts us in control of the protagonist directly into combat against more common enemies. A not too difficult fight where the difficulty was represented by the number of enemies on the screen.
A feeling that changes radically with the final enemies which, as we have already mentioned, we defeated four of them: the Reed Demon, the Deer King, the Rockcrab Queen and the new Maleficent Marie. A series of fights which They made us understand the diversity of confrontations and mechanics, since none of them repeated patterns and what tactic was useful in defeating the first, was completely useless for the second.
Complex but very rewarding gameplay
As I already mentioned, The test mainly consisted of experiencing its gameplay first-hand. Yes, I was able to benefit from your amazing graphics section, but in essence the emphasis was on combat. A system reminiscent of the Saga of Souls due to its difficulty and the need to dodge and block, although it is much faster and agile, much less crude than the FromSoftware games.
In addition, Strategy will be essential to emerge victorious from each fight, Where to choose when to throw or what attack to use will be key. Because nothing else, but we have several attack options. From the most basic light and strong attacks to special abilities and all using different button combinations.
Something that At first it's too overwhelming, because you don't know what to do. But once you get the hang of it, the feeling is incredible. It happened to us that with the first two bosses we were quite frustrated at not being able to carry out certain actions. But with the third and learning almost an hour of combat we needed a sigh. And theoretically, it was more difficult.
It is also true that they released us straight into combat with nothing more than a brief explanation beforehand. In the final game we feel that it will be something more progressive and that they will be introduced little by little, so that the difficulty curve is somewhat satisfactory.
But, like I said, once you master the skills, performing combos is a spectacular feeling when you execute them correctly and see how the enemy's health drops in an instant.
Beyond combat, we also played with other options, like the inventory where we will find both food to heal ourselves and the different tools and sets of attack and defense. Elements that we will improve over time, something that happened in the demo itself, because by defeating the Deer King he gave us a superior sword and shield.
Four bosses, four challenges
Faced with the bosses, we had absolute freedom as to their order. We prefer to go there first. Deer King, a large and powerful enemy. A real mass that based its strategy on strong attacks and grabbing us and throwing us to the ground to tear us to pieces. A fight that perhaps cost us more because it was the first and we were still adapting to all the possibilities.
A very cumbersome enemy who loved come too close to us, at this point we had to exploit our attack combos to be as precise as possible. Of course, don't try to catch it, because it was normal for us to end up on the ground.
The second pattern we chose was Demon of the Reed and our first rookie mistake was applying the same tactic as the previous one. This is where we realized the potential of Crimson Desert's enemy design, as it didn't help.
Unlike the previous one, the Demon Reed was agile and fast and always looking for the distance between us and him. So we had to be the ones to approach him now and try to be faster. Plus, at one point he summoned scarecrows that stopped him from losing his life, so our obvious goal was to kill them.
The best and most effective way, even if not the only one, was ago a double jump combo, stop time and shoot an explosive arrow. A quick combo where you have to do everything at once. Complicated, but not impossible.
Once we defeated him, we decided to face Evil Mary. We found this new boss the easiest of all and we don't know if that was because it was really simpler or because we were already used to the gameplay.
Regardless, Maleficent Marie presents a different challenge: He teleports onto the stage and summons a multitude of enemies who continue to attack us. A dynamic different from the other two where we have two clear objectives: to put an end to her and her hordes. Again, a different strategy. For the hordes of enemies, the option was clear: explosive encounters. For her, take advantage of the lunge combo and try to deal maximum damage before she teleports away.
Finally we had to overcome Queen Rockcrab, one of the most difficult and different bosses. An enemy that few have defeated (we were not one of them) and which represents a real challenge, since it is not necessary to strike it as such. Must look for his weak points by climbing up to him, destroy them then use a special item in the purest style of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and the scene with the AT-ATs.
It is true that you should not overthrow it as such, but with the wire you will have to reach the top to make a final attack that will overthrow it. A very different strategy.
However, it is clear to us that Crimson Desert focuses on variety in its final bossesnot only in their design, but also in their attack patterns, their ways of moving, and their strategies for defeating them. It's true that we only faced four, but they were all different from each other, with totally opposite and original approaches. And if this is maintained in the final game with greater variety, we are talking about a title that would remove the monotony of players with its proposal.
SO, Crimson Desert convinced us from this first contact. With complex but accessible gameplay, impressive graphics and even better enemy designs, the title Pearl Abyss is nominated among the greats of 2025. And even a candidate for GOTY 2025?
