Video Gamers Podcast - Crimson Desert Overview – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace are diving headfirst into the world of Crimson Desert to explore why gaming fans are split on this ambitious title. Is it a bold step forward for open-world video games, or does it fall short of the hype? We break down what’s working, what’s not, and why gaming opinions are all over the place. From combat to exploration, we’re unpacking whether this is a must-play or a missed opportunity in today’s video games landscape—don’t miss this gaming debate on the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, and Dettmarp   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to the VideoGamers Podcast. Crimson Desert was at the peak of internet hype, but some claimed its failure before it even launched, while others looked forward to hundreds of hours of video game bliss. What's the real story with Crimson Desert? Is it fun? Does it work? And who is it for?

Well, we've been putting in a lot of time, and we're going to break it all down for you. But before we get to that, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, If anyone was going to get lost in the world of Paiwell, it's Mr. ADD himself. I'm amazed we could pull him away to record this episode. Well, and if you're watching the video, you can probably tell how much he's been in this game. It's Ryan.

I'll tell you the truth, Liddy. I don't even know where I am. So, okay. All right. Listen, we have, we have video people. We've had video for a while. Not watching the video. You should go ahead and just turn the video on because Ryan has gone above and beyond for this particular episode.

And it's a sight to behold. I would never. It's going to get worse to the episode. Ryan, just say dilithium crystals for me. Dilithium crystals. Yeah, you're definitely Scotty from Star Trek. Now just say, I've given her all she's got, Captain. I've given it all she's got, Captain.

I can't do it. Oh, man. The great men's will live on. Yes, yes. Glory to the great. All right, let me introduce Ace here. And joining us, will this latest triple A title win him over? Will he be biased because he just.

drafted it for game of the year. Did he do anything in this game that wasn't a detriment to society? It's ace. It's only a detriment to society that you get caught like Ryan did. All right. I never got caught. Yeah, so you're a better criminal is what you're saying. Yeah, they don't know you stole if they don't see you steal it.

If you don't get caught, are you technically a criminal? No, you're just a really good thief, I guess. If you never get caught. Like, you have to. to get caught to be labeled a criminal, right? So if you just never get caught, then you're just a guy that falls into money really easily. I think you're just a klepto at that point. There is something my daddy told me many years ago. If nobody sees it, it didn't happen. You didn't see anything. So Ace is not.

All right, so I'm sorry for falsely accusing him. He's free and clear. I'll tell you right now, he's free and clear. This accent. is going to devolve into something that is really. And Ryan, we have some Scottish listeners out there. Shout out to our Scots out there. We know who you are. We love you. And I just worry that this is going to be like either the funniest thing to them

or the most offensive thing to them. I'm ready to offend. I'm ready. Oh, man. All right, listen, welcome in, everybody. We are going to be breaking down Crimson Desert. Hey, this game, we have a lot of people that, honestly, every day in our Discord,

hey, what do you guys think about Crimson Desert? Is this worth me picking up? You know, the internet was very divided on this game. They've seen posts that people played it for two hours. And then when I'm quitting Crimson Desert, and then you've got people that are 100 hours in going, there's no other game quite like this. This game is polarizing.

We have been playing it. We said in our pre-show, I'll be honest with everybody out there. I am still trying to decide my thoughts on Crimson, desert as a whole. And so, like, this is just one of those games where there's so much to it. There's a lot that works. There's some things that don't work. And it really is going to fall on the gamer to kind of go, this is my kind of game or this isn't my kind of game. But we're going to break all that down for people so they know what to expect out of this game. What our actual thoughts

are after playing it, whether the hype was real or if this was the most overblown thing to happen in 26 so far. But guys, my goodness, listen, we put out a call to the listeners and said, hey, you know what? And we don't normally do this. We don't normally say, hey, man, we really, we really could use your support, right? We've been doing this podcast for five years. We're still growing. This is our passion. You know, we put our hearts and souls into this podcast. And we, we, you know, we just kind of threw it out there and said, hey, we, you know, we are a listener supported podcast. And my goodness, if people did not step up. So we have a lot of people to think. And this is, this is incredible, guys. So we're going to start with the rare members.

So a huge shout out to Philin Bowl, who just joined our Discord server, Philip, that's how we would say it in America anyway, joined the Discord, joined our community morning. We had an Overwatch Community Morning where we played custom Overwatch matches. We had 20 plus people playing Overwatch together. Philip joined the team on that. I think his first time ever playing Overwatch, but had a blast. Long-term member of the Discord, Hassel the Hoff signed up for Rare Status, said, you know what, you guys have been making my commutes and stuff a lot better,

wanted to give back to the podcast. Tyler Rodriguez signing up for Rare Status and Dylan Bell. signed up for rare status. That's four. That's four new rare members right there. And then. Y'all are awesome. The best. Not to be out done.

And also we did bribe people a little bit, but we put out of challenge. Oh, there was bribery. There was for sure. There was, okay, at Aces expense, you know, good job. Round of a block for Ais first of all. Good job, Ace. But we said, listen, if we have three people that upgrade their membership, Ais has Ace didn't agree. We just put him on the spot

and he didn't want to see him. Yeah, this just happened. We said, listen, Ace will give us a tour of his of his refrigerator, freezer, and pantry because we're always trolling Ace about his diet. And Ace being the good guy that he is was like, okay, fine. And then sure enough, three people were like, we're in. So a huge shout out to Toy Santa,

Butch, and Dingus Khan for being the heroes that brought this video of the world. Toy Santa Bush and DingusCon. Thank you all for signing up for epic status or upping your pledge to epic status. Ace being a man of his word, gave us the video. I will say your freezer was the thing that I was expecting it to be Ace. So if you can microwave it.

If you can microwave it or it's deep fried, it was in Ace's freezer. And I was like this. This is the content that we all are here for, man. So thank you to everybody that supports this podcast. We could not do this year after year without the support of the listeners. If you would like to support this podcast, if you like what we do, if we bring some joy to your life, some entertainment to your life, you know, think about giving back.

You can do that on Patreon. There's a link in the episode description. It only takes a couple minutes to sign up, but it really does mean the world to us, to this podcast and to everybody else out there that enjoys this podcast. You get to be a reason that that is happening. So thank you to everybody that's doing that And for everybody that might sign up in the future All right guys

Y'all ready to talk some Crimson Desert Let's do it Let's talk some Crimson D I don't even know where to start With Crimson Desert You know and honestly Ace I think you're right I think for the purposes of this show

We should probably just truncate it And just call it Crimson D Yeah just crimson D Right to just say look Oh man look at Ryan Just going off on a tangent muted. Yeah.

I'm very interested in what Ryan was saying because he really jumped in it. Ryan, tell us what you like about the Crimson D. Wouldn't you like to know? No, no, I was going to ask. Hang in, I can't believe I was muted. I was. Because he went on for so long. I know.

Am I going to do the, should I do the accent the whole time or should I just talk? No, you should not do the accent the whole time. You'll kill your school. Okay. So, all right. Now that we establish that, carry on. You were saying something profound. All I was doing was asking if you want me to do this stupid accent over and over.

Not the Scottish people are stupid. I just want to let you know. Don't worry. Actually, Scottish accent is one of my favorite accents in the world. Yeah. Oh, it's the best. That's why I like hazard. But I can't do it, dude.

I don't know why I can't do it. So, all right. Well, I guess let's just. just start here. The internet was very divided on Crimson Desert. We did an entire episode talking about like the hype before Crimson Desert and the, you know, the naysayers and then the people that were saying, hey, this is going to be the greatest game this year. What was what was your thought process going? I was like that, you know, I was excited. I wasn't excited. Like what was what was your status as you're loading up Crimson Desert? Like, Ace, I got to say like, as, I got to say like,

I feel like you were probably the least excited for us with Crimson Desert. Is that fair? Yeah, I think I had very tempered expectations for this, knowing that I'm not. Good on you for pulling that off, man. Graphics too good. Ew. No, it wasn't even a graphics thing, but no, graphics aren't that good in this game. I'll be real.

What? No. On cinematic, the models, the models suck. No, no, no, we'll get into that. We'll get into that. We'll get into that. The background. The backgrounds look great.

The backgrounds look great. The models look great. The models look great. The model's in doing it later. The model's in animation. No, okay. I don't. I don't. Josh is like, he's like chomping at the bit.

He's ready. He's like, what? Okay, I'm going to let it go. I'm going to let it go. Carry on with your stupid statement, Aes. I had my expectations so tempered for Crimson Desert that I was willing to wait like a day to play it because I went and saw Project Hail Mary instead. And then went.

to bed. Okay. Not a bad choice. This is good. All right. So mild expectations from Ace. I'm going to just jump out. I was insanely.

I lost the hype battle for this game. I managed to hold off for a long time like the week before I completely lost it, man. I was so on board with this game, dude. I took off of work to play this game so that I could dive in and just put in lots and lots of time, you know, did the thing where I told my family, hey, I'm busy for like the next four days. If you need something, call somebody, you know, just, you know, do that. I'm not available. Yeah. And then poor Ryan, poor Ryan didn't. All Ryan got to do was like just think and dream about Crimson Desert in between 90 hours worth of work over like four days. So I know you knew that you weren't going to get to dive in right away, Ryan, but what was your excitement level going into this game? I guess for a game of this magnitude or this hype level for some people, especially like you,

I'm surprised it wasn't more building up to it, but once it got closed, it like flipped. You know, a lot of times, you know, you have that kind of slow buildup and you really start to build up that excitement and that hype over time. This one kind of was like, I just forgot about it. And then it's like, oh, yeah, the Crimson Desert game. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. And then a couple weeks before, all of a sudden, whoa, oh, oh, yeah, that game. And then the height meter went through the roof.

So I was definitely up there, but it wasn't very long. Like, it was right before the release is when it really set off. And then, like you said, unfortunately, I was working for a bajillion hours, you know, on release time. Release week. So here's the challenge with a game like this. there's no way that we can cover every aspect of Crimson Desert in a review episode. We'd be here for three hours. So I think what I want to do is really just touch on the major things that work in this game

and then the major things that don't work in this game. Because if we tried to break down every system, this would legitimately be like a three-hour episode. And I know there's people out there. They're like, cool, but at some point it's going to lose its oomph before trying to break down how you can capture rats. and then try to release them into town and stuff. So I will say this. Might have happened. I will say this.

I don't know that I have played a game in recent memory at least or ever that has so many different systems and things to do and ways to approach things. Like this is truly an MMO. Honestly, it's the closest thing that I can think of. An MMO where, you know, their goal is to keep you hooked on this game for years. and we all know that this started off being developed as an MMO. And so that is there. It is obvious. But I can't think of another game in memory.

And that includes Red Dead Redemption 2 and Skyrim and all these other games that Crimson Deserts been compared to that have so many aspects to this game. Do you guys feel like that's a fair statement, man? Because it's like, it's unfathomable. How many things you can do in this game, man? I would say it's slightly overwhelming how many things you could do in this game. It's absolutely overwhelming. Yeah, I wouldn't even say slightly. I would say it's absolutely overwhelming.

And the way they drop it all on you pretty early, I know there's been a lot of talk about the lack of handholding, which is good in a video game. It's good to not have every single directional arrow and every single guideline set for you. And you kind of got to figure some stuff out on your own. I mean, that's good and it's good for gamers. But this thing is like just like, plop. Here you go. Have fun. You know, and you got to go from there.

Which was kind of unique. It's, it's, it's, it's, I know a lot of people didn't like that part of it. But to me, uh, I enjoyed it. Yeah. I think if they were more handholdy, it would slow the pace even more than it already is. And that would be a very big detriment to this game. Yeah. Because it, it's already slow.

It is a slow start to this game. Slow burn. The beginning hours are convoluted. They're complicated. These are all things that we kind of knew going into Crimson Desert was the, you know, hey, the first few hours, it's, you know, the controls might put you off. The multiple systems in this game might put you off. Lack of handholding and that learning curve for getting into this game, that might put you off. And so we warn people about this and we said, hey, this game, it's going to have some flaws.

do you guys agree that those were flaws in the beginning hours? Like, you know, I will say, I think my biggest worry was the control scheme because I prefer mouse and keyboard. And I kind of even made a thing where I was like, okay, I'm loading up. I'm going to try it on controller. Okay, I'm going to try mouse and keyboard. And I instant, like within like five minutes, I was like, nope, this game can not, you're not playing this game, at least well with a mouse and keyboard. So then I'm like, okay, I'm back to controller. I will say this.

For anybody that was worried about the control schemes in this game, it's not as bad as the internet would have you believe. It's not that bad. It's like a fighting game. Like just knowing how to combo buttons and directions. Did you do you guys both play keyboard?

No, no, no, no, no. I tried keyboard and mouse and it was abysmal. Like I could not play this. We all just went controller. So, yeah. So I, you know, yes, there's a few janky things you have to hold the left button to do like the little targeting thing and like

the interact menu with like different context of stuff like that we talked about this it's not guys within like three hours of playing this game the controls were fine like so i think that was one of the most overblown complaints from people like is it a different style of scheme like yes it is but like we're gamers dude like we figure these things out and you build up the muscle memory and within like three hours i was like this control scheme actually makes a lot of sense to me for how many things are to do in this game. And I kind of went, I kind of get it. Like I get why they did what they did with the controls.

They're not a, this is not like a game ruining thing, in my opinion, do either of you feel differently on that part of it? Well, the thing you said is the muscle memory. And I think that that was one of the big issues is because it is different than a lot of action RPGs and open world games to where it's got that subtle difference on how you target, how you move, how you select things, how you communicate with. people and it was just enough off to where it works for the game but like you have to eat used to it and so people freaked out you know and including me like I'm like why can't I just

talk to this guy you know and it's like turn off lantern I'm like I don't want to turn off the lantern you know it's come on so like I I get it but also it was not that big of a deal do I think it could have been done a little better yes but it was not as big of a deal as people you know on the internet make it seem as as is the way of things. Yeah, it didn't bother me that much after a while. You pick up controls pretty quick when you play as many games as we do

and anyone who picked this game up probably is playing on playing it for quite a bit since it's a hundred hour game. I think the biggest issue was whenever I would try to use the focus button to talk to people and I pull out my bow and arrow instead and now I've upset

everyone. I posted a meme on our socials where it's just a guy drawing a bow. And I said, this is me learning the controls in Crimson Desert. I don't, I can't, I burn through, the game starts you off with 20 arrows. I burned through 20 arrows in the first hour, dude. Gone. And there was no way to like, not just loose the arrow once you drew it.

So I'm like aiming up in the air, just firing them into the sky because I don't want to accidentally shoot somebody. I was trying to run through. If you roll, it'll put it away. I was trying to run through in like, in like, greet people. And I just pickpotted it. Pickpocketed a guy. Like, and that's the.

that's how like the controls are just different man i'm yeah i'm trying to i'm just trying to run through and just greet everybody and then i guess i hit pickpocket and then he's like hey and then all a sudden the cops were after me and i'm like ah and i start running so like yeah it's it could be better it could be funny man it works once you get used to it i have no i'll be honest once you start playing the game and you learn i have i had zero issues with the control scheme at that point like yes there was a small learning curve there okay so that was one of the major complaints the other major complaint from people was the beginning hours of the game and it doesn't hold your hand. Do you guys have any, how do you feel about that statement? Because I agree that the game doesn't hold your hand,

but at the same time, I don't think that was an issue for me. And I am the kind of person that tends to complain a little bit when games are overly convoluted, like where wins meets. I said, hey, this game's got like 50 gazillion things going on that it throws everything at you all at once. I have played a little bit of Star Citizen. I know that. that game's not fully out yet. So you got to give it a little bit of grace to say, hey, they're not done with the tutorial and stuff like that. But like that's a game that I found to be a little bit convoluted with like anytime you have a thousand systems, there's like a learning curve. For sure. And I and I sometimes will complain about that and say it's taking me way too long to

learn all this stuff. And then that's not fun. I didn't have any problems with Crimson Desert. So for that being the other like major complaint that people had, I didn't find that to be an issue at all. for me personally, did you guys? No, the slow start and really didn't bother me. The non-handholding didn't really bother me because it gave me a chance to explore the systems on my own and kind of try to understand what works for me and what doesn't.

And then, of course, the slow start just helped me understand what I'm getting into, basically. You understood what you were getting into? What I'm committing to, which was apparently robbing people as soon as I found out I needed a bandit mask to do it. Oh, a mansion. Oh, another mansion. Yeah. Oh.

Hey, they had Resident Evil style puzzles in there. I went in there, saw them, stole all their stuff. Those were pretty cool, yeah. It was literally, like, almost a mere image of those, you know, that we just played with RE9. Yep, that's funny. Yeah, no, I, uh, man, I, I, I don't know, going, going into all this, I, I didn't feel, like, super, like, super over the top overwhelmed, but, like, some of the way that it, that it

started, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, The lack of handholding is good, but I also like some sort of a linear story. And we're going to get into the story or lack thereof. We'll get to that. Part of that, you know, so like, I like that to guide the gameplay. And we didn't really get that with this. So I think that's the reason why it felt so lacking because there wasn't that story-driven part in the beginning that made you, like, learn these mechanics. you know, at least as much as other games that we've experienced.

Yeah. So those are the two major complaints that we kind of heard about leading into the game. I know these are the complaints that a lot of people have asked us, how bad is it? Is this going to be like a no-go for me if I can't learn controls or I don't like games that just throw me in there? And we know a lot of gamers like that. Like, that's a valid issue. I just felt like these issues were a little bit overblown for me. and it sounds like for you guys,

those were not major issues with the game. What I want to do is I do want to know what the major issues that you guys had are. And then we'll kind of get into what works in this game because I think there's an awful lot that is, I'll be honest, I think Crimson Desert does spectacularly, but I also know that it's like there are some pain points in this game

and especially, you know, for me included, and I'm sure for you guys as well. So we'll talk about that right after this break. Okay, when I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community. Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my head of office has a forever setting. An IG Private Wealth Advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business,

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Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder any time. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada. All right, we're back. We're talking Crimson Desert. We've hopefully alleviated what the two major concerns with this game were for something. people. That doesn't mean that, you know, if you just don't want to learn a weird control scheme, if you don't want to learn that, this game may not be for you. Like, just plain and simple. If you, if you like yellow paint and you like a game that's, you know, lays out everything for you.

I will say this. The game does give you a pop-up screen, but this might be like one of the few times where I actually had to go into like the codex and be like, what did that screen say? What was the button combination? Yeah. To focus? Like, oh, it's R3L3? Like, okay, because it pops up and then you clear it away. And then I'm like, oh, crap, wait, what was that? And I actually had to go back in there and look for it and be like, oh, it's okay. It's R3, L3. Like, okay, I didn't realize that.

So there was a little bit of that. I want to, like, what does, like for you personally, because everybody's different, what is, if you had to point out the number one thing that just did not work for you in this game, what was it? Ace, I must start with you. Number one thing. I'm trying to think of what I would put at the top of my list for what didn't work for me for this game.

Well, you just mentioned story and you kind of trolled the story a little bit in the pre-shows. Oh, well, yeah, that's a big thing. I'd say this game has no story. There's no interesting story to follow. How dare you? The plight of the gray means and the black bears and the abyss and the...

Yeah. A lot of big words that mean a whole lot of nothing. I think comparatively most people are going to take this game they compare it to games like Breath the Wild Brett the Wild also had no story but we already cared

about all the characters in that game we already had connections with them so it didn't matter that there was no story there this game this is a brand new thing of characters and it's just like I don't care I don't care what's going on and if I don't care I don't feel like

continuing the story and I don't have to There's a massive open world I can go to instead. What's your story in rivals? You keep playing that. Have you not read the comics? Oh, here we go. There's like a whole comic series about how all the heroes got.

Shut you down, Ryan. He shut you down real quick. Whatever. That's the, yeah, he's not playing rivals because he's reading the comics. It was a fair question, Ryan. What about you, Ryan? So, Ace, is story your number one kind of complaint or lack of story with this? I know you might have other complaints, but is that the, the, the, the,

primary one for you? Ace? Ace is... Oh, I thought you were talking to Ryan. I didn't hear you. I think you said Ryan. Your name's Ace, so I was saying... Oh, no, no, you guys were talking over there. I didn't see. Uh-oh. Yeah, I think that's my primary issue. I have other minor issues, but the story... He just went to another world for a second thing. He did. He's like... I was like, he was... I wasn't mentally prepared to keep going. I'll be real.

Yeah. No, the story is a big issue. Frankly, uh, I'm just going to bring it up now because I can. I think the combat's kind of weightless. It's not really anything I found all that, you know, innovative and intriguing. Even though there's a lot of combinations you could do, it all ends up being a big old gang fight anyway. So it doesn't matter. Have you tried throwing a guy? Yeah, I've done plenty. On-arm combat is almost impossible to pull off when they all surround you like that because they just start jabbing you.

They just start jabbing you every time you try to do a lariatures on the outside. Yeah, you get shot in the back. It's like you're not. I don't think. It was great to pull off, but man, I don't think I ever did a single, like, round of combat where I didn't take damage. Like, I always took damage. Oh, oh, for sure. I've never played a game like this where I took so much damage trying to pull off moves and trying to do certain things that I wanted to do or that I saw online.

I'm like, oh, I can do that. I was like, oh, I can do that. I was like, that looks so sweet. And I'm like, food, food, food, food, food, as I just keep getting hit. time for the hammer throw Wait, what was the button combination again? Exactly That one's easy, it's X and Y It's not, it is

You have to do a kick and then X and Y Yeah, that's true You actually had to hold Y to do the Yeah, you have to kick them first and then you could do it It all right, Ryan, so Combat and Story for Ace, what if you had to point out Either a major thing or a couple major things That didn't work in this game for you, what were they?

for sure the lack of story when you want to create a game that's this big I just don't understand not spending maybe the extra time maybe it was an extra time or maybe it was an extra extra kind of couple million like who knows

like they sold five million copies of this game so it's not like they're not going to have money you know there's it's highly anticipated it's there So there's a lot There's a lot for them to have If they created something that was

Amazing and you see it with You know you Skyrim what your three All these games that it was compared to But it's just lacking that Driving force of Of a good narrative Which I mean there's a reason people listen to audiobooks and read books

And watch movies and watch shows like They want to be told the story So give me a story. This isn't a fighting game. This is not, you know, Marvel rivals or anything like that. Like this is, this is a game that should be narrative driven, but also you have this open sandbox to go around in. I think that was a big, big hiccup to where they could have taken the exploration and made it amazing. And then additionally, I think I liked the jank, but man, there was a lot of jank. there's a lot of jank i think that for a 70 game

there there could have been a little bit more refinement uh i i'm watching you know and it's just because we what we notice you know as people who play games as much as we do um you you see guys just their feet just walking through the floor and then you see stuff glitching through and then you run into issues or crashes or whatever it may be like there's just there was a lot there more than i expected um not the say that it wasn't worth $70, but, but for that price point, you, you expect something really good because it was, I mean, it's the same price as Red Dead or cyberpunk or, you know, all those other

games. So, so give me something, give me something on that level. Did you guys ever stop and just like look at NPC animations or anything like that? Just, oh yeah. Yeah, sometimes. The mouth sink. It's, yeah, but I kind of just thought that that was like a dub issue to be honest. I thought that was a dub issue. The mouse sink was the dub issue. But then there were just NPCs doing the exact same thing. But at the same time, there's so many cool details that they baked into, like, when you have

your lantern, if you shine your lantern on somebody, they all like cover their eyes and crouch away. Yep. And so there was like, it's a weird thing because I get what you're saying, Ace, but then there's other times where it's like, if you went running by people that were carrying a basket of food and they spilled their basket, they would stop

and start picking up the food out of the basket and stuff too. So it's like, there were these crazy realistic moments but also these moments where you're like this doesn't look right you know it was just this weird mix yeah but that doesn't really impress me when Assassin's Creed's been doing that for the last

what 20 years having environments that you can knock over like that was one of the games that was you know in comparison with this one it's like they're they're this very much feels like the yeah it's like like a lot of those but uh how how deep is it?

Where does it go from there? And then like how, you know, how far do these NPCs and all that stuff go? This is, it's funny that you, that was a perfect segue. Because for me,

my biggest complaint with this game is that it just feels shallow. Like it's a, it is a, you know, there's the saying that this is like a mile wide, but it's only like an inch deep. And I feel like that, like that is this game for me.

Where it is incredible. And, there's so many things to do and the combat is robust and the world is huge and there's a gazillion quest that you can go on and I start doing all these and it's like okay well you're right

Ace I don't disagree with you the combat is kind of shallow and it's kind of floaty and you know it's like yes I'm trying to make the most of this combat but these eight guys that I'm fighting are no different than the other eight guys that I fought 20 hours ago you know and I'm pulling off the same moves

and I'm suplexing them and I'm you know, doing the kick and the knockback and I'm trying the melee and now I'm doing a spear build and now I'm doing a sword and shield and this stuff. But ultimately, it kind of felt a little shallow. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Like I mixed up my weapons probably five or six times just to see if it would change anything for me. Just never mattered. Yeah. And the only time that it felt different was when I would get into a boss fight. And there are a lot of boss fights in this game. But then it's like, okay, well, cool, this is boss fight. And I really enjoyed the boss fights because they were difficult and you had to know the mechanics.

But then even the boss fights started to feel a little trivialized by the amount and quality of food that you had because you can just eat food as fast as you can click the button. And if you have food that's really, really good and heals you like 500 hit points, it just becomes, oh, no, I'm taking a hit. Eat, eat, eat. And then you just heal through the damage kind of thing. So there's, to me, that is the glaring flaw in this game is it's not the control. scheme. It's not the jank. It's not the complexity in the beginning. It's not any of that.

For me, the major, major flaw is just simply that everything felt kind of shallow, you know? And it's just that you have all these systems that are incredible. But then it's like, but none of it really, really resonated on like a deep level with like, this is the moment that this game just blew me away. like visually speaking the beginning of the game absolutely blew me away you know but like once you get into it there were just that like oh cool i've got a camp what do i do with the camp oh okay well that's kind of shallow oh cool like combat yeah oh okay okay well you know i'm trying to mix it up because i don't want to just hit light attack over and over like cool oh my horse like oh okay oh okay he gets a double jump eventually as your like bond level goes up that's kind of cool but it just

I don't know man it's like it's like it lacked that that that like special thing right and I don't know if that special thing is the story that keeps you going where it's like okay like these gameplay systems are shallow

but this story is incredible and it's keeping me playing and I do agree that the story in this game is pretty abysmal so there's not that draw to keep going either so I I'm I will say like to me the one glaring flaw is not the other things that a lot of the internet would have you believe.

It is just that this game does what's got a million systems and there's a million things to do. And yet none of them felt insanely impactful to me as a player while I was doing them. Nothing about this game is going to make me think about this game when I play other games. Like there's nothing this game did that someone else isn't going to do better. So when you play this game, do you think about the other games? This entire time I was playing this game, I felt like I was playing Assassin's Creed Shadows again.

Yeah. So that's the thing is like I think it draws, it draws from so many other games. I mean, which is fine. Everybody takes inspiration and stuff from everything else. You do not want me thinking about Assassin's Creed Shadows while I'm playing your game.

Nobody wants to think about Assassin's Creed Shadows. Yeah. But like it's one of those things where like there's so many parts of it. Like what is, what is Crimson D? identity, you know? It's doing too much to have one. I'll say, honestly, Ryan, the answer for me is an absolutely gorgeous sandbox.

I disagree with Ace vehemently that this game's not insanely good looking. Like, I, like the vistas, the draw distance, the character models do not. I mean, the character models aren't bad. I mean, I, I think it's, they're not like. I think it's beautiful, but the characters look like. The character models are awful. They look like basically. skyroaming like in 2011.

You know what I equate it to in a way? It's like Valheim, for instance. Like the character models in Valheim are absolutely atrocious. But the atmosphere in Valheim with the wind blowing and the, for sure. The leaves and the music. Like that, to me, Crimson Desert has that down, hands down. Like there were multiple times where I was playing where I just stopped and watch the leaves blow through the wind and the storm roll through like when it was raining.

And then I don't know if you guys noticed, but it's like after it rains, everything's shiny. So like your armor and even the walls are wet. until they dry and it takes a little while. Like the realism with how the world behaves is absolutely incredible. But I do agree with you guys. Like how can you make the world look this good? But then you can't make character models look quite the same. The hair looked like straw.

Straw hair, man. See, I give hair a pass because hair is so hard to do in games. Yeah, it's got to be tough. All right. So $70. What was your favorite part? Like, I mean, we just covered everything that we said was a, people thought was a negative and, you know, but there is a, I'll be honest, there's a lot to enjoy

in this game as well, in my opinion. So what was your favorite parts? Like, what stood out to you the most as far as like, okay, this is pretty freaking cool. Like I'm having a good time here. Yeah, you might want to start this, Ryan. I got to think for a minute. Yeah. I believe it or not, I had a fun time with the combat. I thought it was cool. I enjoyed the ability to go through that skill tree to where, you know, it wasn't so detrimental to have the exact right build to get the meta build and have everything that you want to have. But you could tailor it the way that you wanted to and the way you wanted to play. And it just lent itself to the other one that I'm going to say is just the openness of this world.

There's everything everywhere. Like anywhere you look, there's something to do, which I think is really cool. It's unique. This is a game that you can put, you know, 40 hours and be happy, or you could put 400 hours, you know, if you want. Like, there's just so much there. And I agree with you, Josh, as far as the world goes, I definitely sat back and just was like aura farming, you know, like, this is majestic.

Look at this, you know. And then I jump up and, like, crow, and I just fly down, you know. And you touch the tip of a waterfall and get skyrocketed outward like you got hit by a car. It never happened to me. No, it happened to me. But anyways, I like the waterfalls. I like the world. I think that it is fantastic and there's a lot there.

I think it's alive. It feels alive. There's always people moving around and doing things and there's always somebody to talk to. You could spend hours fishing. You can spend hours chopping wood. You can do it. There's a million things to do. So I think that's really cool.

And I love that style. Again, I'm biased. This is my style of game. I love open world RPGs. I love I love sandbox. I love the ability to just do whatever you want to do. I will say I love it to be story driven so where I can kind of go off the beaten path and do what I want to do and then come back to the story and that drives it. But I don't feel like I got that with this one.

But I do love the world. The world is the biggest thing for me. I agree with you 100%. I can nitpick combat. I can nitpick quests. I can do that. But to me, the shining, like, this is just the peak of this game is the world. You know, I mean, being up on a cliff and then seeing your, you know, the city that you have to go to that looks like it's 40 miles away, but you can see it.

You know, that's impressive. Jumping and then doing the little force palm thing where you jump three times in the air and then hit your cloak. That was, that never got old except that you get. get to fly for like two seconds total before your stamina runs out. Yeah. You know, that was a little like, that was a little bit of a tease for me. Like, why can you make me fly? But then I get to fly for two seconds until I'm plummeting to the ground, you know,

with an amount of stamina. The, the atmosphere to me, like I said, rain, wind, weather, snow. I mean, this game has it all day, night cycles. I mean, to me, the world was alive and it was gorgeous. It was reactive. you know, like I said, when it was raining, people would, you know, they would respond to the rain. If you held up your lantern and blinded them, they would be like, ah, my eyes, you know? And like, not many games put that attention to detail into every aspect of the world.

So that was where it's like, bro, I just want to live in Pyewell. Like, this is, this is incredible, man. I loved the castles, the just sheer number of things that you could go do. Like, all of that was incredible to me. I do think it's absolutely like the height of this game is just that what, you know, the world that they crafted and how they display it to you and they show it to you and what you can go run off and do is amazing. So, Ace, did you, did you think of anything you liked about this game? I liked the bounty system. I thought that was fun going down.

I did so many bounties. Yeah, just like tackling people and bringing them back. That was cool. I actually really liked the interact. Yeah, you get to punch him with a face like three times. Dude, I punched this poor nun in the face like four times before she gave up the paper. I just, I jumped her as like, give it to me. Although I do hate, like, there's got to be a way for them to have some stuff easily

scripted to where like everyone's not the same response. Like every time you bring a bounty in. Yeah, she said the same thing like four times. Over and over, you're like, oh, you're going to run out of. It must have been some mistake. Yeah. We're going to run out of sales for these guys. Oh, yeah.

Every time. Every time. It never had a new response. It was kind of weird. But I also really liked the interactability of the, I guess, we'll just call it the magic within the environments where I could take a tree and just smack a watchtower and down it comes. Yeah, destructible environments.

Destructible environments were pretty cool. All right. We got to get to our rating on this because I have a feeling we're all going to have a little bit to say as we summarize the game and our thoughts on it too. so um ace we'll just start with you buddy because i have a feeling you're probably the lowest most likely yes most likely so give us your rating and why uh i'm giving it a 7.4 i was not overly impressed with what crimson desert has to offer uh i and this is completely honest i'm the one who drafted this game no one wanted this game to be like a 10 out of 10 i just

more than me you snaked it from me I am clearly honestly if I'd known I wasn't gonna hate it I probably wouldn't have taken it just out of principle but I still see you know you're not feeling so good about your pick now is that what you're saying? No because everyone else likes it

I'm the outlier so it's fine but you know this game is still quality it is probably the best like triple A open world sandbox you could experience in the world if you just ignore the story and you're fine with that more simplified combat and things like that, but I'm not.

I like more complicated combat. I like things like Eldon Ring with tough boss fights that actually challenge me to not get hit. I just found it all shallow and underwhelming overall. All right, so 7.4. Yeah. Okay. There's a lot of people groaning out there. That's fine.

I'm not an IGN6. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Okay. So. So, this is where I have a problem, guys. I am 30 hours into this game, and I think I'm done with it. I'm 20 and I'm in starting.

And here's why. And that's not slander to the game. So one of the things that we are big proponents of is everybody out there knows what kind of gamer you are and what resonates with you and doesn't resonate with you, right? Like, I'm not a cozy gamer. If you give me a cozy game to play, chances are I'm going to go, I didn't really like this game. I personally struggle with pure sandbox games because I have a lot of fun with them.

Like, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is the greatest thing ever. And that's exactly how I felt with Crimson Desert. Like, like, honestly, for 26 of those 30 hours, I was just in love with this game. I was like, it's gorgeous, all these different things to do. I can do whatever the heck I want. I was finding secrets randomly. Like at one point I missed a jump off a cliff and then I started falling and I hit my cloak and I glided into this perfect like hidden cave system that had like a dragon wall quest on it that I found by accident. And I thought that was like one of the coolest things.

When you go to the academy, I was like, okay, this is super cool. I freaking love magic and all this stuff. And so I was just like, bro, crimson desert is it. but then the sandbox part kind of started to hit me and I equate it to a sandbox because I had a big sandbox when I was a kid and you go out there and it's the greatest thing and you build your castle and you dig your thing

and then all of a sudden you just go yeah but it's just sand you know what I mean? Like sand is boring when it's just sand it's what you do with it and this is where I personally struggle because I hit a wall in Crimson Desert that was just the wall. And I think that part of the,

is there's no story. There's nothing other than the sense of discovery that makes me want to keep playing. And when I've already discovered 500 things in my 30 hours, I kind of go, yeah, I'm good on discovery, man. Like, this is where the importance of a compelling story to continue to drive you comes into play. So I'm really torn on this game because I can appreciate like how awesome it is. And at the same time, I think it has a glaring flaw and that it is very shallow in a lot of its gameplay systems.

And I think that for me particularly is hard because I struggle with sandbox games in general, right? So it's kind of like, what do I do? And then I just go, I'm just going to go do something else because I've done a lot. And I don't know that I'm really accomplishing anything by just trying to discover more. So I'm going to give this game an 8.2. you know, I think it has a heck of a lot to offer to a lot of people. And I, dude, if there are people out there that are like, dude, Crimson Desert is a is a 9.8 for them.

I get it. Like, I'm not saying you're wrong. Yeah. Like, and honestly, if you're like, bro, I bounced off this game in the first four hours because I didn't like the control schemes and they didn't explain things to me, I might go, I feel like you're probably missing out. But I can at least understand that too, you know. But as somebody that's put in the time. and self-admittedly doesn't do well with pure sandbox. I really loved like 28, 26 hours of this game.

And then I really kind of the last couple I went, I don't think I'm having fun anymore, guys. What is it that made you fall off? Like what, just the lack of- So I'll explain to people. I focused primarily on the campaign because I figured the campaign is going to point me in the right direction and this is going to guide the game

that the way that the makers of the game intended. now that's not to say that I didn't do a lot of side stuff because I did I did a lot of what's that over there I went and cleared out the camp the quarry that you wind up coming to yeah there's so many guys and I cleared every single guy in that freaking quarry dude like so I absolutely have found a house that was like bandits were dragging people in and slaughtering them in the basement and I cleared that out and then that was apparently a quest later on in the game that popped up after I did that so like I did a good bit of exploring but for like like my play style was let me do the campaign it's going to take me through the axe it's going to

take me to the boss fights it's going to progress me so i i would say i probably did 70% main campaign 30% just going where the wind took me or you know or whatever i wanted to that's how i played and the story just it's not existent there was no reason for me to keep going down that road yes it introduces you know your camp and now you can work on your camp and build it up and give at supplies and I did that for a little bit, but everything just felt like it didn't matter. Like, nothing I was doing mattered in the scale of the game itself because the story was weak and I didn't feel connected to the world on a deep level other than this world's beautiful. It's eye candy and I sure love looking at it.

But once I actually had to start playing it and doing things, it just, it felt like an MMO where I'm like, I'm just grinding quest to grind quests. Like I'm not really accomplishing anything. Like I'm just like that's what it felt like to me. And I think that shallowness eventually, I think that shallowness just kind of eventually went like, why am I doing this? And I went and I got to the point where I went, I'm not really having fun anymore. I've got 30 hours in this game.

I think I'm done. And I kind of went, that makes me a little sad because I really wanted to put like a hundred hours into this game. But at the same time, I know myself well enough to go. I think I'm done with Crimson Desert at the same time. So I'm going to say 8.2. I think it has a ton to offer, but I don't think this game is for everybody or I don't think this game is for a lot of people. And so I'm trying to rate it where my personal feelings are.

All right, Ryan. It's tough because I'm so conflicting on this one, man. Do you know what I mean? It's like it's me. It's not the game. But then it is the game a little bit. But then it's me. For sure.

It's one of those things too where, you know, like a game. we always say it you know and it's it's known everywhere across the gaming community like go go to the Bloody Baron like once that's done you're you're good like you'll love the game

so how many hours is that going to take like where you feel like you keep expecting to hit that moment in Crimson Desert what is going to really hook me I don't think there's any hook with the story I don't think there's anything that's going to like

really drag you I kept waiting. I kept waiting for that moment. So, so like, um, the one of the big things that, that I thought of is,

you know, you know, you have Cliff and you have your other characters. Um, did you feel anything for them? No. No. No.

Not at all. Like when, when you think of, uh, Arthur Morgan, you like, oh yeah. You know,

you think of Jackie Wells or V. Or you think of Geryl of Rivia. Like you think all these characters that you have, um, Cratos, you have this, this almost connection and bond to, you didn't have that in this game

so you didn't have a reason to play as them to project through them, like, I want to play this game through them and continue this journey and this legacy and this saga and go on and you just didn't have that, which was a super bummer. I had no

connection with the characters, which was my biggest downfall in this game. I will say I'm, I'm a lot higher than you guys on it, it. I love the open worlds. I love the ability to just look around and think if I want to go fish. I can go fish. I can go fight bandits. I can go claim, reclaim terror. It almost like is like a throwback to like GTA San Andreas where like I'd see the color red on like on an area and I wanted to go take it over because I'm like, those bandits shouldn't be there. And I wanted to go take it over.

So there's aspects of it that are so good, but then there's so much lacking. For me, it's going to be an 8.8. I really, really... I thought you'd be in the nines, to be honest. I thought you'd hit nine for sure. I really, really wanted to be there. If there was a story, I'd probably be a 9-5. I loved the gameplay.

I loved the way you could move around. I love the world that they built. There's just so much lacking. like the kind of the middle stuff. Like there was just not a lot of meat, you know, on the bone. Yeah. Dude, if this game had a good, compelling story, it would, I think it would have drawn me in even more.

And I'd be cracked out playing this, you know, 100 hours and loving every minute of it. But it doesn't. And it even, and they, the, the developer came out and said, hey, we acknowledge the lack of stories. And it's one of the things that we're most disappointed in. So they know the flaws to this game. You know?

Why? Why release it if you know it's bad? Yeah, how do you make it? They sold 5 million copies. As of now, five million. You couldn't pay a million dollars to like write and develop a good story. Have AI write a dang story at this point. Yeah, seriously.

Anything was better than it is. I'll be honest, this story kind of feels like it was written by the. I think it feels like it was. It has no soul to it at all, man. You could have replaced. Go ahead. Finish your thought. I would say you could have replaced Cliff and Friends with silent insert

protagonist and nothing changes for me. I almost said this when Ryan was talking about it. If Cliff was just a gray blob, it would have not have changed my thoughts on the game one iota. Like one iota. I wouldn't change my rating. It wouldn't change my thoughts on the game. It's like he might as well

just be like a shadow. He's nothing special about it. It did not matter. Gray blob doesn't agree. Yeah, he does have a good accent. He does have a good voice. Final question. Final question for you guys. People know our ratings. Is this game worth $70 in your opinion. It depends if you're that kind of game person. If you enjoy these big open worlds,

yeah, I mean, yeah, it is. If you're just looking for a big, explorable open world sandbox, yes, if you're like me and you want a story, good combat, uh, and so on. No, I wouldn't spend seven dollars on this. No. What about you, Ryan? I, I think so. If, if you are interested in this game, I think there's a lot there. I mean, you can, you can, like, glide through with jet packs you can ride dragons you can uh fight bandits there's there's so much to do this is easily 300 400 hours at at the minimum if you're really diving into it um we played 20 30 plus hours already like when you're when you're boiling it down to how much you know cost per hour like it was a good time so i would say absolutely it's worth 70 bucks um if you're this style of gamer and you like this

world. It's a no-brainer for you. Like, absolutely get it. You're going to love it. It's, you may have some struggles, but you'll figure it out and it's going to be a good time. I do think this game is worth the price. Like I said, I really loved the 20, I loved this game until I got to about 26 to 28 hours in. And then I realize I'm never going to get that bloody barren quest moment where I'm like, this game is taking off. Yep. Like, we tell people, you got to put six hours into the Witcher. And listen, I know people are like, oh, but you're talking about narrative RPGs versus open world sandbox action RPGs. And look, we all understand the difference. The point being is that there's no moments, or at least for me in Crimson Desert, where I went,

I am in. I am in on this game until the very end, right? Like, and I don't want it to sound like I'm being negative because, again, I got a lot of enjoyment out of this. I was excited to get up every day. I was playing every minute I could. I was in awe multiple times. But then it just kind of hit the wall for me. So in my opinion, 26 to 28 hours of pure gaming joy, regardless of whether I hit a wall or not, that's worth 70 bucks. Like, you know, unless you're the kind of person that just is like, I absolutely despise sandbox games. I don't like difficult learning curves. Like you should know at this point if this game is for you. If you like this kind of game, it's absolutely worth the money, in my opinion, because it does a lot right.

And if it's, if you're kind of going, I'm a little hesitant on this one, you're probably hesitant for a reason. And then you, then you just make the choice whether you want, you know, are you good with 15 to 20 hours of fun for $70? And that's a choice that you have to make at that point.

So, all right, listen, that's going to do it for this episode. That is Crimson Desert for you, people. What works, what doesn't work,

what to be cautious of, what the highlights are. We hope that we have broken this game down for you in a way that makes you, know whether this game is worth your time and money. We're just no way to get into the thousand systems in this game.

There's so many. But hopefully this gives you insight into how we feel about it as gamers and whether it's for you. If you love this podcast and you want more episodes, make sure you are following the show. If you're on

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That's going to do it for this episode, everybody. Until next time, happy gaming. Adios, machos. That is not what I That is not what I thought was coming out of your mouth Peace out Peace out