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Crimson Desert Exclusive Interview | New Game+ Showcase 2026

Abysse

Abysse

Member


0:00 Intro + Dragon Info
1:19 Game Scale
5:25 Development Team Navigation
8:25 What Will Players Do In The Quiet Moments?
11:00 The Culture of The People Within The Game
13:27 Technological Advancements That Helps Crimson Desert Excel
21:13 Surprising Uses Of Tools
23:37 What Started Crimson Desert
32:15 Dungeons + Exploration Of The World
34:49 Synopsis of The Plot of Crimson Desert
43:20 Critical Path vs Side Content
45:45 Performance Targets on Console
47:35 Something That Is Not Getting Enough Attention
 
//DEVIL// said:
is this running on a potato? What's with the frames and 480p resolution?
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I've never seen a video or trailer of this game where I could look at it and say "this looks solid". I don't know what AA they're using, but everything at every level of distance and detail always looks way too jaggy.
 
//DEVIL// said:
is this running on a potato? What's with the frames and 480p resolution?
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High chances it'll be poorly optimized at launch based on all the footage I've seen, not just this one. Feels like the game is all over the place, doesnt know what it wants to be. Still interested in it, but certainly not day one.
 
The Cockatrice said:
High chances it'll be poorly optimized at launch based on all the footage I've seen, not just this one. Feels like the game is all over the place, doesnt know what it wants to be. Still interested in it, but certainly not day one.
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it looked much better unless it was speed up faked gameplay. or it was running on a 5090 and this is running on PS5 or Series S who fk knows

 
I think it looks really good but I hope we can turn off all of the screen shaking etc. I agree she didn't offer anything of value to this.
 
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1. Dragons, Mounts, and Animal Interaction

  • Confirmed Dragon Flight: Players will be able to fly on dragons.
  • Combat: Dragons exist in the world and you will have to fight them, though the developers have not yet confirmed if it will be possible to permanently slay them.
  • Other Mounts: Beyond dragons, players can ride other animals, such as bears.
  • Relationships: There was a joke regarding "romancing" dragons, but the team stated that, for now, there is no confirmation of any "relations" with these creatures.

2. World Scale and Interactivity (Pywel)

  • Massive Scale: The continent of Pywel is described as immense. In comparative terms, the playable area is at least twice the size of Skyrim and larger than the map of Red Dead Redemption 2.
  • Density and Distractions: The team's philosophy is that size doesn't matter if there is nothing to do; therefore, the focus is on filling the world with activities and "distractions" that make the world feel alive.
  • Physical Interactivity: The engine allows various parts of the environment to be influenced by physics. It is possible to use a hammer to break rocks and gather resources manually.
  • Destruction: While not "fully destructible" like a war game (e.g., Battlefield), it will be possible to destroy houses and use elements like fire, ice, and electricity to interact with structures and the world.

3. Design Philosophy: Freedom and "Sandbox"

  • Player Empowerment: The central pillar of development is providing tools to the player so they can solve problems however they wish, without being forced into specific choices.
  • Real Progression vs. Demo: In public demonstrations, the character has about 60-70% of their skills unlocked in a balanced way. In the final game, the player starts from scratch and can specialize (e.g., focusing on heavy weapons or agility).
  • Personal Narrative: Even though all players follow the same canonical story, the scale of the game and the side quests will ensure that every person has a radically different and unique experience.

4. Secondary Activities and "Quiet Moments"

  • Deep Systems: Beyond the bombastic bosses, the game features complex systems for fishing, resource gathering, and a detailed crafting system for equipment and possibly house building.
  • Resource Scalability: Initially, gathering is manual (e.g., picking up a piece of wood), but as the player levels up, there will be ways to collect resources in bulk for larger constructions.
  • Factions and Conflicts: The continent contains several factions with rich and distinct cultures. Some are pro-technology and others anti-technology, which drives the central conflict of the plot.
  • Crime System: The existence of a crime and "wanted system" within the game was confirmed.

5. Technology: Technology: The BlackSpace Engine

  • Custom Optimization: The team chose to create their own engine instead of using Unreal Engine 5 to ensure every feature is optimized specifically for the vision of Crimson Desert.
  • Performance: The game is built to run at native 4K and 60 FPS ("brute forced"). It will support modern technologies like AMD FSR4 and NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 (including frame generation).
  • No Compromises: The engine allows for massive draw distances and a huge number of simultaneous enemies on screen without the usual "tricks" found in other engines.

6. Creative Combat and the "Toolbox"

  • Problem Solving: Combat is viewed as a "problem" for which you choose the solution. You can use environmental mechanics—like stunning an enemy and then lifting a pillar to crush them—or simply fight with your sword.
  • Progressive Learning: To prevent the player from feeling overwhelmed by complex controls (like a Street Fighter move list), mechanics will be introduced gradually throughout the journey.
 
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Everyone who played it said that what they could play was actually amazing and it ran very well. Sure, we don't know the PCs they played it on, but even here in this interview the dude is saying that the engine was custom built for this game. They could've gone with UE5 and Unity, but then they would've had to compromise to achieve the same level of performance.

He's also saying the game will run 4K60 natively (no DLSS/FSR and FG) and you don't need to have the highest end GPU to achieve that. That segment starts at 16:22 and he's literally saying "without even the highest end GPUs we're doing 4K60 natively". I am looking forward to seeing how true this is, because I don't believe it.

The gameplay they inserted here is mostly likely an editor fuck up. The clips are all from previously released videos and they ran fine in those.
 
Mister Wolf said:
This will be the new Crysis.
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Well it's not as impressive as was Crysis in its time. It lacks just a bit of the wow factor, but it is still incredibly beautiful.

BUT ! It's incredibly well optimized, really beautiful with a LOT of details on textures up close, and manage to run with a lot a physics, interactivity, destruction, display a lot of NPCs on large scale battles, allows a lot of freedom of movement in the Y axis (which change a lot of how you develop an engine and is indeed very intense on ressources). It also manages to have an incredible draw distance wherever you are on the map (lol at Horizon with that constant fog 20 meters from your position).

The engine will be a reference for years considering the great optimization for how it looks.

Sure it's not GTA6, but we haven't seen any real gameplay of GTA6, so it's all smoke at this point for me, even though I don't really doubt Rockstar on that matter.

Black Space engine will be for sure an incredible alternative to UE5, especially for open world games.
 
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I can't wait for this to release. Really looking forward to playing it. But I'll first wait to see how the game runs on PS5 Pro before buying it.

I just wish that stupid cunt woman would just stop playing with her hair and ruining the whole fucking video.
 
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The depth of the gameplay sounds really cool. I've always wanted more RPGs to have environmental solutions to affect gameplay. Sounds like that may be a thing here.
 
I like most of what they have shown so far apart from some of the over the top graphic glitter and sparkle and explosion effects in combat, it's putting me off lol, hope there is a setting to tone a few of them down.
 
Gonna need DLSS 4.5 beta features, I think. Anyway, looking forward to it. Hopefully it doesn't look like a 9 but play like a 6.
 
DavidGzz said:
Gonna need DLSS 4.5 beta features, I think. Anyway, looking forward to it. Hopefully it doesn't look like a 9 but play like a 6.
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You hit the nail on the head 😉
Unfortunately Davey, this looks like it's gonna be a 6.5 all-around and get to a solid 8/10 after...1 year of rigorous patching man, the GFX don't seem like they're "there" yet and the gameplay still looks like it's trying to do more than it can actually cope with.
I mean, game releases in 70 days and it still looks iffy from the latest gameplay videos...

Hopefully I'm wrong since I was/am looking forward to it
 
Giallo Corsa said:
You hit the nail on the head 😉
Unfortunately Davey, this looks like it's gonna be a 6.5 all-around and get to a solid 8/10 after...1 year of rigorous patching man, the GFX don't seem like they're "there" yet and the gameplay still looks like it's trying to do more than it can actually cope with.
I mean, game releases in 70 days and it still looks iffy from the latest gameplay videos...

Hopefully I'm wrong since I was/am looking forward to it
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You've never played Black Deser Online, right? xD
 
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Giallo Corsa said:
I did, for about a month, some years ago, why ? 😁
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whatever-shrug.gif
 
GymWolf said:
Don't listen to her dumbass questions then, she get even more retarded...
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WTF. Her first question is whether there's dragon sex in the game. Her second question is whether you can break rocks with a hammer.

No idea who this chick is but I'm assuming she's some streamer whose only talent is looking pretty and attracting gamer simps. She sure doesn't have any journalism skills.

Thanks Abysse Abysse for the summary. I couldn't watch anymore.
 
This is a decent dev as far as their games go (BDO, BDM) but they are VERY heavy on monetization P2W bullshit... i know this is a single player RPG but still a little worried.
 
DonkeyPunchJr said:
WTF. Her first question is whether there's dragon sex in the game. Her second question is whether you can break rocks with a hammer.

No idea who this chick is but I'm assuming she's some streamer whose only talent is looking pretty and attracting gamer simps. She sure doesn't have any journalism skills.

Thanks Abysse Abysse for the summary. I couldn't watch anymore.
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She finished soulslike games with a dancepad or some shit.
 
DonkeyPunchJr said:
WTF. Her first question is whether there's dragon sex in the game. Her second question is whether you can break rocks with a hammer.

No idea who this chick is but I'm assuming she's some streamer whose only talent is looking pretty and attracting gamer simps. She sure doesn't have any journalism skills.

Thanks Abysse Abysse for the summary. I couldn't watch anymore.
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So fed up with retarded tourist girls and fake journos who are only interested in their dumb agendas. Then these people accuse devs of being sexist and whatnot.

On topic, everything about the game sounds great. It's the open world with the biggest scope this year and that's including GTA, whose gameplay is still a question mark.
 
Angry_Megalodon said:
So fed up with retarded tourist girls and fake journos who are only interested in their dumb agendas. Then these people accuse devs of being sexist and whatnot.

On topic, everything about the game sounds great. It's the open world with the biggest scope this year and that's including GTA, whose gameplay is still a question mark.
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I never included scope and gameplay in the same category tbh.

If it is true that crimson is gonna have a better gameplay almost for certain, i'm also sure that city/npcs/animals behaviours in gta6 are gonna absolutely trump crimson simulation.

If by scope you mean how much they are gonna propel the genre forward, i think gta6 is gonna still have the advantage in pure tech...

Some of their patents for npcs and city simulation sound crazy if true...

If by scope you mean just variety, then yeah crimson probably win, they are mixing medieval and techy and like 38475738 features from many other games.
 
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StereoVsn said:
The game looks interesting. Hopefully characters and storytelling will be good.
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From the interview it seems like they already know those are gonna be the weak points of the game.

I would not expect anything more than ok\decent story wise...
 
Mister Wolf said:
This will be the new Crysis.
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This is footage we've already seen from the ign coverage in October. It looked perfectly fine then, but something is up with the encoding of this video where they reused the same footage. Even the audio in this interview is messed up.
 
I always get my hopes up with these big, sprawling, open world games, and always end up disappointed.

It's still the same quest structure like it was in 2010. You pick up a quest, you go to the location, you fight trash mobs, you go back, you get the reward. Nothing surprises you for 50+ hours.

... still looking forward to it because my inner kid can't see those vast plains, a guy in an armor on a horse and not get excited ...
 
My God, who gave that girl a job? What are these stupid questions she's asking?! Fucking embarrassing, and I'm not even there.
 
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