Crimson Desert is bringing deep, complex melee combat to its epic open world. In combat, players can chain together kicks, grapples, strong slices, leaping attacks, and much more in a deep, layered combat system that feels more like Soul Calibur than Dark Souls. The action is fast and acrobatic, and builds in ferocity when you imbue your strongest melee attacks with powerful elemental magic like ice and thunder. Or shoot a flare to trigger an incoming artillery attack to annihilate hordes of your melee opponents.
More broadly, I spotted some familiar features of the open-world medieval-fantasy genre, like summoning a horse to cover ground more quickly, liberating enemy strongholds, and epic boss battles. The open world is huge, with Pearl Abyss claiming it will take more than two hours to traverse the game's continent on horseback. If you love open-world games and appreciate deep, layered melee combat, this is one to watch.
– Sid Shuman
blog.playstation.com
www.theouterhaven.net
