Crimson Desert is like God of War and Dragon's Dogma had a baby

Crimson Desert bosses are powerful. I mean really powerful. As the fearsome Staglord grabbed me by the ankle and threw me against a wall, the bone-crushing impact reminded me of the way the Stranger’s blows catapulted Kratos through tree trunks and mountains in God of War. This physical intensity, worthy of a god, gives the combat in Crimson Desert a true spectacle: these are the gladiatorial contests of myth.

During an hour-long hands-on session at gamescom 2024, I got to go head-to-head with three different bosses, each showcasing a different facet of the fantasy action RPG’s approach to combat. The first, the aforementioned Staglord, is perhaps the easiest (though that does the hulking, barbaric warrior a disservice). He’s a relentless attacker, charging across the battlefield like a bullet train that can suplex you to its final destination. But despite his infinite strength and ability to toss you around like a baseball, he’s only human. I force the distance between us, rapidly firing explosive arrows to knock him out of his attack pattern and open a window to sink my blade into his back.

The Staglord is a real challenge to fight. Crimson Desert isn’t a Soulslike by any means, but it’s not afraid to make you work extra hard for victory. I spend much of this lengthy fight learning the intricacies of the combat system. There’s no lock-on, so I have to be careful about where I position my character and where his sword will land. Rolling forward lets me instantly follow up with a sweeping kick that catches my foe off guard, then pressing the light and heavy attack buttons simultaneously unleashes a wide, particle-effected strike that slices off a chunk of the Staglord’s health bar. It’s all fast without sacrificing weight. It’s fantastic, but it’s also easy to let things get out of hand—I quickly find myself gorging on foods that restore health with near-addictive frequency.

Crimson Desert isn’t even remotely a Soulslike, but it’s not afraid to make you work extra hard for victory.

Once the Staglord is defeated, I pick up his mighty sword and shield and move on to the next fight. The demo skips ahead in the story, which unfortunately means I don’t get to play any games other than the bosses, and takes me to a snowy wasteland. Here, my gruff protagonist is searching for children who have apparently been sacrificed to some kind of mountain god. Such “god” turns out to be the White Horn, a sort of abominable antlered snow deer that shows just how different each of Crimson Desert’s bosses can be. This colossal creature moves like a rearing bronco, and its galloping charges cause the mountains around us to shatter in miniature avalanches that leave me temporarily frozen in place. Luckily, after hitting it so hard that its white fur is almost entirely stained red, I can climb onto its back in the second phase of the fight and stab its neck. This moment reminded me of my battles against imposing monsters in Dragon’s Dogma 2 earlier this year.

Each boss has three health bars, and each kill increases the intensity of the fight. But where the Staglord vs. White Horn fights seem to escalate like many other action RPG boss fights (the enemy becomes angrier and begins to use more devastating attacks), my final fight, against the Carapaçonnable Crab Queen, demonstrated Crimson Desert’s ambition to create memorable moments through very different mechanics.

The shell crab is colossal. It fills the screen. And, cleverly, you can’t fight it by simply slicing off its shins. Instead, the fight is a puzzle that takes clear inspiration from Shadow of the Colossus. I climb up the crab’s stony shell and cling to the grass and plant life that make up its “fur,” hanging on for dear life as I pull myself up to a trio of rock formations. Using a special strike skill, I break each of the rocks to expose a weak point, into which I plunge my blade. Each open wound causes a geyser of water to erupt, which not only provides a visual spectacle but also launches me high into the air. From above, I can float downward, almost like a Zelda paraglider, and plan how to approach the next stage. Now I’m tasked with destroying the pottery-shaped crown atop the Crab’s mountain-shaped shell—a task that, a Pearl Abyss employee explained to me, is accomplished by swinging Spider-Man-style on a web and crashing into the pottery at full speed. Seriously. I don’t know how I would have figured that out on my own, but I’m glad such a mechanism exists. It’s just delightfully insane.

My hour-long session isn’t long enough to try out all four of the demo’s bosses, but a video walkthrough gave me a quick look at the only one I missed: the Reed Devil, a strange little guy who creates copies of himself that can only be defeated by destroying totems built during the battle. Aside from the three I fought, the four bosses promise that Crimson Desert will feature a range of creative and unique central battles. If they’re all like this, then Pearl Abyss could really have something special on its hands.

I’m equally impressed with the fundamentals of the combat system. Yes, it’s a bit of a fantasy RPG 101 – bows, swords, shields, parries – but it’s deliciously aggressive and really punchy. There’s also a seemingly deep combo system, which is why I wish the demo had a slightly more relaxed section for me to try it out. The heat of an unforgiving boss fight isn’t exactly the place to learn and perfect button sequences, but I feel like you can pull off some cool stuff based on the combos I learned.

Of course, I also would have liked to see more to be able to tell whether Crimson Desert’s adventures are as strong as its boss fights. The little dialogue and story there was to introduce each boss didn’t suggest anything close to, say, The Witcher 3. But even if its writing falls short, a solid approach to exploration and world design could take it a long way. Hopefully Pearl Abyss will show that soon, because so far, Crimson Desert’s mix of God of War’s heavy impact and Dragon’s Dogma’s creative spectacle has me thoroughly excited.

Matt Purslow is a Senior Editor at IGN.