Crimson Desert...
So I'm having a break from painting for a week - I was at risk of burning out, a painting a week is no small feat, so I've been playing some Crimson Desert.
It's by far one of the greatest, yet worst games I've ever played.
PROS:
It performs great - I'm playing it on PC, and my PC is no NASA computer, but it handles most games at ultra in 1440 - Crimson Desert is no exception.
The Combat is absolutely epic. Sometimes 50 or more combatants on screen at any one time. It's meaty, has great impact and the skills are really fun to use.
The Exploration and world are second to none. I can only really place The Witcher Three any where near the scale and grandeur CD imparts. It's huge and packed full of secrets and little nooks full of loot.
Okay - The CONS:
It performs well - looks like absolute dog water most of the time. The graphics are just plain broken. It's pretty in the exteriors, which thankfully is where you spend most of your time - but the interior lighting is horrific. Genuinely some of the worst I've seen, with pixelated shadows and blocky lighting - and that's with raytracing turned on. DLSS doesn't work. The Global Illumination barely works - I swear it's stuck together with gum and paperclips and has a habit of flickering. The foliage has taken this habit to the utmost extreme, and does nothing but flicker. It all looks grainy, oh and the reflections are also broken.
The story, and it pains me to even call it that, is just nothing... It's actually nothing. I have no idea why I'm sent to do things, or what for or why I'm fighting this boss - who have a habit of just showing up unannounced and going 'I'm a boss - dunno' why, but I don't like you. Again, dunno' why - but we're going to fight now.' No stake in the story at all. Surprisingly, though - and counter to popular opinion - I do like the Greymane cast of characters. Yann is fun, Kliff - the MC- gives 'we have Geralt Of Rivia at home' vibes, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and their quests are probably the most strung together with plot. Believe me, though - they are barely strung together with plot.
I hate the bosses. Every single one - EVERY ONE - apart from the first just teleports all the fucking time, then flails about, then teleports again. It's like if the bosses of Elden Ring had a coke addiction. Just cant get an attack in edge ways. (Yeah, yeah - maybe I've got a case of the 'Git Guds')
And finally - and sorry for the rant - it's chocked full of bugs. I've had bugs that mean I have unlimited stamina but do no damage. I haven't been able to sleep or pass time at all, because that's broken. My horse catapulted me across the map when we fell in to a waterfall. I had two quest items fail to spawn - meaning I had to reload. I had an enemy just slowly drift in to the sky - and another slowly sink in to the ground. I swear it makes Bethesda look like they have the world's best QA. I can, however, forgive the bugs. They can be patched, and are bound to happen in a game of such an insane size as CD. Still, some of them - such as the no sleeping and stamina bug are easy to recreate and should have been caught.
Oh, and I have some great photo mode screen shots to share - here they are -
There's nothing there because it's broken too, and just gave me five black screen shots.
Weirdly though - and this is going to sound crazy - I cant wait to boot it up and play it. It pulls you in with the world and the scale, the great combat and just the sheer amount of things you can do. It's - for want of a better word - just fun. I find I don't care that the story is just a collection of scenes that have no connection to the ones before or the ones after, or that the bosses just show up for shits and giggles with no motive whatsoever. It's still a lot of fun.
Anyway - I find I don't get to talk about game as much as I'd like, so it's good to have a little gush/rant about what I'm playing at the moment.
I'll be back at the easel next week, with a portrait of a Khajiit for a race deep dive, and then a portrait of Young Griff for a ASOIAF deep dive - so until then, hope you're all well!
