Of all the games I was looking forward to playing at Gamescom this year, Crimson Desert was probably up there among my most anticipated. A stylish action game from Pearl Abyss, built with the bones and gristle of its popular MMO Black Desert Online and lathered in particle effects. It seemed to me from trailers that the game would be a feast for the eyes and mind, but having actually played it, I’m still uncertain. The real kicker is that I don’t even think it’s the game’s fault.

You see, one of Crimson Desert’s most enrapturing features is its combo system. Through pressing two buttons at once, various special attacks come out. Pressing light and heavy attack throws out a huge slash, but face button combinations can lead to stabs, drop-kicks, and even dope wrestling-style brainbusters. The results of having all this are amazingly cathartic brawls, where you weave between typical fantasy combat to often hilariously cool action segments. It helps that the Pearl Abyss team has ruthless and punchy melee combat nailed too – big hits have a weight to them that truly makes the player feel powerful.

But, and this is a big but, this system is only at its best when fighting other humanoids. When battling bandits, all of these skills can be used to great effect. The parts of the Gamescom demo where you’re facing such enemies was brilliant – a level of quality beyond even my expectations. But the vast majority of the demo has you fight bosses, all of which aren’t affected for the most part by these skills. Combat devolves into dashes (and parries / reposts with the Reed Devil and Staglord fights), where the most effective approach to fighting is a slow and patient marathon of using one or two charged slashes or stabs when openings appear.

Why on earth they’d sit press and influencers down and introduce all these brilliant aspects of the combat just to throw them into scenarios where these aren’t useful is puzzling. It encourages you to play a Souls-style hit and run style, when the game is at its best when you’re getting in the thick of it and enveloping yourself in chunky, morish beatdowns. Yes, the game still felt good, but after taking down three of the bosses all I wanted to do was start the demo over and try the tutorial again instead, due to it throwing roughly 20 regular goons at you.

Let me pull out some more colours and paint you a picture as to why that’s the sitch. The bosses, while fine, are one-on-one fights. They charge at you and throw out various powerful attacks, which you can focus on in typical boss fight fashion. The group fights, where you’re charging headfirst into like five guys, are a whole other story. Forget the patient waiting you can expect from other action games – the regular enemies in this game gang up on you and beat you up a la World Star street fight videos. You’ll take two sword hits from one guy, just for his homie to kick you in the back, while Steve off to your right swings in with a massive axe blow. It’s great! It’s a feeling I’ve not felt since getting stomped out by Absolver players.

But hey, it’s worth stating that Crimson Desert is more than its fights. The game looks gorgeous, there’s no doubt about it. Pearl Abyss went to the lab and through some nefarious work with the test tubes and flasks managed to bust out a game better looking than anything they’ve ever done, and genuinely up there for one of the better looking games in development right now. It all looks good in motion, and the particle effects I mentioned earlier are abundant to the point of near absurdity. A boss swiping his sword at you in a charged up move may well send out more sparks than a welder’s torch.

When you’re thrown into a brick wall, or the side of a cliff, the stone breaks. When you slash through reeds they scatter around you. Ground slams crack and break the floor, and the bosses glow and radiate vibrant hues that push this game to another level graphically. Even with my frustrations with the preview demo it’s clear as day there’s a great game here. It’s the game you and I have seen in gameplay trailers, drifting horses round corners, getting into arm wrestling matches at the tavern. I came away from my time with Crimson Desert a tad frustrated, but eager to try more.

With the game set for a 2025 release date there’s plenty of time to do so, be it through future previews or even a review eventually. What I can firmly say for now is that the meat of this game – the combat and look – is stellar. I just wish my first time actually touching the game was a a form that best highlighted the game’s strengths.

Crimson Desert is set for a Q2 2025 release.