IGN has released a new 13-minute gameplay video for the highly anticipated Crimson Desert. The video shows exploring the world, moving around, and real-time battles. We also see the main character, Greymane Kliff, fighting a boss named Cassius Morten, who is part of the Drunken Black Bears enemies, in the Calphade region.

Crimson Desert started as an open-world MMORPG. During development, though, Pearl Abyss pivoted and made it a single-player game. And, to be honest, I’m glad it’s no longer an MMORPG.

The biggest feature of Crimson Desert is its combat system. From what I have seen, the game is more action-oriented and more forgiving than Dark Souls/Elden Ring. So, this should be good news to those who want something more than a Dark Souls clone.

What’s really great here is that Crimson Desert is shaping up to be something amazing. Its recent previews were positive across the board. Everyone who got hands-on with it was also impressed by its combat. So, I don’t really mind this delay. If the extra time helps the devs make the game even better, then it will be worth it

It’s also worth noting that the PC version is shaping up to be really optimized. Those who have tried it did not experience any stutters. Plus, there are some cool tech features that the devs have implemented.

For instance, it will have realistic water effects thanks to FFT Ocean simulation and Shallow Water simulation. These will enable realistic waves, currents, and ripples. The game will also have Ray Tracing effects. From what I could see in a recent video, we’ll most likely get RTGI and RT shadows.

Crimson Desert will also have Volumetric Fog with fluid simulation, as well as GPU-based cloth and hair simulation. Players will also be able to interact with the vegetation/grass. Plus, there will be some cool wind effects.

Pearl Abyss plans to release Crimson Desert in Q1 2026. The game will support DLSS 4 with Multi-Frame Gen at launch. Oh, and you can find its official PC requirements here.

Enjoy and stay tuned for more!

John Papadopoulos

John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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