It’s hard to believe, but Crimson Desert is only a few days away from release on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. The wait has been long – six years after its original announcement – and now we’ll finally get to dive into the world of Pywel, exploring, fighting, and all the hundreds of little things in between. Believe it or not, the developer managed to reveal even more new details ahead of launch, including the long-awaited frame rates and resolutions on consoles. So without further ado, let’s start with one of the most exciting new things…
Jetpacks
Pop quiz: Do you want to be a dragon rider or a mech pilot? If having both options in Crimson Desert isn’t enough, then there’s a third: Rocketeer. That’s right – as revealed in the recent launch trailer, you can obtain jetpacks and fly around. Will it consume stamina just like gliding? Are there benefits towards using the jetpack over gliding? Whatever the answers may be, you can cosplay the Rocketeer. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Villains Tease
For as much as we’ve seen of the open-world activities, combat, progression, and whatnot, the development team has been awfully coy about the story. We know it’s about Kliff getting the Greymanes back together after they’re attacked by the Black Bears, but what else can we expect? It seems there may be multiple big bads involved, as the trailer sees a mysterious individual telling Kliff that he’s “finally here” (wherever “here” may be). We also see the latter battling against a dual-blade-wielding foe, who comments on how the Greymanes are a “hard lot to kill” and even questions how he did it before attacking. Whether someone is pulling all the strings or not, it seems Kliff’s journey goes far beyond simply seeking revenge.
Multiple New Bosses
Of course, aside from these figures, numerous new bosses were revealed. There’s some giant mechanical stag beast, a massive rock creature with multiple limbs that looks far more nimble than the Queen Stoneback Crab seen in 2024; a giant brute with some mad hops; and a giant mechanical warrior that’s giving us Shadow of the Colossus vibes. Even the electric serpent makes another appearance, simply observing as Kliff glides around it.
New Weapons
Between the spears, swords, hammers, Kliff has plenty of room in his arsenal for a (checks notes) Japanese war fan that can become larger and generate tornadoes. He can also wield a two-handed katana, which can channel Fire for some heavy damage. But that’s not all – at one point, while wearing a full suit of armor, he stomps the ground, generating a tremor to take enemies off their feet. It seems that whatever we’ve seen thus far is just the tip of the iceberg for how crazy some of the weapons can get.
Trains
Crimson Desert probably isn’t trying to draw comparisons to Grand Theft Auto, especially with GTA 6 set to release later this year. But come on – a train, that too one which Kliff can grapple to and “catch”, not unlike one Carl “CJ” Johnson? Then again, this may be a nifty way to discover points of interest on the ground while perhaps moving faster than a mount. And who can discount the possibility of a train heist mission?
More Abyss Puzzles
The Abyss remains as mysterious as ever, and we won’t know how it fully plays into everything without diving into the story. However, it’s seemingly home to some of the more intriguing puzzles, including laser gates which Kliff can manipulate with his grapple, per the launch trailer. At one point, he’s shown gliding through some rings and even free-falling past a vast floating structure, which could mean plenty of descent to mix things up.
Dungeons (and Traps)
Dungeons are another element that we haven’t really seen too many details on, but the launch trailer showcased what could be two of them. One features giant sawblades moving back and forth in rhythmic fashion; another has Kliff hanging on to a zipline as various spike traps jut out from beneath. Maybe these are only two of the most distinct kinds of traps, and other hazards await.
Fast-Forwarding Through Cutscenes
During the last round of previews, several features flew under the radar, but one drew a fair amount of ire: The ability to fast-forward through cutscenes. It doesn’t outright skip them, but plays them at a faster speed, which is a nice option for those who want to get to the action. Naturally, this drew complaints over why you would want to quote-unquote skip dialogue in a role-playing game.
Drill Dozer
When he’s not beating enemies to a pulp, Kliff likes to spend his days with long walks on the beach, farming, and mining. Thankfully, you won’t have just a pickaxe for that precious ore. Previews have confirmed a drillarm tool as a reward for defeating a boss. How much faster this will be remains to be seen, but it’s a nice addition.
Mount Skills
For all the armor sets available, there are also those dedicated to mounts like the horse, which can raise its defense. But they can also level up and unlock their own skills. The horse, for example, can drift at level 3 and kick an enemy behind it. At level 4, it can move even faster when pressing the sprint button continuously and at level 5, it can swim faster in water. And given that there are different horse breeds in the game, it’s likely that they’ll have unique skills.
PC Requirements
The final PC requirements have been revealed, and they’re surprisingly manageable, aside from the installation space – better clear out 150 GB on an SSD. But otherwise, 16 GB RAM is the bare minimum and recommended throughout.
At the very lowest tier, Minimum, you can 1080p upscaled from 900p and 30 FPS gameplay from an AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel Core i5-8500 with a Radeon RX 5500 XT and an Nvidia GeForce GTX. Low settings, which deliver native 1080p/30 FPS, need the same CPUs but an RTX 6500 XT and GTX 1660 instead. Recommended with its Medium preset delivers 1080p/60 FPS and 4K/30 FPS on a Ryzen 5 5600 or Core i5-11600K and an RX 6700 XT or RTX 2080.
On the High preset for 1440p/60 FPS, a Ryzen 5 7600X or Core i5-12600K with an RX 7700 XT and RTX 4070 are required. Finally, the big one – Ultra preset and 4K/60 FPS – will need a Ryzen 7 7700X or Core i5-13600K with an RX 9070 Ti or an RTX 5070 Ti. Not bad, especially considering there’s no mention of any upscaler being used.
Frame Gen Support
For those who do want to take advantage of the same for improved performance, AMD FSR 3 and 4, and Nvidia DLSS 4 and 4.5 are supported. For those who want to go even further with the game’s ray tracing, FSR Ray Regeneration and DLSS Ray Reconstruction are also available to make those reflections and ambient occlusion look all the more sharp.
Console Specifications
So there’s good news and bad news regarding the game’s frame rate and resolution on consoles. The good news is that numbers for both have been revealed, with the PS5 and Xbox Series X having three modes – Performance, Balanced and Quality. If you’re looking at 1080p/60 FPS with Vsync (and 60+ FPS with VRR if you have the supporting monitor), then it’s Performance Mode for you. For 4K upscaled with FSR 3 to 1440p and 30 FPS, Vsync enabled, Quality Mode should suffice. As for Balanced, it provides 40 FPS with Vsync, provided you have a 120 or 240 Hz monitor and an upscaled 4K from 1280p. Note that ray tracing is on for all three modes – at low on Performance and Balanced, and at high on Quality. As for Xbox Series S, pick your poison – 720p/40 FPS with Vsync or 1080p/30 FPS with Vsync with no ray tracing.
PS5 Pro Modes
What appears to be the undisputed option for console players, it offers upscaled 4K (thanks to PSSR) from 1080p and 60 FPS with Vsync with high ray tracing on Performance Mode (with VRR available for 60+ FPS). Quality Mode is native 4K, 30 FPS with Vsync and Ultra ray tracing, while Balance is upscaled 4K from 1440p, high ray tracing and 40 FPS with Vsync (which can reach 48+ FPS using VRR). And thanks to Digital Foundry, gameplay is available, and despite running on an older version of PSSR, Crimson Desert will support the upgraded version for (hopefully) better image quality. Otherwise, there was praise for the overall visual quality, while Performance Mode put up a “good fight” to hit 60 FPS.
Denuvo
Amid all the hype, there had to be something – aside from the lack of base console footage – to drag things down, and it’s the sudden revelation of DRM. As listed on Steam, Crimson Desert will use Denuvo Anti-tamper, which has a reputation for causing performance issues in games. For what it’s worth, the developer told Forbes’ Paul Tassi that, “The benchmark videos and performance specs we released were all created with the exact same implementation of Denuvo that is in the launch build.” All of Digital Foundry’s recent graphics analysis videos are covered as well, with the developer noting how, “It’s important that reviewers and benchmarkers’ experience with the game is ultimately representative of the final consumer’s experience.” We’ll need to wait for the launch, of course, but it is somewhat of a silver lining.
