Every time a new open world game comes out crimson desert This voice in the back of my head immediately pops up when it starts to sound like it's going to be the next big leap forward for the genre in terms of interactivity and feeling “alive.” Red Dead Redemption 2. I don't think every game needs to beat it, but it's hard to deny that Rockstar has set a standard that's both easy to reference and incredibly difficult to keep up with. So, when a new open world arrives with promises as big as the oath crimson desert It's hard not to measure this against games that already do.
simply getting away from something crimson desert As we've shown so far, it looks like everything an ambitious open world game in 2026 should be. It looks like it's packed with gameplay systems and a variety of content, and it's massive. Of course, the past has proven that it is not inherently indicative of quality. But that's all the easy part. The more pressing questions are: crimson desert It can create the same sense of place. Red Dead Redemption 2 Rather than a game, it feels like a world you could actually live in. It'll be interesting to see what the answer to that question is once the game launches, but there's already enough information on the table to give us a glimpse of what's going to happen. crimson desert There may be a head-on collision Red Dead Redemption 2.
The scale of Crimson Desert and the reality of Red Dead Redemption 2
crimson desert It may not be out yet, but it's definitely shaking things up in a big way. Pearl Abyss has already been upfront about Pywel's size, going as far as comparing the size of the game's playable space to Pywel's size. Red Dead Redemption 2. According to PR Director Will Powers in an exclusive interview with YouTube's Gaming Interviews: crimson desertThe world of is “at least twice as large as the playable area. Skyrimbigger than a map Red Dead Redemption 2.” He tempered that claim by saying, “Size doesn't matter if there's nothing to do,” but even that explanation isn't automatic. crimson desert If that world doesn't integrate content in a more meaningful way than “bigger maps equal more space for more stuff” then it's exempt from any criticism of its scale.
In the end, that place Red Dead Redemption 2 different. Even after playing for a few hours, it became clear that the goal in creating this world was not to give the player a sense of scale for scale's sake, but to provide enough space for the world to feel real. Rockstar developers also mentioned this ahead of the game's release in various conversations, such as a 2018 interview with Edge magazine (via GamingBolt). “The biggest difference in this game is that not only are players discovering fun things to do, but the world is constantly serving you in subtle ways,” said Aaron Garbut, art director at Rockstar North. What I emphasized with that was, Red Dead Redemption 2's open world content will feel less like “missions” and more like “happenings.”
That's what happens in the end crimson desert That's a really interesting point of comparison. There's a lot to do in Red Dead Redemption 2But the game doesn't appear that way to the player. crimson desert PR director Will Powers recently confirmed in an interview with Destin on YouTube that “the main campaign is only a very small part of the game's overall content.” This is an accurate reflection of how the upcoming action-adventure title has been marketed so far, as an open-world game with no end in sight in terms of content.
crimson desert It was intended to be an MMO before becoming a single-player game, so it's likely to have a lot of content.
In the same Destin interview, Powers said, “When I won, the game really opened up.” crimson desertBut once he beats the game, he is given the freedom to explore content he hasn't even “scratched the surface” of yet. “The developers wanted to create a world that you would want to get lost in and spend time in,” Powers added. But while that may make the game sound appealing, Red Dead Redemption 2 It's the difference between being lost in the world because it actually takes you somewhere, and being lost in the world because there's so much to do that you don't know where to start. While the latter is now widely regarded as a stale take on the open world formula, the former is becoming more universally accepted as the new standard.
Crimson Desert interactivity compared to Red Dead Redemption 2
again, crimson desert It's not necessarily trying to be one of the biggest open world games to throw players into a huge map. What I really want to prove is how players interact with huge spaces, and on paper it checks all the boxes. There is a wealth of content in the game, ranging from important things such as the main story to everyday activities such as daily fishing and mining. The game clearly strives to give players something to do at every turn, but what makes me personally wary of jumping into the hype is that it feels like we've seen it before and rarely works as intended.
Red Dead Redemption 2 It's the difference between being lost in the world because it actually takes you somewhere, and being lost in the world because there's so much to do that you don't know where to start.
“Open-world games are about doing things, being active, and getting interrupted,” Powers said in a conversation with Gaming Interviews. “So we wanted to create a world that was not only huge, but also incredibly interactive.” I understand what Powers is saying here, but crimson desert If it ultimately comes down to content, you'll miss out on what makes content great. Red Dead Redemption 2The open world of is really special. When an open world activity is considered distracting it means it doesn't belong there, whereas what happens in a world like the open world is RDR2 It feels like an integral and essential part of the experience.
The difference comes down to how each open world justifies activities. Red Dead Redemption 2 Fishing, hunting, chance encounters, and even long journeys don't feel like side content competing for your attention, but like natural by-products of a world that will still spin even if Arthur doesn't show up. In a way, I don't try to stay busy because I don't have the fear of being bored. Instead, you do things simply because that's what happens in places like this, and ignoring them feels just as believable as engaging with them.
That's right there crimson desert's open world faces its biggest challenge. By making interactions seem like a continuous flow of things to do, you run the risk of creating a world that exists simply to entertain the player, rather than one that existed before the player even entered the screen. This approach can be interesting, especially from a technical perspective, but it also puts more pressure on the game's content to justify its existence. If an activity feels intrusive, players may become bored no matter how much there is. But if they feel embedded in the world, they will disappear into it. Eden crimson desert Whether such a leap can be made is a question that hangs over an impressive feature list, and may not be answered until players are free to wander without something pulling them forward all the time.
- released
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March 19, 2026
- ESRB
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Age 17 or older / Blood, drug-related, high-intensity violence, verbal abuse
- developer
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Pearl Abyss
- publisher
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Pearl Abyss
