Flashspoter - Crimson Desert undoubtedly stands out as one of the most ambitious open world action-adventure games in recent times. Pearl Abyss is the developer behind the game that unfolds a fantasy world Pywel on a scale larger than what is seen in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption 2 which are two giants of the open world genre. Crimson Desert is anticipated to be released on March 19, 2026, and it is currently being described as a grand project that not only focuses on the huge world size but also the densely packed activities.
Pearl Abyss claims that the Crimson Desert's playable area is no less than double the size of the Skyrim map, and it is said to be bigger than the world of Red Dead Redemption 2. The studio may not be giving an exact figure in square kilometers but this comparison already paints a pretty clear picture. Based on the analysis carried out by the community over the years, Skyrim is thought to cover an area of around 37 km2 while Red Dead Redemption 2 is somewhere between 70 and 75 km2. By making that statement, the world of Crimson Desert is logically expected to go beyond the 74 km2 level, thus placing it among the largest maps in today's single-player games.
However, the team at Pearl Abyss went on to say that giant numbers like sheer volume should not be taken as big achievements. The developers of Crimson Desert want to ensure that Pywel is not only a world but also a living and vibrant place where there are interesting activities at every corner. This idea matches very well with the current direction of open-world game design where the main attraction is providing players with a wonderful exploration experience rather than just increasing the map size. When a huge world is devoid of any meaningful content, it is generally considered as empty, and this is a very valid concern of the dev team.
In fact, Crimson Desert features strongly in the action-adventure genre with a few elements of light RPG rather than being a typical branching RPG where the main features are dialogue options and complex story consequences. The players will take control of Kliff, a mercenary who gets caught up in political conflicts as well as the danger of mythological creatures in Pywel. The character development option is more inclined to gameplay mechanics, exploration, and attending the various world activities, thus every player can have a unique gaming experience even if they are following the same main storyline.
One component that distinguishes Crimson Desert from a lot of other open worlds is the fact that players can go vertically in the game world. Players can fly using dragons, allowing quick traversal across the vast territory of Pywel. This feature is designed to reduce the fatigue caused by long-distance travel, while opening up the perspective of aerial exploration that is rarely encountered in large-scale single-player games. With this system, the massive size of the world is expected to still feel comfortable to explore.
In terms of technology, Crimson Desert was built using the BlackSpace Engine, Pearl Abyss ' internal graphics engine. The Engine is designed to feature wide viewing distances, dynamic environment transitions, and complex physics interactions. In a number of their presentations and media previews, Pearl Abyss has only revealed a tiny portion of the Pywel region, which they even call a small "area" of the whole map. This means the majority of the content is still hidden from the public.
When stacked up against titles like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Elden Ring that have set the bar for popular RPGs, it is speculated that Crimson Desert's landmass might be bigger than the total area of both these games combined. Nevertheless, for the game to become a popular one, the world design has to be spot-on, there should be lots of activities to engage in, and the exploration should not disrupt the gameplay pacing. The Purple history of the genre shows that having a large world can be your winning card or your downfall, depending on how the content is presented.
As the game's release date is still over a year away, Pearl Abyss has had the opportunity to tweak the system, content density, and technical stability. If the developers can keep delivering such an enormous and highly interactive world as they have promised, Crimson Desert will be able to join the list of the new landmarks in the open world action-adventure genre for the next generation at its release in March 2026.
source IGN, GameRant, ScreenRant
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