Crimson Desert has a huge map and lengthy story that will take most players over 100 hours to work their way through, but now Pearl Abyss’ action adventure has been out for a few weeks, some are starting to complain that the open world has become too peaceful — because they’ve killed everyone.
One of the interesting things about Crimson Desert’s design is that for the most part enemies do not respawn, and camps, which you can overtake, do not become repopulated with enemies once you’ve cleared them out. Missions are not repeatable, and there is no Skyrim-style Radiant quest system to generate random encounters for eternity.
Of course, there are things to do in Crimson Desert once you reach the endgame. You can wrap up any hangover quests, visit any unexplored areas, solve any leftover puzzles, and take on any bosses left standing.
But what happens if you’ve killed all the enemies in the game? That’s something players are now running up against, and, despite getting hundreds of hours of fun out of Crimson Desert by that point, some say there’s a problem with it.
“This game has a pretty big issue, not many are realizing right now, due to the way most are playing it and it will destroy some peoples enjoyment, including my own,” warned GullibleTerm3909 in a reddit post upvoted 2,900 times so far. “PA — this NEEDS a fix for long-term enjoyment.”
In the post, GullibleTerm3909 said Crimson Desert moves from being an action adventure game to “just adventure,” because no matter what players do, eventually the world becomes empty in terms of enemies.
“I already face this problem 109 hours in, with the main story finished and most forts liberated in return, because zones are becoming ‘too peaceful’ to even try out most endgame builds or cool maxed-out gear variants,” GullibleTerm3909 said, adding that they’re even struggling to finish most of the challenges because there aren’t enough enemies around. “I have to cheese things like the Reed Field scarecrows or hope that I don’t accidentally kill random bandit patrols before I can finish a challenge,” they explained.
“Even bandit camps stay empty once cleared out. Patrols thin out greatly once the peaceful factions take over,” they continued. “I played for six hours yesterday and had TWO fights in total. TWO. And they took less than 10 seconds, because I basically one- or two-shot them all.
“Games like Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind, Kingdoms of Amalur, Dragon’s Dogma, and others at least have respawning bandit camps, dungeons, and enemies so you can actually tackle them with your character. Crimson Desert is basically thinning out with each Red Spot cleared out on your map or with each main story quest progressed. This is BAD.”
One of the issues this design is creating for players like GullibleTerm3909 is that it makes the two additional playable characters, who most players do not focus on because pretty much all of the main story demands you play as Kliff, hard to build up as extensively as Kliff because there aren’t as many enemies for them to fight by endgame.
GullibleTerm3909’s post is a warning of sorts, and it comes with a recommendation: that players collect as many Sealed Abyss Artifacts as possible and leave the forts for endgame challenges. But doing that would mean actively avoiding clearing them out as you play through the game. It goes against the grain.
It turns out that GullibleTerm3909 is not alone in their assessment, with plenty of people agreeing with them and suggesting various systems they’d love to see in Crimson Desert to make the world feel alive. I’ve seen the much-loved Nemesis system from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor mentioned more than a few times, as well as a Bethesda style random mission system, and even a dynamic siege/war/tower defense system. But could Crimson Desert even support such mechanics?
Perhaps more feasible is a system that would see forts reset, or increased spawn rates, or a few big grindable areas where players can go all in on scores of enemies so they can wrap up those challenges and build up the other playable characters.
“It’s interesting because they already have this mechanic in place,” one player said. “Whenever you do certain quests, enemies will ‘blockade’ certain regions until you clear them out, even if you’ve already done so. They can 100% implement a system where bandits randomly start taking areas over again.”
Some players are resorting to committing crimes just to force city guards who would otherwise be on your side into attacking you, just to see some endgame action. Seems a bit extreme and out of character for Kliff and the Greymanes, but needs must, I suppose.
Not everyone’s on board with these complaints, however, and some are even mocking them. “I’m 300 hours into the game. There is a MAJOR issue that EVERYONE will encounter which is so bad it’s going to cause people to QUIT,” one player said. “When you do everything, the game ENDS. This is a huge problem which will likely cause 99% of people to QUIT.”
Some are going as far as to imagine what Crimson Desert looks like after you’ve played for months or even years. “After 700 hours I killed every single NPC and only the vendors and Greymanes are left, which I can’t kill (yet),” one player joked. “Wanna know a secret? You can restart and get another 300 hours,” another added.
Of course, this won’t be an issue for most players, who, I imagine, won’t get to the point where they’ve killed most of the enemies in the game. I’ve played just over 50 hours of Crimson Desert at this point and I doubt I’ll get close to the world state some players are experiencing. And while I’m certainly a completionist, Crimson Desert is so dense with content that it’s challenging my determination to see all those green ticks in Hernand before I move the main story forward.
However, I wouldn’t put it past Pearl Abyss to add some significant endgame content to Crimson Desert at some point, given how quickly it’s updated the game to respond to player feedback. And what about DLC? Given how well Crimson Desert has sold, you’d imagine an expansion of some sort is in the works.
We’ve got plenty more on Crimson Desert, including a story on how the NPCs are the stars of the show, and a hidden food consequence system that a modder has restored. We recommend you take a look at our guide to Things to Do First in Crimson Desert, plus Things Crimson Desert Doesn’t Tell You (we’ve got 28 and counting!). We’ve also got a guide to the Best Early Weapons we recommend picking up, the Best Skills to Get First (including a handy explainer of the skills system), and 34 Essential Tips and Tricks to help you succeed in Pywel.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.