Crimson Desert Review (So Far) - Kinda Funny Gamescast (Ad-Free) (Patreon)

Summary

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Kinda Funny Gamescast – Crimson Desert Review (So Far)

Release Date: March 19, 2026
Hosts: Andy Cortez (Host), Greg Miller, Paris Lily
Regular Contributor (Written In): Blessing Adeoye, Jr.
Main Theme: First impressions and in-depth discussion of Pearl Abyss’s ambitious open-world RPG, Crimson Desert, before official release, across ~15–30 hours of gameplay.

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Overview

This episode delivers a “review-in-progress” for Crimson Desert, a sprawling open world action RPG from Pearl Abyss. The hosts provide top-level impressions based on extended—but incomplete—playthroughs. Each weighs in on the game’s visual, technical, and design achievements, as well as shortcomings in narrative, character, and gameplay structure. With takes ranging from stark disappointment to cautious optimism, the cast paints a nuanced, often critical portrait of a game aiming high, but not always landing.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. How the Review Was Structured

• Blessing and SnowBike Mike—two core KFG staff—could not appear (jokingly, due to “snakes”).
• Greg and Paris had substantial playtime (20 and 29 hours, respectively); Andy only ~2.5 hours, prepping for a marathon stream. Blessing’s thoughts were read aloud ([13:16]).
• All hosts emphasize this is a “review so far”—not a final verdict due to the sheer size of the game.

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2. First Reactions & Top-Level Impressions

Greg Miller ([05:47]):

• Played ~20 hours; strictly on PC (Razer Blade 16, briefly on Rog Ally, playable but dialed down).
• “Crimson Desert would be my definition of a mediocre video game.”
• Chases “inspirations from everything you’d already know”—Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Witcher, Assassin’s Creed—but fails to match any.
• Visuals are “gorgeous”—draw distance and open vistas impress—but facial animations and lip sync disappoint.
• The world feels massive but generic; poor character development, stakes, and motivation ([06:32]).
• “Jack of all trades, master of none… no connection to this character Cliff… the world and story are fumbled badly.”

Paris Lily ([08:22]):

• Put in around 29 hours; also on high-end PC, never tested handheld.
• “An ocean that’s an inch deep.”
• The world, Pievel, is stunningly large, maybe “too freaking big.”
• Like Greg, finds visuals and technical achievement praiseworthy, but connecting with characters or world is elusive—“Cliff is no Geralt.”
• Exploration is satisfying; combat is “okay, not great,” boss battles and side content can stand out.
• Expresses that early hours are rough, but world does improve—the last 10 hours were more compelling.
• Puzzles are “vague” to a fault; frustrating due to lack of direction ([11:08]).
• “Story is just a nothing-burger for me, unfortunately. I just don’t care about the story, but I love the sandbox.”

Blessing Adeoye, Jr. (via Andy, [13:16]):

• “Crimson Desert in many ways feels like Rockstar designed a fantasy game.”
• Has “the scope of a GTA, the pace of Red Dead Redemption 2, and even the slow, somewhat clunky movement of both.”
• The world is “gorgeous and the scope feels insane… jam-packed… characters and items to interact with. But after 15 hours… it failed to make any of this feel worthwhile.”
• “Mission structure overly simple, uninteresting; inventory system is frustrating; knowledge system is novel but slows the game down.”
• “It’s more technically impressive as a world than it is interesting to actually exist in.”
• Tentative score: 6/10 after 15 hours; “left pretty cold on it.”

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3. Common Critiques & Notable Praise

• Visuals and Scale: Universally hailed. “A technical marvel,” “gorgeous open world,” “diverse and beautiful biomes” ([05:38], [08:22], [33:01]).
• Story & Characters: Universally found unengaging. Cliff is “bland;” “no narrative hook;” “no Bloody Baron moment” (Witcher reference, [19:13]).
• Comparisons: Heavily compared—often unfavorably—to Witcher 3, Zelda BOTW/TOTK, Red Dead, and Assassin’s Creed.
• Combat & Systems:
  • Combat “clunky” and “convoluted” with an overcomplicated control scheme ([29:25]).
  • Some praise for physics-based interactions and boss fight design, especially environmental impacts in battle ([42:16]).
• Main Quest & Side Content:
  • Main quest “boring, simple, repetitive MC-errand running” ([38:06]).
  • Side content and emergent exploration (“make your own fun”) highlighted as the game’s greatest strength.
• Puzzles: “Inconsistent;” often vague and lacking direction, occasionally ingenious but sometimes just frustrating ([20:14]).
• Knowledge System: “Novel” but stilted; Cliff needing to “learn what an egg is” cited as both quirky and needlessly slow ([53:37]).

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4. Community and Industry Opinions

• Broad Critical Reception: Polarizing.

  • Metacritic: 77, OpenCritic: 81 ([22:02]).
  • IGN (Travis Northup): 6/10 “highs very high and the lows very low,” 110 hours played ([22:35]).
  • GameSpot (Richard Wakeling): 7/10 “Open world… stunning, but quests feel like checklists, inventory frustrating.”
  • Forbes (Paul Tassi): 9.5/10, “100+ hours and don’t care that I haven’t finished; endlessly diverted, would play another 100.”
  • Game Informer (Hayes Madsen): 7/10: “Sometimes enchanting, sometimes utterly frustrating… overdesigned open world and baffling story.”
  • Jeff Grubb: “Cares more about looking good than being enjoyable to play.”
  • Jason Schreier: (paraphrased) "soulless, just content to consume, stopped playing early" ([27:20]).

• Audience: Some excited by a “forever game” to lose oneself in; others demand more immediate narrative and mechanical reward. The title is “polarizing as hell” ([14:46], [63:18]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“Crimson Desert would be my definition of a mediocre video game… Jack of all trades, master of none.”
— Greg Miller, [05:47]

“It’s an ocean that’s an inch deep.”
— Paris Lily, [08:22]

“Crimson Desert in many ways feels like Rockstar designed a fantasy game… It might look and quack like a Rockstar Witcher game, but it doesn't have that level of writing or characters that keep me engaged.”
— Blessing Adeoye, Jr., [13:16]

“Crimson Desert didn’t have its Bloody Baron moment.”
— Paris Lily, [19:13]

“The problem I have playing this game is that it makes me want to go play five other games.”
— Blessing Adeoye, Jr., via Greg Miller, [24:33]

“You are basically a witcher, right? You’re this group that helps people out and yeah, hey, you… I walk over, same animation, give me a piece of paper, my hand, and walk away. And I open up the little thing of like, what the question, all right, can you talk to me?”
— Greg Miller, [39:08]

“I don’t feel like there are any real consequences to anything I do… Maybe that’s coming in hour 50, but it’s not here now.”
— Paris Lily, [27:15]

“The game is big on the knowledge system… but when you go to like the shop… some of them are blacked out with a question mark. It’ll say, question mark egg, and you have to go over it… ‘You’ve learned what an egg is.’ Like, why?”
— Greg Miller, [53:45]

“This game is going to be extremely polarizing… A fantastic open world… I do wish the story was better. I think that is my biggest disappointment coming out of this.”
— Paris Lily, [63:18]

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Key Segment Timestamps

• [02:09] – Panel introductions / Episode set-up
• [03:45] – Game description / Review framing
• [05:47] – Greg’s top-level impressions
• [08:22] – Paris’s opening thoughts
• [13:16] – Blessing's written review
• [14:46] – Paris on polarizing nature
• [19:13] – Why the story fails to hook (“Bloody Baron” comparison)
• [22:02] – Industry scores / Critical response
• [27:15] – Choice & consequence (or lack thereof)
• [29:25] – Complex and clunky controls
• [38:06] – Main quest and side content depth
• [42:16] – Combat praise: environmental destruction, physicality
• [53:37] – The ‘knowledge’ system explained (“learning what an egg is”)
• [61:03] – Paris on boss fights
• [63:18] – Final verdicts / Summary statements

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Gamescast Game Tips

• “Once you get past the prologue… just go right, go left and just find that. That would be my tip to do. That’s going to be your sustained fun. Because if you stick to the main story… you’re gonna realize, wait, I don’t care about this story at all… Making your own fun in the world is going to be the key.”
  — Paris Lily, [44:56]

• “Be upgrading your armor, go get lumber to upgrade your shield and go mine ore to make your suit better… hit the first, like, skill check, and then go out and get new gear.”
  — Greg Miller, [47:02]

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Conclusions & Final Thoughts

Greg Miller: “Disappointed. I was hoping to stick with it, but didn’t happen… A mediocre video game that wears its inspirations on its sleeve… just reminds you how much fun the other games are.”

Paris Lily: “Extremely polarizing. Some will love its vast sandbox, others will be turned off by the lack of narrative drive and character. Story is the biggest letdown… Make your own fun is the offering, but not for everyone.”

Andy Cortez: (Will continue playing for marathon; personally sees promise for content creation and silly fun, but not optimistic based on the others’ comments.)

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Should You Buy It?

• If you love unstructured, massive worlds and making your own fun, maybe.
• If you need story, meaningful progression, or tight combat, likely not.
• All hosts advise caution, especially with the $70 price tag and lingering console performance questions ([50:33], [51:57]).

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Flow and Tone

Staying true to the Kinda Funny house style: irreverent, direct, passionate but fair, often self-deprecating humor. The crew leans into their distinct “games media friends talking shop” rapport—plenty of banter, a little bit of wrestling with their own expectations, but always clear that they want to love games, even when they can’t.

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For Listeners on the Fence

If you’re looking for a Witcher 3, Breath of the Wild, or Assassin’s Creed killer, this ain’t it. Crimson Desert is visually stunning and vast, but lacks the character, structure, and narrative that elevate those inspirations. It could be a forever game for someone who just wants to lose themselves in a huge sandbox. But expect to “make your own fun”—and maybe spend dozens of hours finding the good stuff.

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For further impressions, check out the Kinda Funny Gamescast Plays marathon and see how Andy and Blessing fare in the actual game tomorrow!

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Transcript

[Greg Miller]

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[Paris Lily]

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[Paris Lily]

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[Greg Miller]

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[Paris Lily]

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[Andy Cortez]

We're the greatest partners of all time. New friends Gary the Snake and your last name the Snake Dream Team.

[Greg Miller]

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[Paris Lily]

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[Greg Miller]

And right now you can get Disney

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[Paris Lily]

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[Greg Miller]

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[Andy Cortez]

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[Andy Cortez]

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[Greg Miller]

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[Andy Cortez]

Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Wednesday, March 18, 2026. I am your host Andy Cortez and I am joined by Paris Lily.

[Paris Lily]

What is up Andy? How you doing?

[Andy Cortez]

It's so good to see you Paris. And I'm also joined by Greg Miller.

[Greg Miller]

Hello Andy. How are you?

[Andy Cortez]

I'm great Greg. I'm great. And this is one that's been highly Anticipated. We've been marking this one on the calendar. We've been, you know, the Internet's been ablaze and been a buzz. This is the Crimson Desert Review. Of course, if you're watching live, be a part of the show by super chatting YouTube.com forward/ kind of funny games. Remember, we couldn't do this without our producers on patreon.com forward/kind of funny. So thank you to Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney. The psalm twining. Let's get into it. No BSing. We are just. We're getting straight to business, Paris. All right, let's start with topic of the show. Crimson Desert Review so far. And it's so far because, you know, the game's real big, apparently. Game's real big. Crimson Desert is an open world action adventure set on the continent of Paiwell. Join Cliff on his journey to rebuild the Grayman faction and to save the land from a looming threat. From vast wilderness and cities to ruins and the mysterious abyss forge your path through battles and discovery. Developer and published by Pearl Abyss. Released tomorrow. Releases tomorrow.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Yeah, that's right.

[Andy Cortez]

Bless could not be here.

[Greg Miller]

Correct.

[Andy Cortez]

Got bit by a bunch of snakes.

[Greg Miller]

A bunch of snakes.

[Andy Cortez]

Unfortunate. They are. They're. They're still on the hunt.

[Greg Miller]

You know, they're never going to leave you. Say, hey, St. Patrick, I thought you chased all these guys out. He said you missed these guys. Yeah, it's these guys.

[Andy Cortez]

So. But Bless did leave his thoughts.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, well, we'll let him go first. You got two people here playing a bunch of.

[Andy Cortez]

Letting them know. I'm just letting them know. And for the people wondering, Andy, did you play? No, I was gone on a. On a. On assignment.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And then was like, I'm gonna hammer it home as soon as I get back. And then, you know, we got a big marathon stream tomorrow playing this. We have a big marathon. Not. Not the game marathon. We're doing a big subathon stream tomorrow playing this game. Crimson Desert and Snowbike. Michael was supposed to be the one playing it for the first time. And also snakes got to him, too.

[Greg Miller]

Snakes got to him.

[Andy Cortez]

It was a. It was a blessing. And Mike, they both got him. So Mike cannot be on the subathon. So then I said, all right, well, then I will not play the game anymore because I'd only played a couple hours and I will sacrifice myself and we will be.

[Greg Miller]

How many hours did you play?

[Andy Cortez]

It says around four, but it was around two and a half. I would say. Okay, yeah, it was around two and a half. Let it sitting there. I was trying to do like, you know, comparisons and all sorts. Yeah. But here we go. Crimson Desert review. So far, Blessing has his thoughts and we're not going to get to his yet because Greg wants to give his thoughts first.

[Greg Miller]

No, I didn't say that. Don't put me on the spot, baby. You can't. You can't react.

[Andy Cortez]

Come on, you can't do that.

[Greg Miller]

I'll find them. I can go first. We're doing our top level.

[Andy Cortez]

Yes.

[Greg Miller]

Where we're at. What did we all do?

[Andy Cortez]

Where did you play on? Well, like, what platform? I want to know top level thoughts and then give me the. Give me the Enjoy cons. Give me some pros and some cons. Some things that you're like, here's some things I didn't like. And then we'll go to Paris after that.

[Greg Miller]

I have played just around 20 hours, I think. Yeah, I was at like 19.5 last time I checked Steam. So we'll just say a hot 20

[Andy Cortez]

and leave it at that 20.

[Greg Miller]

So this, these impressions are far from final, which is why. Or, you know, far from comprehensive, I should say, and why it's a review. So far I have played strictly on the old razor blade 16 over here. Playing on that one, of course, PC code is what was given out for this. I did boot it at one point on Rog Ally and dial down the settings and I was like, this is totally playable. Could do it here. Could be a part of that. For my opening statement to start this review, Crimson Desert would be my definition of a mediocre video game. I think it very clearly chases inspirations from everything you'd already know from everything we've talked about. It's Zelda. Breath of the Wild. It's Zelda. Tears of the Kingdom. It is Witcher. It is Assassin's Creed. It is.

[Andy Cortez]

It is.

[Greg Miller]

It is. There's so many different things you can look at and go, yes, yes, of course, that, that it pales in comparison to all of those games. Like, it sets its sights on such lofty goals and just does not on a gameplay side. By no means do I think it is a bad video game in terms of, you know, the pros. Immediately I would toss out. The game is gorgeous. Like, it is a gorgeous open world with, you know, running this in incredible draw distance. I don't think facial animations are good. I don't think lip syncs are good. I think, you know, talking to people, that takes you out of it, the minute things. But to focus on that would be ignoring how gorgeous this place is. And it really is that old Elder Scrolls promise of being there and looking out and going like damn, there's something cool far as hell over there. And I'm going to go to it right now. And I ride and I jump and I fly a little bit, glide a little bit, go over there and make my way to it. Like that is the promise of Crimson Desert and where I found the enjoyment of Crimson Desert because my con for it would be that it is just blessing. When him and I were talking about it going back and forth, he described it initially as Open World, the video game where it's like I have absolutely no connection to this character of Cliff. I think they do a terrible job of setting up the world and the stakes. This should be very easy. But they fumble the story and then let you loose and it's just like well why am I doing any of this stuff? That again, I think is mediocre across the board in terms of what you're doing it. I think for me it sadly falls where I was worried about it when we saw it. I think it is a jack of all trades and a master of none.

[Andy Cortez]

Gotcha. Paris, Lily, what are your thoughts on the 2026 highly anticipated title Crimson Desert?

[Paris Lily]

So let me say off the top 29 hours I literally played right up until we were about to record this. GDC battling winter storms in the Midwest. Unfortunately I couldn't get more time in before the review. But I think I have a pretty good idea of Crimson Desert and it's interesting. I, I, I, I still don't know how to feel because it's and, and Greg kind of said it already. But, but the way I've, I viewed this as it's an ocean that's an inch deep. I just, I, I, I and this is crazy. I, I kept saying myself I'm not going to compare it to the Witcher or any of these things. I'm just going to play it for what it is. But I almost think this world pie. Well, I hope I'm saying that correctly is is too freaking big. You know, in a way, beautiful game. It's, you know, played it on PC I, I put it on handheld and I wind up never getting opportunity to actually try it on a handheld. But I just played this strictly on, on my gaming PC. Beautiful. There's no issues there. I think what Pearl Abyss has done as far as creating this big giant open world technical achievement. Absolutely. We will see how it plays on console because we didn't get code early But I don't connect with these characters. Like, Cliff is the main character. You'll have two other characters that you. You will encounter that. That are playable. Uncle. I believe I'm saying his name correctly. He's like an ogre. And Damien, female character. They play similar, but they have a few different abilities and things that, that you can be able to do. But Cliff is the main guy and there's a. I said I wasn't going to say this. I have to say it. He's no girl. Let's just put it that way.

[Greg Miller]

Can I interject right there?

[Paris Lily]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Greg Miller]

The game is chasing so many different games that I comparing it. I think this isn't us getting caught up. Like, well, this. You're talking about the greatest games of all time. Like, no, you don't understand. This game is cribbing those notes. You are playing this. You're like, oh, this is exactly what I did in X, Y and Z. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Paris Lily]

I think, I think you, you, you hit that very well. It's. It's trying to do so many things, but it just simply did not master them. But then at the same time, going out in this world and exploring the different biomes that you're going to see, like, the actual crimson desert is just one section of this. Like, you'll see when you pull up the UI and look at this map for the very first time. It is gigantic. And you're just going to think, there's no way I'm going to see all of this. It almost feels like this needs to be a forever game where this is the game. I'm just. They've given you pearl. Abyss is just giving you this big sandbox and they're just telling you, go explore, try stuff, do. Do different things. Combat's okay. I wish it was a little bit better. Again, I really do like the exploration in the world because I just think it's so diverse and there's just so many different things to see. There's boss battles, there's side quests. Obviously you have the main quest. But the thing that I think I'm not liking the most, and this is going to be kind of weird to say they don't hold your hand, which is great, but things are so vague that it can get frustrating sometimes with some of these puzzles and things trying to figure them out, because it's just like, wait, how am I like, again, I don't want you to hold my hand and give me a breadcrumb trail and put. And paint a yellow thing on the cliff to tell me to go there, but it's so vague that I can see some people getting very frustrated with that. Like I said, this is I, I and again, it's review in progress. Obviously we still have a very long way to go, so I almost don't want to give it a number, but I, I went from very early on really not liking this at all. But I I will say in probably the last 10 hours or so it's really starting to come around as I'm seeing more of the world. I, I just hope it continues to get better. But, but the story is just is a nothing burger for me, unfortunately. I just don't care about the story. But I love the sandbox that they've created.

[Andy Cortez]

And we're at that point, Paris, where you talk about, you know, $70 full price game as it probably should be with how much content there seems to be. But you get to that point where you go, do I really want to pay that much right now? And wait for the yeah, but 20 hours in that's or yeah, but 40 hours in it's like, okay, well there's a lot of other experiences to be had that I could be having right now in the moment. So those are, that's my problem. Those are Greg and Paris's thoughts. I'm going to read a little blurb here from one Blessing Adio yeah, Junior who once again, these damn snakes. They just, they're everywhere.

[Greg Miller]

They're biting everybody.

[Andy Cortez]

I kind of, they got me a couple last week. It was really unfortunate. Blessing Adio, Jr says. Crimson Desert in many ways feels like Rockstar designed a fantasy game. It has the scope of a GTA, the pace of Red Dead Redemption 2, and even the slow, somewhat clunky, clunky movement of both parentheses with a similar control scheme, tapping X to sprint, square to jump, etc. The world is gorgeous and the scope feels insane. It's jam packed with things to do and characters and items to interact with. It's a shame. It's a shame then that in 15 hours that in my 15 hours before putting it down, it failed to make any of this feel worthwhile. It might look and quack like a Rockstar Witcher game, but it doesn't have that level of writing or and characters that keep me engaged. The mission structure has been overly simple and uninteresting. The inventory system feels frustrating, although most of my experience with this is pre patch, he says. And even the quote unquote knowledge system, which feels novel and cool at times, unnecessarily slows the game down when Cliff, for some reason needs to take a second to learn what an egg is. It's a game that has all the pieces. The combat is fun, the skill tree is deep, and even the simulation of the world is striking. However, it's more technically impressive as a world than it is interesting to actually exist in. Some people will dig Crimson Desert, but I'm left pretty cold on it. And he put score while fully acknowledging I haven't played enough to be definitive at all. I'd be, I'd give it around a six in about 15 hours of gameplay.

[Paris Lily]

Give it. I think he's pretty, pretty spot on with that because six is in my head. That's what I feel like right now. Just because it's like this, this game is going to be polarizing as hell. I know it is. Because there's going to be some people that are going to absolutely dig just having this huge, humongous world to go explore and just run around and try shit in. And there's going to be other people that are going to want it more tight, more focused, are going to want a story that feels compelling. They're going to want to care about the characters. I just don't care about them. I just feel like this is a great technical achievement, but not something that I want to invest. What I think you're going to have to probably do the 60 to 80 hours to really get the, the true meat of this game and understand it. And I guess Blessing Only playing 15 hours is kind of the point. If you can't convince me in the first 10 to 15 hours, I mean, what are we doing right? You know, you should not have to play a game 30, 40 hours for it to finally go, hey, I, I'm getting it because like I said, I'm right at that 30 hour mark and I'm like, okay, I kind of got a rhythm here, but that's too freaking long. I shouldn't have to do that.

[Andy Cortez]

Well, Greg, there are a lot of things you've been writing down here for.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, before we've been chatting, I want to piggyback.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, go ahead.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, so I'm not ignoring. This is. This is a weirdly like, I feel like this is like election night in America kind of coverage from us, which we don't get to do. We're usually, you know, we do the review live on the Gamescast at 11 and embargo with 6am or whatever. This is clearly one of the most anticipated games of the year. Everyone's been waiting to know what we think, let alone everyone I talked to. Like, are you playing this? Because I want to know am I crazy? You know what I mean? So I've been updating the doc with Metacritic, with reviews, with tweets, with everything going on and stuff in there. But no, I want to piggyback off of what Paris was talking about, what you're talking about, what Bless is talking about with this 10 to 15 hours business, right. For me, again, 20 hours in, which is not at all experiencing the full breadth of this game. I was watching the trailer running on the Steam page today when I was getting the thing ready and they are doing so much fucking shit in there. I've never seen, right? So 20 hours in. For me, this is a 5.5 mediocre. Like I obviously I said mediocre, but to put a score on it, so far as a view, so far, 5.5. However, me, Greg Miller talking to you, the kind of funny audience about games. You know how much I love doing that. It needs to be said. It might say review so far, I will be going no further with this game. Like, this is the first game I think at kind of funny where like, legitimately I knew how big it was, so I knew I needed to play it. As Paris pointed out, it was GDC week. It was me going to Maryland. It was. There was a whole bunch of stuff in the beginning when they gave us the code day one, all your progress on night one got lost. And then we had to wait a couple like a day and a half for a patch, which is not a knock against them. But in terms of like, why there wasn't more, but even why I'm not further than 20 hours in. This is a game that, for my sanity, I had to go home one night and I was like, I'm not going to play this at home. I will play this at work. Like, I knew already I didn't enjoy the game. And this isn't after like one session. This is after multiple where I'm like, I'm not going to play more of it. And so like to be done here now and be at this review, like, I'm not. There's. I've seen nothing. And even in that Steam trailer where I'm like, oh, well, this is going to open up and change and that's going to. It's like, I totally get. You want an open world to go run around in and do endless things in. That's here, you know, as you're talking about, you're about to get into There's a lot of crazy numbers you're seeing, you know, especially when I look at the IGN review so far of how many hours in. But from just a core gameplay loop right now, they have. They never had me. I did not enjoy this video game, although I'm not saying it's bad. I did not hate it, but I wasn't enjoying it. And I won't be going further with it.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Especially when we talk about an experience that is going to be that long. You kind of. You know, when I've had my fill and I'm ready, it's like, let's go back. I'm not gonna be stuck with this.

[Greg Miller]

Let's go back to the Witcher 3. A game where you're like, don't end. Keep going. Keep giving me quests. I love what's going on here. I love what's happening. You know, for me, with Bethesda RPGs, which are, you know, obviously not every cup of tea. Like, totally. I, you know, keep giving me cool to go do. Whereas this one, it's like, I'm just like, no, you. You're not backing up the time commitment you want.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. The Witcher 3. Pretty good game, by the way.

[Greg Miller]

No, check that one out.

[Paris Lily]

Can I say. And can I say this, since we're obviously just ripping the band. Aiding the Witcher 3.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, okay.

[Greg Miller]

Now we're reviewing the Witcher 3.

[Andy Cortez]

Let's talk about it.

[Paris Lily]

But. But to the point, obviously, a lot of people that have played this will understand this reference. Crimson Desert didn't have its bloody Baron moment.

[Greg Miller]

Sure.

[Paris Lily]

And that's what I think the problem is. Whereas when you do that, you're like, I'm in. I'm in for the long haul. Whereas this. These stories, hey, go fetch and go to the top of the tower and then look for the helmet and put it on for the time thing. And it's just. I'm like, I don't know.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Paris Lily]

It's just not Grammy.

[Andy Cortez]

For those of you who are listening right now who maybe have no interest in playing this game or even know what the video game looks like.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Crimson Desert. Again, like, we've been mentioning. Gigantic open world game. And there are elements of Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, sort of those shrines with these. Those puzzles. And Paris, you were mentioning some of the frustrations with the vagueness in some of the puzzle hints. Are we talking just like, not. Not enough like. Like you mentioned I don't need the yellow paint, but give me a little bit more.

[Paris Lily]

Well, I Think like there's one early on and Greg, you've, I'm pretty sure you've encountered this too. It's very early where you, you, you, you go through the portal and then you have to kind of shine the light thing to this other thing.

[Greg Miller]

Sure.

[Paris Lily]

And there's nothing that, that's explaining this that you need to do it except a vague, you know, thing in the UI explainer description and you have to figure it out, which. Fine. But it's just like a lot of people aren't gonna get that.

[Andy Cortez]

I, I think.

[Paris Lily]

And that's early in the game, I guess. There, there's, there's another, another puzzle I, I had to do later on where you're going up this tower and you're looking for something and it's just like, oh, okay, okay, what am I supposed to do? And I, I literally probably sat around for an hour until I figured it out, which, okay, fine. But like I said, that's not going to be for everyone. And I'm not suggesting please hold my hand to things because I do want puzzles that challenge me, but this didn't feel like a challenge. It just feels like it's so nondescript that you're going to just, you're going to waste more time just trying to understand what it is I'm supposed to do versus actually doing it. Because once you, once you like, oh, I'm supposed to do this two seconds, you know, I mean, it's like one of those things.

[Andy Cortez]

So I guess I'll be, I'll be playing Overwatch on the marathon stream tomorrow instead of.

[Greg Miller]

No, no, you're playing this. Oh, again, like, I think there's an appetite for this. I, I want. And I. We're seeing as you're about to get into scores all over the map on what's going on and what people are taking away from it. So I think it's a very interesting game to jump in and play and especially for you who didn't play necessarily as much. Me and Bless are still going to do the games Cast plays tomorrow, which will be a chance for him to really come in and talk about it. But I think from the onset are some of my issues with the game to be like, well, why is this. What?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, this. It definitely feels like one of those games, like I was mentioning during a lot of the early previews, Paris, that this is going to be great for content creators. I think it's going to be awesome for people that try to create their own fun out of nothing. But not necessarily, but based on the couple of quests that I've done very just like kind of going with their lineage with Crimson Desert and Black Desert Online being kind of an mmo. Just walk to the person, do the thing and that's it. And it didn't really feel much more involved in that. Again, that was only a couple hours in, so don't, you know, use my words as as gospel or anything like that. But yeah, right now currently Greg has been updating this little document right now sitting at a 77 so far on Metacritic with what I kind of figured with an 81 on open critic. Read a couple blurbs here for you from IGN. Travis Northup gives it a 6 out of 10 so far in progress. I've played over 110 hours of Crimson Desert and already feel like I've seen all just about all there is to see. But until I complete the main story and explore whatever secrets the end game holds, I'm not ready to stamp a final score onto this ambitious yet flawed RPG quite yet. So far the highs have been very high and the lows have been very low, which has made for an amusing adventure that's also difficult to recommend outright. I'm looking forward to seeing how the story wraps up, though I'm not expecting much from it at this point and what the post game experience looks like. I should be ready for the final review in the coming days. And then we have GameSpot. Richard Wakeling with a 7 out of 10, says the good Open World of Pie, well, is stunning, varied and a delight to explore. Combat is ferocious and emphasizes player expression with an abundance of satisfying moves, gratifying traversal, whether on foot or something else entirely. And then the bad Richard Wakeling says much of the narrative impetus is left short to blur is left to short blurbs in the pause menu. Quest design often feels like merely following a checklist. Inventory management is aggravating, the healing system is more frustrating than it needs to be. And yeah, a couple more reviews that we can get to a bit later, but Forbes Paul Tassie 9.5 out of 10 says, at about 50 hours into Crimson Desert, I wondered if it was even possible for me to finish the campaign in time for embargo. At 70 hours I stopped wondering and knew I wouldn't. Now at 100 hours I don't even care that I have made it even 2/3 of the main questline endlessly diverted from its path. I'll be here for 100 more. It's all very polarizing all over the map.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, you know I think you're seeing a lot of outlets. Be all over with it, be higher on it, be whatever. It's, it's, it's going to be an interesting one. You know, I saw in the chat early on and I'm. This isn't me coming for a defensive place at all where people are like, remember everybody, Greg doesn't like Eldon Ring and Baldur's Gate. And yet it's like, well, sure, Baldur's Gate I didn't connect with. I don't like CRPGs. That's a different conversation. Open world action adventure games really kind of are my shit. And granted, Elden Ring is one of those, but that was always the vibe of it back to this, of playing it. It's just like Blessing put it so succinctly. And I wish he was here, but when him and I were trading texts about it one day, he hit me up and he's like, the problem I have playing this game is that it makes me want to go play five other games. When, when you're playing it, I am like, like, literally there's the abyss, which are these floating islands above live in, right? And it's like when I jump off of them and I'm re. I'm like, man, this is cool. I should go play Tears of the Kingdom. You know what I mean? When you're, When I'm, When I'm like, oh man, like this quest, I. I gotta go eliminate these four different areas that have taken or been taken over by bandits. I'm like, this, I should go play the Witcher. And even when I'm like, rooftop to rooftop, I'm calling my horse, I'm like, man, I should go play Assassin's Creed. Like, it's a game that is here it is chock full of content. It's awesome to see Paul so into it, so attached to it. But yeah, I just could not get over having no connection to this world. Having, I thought, be so bland.

[Paris Lily]

See, that's the thing, Greg. I think you're going to be able to create your own fun in this because the sandbox is just so huge and vast. You're going to find your niche in here of something that you're going to love to do, but that's not going to be for everyone. This is why it's going to be so polarizing. So like, yeah, I'm seeing now Paul has been raving about it, which is great. I, if, if you found that, that, that slice of fun in this sandbox, that's great. I. I think I just wanted something that was more structured, if that makes sense. Whereas, like, where I'm. I'm following that main quest and this just this epic, compelling, Lord of the Ring esque type story where, you know you're going to have, you know, the big hero moments, you know there's gonna be a tragic death somewhere, and I'm just like, damn. Oh, man, I really like that character. Oh, I wish that, wish that didn't happen kind of thing. I. I don't feel any of my choices in this matter either. I don't feel like there's any real consequence to anything that I do. A faction that I might align myself with or anything like that. Maybe that's coming in hour 50, I don't know. But it's not here now.

[Greg Miller]

Exactly.

[Paris Lily]

Other games do that a lot better and a lot quicker. And maybe that's the problem.

[Greg Miller]

In the vein of this. Right, like we're going through all these reactions. I'm trying to compile this for my election night in America moment. Jason Schreier, of course, from Bloomberg. Blue skies. I'm sorry, bs, That's a blue sky, too. I've only played a few hours of the much hyped Crimson Desert, so weight my opinion accordingly. But those few hours were so boring and soulless that I absolutely did not want to play anymore. Feels like a game designed for people who just want to consume content. Capital C's on that. What's more interesting to the conversation we're having right now? Underneath it, KL Buck says it's for people like me who don't care about story and love exploration and gameplay. Try to respond. Yeah, I mean, Elden Ring is one of my favorite games of all time. So if you need an Elden Ring fan who's played feels the same as me, there you go. But, yeah, I. I'm glad and I want people to enjoy it, but it's just like, this is one of those things where this is. So me not playing it at home was a choice because I knew if I played it at home, I would be forcing myself to play something. And I knew that I would turn. It would turn to hate, and it would be because I'm not playing at the time, I'm not playing whatever the hell else I want to do. Even like, yeah, the nights where I did go downstairs, like, like, all right, bye, babe. You know, she wanted to watch a movie. I'm like, I got to go. And I'm down there, I'm playing this. I'm like, why am I Playing this, making my wife.

[Andy Cortez]

It's him making me watch Venom to write Let There Be Carnage.

[Greg Miller]

And so it's like one of those things of, I love art and I love video games, and I love that we can look at this. And I look at this and I'm like, man, there are so many better ways to spend the 20 hours I spent, let alone to think of the 110 hours somebody else is spending. But I'm glad you're enjoying it. And I saw somebody say, a slow burn for a chill summer. Yeah, you know what I mean? That one game to have and you come back to all the time and not be worried about what the story is and not be worried about. But then we get into the actual gameplay of it too, where we're so hung up on a million different things. But, like, the game is clunky. Like, sure, it sounds easy. It sounds like Assassin's Creed of like, all right, you know, RB and, you know, R1 and L. R2 to attack is light and strong. Right. But then as you start unlocking the skill tree, like, I had to write down on a piece of paper, like, okay, shit, okay, so hold R1 and hit Y to do this. Hold R1 and now hold LB and double. And it's like.

[Andy Cortez]

And we knew that based on a couple of the previews. When I did the preview was all I kept wondering myself is, this is very, very convoluted and complicated. And I don't. I see that being the main sticking point with a lot of people whenever this does come out. It's like, we have a lot of games that look like this, but all of them control somewhat similarly. And this one doesn't control very similarly to any of the other third person. Yeah. Sword and board action games or whatever weapon you want to use. But, you know, when you sort of start off the game, you're immediately shown one of the mechanics, which is a precise jump. And your left bumper is. The way the game works is your left bumper is your targeting reticle, almost. So imagine chat that, you know, you hold left bumper and then there's like a growing. A glowing green light that tells you this is what you're sort of focused on. And the glowing green light might be on the laptop right here. And it might say open laptop or whatever. It might be on Greg, and it may say tickle Greg or something. But then you also use it for precise jumps. Yeah, so if I want to jump on the cliff, that's like maybe four feet over there. I could, like, slowly do the walk and then jump and hope that I mantle on it. Or I could get to the edge of where I'm at right now, look at the other side. Hold left bumper and the green spot will be on the other side. And then I hit X to precise jump.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. And it's such an awkward way to.

[Andy Cortez]

Feels like a Baldur's Gate mechanic in. In a. And that's a game that is not an active.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Sort of game with dodge rolls and a freedom of expression with combat. It seems very, very at odds with each other. And I don't understand that. And one thing I really don't love is again, two hours of playing it. If I'm just doing the slow walk or like the slow. Kind of like jog or whatever.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Just holding up on the, on the control stick. I can jump while I'm doing that, but if I'm sprinting, I can't jump.

[Paris Lily]

And I don't have to deal with stamina.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't get that. I don't understand what. Dude, the problem there.

[Greg Miller]

And that's the thing again, you know, to sit here and be like, I played 20, 20 hours of it, and we're talking about reviews that have played 110. They can speak more to it. The game introduces so many mechanics that you just don't use. And it's like, well, why did you introduce it this early to me that didn't have it to not do it? So, like, what am I. Why complicate this? And then I. It was like, I had this basic stuff. I was, I went to the discord that they've set up that I usually don't join, but, like, there is the whole update thing in the beginning. So I was like, okay. And I looked at who was on it, and I hit up Miranda Sanchez over at ign. I was like, hey, I, I. They taught me this a long time ago. And I. That was 15 hours. Can you. What do I do? She's like, hold on, let me check. She came back with the answer. I'm like, thank you. Like, it's that level two things and

[Andy Cortez]

then mash the A button while you're

[Greg Miller]

there to pick up the giant.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I know.

[Greg Miller]

I eventually use in a boss fight from SGF where I was like, this seems like complicated.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Again, maybe at hour 55. That is. Oh, this is all natural and it makes sense. But, like, as of now, I'm like, oh, this just isn't fun to play.

[Andy Cortez]

I will. I'm looking forward to getting more into, you know, all of our thoughts on Crimson Desert as Greg just smashes a can.

[Greg Miller]

We gotta talk about the soundtrack and sound effects.

[Andy Cortez]

We will talk about everything right after a word from our sponsors.

[Greg Miller]

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[Andy Cortez]

Thanks Greg. Open up with a super chat from Chad G. I was gonna say Chad GPT two dollar Super Chat says why am I alive? Says shout out to Andy the Mega 64 shirt. Hey, thank you. Any compliments y' all got. We have Anthony with the five dollar super chat says did Mike write in curious about an MMO Rooted minds perspective

[Greg Miller]

from well no, Mike was going to be the one who did the marathon stream for it. So Mike stayed off the review on purpose. And then yeah of course Mike had to go lick everybody at GDC.

[Andy Cortez]

Here we are, Snow 13 with a five dollar super chat says to me this just looks like a way bigger Dragon's Dogma 2 with a lot more traversal options and much more quicker action slash combat.

[Greg Miller]

What do you think Andy? You played a lot of dragons Dogma?

[Andy Cortez]

Well I don't know if I've played enough of this quite yet to form an opinion, but do you see like

[Greg Miller]

that possibility for sure.

[Andy Cortez]

Especially when it comes to the physics based combat when it cut. You know I a couple of things that I already just loved from the two hours that I played. It was like punching a dude and having that dude hit the wall behind him and then knock into another dude. Like I that that's one thing that I've been really hoping to love with this game because one of my favorite games of all time, you may have heard of it, Breath of the Wild.

[Greg Miller]

Oh that's the Metroid.

[Andy Cortez]

Didn't give a goddamn about the story or anything happening there, but it's wrapped in a charming Nintendo rapper that I love. And it's. It's cute and it's got a really pretty art style. And the again, story did jack all for me, but I enjoyed what the puzzles were. I enjoyed the systems. I enjoyed just seeing a camp of Bokoblins and going, I'm going to shoot a fire arrow, light the grass on fire so that it reaches them, and then knock that boulder down. And I like the physics playground in that video game for Paris and Greg, who've played a lot more than me. Do you feel like that is still attainable for me of like, hey, you're probably not going to get the story or the dialog or character arcs.

[Greg Miller]

There's no probably. There's no problem.

[Andy Cortez]

There's no probably.

[Greg Miller]

I mean, we did finish it, but yeah, this is universal.

[Andy Cortez]

Even from people who loved it.

[Greg Miller]

Back to it, right? Of like, let's talk about the things I did enjoy. Like when I felt like nails on a chalkboard pulling teeth trying to play the story. Cause I was so annoyed with just how it sets up. Let me talk about what I like. And then I start. But I'm going somewhere positive, I swear. Where, like, just an example for me of like, this breaks the experience for Greg. I turn in the main quest I'm on, right? I go in. I turn in the MacGuffin. Immediately the main quest pops up again, Andy. And now it just goes, go talk to the crying girl. And I was like, go talk. I just turned in and I turn around and There's a dot 300 meters that way through multiple houses. And I'm like, oh, my God. I run over there as a crying girl to talk to Mike. That sucks. In 2026 for giving you a quest, you also get bumped people like, hey, hey, you. Because you're a gray mane, you are basically a witcher, right? You're this group that helps people out and yeah, hey, you and you. Oh, yeah, sure. I walk over to. To you talk. They walk over, same animation, give me a piece of paper, my hand, and walk away. And I open up the little thing of like, what the question, all right, can you talk to me? Can we do it?

[Andy Cortez]

That's kind of cute.

[Greg Miller]

However, however, however, to get back to what I found fun in this game, eventually, right? Where I had to go find my own fun was the idea that, okay, this main line of quests and missions and whatever, I'm not enjoying that much. I don't. There's no story to it. It's just bashing into guys. I eventually did hit a thing where like, oh, okay, cool. I see you difficulty spike here. I need to level up, so I need to go get the abyss crystals or whatever they're called, squares to then go into my skill tree and max it out and unlock new moves and get more health, yada, yada, yada. So I was like, I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do my own quest, which was, I'm gonna walk that way. There's something cool over there that looks to be miles away. Get on the horse, do the thing. Find the. On the way, find a puzzle. Okay, cool. Jump into it. And some of the puzzles, I was like, damn, this was really ingenious. Other ones were like, what do you want me to do here? I don't think I have the thing you want me to do. You know what I mean? Like, okay, so I'll move on. Like, I guess I don't. That. That didn't feel good or empowering. Right?

[Andy Cortez]

So a bit inconsistent that you're like, where. How many puzzle makers were making these puzzles?

[Greg Miller]

But wandering off and going into the distance, finding a new environment. Like, Paris was talking about running into a boss fight, right? Picking this up, finding bandits to fight. Now, as you know, I walk in, there's red dots. We immediately go to war. We do the thing. It's like, all right, cool. And again, even though I think the combat is very clunky in terms of what they're doing for the basic enemies you run into, the encampments you run into. It is just R1, R2, if you want it to be, and you're fine and you're getting it done, and you can parry, obviously, with your shield and yada, yada, yada. Again, what you were talking about of smashing people, throwing them around, it does action that way really, really well. And what I want to compliment it on is in moment action, sure. And then the way they do it in cutscenes, like, probably one of the reasons I'm so crestfallen about the story and not wanting to give a damn is like, it opens with what should be a. You are locked in the gray, mains are attacked. You get this. They're spinning the camera body. And guys like, this is cool production. They immediately. The bed with you. Get your. This isn't a spoiler. This is how the game opens, right? You get fucking beat to shit by the big guy. That's going to be the guy you're going to go after, at least for whatever. He, like, slits your throat, stabs you, throws you in the water. You're Fucking dead. This thing on your wrist brings you back. You go to the thing, you wake up, hey, you've been here forever. I haven't. Thanks for saving me. Then I find a God, that I meet a God. I'm up in the sky, Cliff, giving me nothing emotionally. Nothing emotionally. Of like, do we know the gods live a bug above us? Is this like you're not. You're not either going, holy shit, Jesus. Or who are you, Jesus? I just need one of those. I need nothing. You know what I mean? Then you're off of these power. It's like what I talked to one

[Andy Cortez]

NPC that I want to estimate had three to four different. Either like not just voice actors or just different voices within one dialogue moment of me turning something in and him being like, ah, you found that thing I needed. I've been looking for it forever. And it was. And it was like, these are different people talking right now. So that kind of threw me off. But that's. That's neither here nor there.

[Greg Miller]

But then let me go back to it because I was. I'm just gregging it. Sorry, everybody. They then get into the combat in fighting in those encampments, right? Like, we've done it so many times in an Assassin's Creed, a Ghost of Yote, whatever open world action game that I love to infiltrate and fight. Like, the fighting here feels visceral and like you're actually throwing the guys and smashing things. And, you know, I had all these archers in one camp shooting at me and I was on top fighting a guy and accidentally hit the thing and the whole thing collapsed with me on top and I got hurt and I

[Andy Cortez]

was like, but wait a second.

[Greg Miller]

And so then it was like the next archer, I ran to the base and just fucking attack. And like the whole thing came down and killed that guy. And I was like, damn, that that was neat. That's a neat way to do it. But again, I'm doing it all with the carrot on the stick being you got to clear these three camps to do this side quest to do that thing for these people. You don't know. It's just like, what? Why would I go do that here, let alone. Then I think you get into the real boss fights and it is cool. That mechanics that you've just been popping around on now you really need to lock in and you need to be able to do what we want you to do here. I love how bad this jump is.

[Andy Cortez]

We have a 7 out of 10 from Hayes Madsen over at Game Informer who says Crimson Desert is a bizarre game. Sometimes enchanting, sometimes utterly frustrating. A technical marvel meshed with an over designed open world and baffling. Baffling. Baffling. Baffling.

[Greg Miller]

Baffling. Baffling.

[Andy Cortez]

Bafflingly baffling.

[Greg Miller]

Bad story.

[Andy Cortez]

It's a bad story. Parts of it I love, but too many strange design design decisions. Baffling. Baffling. Jeff Grubb says, I hate the way it feels to play Crimson Desert. It's definitely inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2 in the exact way that I was worried about a game that cares more about looking good than being enjoyable for a human to play.

[Greg Miller]

Well said, Jeff.

[Andy Cortez]

Damn. Jeffy.

[Paris Lily]

Grub.

[Andy Cortez]

Grub. Paris Lily, what do you think? My sort of the possibility of me finding a lot of fun with just the playground of this video game are because I'm hoping we could have this, you know, subathon stream go a long time and I want to be there a while. I don't want to be sent home early but I want to like what, you know, what are some tips for me, the first time player, Paris Lily. And before we do that, can you hit the music, Barrett? I didn't warn him.

[Paris Lily]

Cause it's a gamescast game tip. If you need help, don't feel ashamed.

[Greg Miller]

It's a gamescast game tip.

[Paris Lily]

We're gonna help you out with the game.

[Andy Cortez]

Welcome to gamescast games tips. Paris, what's a gamescast game tip? You need to give me a brand new player to Crimson Desert. When I hop on the sticks tomorrow. My.

[Paris Lily]

My tip would be once you just

[Andy Cortez]

frozen on the wall.

[Greg Miller]

Am I frozen?

[Paris Lily]

Can you hear me?

[Andy Cortez]

No, we hear you.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, your. Your photo's frozen in the most like. I hate this song.

[Paris Lily]

Well, FYI because I didn't. It'll probably drop me. My discord went wacky.

[Greg Miller]

But you can still hear it.

[Andy Cortez]

We hear you.

[Paris Lily]

But to the tip, once you get past the prologue stuff and you can be in the world and start exploring, just go right, go left and just find that. That would be my. My tip to do. That's going to be your sustained fun. Because if you stick to the main story and that's what you're trying to accomplish while you're doing that subathon, I think you're then going to realize wait, I don't care about this story at all. I think making your own fun in the world is going to be the key to people really digging this. And I think we even have started to see some of that in the reviews and even some of the. Some of the people in the super chats, they just want give. Just give me a sandbox, let me go figure it out. And I think that's going to be the thing that you'll really enjoy with it because there are things to discover. There are random bosses that you'll find, you know, like I said, would you actually go to the Crimson Desert itself? You're gonna be like, holy, this is amazing. This is beautiful. There's, you know, there's like the frozen tundra that you'll go to. I love the diversity of the world. Absolutely. And I think discovering that on your own and seeing that and then just encountering things off the beaten path with some of these side quests, that's going to be your fun in the game, in my opinion. Now, how long that sustains you. Tbd. But that's where I think. That's where I think Crimson Desert shines the most, that they've just given you all these. These fun things to just play with and you get to figure it out yourself versus them. Again, they don't hold your hand.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Paris Lily]

And. And that is one thing I really do enjoy about it. Don't. You don't need to hold my hand. You don't need to guide me to this thing. Let me find it and discover it, you know, on my own myself.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I think that's, you know, a gamecast tip for you. I think if you hit that spot where you're not enjoying a part of it, go the other direction. You know what I mean? Switch characters. Just. I would. I mean, like an actual tip would be, you know, be upgrading your armor. You know, go through all that jazz. You know, there is that the. On top of everything you've seen, which you've already seen a million things from this game. Right there is. All right, go get lumber to upgrade your shield and go mine ore to make your suit better. But like, for me, it was early on when I hit the first, like, skill check where I was like, oh, damn, okay, this is your hit. And. And I was then like, wait, you know what? And I went to a thing and bought new armor because I had so much money at the time. And like that finding those little bits around of like, okay, cool. The game isn't telling me I'm under leveled, but clearly I am. There was like in the runoff in that direction thing where the first. I literally, the first night I was like going, going, going, and I like dropped into this arena and this boss showed up and he was basically in like an iron man suit with drill Hands like, what the. And, like, one touch, I was dead. I'm like, cool. I shouldn't be here yet.

[Andy Cortez]

Level check.

[Greg Miller]

Maybe I'll see you in another couple hours.

[Andy Cortez]

Thank you for the Gamescast game tip. Everybody.

[Paris Lily]

Up with the game.

[Andy Cortez]

We have a super chat here from Christopher. Five dollar super chat says we can't go further without hearing about jetpacks and dragons. What's good?

[Greg Miller]

Wish I knew. You don't see that in the first 20 hours. At least my first 20 hours of it.

[Paris Lily]

Yeah, I don't. I don't have a dragon yet, but I, I, I do jump off cliffs and fly around and I got a horse and discover stuff, but I didn't get a dragon.

[Greg Miller]

And to go there today. Ben was interviewing me about this because he wanted to know about Crimson Desert. I'm dead serious. Where he was, like, actually asking me questions are very cute.

[Andy Cortez]

Excuse me, father.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, exactly. I'm sorry, Ben from preschool. But, like, the fact that you can fly in this game, and somehow even that is like, ugh, this is like limp, you know? I mean, it's. I told When Ben was. I'm like, ben, this is how, you know, it ain't right. They have flying, and it's not fun. And I'm like, you know what, Ben? It's actually not flying. It's falling with style. It's the Toy Story. Like, you know what I mean? Like, my stamina bar is doing. It's the glide, obviously, from Breath of the Wild.

[Andy Cortez]

And it's a beautiful visual. Good luck.

[Greg Miller]

But it's like, you're this crow thing, which should feel so great. But of course, if you don't save your. You don't save your stamina. You come in, you land, you hurt yourself. Like, God damn it. I'm like, constantly.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

And I'm like. I was like, okay, cool. I can expand it to go with this thing. And I'm, like, shooting myself out a little bit further. Like, oh, hell yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I was always way closer to the ground than I thought I was. Yeah. In the Several times. One thing I loved in my short time with this and this, you know, has no bearing on a review or whatever, but I just love that you could hit the select button and change the camera angles.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

That's so cool. And that reminds me of just an older time in video games where super far, like, I'm thinking, like, World of Warcraft zooming in with a scroll wheel. Like, I love that you could just hit the select button, and it's really, really far out a little bit closer, like 3/4, view more behind the back. And then it does another one that's like right on your fucking head. And then you have like first person mode, which I thought was. Was really, really neat. We have a super chat here from James MD who says, Is the tech slash exploration alone worth $70 exploration in my 20 hours?

[Greg Miller]

No, like I said, no, I. I don't think so. But it is a beautiful game. Yes, I said it, but I never did it. The soundtrack, I think is really great. I think the sound effects are really great. But no, I don't. Again, I think there's so many better games to go spend time in.

[Paris Lily]

Yeah, I think I would. I would have a hard time right now with so many other games being out to say, yeah, run out day one and spend $70 for this. Would it be worth your time down the road to just explore and, you know, and check out the world? Yes, but I don't think you need to rush to do it.

[Andy Cortez]

I have a question here from Kobe. Aren't with a $20 super chat. Thank you for your generosity. Remember, you can write in with your super chats here on YouTube. Kobe asks, not sure if you're far enough to say, but from a world design perspective, how does all. How do all the different ideas flow? Example, does being a mech fit into this world with a dragon or is there. Is it just there because it's cool? So another dragon mech question. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of answers.

[Greg Miller]

I mean, again, from the way they set up this story in this world, I don't. It. It's the way this game starts to me makes it feel like they don't even care. Like, so it's just like anything fits in this world because what the fuck?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I guess.

[Paris Lily]

Yeah, I think it's there because it's cool.

[Andy Cortez]

One thing I definitely love was just walking around the cities and having just, you know, gigantic ogre citizens. Yeah, I just, I love that. I mean, they look damn good. And again, this game looks so freaking gorgeous when it's running really, on really, really high settings. And hopefully a lot of people are able to, you know, not get screwed over by whatever the system requirements are,

[Paris Lily]

you know, can I comment on that really quick? And I know, and I know Digital Foundry put out the video about the PS5 Pro. I think if I had a red flag and look, you probably. Well, I guess you could still see I'm literally sitting in my cyberpunk chair. So this is giving me ptsd. When they're like, oh, no, there's not going to be any console code at, you know, for review. I was like, oh, that doesn't sound good. And the fact that they've been so guarded about showing the console version of this game, that's something else that I would say to anyone that, that is on the fence about this. If you're playing this, especially if you're playing this on, on a base PS5 or God forbid, the Xbox series S, I would wait to see actual gameplay and see what it, what the performance really looks like on those consoles before I run out and get it. Again, I'm playing a high end PC. I could just be brute forcing it, but it looks great. So I, I don't have an issue honestly. Maybe only a few bugs I've run into. So I, I have no complaints as far as that goes. But again, I'm playing on a high end PC versus playing on a base console. So I, I, I, I would just be cautious about that, especially spending $70 for that, for that. Make sure that you're at least educating yourself enough to, to make sure the performance, you know, is good. Because we, we know a few other games that did this trick and didn't turn out too well.

[Andy Cortez]

So we have a super chat here from one blessing Adioia Jr. Hey, with a five dollar super chat that, that it? Is that it? $5 blessing.

[Greg Miller]

Jesus, you know what I mean? He says, don't care about this company.

[Andy Cortez]

He says, I want to hear y' all talk about the knowledge system because people need to understand what I meant by cliff learning what an egg is.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, so the game is big on the knowledge system where when you see something in battle, you'll see someone do something and be like, I forget what does it say? Learning knowledge, knowledge something here. And there's a little progress bar of you filling in knowledge. And it can be a new move, a kick in the thing, yada, yada yada. But then also like you cook in the thing, the, the game so you're learning new recipes, that makes sense. But when you go to like the shop and you walk up, there'll be all these items there and some of them are blacked out with a question mark on it. It'll say, it'll say question mark egg and you have to go over it and then it goes, no, the is this, it's like, oh, you've learned what an egg is. Like, yeah. Why, like, why did you feel like we needed to do that on this level of it? It's a goofy little quirky thing of like, I guess so Cool.

[Andy Cortez]

Cliff, did it work out? Very. Did it work out well at all with the combat? And was that nice to kind of have that Mega man moment? You're like, oh, now I got your. Now it doesn't happen enough.

[Greg Miller]

No, that it did. Yeah. The one big kick, Paris. I was like, oh, that was cool. That was a nice way to do it.

[Andy Cortez]

Nothing from you, Paris.

[Paris Lily]

Oh, did you not hear me? I know. I. I agreed. I was agreeing.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay, gotcha.

[Paris Lily]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

We have Tom Caswell. Tom Caswell with a five dollar Super Chat says, do not recommend that. I think Tom was talking about me just walking off in a distance in this game. He says, I've played for 50 hours. You need to do some main missions to unlock specific skills, to do a lot of stuff in the open world. Ejrpg.

[Greg Miller]

Correct. Yes. I'm just saying, though, if you got frustrated with something or you knew the power level or whatever going on there,

[Andy Cortez]

would you say, this is just Skyrim 2, more of a sandbox adventure than a traditional RPG, says EJRP.

[Greg Miller]

I mean, no. I think that'd be a huge insult.

[Andy Cortez]

That's probably Skyrim, too.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Paris, go ahead. If you want to say more. Yeah, please.

[Paris Lily]

No, no, I was just. Just adding on to that to just say that there's a reason they've made 10, 000 different versions of Skyrim across all these platforms. Because, you know, that's something that you want to go back and revisit, and you're really sucked into that world and that story. And unfortunately, Crimson. Crimson Desert is falling short on that

[Andy Cortez]

opponent's prime with a five dollar Super Chat asks if. If the game. If this game was built on an existing ip, would you feel differently? Is Breath of the Wild good because it's Zelda or because its systems are fun? First off, let me just answer that and say I. I think Breath of the Wild is awesome because the systems are amazing, and it has a really nice, charming sense of welcome. You know, amazing music, environment, vibes. Like it. Everything is hitting on it. And I don't really know if I could say the same for this video game. Like, I don't.

[Paris Lily]

Yeah, I'm with you on that, Andy. When I think of Breath of the Wild, I think of Tears of the Kingdom. It's. It's those systems that. Why I love it. Like. Like, obviously, Tears of the Kingdom being able to just, hey, let me try this and see what I can build. Holy. That actually works. All right, I'm gonna go do it kind of thing, right. I. I Don't get that feeling with Crimson Desert at all.

[Greg Miller]

Right, I concur. Yeah. I mean, it's. It's possible. I think, again, you know, to my questions, even though it sounds like some of these more detailed reviews that have played way longer, they're saying the same thing of, like, you have to read menus, you have to do this, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, it would be helpful, I guess, if it was an established ip so that I wouldn't have so many questions, like, do you guys know that there's gods in the sky that gave me and saved me and now I have a tether on my arm? You know what I mean? Like, again, Cliff reacts to that the same way I would react to buying ice cream from the ice cream.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, like, oh, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

You know, I mean, if you've never seen ice cream man, why is that man walking around the freezer? But, like, this is the thing. So I guess if it was Zelda, you'd be like, oh, I understand a little bit more about Hyrule, but I don't know. I don't know. I see a lot of people trying to do the mental gymnastics to equate, well, Zelda doesn't have a story. That's great, right? You're. You guys are crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

Super chat here from Cody Bishop, who says Zelda gets points for dull, lacking narrative. Though I don't know if you're asking or, like, I mean, you put a question mark, so clearly that's a question. Yeah, I don't think. Yeah, I don't think we give it points for that.

[Greg Miller]

I. I give Zelda points because everything you do in Zelda is fun, and I take away points because I don't like the combat in Zelda either. And I'm talking about Breath of the Wild.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Greg Miller]

Kingdom.

[Andy Cortez]

I. I've. And I've always kind of been of the line of thinking where if you're really trying to go for something in the game and you're failing at it, you. You fail way more loudly. And a lot of that has to do with Breath of the Wild not having voice acting or, you know, aside from those cutscenes. But, like, if. If Breath of the Wild were. And now we're just talking about Breath of the Wild a lot. So sorry for bringing that in. But, like, if it were Breath of the. You know, in Breath of the Wild, if you constantly had Witcher 3 style cutscenes with dialogue and moments and choosing and, you know, characters and back and forths between, you know, interactions, then it would be a lot Easier to judge on. All right, this is good or this is bad, but when it's no dialogue and you're just reading stuff, it's like kind of more passive. So it's like, it's a nice get out of jail free card for me, but, you know, similarly to when I roasted, you know, Neo 3 or Ninja Gaiden 4, and I was like, they're trying to do cutscenes and stuff, and I wish they didn't because they suck real bad at that. And they continuously try to make me care about characters in those games and have awesome cutscenes and have these great moments between characters and it. It always falls flat. And I just wish they took the quiet approach to everything and, and just let the combat be the sole thing. But when the combat is one of the things that is awesome and everything else kind of sucks around it, it's a lot more noticeable when those things do suck around it. You know.

[Greg Miller]

You know what I was thinking a lot about in terms of not, hey, this is a system borrowed from this run, but what this experience reminded me of. Even though I was more on the high side that time around Rise of the Ronin, where, you know what I mean, like, Rise of. I was like, oh, this is a great game. This is where I was like, oh, this is the trough game, right? I love trough. Give me the open world trough where I just run around and do the thing and I glide and yeah, blah, blah.

[Andy Cortez]

Love Neo3, bro.

[Greg Miller]

I was like, this is what. If that kind of thing is what you're looking for from a game, this will fill that of being able to run through and, yeah, find new things and find whatever. But it's just like the reason to do it was missing for me. But I know that's not every game.

[Andy Cortez]

Neo 3 boss fights rock. And speaking of boss fights, I have a super chat here from Rival Knight, who asks, how are the boss fights Paris?

[Paris Lily]

Pretty good. Pretty good. There's. There's also a little bit of challenge to. To some of them as well. As far as trying to figure. Figure it out, which. That I'm. I'm totally fine with, but they're. They're good. I mean, this goes again, to. To the point that I. I think the overall point that every review has been saying and I think we've been saying today is once you get into those kind of encounters, freaking great. I have no problem with that. I love that stuff. I think they do those things very well. It's just the moments leading up to that where you're just like, okay, what am I doing? Why am I here? But the boss fights themselves. I like, I like. I've. How many have I done? Three or four. Pretty good.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay. How would you compare them to any other sort of action games of the genre?

[Paris Lily]

Actually, we keep going to the. Well with the Witcher, I think similar.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay.

[Paris Lily]

In that way because I remember that

[Andy Cortez]

first one of the first boss fights that I don't know if you played the preview at all like Greg did in the one that I did at PAX west. But it was very, you know, action souls, like, not quite souls like, but more like action RPG ish, where you are wanting to dodge at the right moments, you are wanting to parry. And it's really, really hard too. So they make it tougher. A lot more risk, reward. And then they added that sort of interactive moment of, oh, I can knock down the pillars that the dude is knocking down. I can lift those up to then hit him to stun him after he's on the ground and do a lot more damage. Did you. Were there a lot more moments of interactivity during these boss fights that you noticed?

[Paris Lily]

It's. It's more of. And I think that's why I was trying to compare it a little bit to the Witcher of understanding what the attack pattern is going to be and essentially planning for it on how you're going to do it. And once you. Once you get that, then you know, you'll probably die a few times and then you'll come back to it and you're like, okay, here's what the pattern looks like. Here's the things that I need to do. Some of the bosses will give you different phases, so you need to obviously. All right, this is what's going to happen in phase one of it. All right, here's what's going to happen in phase two, stuff like that. But once you get that down, like I said, I think it's fine. But again, it doesn't hold your hand to do it. And that I do like when you get into a boss fight.

[Andy Cortez]

Any final thoughts here on Crimson Desert?

[Paris Lily]

I'm disappointed again.

[Greg Miller]

Let me go. You close this out. Right. I'm disappointed. I like an open world action. I was hoping to really get into this one, stick with it. Didn't happen for me, but I'm glad other people are enjoying it and I'm glad they're finding that there. But for me, yeah, I just think there's a lot of. Again, I think this is a mediocre video game that wears its inspirations for all of its mechanics on its sleeves. And I would say that playing it and doing those just reminds you of how much fun those games are with those mechanics and the world they surrounded you with rather than what this game does curse.

[Paris Lily]

Yeah, mine is just pretty simple. I, I think this game is going to be extremely polarizing. I think we obviously are talking about it. We're more down on it than we are excited about it. But I think you're going to hear other opinions where people are going to be super excited about it. Because I do think Pearl Abyss has created a fantastic open world. I think like I said before, I think it's a little too big but some people are going to love that it's too big because I think this can be a forever game for people where they will spend 80, 100 plus hours in this and just try to explore every nook and cranny of this world. I do wish the story was better. I think that is my biggest disappointment coming out of this. Some of the mechanics can be a little clunky but I think this is a make your your own kind of fun type of game. And, and like I said, I think some people are going to really dig that and I think other people are going to be turned off by it. So it is going to be very fascinating to see the various opinions over over the next few weeks.

[Andy Cortez]

All right, thank you so much to

[Greg Miller]

see you make your opinion tomorrow. Of course we're doing games cast plays. Right. Me and blessing at 3 o' clock and then after that you're gonna hop in. Andy started Marathon Stream with us.

[Andy Cortez]

We're going to be playing non stop all damn night and I'm going to make the best of it. I'm going to be.

[Greg Miller]

Don't say like that. I think maybe you're, maybe you're going to come back like you guys are wrong. I played for 24 hours straight and did X, Y and Z and I love it.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean I do, you know I do love around with the, the systems.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I you know picking up a sheep and tossing it or you know I love tossing. I've seen all sorts of like cool clips out there so we're going to have a lot of fun tomorrow everybody. Thank you Volk Dasher for the super chats. Thank you to Zachary. We got Petite Sweet Treat. That's a great name. It's a great James md We got Jordan Andow and a couple of other people that I was unable to get to your messages but and some of you all were just kind of saying some of the same stuff. So I just try to like put it all into one question for the guys. Thank you everybody for watching and listening to us. Let us know what you feel in the comments down below and bear thank you for the reminder right there. Paris Lily, thank you for joining us for this gamescast. Where could people find more from you, Paris?

[Paris Lily]

You can find more from me at Gamer Tag Radio, you can find me on my YouTube channel, which is Paris ML, and you can see me yapping on social media.

[Andy Cortez]

That is beautiful sometimes. And everybody, you can form your own opinions when Crimson Desert comes out tomorrow. So go pick it up. If you were planning on I see a lot of people still going. I I want to kind of form my opinion. I'm going to I was planning on picking it up anyway and some people do like that sort of open world, just wander around, get lost in it. So let us know how you feel about it in the comments down below. Appreciate you all watching and hanging out with us. Take care of yourself, take care of each other and we'll see you tomorrow.

[Paris Lily]

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[Greg Miller]

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[Paris Lily]

So if you've been living in the White can branch out.

[Greg Miller]

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[Paris Lily]

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[Greg Miller]

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[Andy Cortez]

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[Paris Lily]

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[Andy Cortez]

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[Paris Lily]

One last big number.

[Andy Cortez]

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