Crimson Desert Looks “Too Good to Be True,” And That’s Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

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I’ve been seeing a lot of people say that Crimson Desert looks too good to be true, and honestly, I get it. The game does look amazing – the graphics are stunning, the world is huge, and the gameplay seems incredible. But I’m starting to agree with those doubts. While it looks fantastic, I’m not entirely convinced everything Pearl Abyss is promising will actually happen. It might be a bit of a herd mentality, but I’ve been disappointed by games that didn’t deliver on their promises too many times to blindly believe everything I’m seeing.

The way many of us are reacting to Crimson Desert says more about us as gamers than about the game itself. After being let down by several hyped releases, we’ve become cautious, almost expecting disappointment. We still want to be excited by ambitious games, but we’re hesitant to fully commit. Crimson Desert is a good example of this – it shows why so many players are now naturally reserved, even when something promising comes along.

Why Crimson Desert Looks “Too Good to Be True”

Before I explain why many people, including myself, are cautious about getting too excited for Crimson Desert, it’s important to look at what the game has revealed so far. What Pearl Abyss has shown suggests an open-world action-adventure game that tries to do a lot of different things, and at a scale that feels unusually grand.

Crimson Desert’s Biggest Promised Features

  • MASSIVE OPEN WORLD twice the size of Skyrim and larger than Red Dead Redemption 2.
  • FIVE DISTINCT REGIONS with unique biomes and activities.
  • DIVERSE TRAVERSAL MECHANICS that include horseback, climbing, gliding, grappling, and mounts like dragons.
  • DEEP COMBAT SYSTEM that combines melee, special attacks, dodging, cinematic boss fights, and unique weapon synergies.
  • COUNTLESS SIDE CONTENT beyond fighting, like fishing, cooking, puzzle solving, resource gathering, and treasure hunting.
  • NO STRICT PATH, allowing players to go anywhere that captures their interest.

It’s not simply the massive world or the abundance of content in Crimson Desert that seems unbelievable. Many other open-world games offer similar features, and most of what it’s doing has been done before. The problem is, we’ve seen this approach before, and many of us have been let down by it—even though we probably let our hopes get too high. Essentially, Crimson Desert feels like a collection of the best ideas from other games all rolled into one, and for a community that’s been repeatedly disappointed, that level of ambition understandably raises concerns, even though the game looks fantastic.

Because so many hyped-up releases have turned out to be underwhelming, people have started to expect disappointment as a way to protect themselves from feeling let down.

Looking at discussions on social media and forums, I get the feeling people are both excited and wary. There’s a lot of enthusiastic buzz, but also a healthy dose of skepticism – many think the game seems almost too good to be true. After the initial gameplay reveal for Crimson Desert, a ResetEra user named SolidSnakex shared the video, sparking a lot of comments expressing this exact sentiment – that it looks too good to be true, though many are still hopeful. A Reddit user, NotSirAlonne1999, even made a post with that phrase as the title, explaining they’re keeping their expectations low to protect themselves from potential disappointment.

The Games That Taught Us Caution

  • Cyberpunk 2077
  • No Man’s Sky
  • Starfield
  • Star Wars Outlaws

All this hesitation comes from past disappointments with hyped-up games that didn’t deliver. We’ve seen too many big releases fall short of expectations, killing the initial excitement. Cyberpunk 2077 is a prime example – it launched with significant bugs, performance problems, and missing features, despite the ambitious marketing. Sony even removed it from their store, and it faced lawsuits due to misleading promises. While Cyberpunk 2077 is now considered a great RPG thanks to extensive updates, Crimson Desert risks failing before it starts if it relies too heavily on the idea that it will eventually become a great game.

Similar to No Man’s Sky, which promised a vast and exciting universe but initially delivered a surprisingly limited experience, recent open-world games like Starfield and Star Wars Outlaws haven’t quite lived up to the hype. Despite significant marketing and established franchises, they’ve faced underwhelming sales and mixed reviews. While No Man’s Sky eventually turned things around with major updates, it shouldn’t have needed a redemption story, and these recent examples suggest that even large budgets can’t guarantee a strong launch.

The gameplay footage of Crimson Desert looks impressive and suggests the game might deliver on its ambitious goals, but this has made players hesitant to get too excited until it’s released.

When players express doubt about how amazing Crimson Desert looks, it’s not necessarily because they’re negative or upset. It’s more a result of past experiences with games that made big promises but didn’t deliver. We’ve been shown impressive demos and lengthy feature lists so often that we’ve learned to be cautious and wait to see if a game lives up to the hype. This skepticism isn’t a rejection of Crimson Desert; it’s a way for the gaming community to protect itself from potential disappointment, based on lessons learned from previous experiences.

Why I Still Want to Believe Crimson Desert Can Break That Pattern

We’ve become so accustomed to expecting the worst that even feeling hopeful can seem foolish, but it would be wonderful to be surprised and find things are actually good.

Even though it’s understandable to be doubtful, I’m still hoping Crimson Desert does well. Pearl Abyss has been showing the game with a lot of confidence, and it looks like the kind of open-world experience I’d really love if it lives up to its potential. I’d like to see Crimson Desert prove the skeptics wrong and change the pattern of disappointment we’ve come to expect. After waiting this long, we deserve a great game, and that would ultimately benefit Pearl Abyss too.

If Crimson Desert lives up to expectations, it could prove that truly ambitious open-world games are still worth the excitement. We’ve become cautious about getting hyped, sometimes feeling like it’s better to be reserved, but it would be refreshing to be pleasantly surprised. Crimson Desert offers a chance to shift that mindset. It doesn’t have to reinvent the genre; it just needs to fulfill what it’s shown us. If it does, it will validate Pearl Abyss’s confidence and remind us that allowing ourselves to get excited can be a good thing.

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2026-02-05 17:05