5 Things Crimson Desert Does Better Than The Witcher 3

Among open-world RPGs, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a true masterpiece; it’s as simple as that. Over a decade ago, CD Projekt RED’s game became a new benchmark for the genre — and hasn’t been surpassed yet when it comes to characters, main story, atmosphere, and quests. The Witcher 3 constantly dominates gaming lists and discussions, not only of the best open-world releases but of the finest games ever made in general, standing as one of the universally acclaimed and best-selling titles in history, whose legacy and impact are undeniable.

On the other hand, it’s all still ahead for Crimson Desert — the new rising star of the open-world genre that’s already proved to be one of the hottest releases of the year, surrounded by constant debate. Even for the biggest fans of the game, it’s hard to deny how uneven the Crimson Desert experience is, with very high highs and incredibly frustrating lows. Ever since its launch, the players have been divided into the glazing Crimson Desert camp and skeptics who point toward its numerous flaws. The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle, but that’s a topic for another day.

So, the first thing to know here before we move further is that Crimson Desert and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt are very different games that prioritize different things and probably shouldn’t be directly compared in the first place. In a way, Crimson Desert is the opposite of The Witcher 3, with Pearl Abyss even deliberately not calling their game an RPG and admitting its weaker focus on story and quest design to prioritize sandbox gameplay and free-form exploration with no handholding instead. Still, just for the fun of it, let’s discuss some major common things that Crimson Desert does objectively better than The Witcher 3, avoiding aspects that both games approach differently by design.

Seamless Open-World

Pywel Is Truly Next-Generation Open-World Brought to Life on an Unprecedented Scale

Not that the world of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is small by any means — it’s still one of the biggest and longest open-world RPGs out there — yet Crimson Desert is even more impressive in every aspect. No surprise really, given we’re looking at a 10-year technological gap between both titles. Instead of separate large open-world zones like in The Witcher 3 (Velen, Skellige, White Orchard, Kaer Morhen), Crimson Desert offers an entire seamless Pywel continent to lose oneself in, and it can be quite overwhelming at first.

From towering mountain peaks and even floating Abyss isles, to dense forests, swamps, rivers, enormous cities to outshine even Novigrad, and, of course, deserts, few open worlds can match the ambition of Crimson Desert’s Pywel, with some of the most stunning vistas in the genre ever, intricately detailed interiors, as well as physics-based destruction. Many players have already stated that the world of Pywel is becoming their favorite fantasy world to rival even Skyrim and Elden Ring, as it’s really hard to resist its never-ending wonders.

World and NPC Reactivity

An Ambitious Attempt to Reach RDR 2’s Levels of Reactivity

What’s best, it’s not just the size and visual splendor that Crimson Desert offers with its sprawling Pywel continent. The game’s world and NPCs are easily among the most reactive in the genre so far, surpassing The Witcher 3’s with a clear generational leap. Crimson Desert players have countless ways of interacting with the environment, with probably even more still undiscovered mechanics and possibilities. Using working tools like shovels, axes, and brooms, fishing rods, or Abyss abilities, coupled with physics-based destruction of almost everything surrounding the player, often results in pure sandbox chaos.

When it comes to NPC behavior and reactions, Crimson Desert is miles better than The Witcher 3’s almost static characters, almost rivaling Red Dead Redemption 2. Players can talk, greet, gift to, steal from, threaten, capture, or kill almost everyone around them, with a full law and punishment system, natural reactions and behavior to various dynamic encounters, and unique voice-over responses. There’s also literal crowds of people in Crimson Desert’s cities, settlements and trading posts, and in enemy camps as well. During the first hours, it’s a real pleasure just to wander around and observe roaming and working NPCs all across Pywel and their interactions.

The Protagonist

Kliff Macduff of the Greymanes Is Just a Better Character Than Geralt of Rivia

Got you on this one, didn’t I? Relax, don’t rush into the comments section just yet. I’m just messing with you. Kliff is already known as not being too great of a lead, with an almost non-existent personality, so Geralt’s position is secure. Let’s just move on to the next entry, jokes aside this time.

Combat System

Flexible and Varied Combat Coupled With Three Playable Characters

If there’s one aspect of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that has been criticized the most over the years, it’s the outdated and somewhat simplistic combat system. Some players still love what’s on offer here, but there really aren’t that many moves, skills, and possibilities in Geralt’s arsenal to stay engaging for over a hundred hours. Crimson Desert approaches combat much more seriously, building missions and activities around clearing enemy camps and fortresses on a massive scale, as well as providing dozens of unique boss encounters.

While the character progression might not be the strongest in Crimson Desert — for instance, using the shared Abyss Artifacts for leveling up both skills and equipment — there is just a much bigger selection of skills, moves, and abilities for players to master and get creative with. Unlike Geralt, Kliff can also use a variety of secondary weapons other than swords, including spears, shields, bows, maces, daggers, and more, or go entirely unarmed for some WWE-style chaos. On top of that, Crimson Desert features three playable characters, each coming with their own skill tree, abilities, preferred weapons, and combat tactics. Add the already mentioned physics-based destruction and literal armies of enemies that Crimson Desert players face constantly, and the combat here is a clear win over The Witcher 3.

Variety of Side Activities and Mini-Games

If You Can Think of Something to Do, Crimson Desert Probably Allows It

In addition to combat flexibility and variety, Crimson Desert extends this approach to the entire open world design, shifting the focus from strong narrative and quests like in The Witcher 3 to pure gameplay sandbox variety, justified by the world’s reactivity. Storytelling is the king in The Witcher 3, but aside from combat, dialogue, detective work, and, of course, Gwent, there’s almost nothing to do in its vast world. Crimson Desert is an entirely different breed, drawing from games like Breath of the Wild and Red Dead Redemption 2 to squeeze in almost any activity and mini-game imaginable, for better or worse.

During the opening hours, Crimson Desert throws everything at you: from wrestling, rock-paper-scissors, and various tabletop mini-games, horse racing, combat and archery contests, and collecting pets to varied puzzles with zero hints, fleshed-out cooking and fishing, resource mining, and the list just keeps going on. All of that comes even before the players unlock their own Greymanes camp with layers upon layers of management, building quests, and life-sim activities like farming and ranching. Even if the bigger part of the mechanics crammed into Crimson Desert might serve little purpose other than kinda being there, the game can surprise for hours on end as the players unlock more and more distinct activities and possibilities while playing, eliminating the question of what to do in Pywel very early on.

Movement, Traversal, and Fast Travel

Enjoy the Exploration on Your Own Terms

The final thing that Crimson Desert does miles better than The Witcher 3 — or maybe even better than almost every other open-world game so far — is the movement and traversal mechanics. In The Witcher 3, players can only use the trusty, non-customizable Roach horse to travel faster on land, use boats to explore waters, and occasionally refer to teleports to reach new areas dictated by the story. On the other hand, Crimson Desert features countless ways to navigate Pywel other than horseback riding and boats. Nothing can stop Kliff from reaching any point in the game’s world, as he can climb anything like in Zelda games, as far as stamina allows.

There are also various obtainable mounts, including wolves, bears, or flying dragons; different abilities that can be used for traversal creatively, including leaping in the air from the ground, gliding and flying; entire mechanical armed robot mounts and jetpacks, as well as hidden possibilities like performing pole vaults while equipping a banner or using the trees to catapult into the air. The same freedom and convenience go for fast travel in Crimson Desert, as players can teleport from anywhere in the world rather than only from specific points on the map, like in The Witcher 3.