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With one of the most popular MMOs in the gaming industry, Black Desert Online, Developer Pearl Abyss is transitioning to a single-player open-world action game with Crimson desert. As someone who experimented with it Black Desert but I lacked the dedication to continue with it, I have been looking forward to it Crimson desert‘s solo-focused approach and I was excited to get my hands-on with a piece of the game during Gamescom. But while Crimson desert teeming with dangerous, mythical threats, my greatest adversary reared its head at the system level.

Crimson desert Set on the vast continent of Pywel, The Adventures of Kliff puts players in the bloody shoes of brooding mercenary Kliff. A group of fellow sword mercenaries join Kilff on his quest to save this beleaguered land, though I didn’t see much of that in the Gamescom demo, which focused on melee action via four selectable boss fights.

Although Crimson desertThe atmosphere evokes the raw fantasy of Game of Thrones (and Kliff looks a lot like Jon Snow with face paint), the gameplay feels more playful. Imagine combining fast-paced hack-and-slash action with WWE 2K wrestling and a dash of monster scaling à la Dragon’s Dogma or Monster Hunter. Kliff can slice and dice enemies by stringing together melee combos with his sword or weapons that drop enemies. Hilariously, he can also perform an array of professional wrestling moves, from a running dropkick to a giant swing to even a straight-up RKO.

Kliff also boasts agility in the form of the Crow’s Wing, essentially a glider that aids in movement. A precision focus ability slows down time, allowing him to carefully pick out targets with his bow. He can climb onto larger opponents and stab weak points to bring beasts to their knees. Pearl Abyss has gone to great lengths to make every slash, slice, and impale look cool, as nearly every major attack produces a flurry of colorful particle effects.

Each of the four boss fights in the Gamescom demo presented a distinct challenge. I first tackled the Staglord, a sword-and-shield wielding lord who presented a relatively easy and straightforward challenge. The second boss, a swift, scarecrow-like masked menace called the Reed Devil, proved to be the most maddening foe. His ability to dash quickly through a wheat field and fire at him from afar meant that keeping him in sight was disorienting. When I did get him in my sights, he would often strike first or change position. The windows to strike back seemed small, and since most attacks caused Kliff to get up, simply recovering meant losing the chance to strike back.

The battle against White Horn, a yeti-like beast with enormous horns, was reminiscent of the battle against the Great Ape in Sekiro. This monster threw itself at me with a wild and unpredictable melee attack. It also unleashed ice storms that froze Kliff in place, leaving me vulnerable to attacks. I had success with more hit-and-run defense to stay out of its long range for as long as possible. The final enemy, the Queen Stoneback Crab, was a giant crab made of stone. This combat channels Shadow of the Colossuswhere players had to climb a crystal-charged shell to attack weak points that would supposedly bring it to its knees. I say “supposedly” because my hour-long session unfortunately ended before I could see this fight come to a close.

Each boss has a more powerful second phase, though Kliff endures thanks to a Sekiro-esque second chance to resurface and resume the fight. I made ample use of this mechanic, as each battle presented a steep challenge. However, the most vexing obstacle often wasn’t the crippling blizzards of the White Horn or the dizzying speed of the Reed Devil. Instead, my greatest ordeal was trying to keep my objectives on the screen.

My biggest criticism of Crimson desertIn the Gamescom demo, the lack of lock-on targeting (or the sorts of adjustments required without it) led to issues that hampered the fun. The game feels inspired by Monster Hunter in this regard, but enemies often outmaneuvered Kliff in a way that turned combat into an annoying exercise in rotating the camera to keep opponents in sight. The abundance of particle effects also cluttered the screen and made it difficult to parse what was happening, making lock-on feel even more necessary. Blocking was similarly difficult to nail down. I had Kliff’s defense primed for attacks only to power through them, apparently because I was a degree or so off in properly confronting the enemy. I never found the timing or positioning sweet spot during my session, so defending often felt like a game of chance.

The camera also proved to be a nuisance. Kliff’s movements had a ragdoll-like quality to them, particularly when he’s being knocked through the air, and many attacks would send him bouncing off walls, over cliffs, or straight into the camera as if he’d been knocked out of a Super Smash Bros. arena. While this was amusing, the camera had a tendency to go haywire in these instances and was unable to keep Kliff squarely in frame, resulting in zoomed-in shots of him being downed at an angle with little to no view of surrounding threats. It didn’t help that when Kliff fell onto his stomach, he was susceptible to being attacked and stunned into oblivion. I suffered several frustrating deaths getting stomped into the ground as I desperately tried to re-orient the camera and get up.

Because of these issues, I left my session with cautious optimism. Crimson desert‘s combat showed flashes of fun, but in the demo it became too chaotic for its own good, occasionally degenerating into a downright mess. I hope these issues get fixed, because there’s considerable potential beneath those sore spots. It remains to be seen whether the open-world exploration portion of the game will live up to its end of the bargain, but I hope Pearl Abyss tightens up the action before Crimson desert will be launched next year.