Crimson Desert: Charting the Unknown’s new ocean territory is larger than the entire base game’s map. Let that sink in for a second. Then, realize that’s only accounting for everything above the waterline. Venture beneath the waves and you’ll find an gigantic underwater world filled with secrets that even the Internet itself is still uncovering weeks after the expansion’s release. At some point, the word expansion starts feeling woefully inadequate. Pearl Abyss has practically hidden another game inside Crimson Desert reminiscent of something like Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, and it’s one that happens to come with an ocean-sized playground.
There’s an entire ecosystem of exploration and activities built around it, with naval encounters, underwater discoveries, and an almost unreasonable amount of space to get lost in. There’s an wonderfully disorienting aspect about realizing just how much of the world remains unexplored. Pearl Abyss has managed to make an already enormous game feel enormous all over again.
Before Charting the Unknown, Crimson Desert already had a world that could swallow hundreds of hours without breaking a sweat. Pywel has an absolute treasure trove distractions capable of derailing whatever objective you were originally chasing after. It’s the sort of open world where a quick trip across the map can turn into an entire afternoon of wandering aimlessly to check out that new shiny in the distance. But that was not enough. Pearl Abyss, then, decided to introduce an ocean larger than the entire original map, effectively taking everything that made Pywel so compelling and giving it an entirely new frontier. The resulting scale is almost comical, particularly when you realize that the islands and scattered points of interest are only a fraction of what’s actually out there.
The Great Ocean also comes with a surprising amount of purpose behind all that open water. Ships can be upgraded through blueprints and materials discovered during exploration, while naval encounters and hostile pirate vessels give players plenty of reasons to put those improvements to work. There’s a satisfying sense of progression to gradually improving your ship as you venture farther from familiar shores, turning what might otherwise be an intimidating expanse into an invitation to explore. The ocean isn’t merely a new region bolted onto the edge of Pywel. It was already pretty visible in the base game, but now it’s an enormous new playground with its own activities and rules to pick up on.
The ocean surface is only part of the story here. The underwater environment is where Charting the Unknown starts getting downright absurd. Diving beneath the waves reveals another enormous layer of the world, with sunken ruins, hidden locations, treasure, and discoveries scattered throughout its depths. Some destinations are easy enough to identify, but plenty of the more interesting finds require players to abandon the obvious route and start investigating for themselves. No surprise there. Crimson Desert has always excelled at rewarding curiosity. Its most memorable discoveries rarely need a giant quest marker announcing their existence, and the ocean carries that philosophy into an entirely new dimension. There is an extraordinary amount of content tucked away beneath the waterline, much of which can be missed simply by sticking to the places the map tells you to visit.
There’s also something unexpectedly therapeutic about spending time beneath the waves. I never anticipated making an Ecco the Dolphin comparison when discussing Crimson Desert, but the game genuinely captures some of that same pleasure of drifting through an expansive underwater world without necessarily having somewhere to be. The scenery can be beautiful, the atmosphere wonderfully serene, and there’s a real satisfaction in simply swimming around to see what turns up.
That peacefulness, however, has a rather interesting expiration date. Venture beyond 300 meters beneath the surface, and the atmosphere takes a decidedly unnerving turn. The deeper you descend, the more the ocean starts feeling like somewhere you probably shouldn’t be, particularly when you have no idea what might be waiting below. I won’t spoil those discoveries, especially with plenty still left to uncover, but the contrast between the tranquil shallows and the eerie depths is fantastic. Even with everything players have already uncovered, there’s still a compelling sense that the ocean hasn’t given up all its secrets.
Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of Charting the Unknown is how naturally its new territory embraces the sandbox philosophy that made Crimson Desert so special in the first place. The ocean doesn’t demand that players approach it in one particular way, nor does it funnel every adventure through a carefully prescribed sequence of activities. Want to sail between islands while searching for ship blueprints? Go ahead. Prefer diving beneath the waves to investigate something suspicious on the ocean floor? There’s plenty to keep you occupied. Or perhaps you’d rather forget all that Black Flag-style naval combat, hop aboard a wyvern, and give an unsuspecting pirate crew a rather rude introduction to the concept of air superiority.
In my personal experience, it’s hilarious swooping down on a pirate ship from the sky, although approaching one from beneath the waves and sneaking aboard is every bit as entertaining. The possibilities are ridiculous, and that’s precisely the point. It’s this freedom that makes the ocean feel so much bigger than its already enormous map suggests, giving players plenty of reasons to keep venturing farther from familiar territory.
Ultimately, Pearl Abyss has set a rather ridiculous precedent with Charting the Unknown. Most expansions are content additions designed to give players another reason to return, but this feels closer to an attempt to redefine what Crimson Desert can be. The Great Ocean has the scale and substance of an entirely separate adventure, yet it remains seamlessly connected to the world that came before it. That takes serious ambition to pull off without making the result feel bloated or disconnected, but here we are, like the Great ocean has always been there (it kind of of has). If this is the standard the studio intends to set for Crimson Desert going forward, I can hardly wait to see what it dreams up next.
Would you rather explore the depths of the Great Ocean or take to the seas and hunt down pirate ships? What’s been your favorite discovery in Crimson Desert so far? Let us know in the comment section below!
