For subscribers
After K-pop and K-drama, here come K-games
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A scene from the action-adventure game Stellar Blade, which is among the South Korea-made titles that reached global audiences in recent years.
PHOTO: SHIFT UP/NYTIMES
Lewis Gordon
The opening seconds of a trailer for Crimson Desert seem pretty generic: A gruff, tousle-haired hero cavorts, sword in hand, through an exceptionally pretty and seemingly expansive fantasy open world.
But a minute in, the action takes an absurdist turn. He is shown skydiving from a gravity-defying fortress, using parkour to scale a mediaeval building, riding a hot-air balloon, transforming into a birdlike creature, pole-vaulting over spiked barricades and skidding around corners on a galloping horse.
