The new Red Desert DLC, "Unknown Journey," has officially launched, further inflating the base game's already exaggeratedly large map to an unbelievable scale.
One of the most well-known features of Red Desert is the vast expanse of the continent of Pevell. In addition to incorporating various gameplay mechanics and features, developer Pearl Abyss created one of the largest open worlds in the industry at launch.
The continent of Pevell was already ridiculously large and packed with exploratory content, making it hard to imagine how the game's first expansion, "Unknown Journey," could add even more. Now that the DLC has officially launched, players have realized that the size of the base map was just the tip of the iceberg.
Earlier this week, Pearl Abyss finally ended the free-only update model for Red Desert, launching the game's first-ever paid expansion, "Unknown Journey." As the name suggests, this DLC focuses on exploring new regions of Pevell: Cliff and his party can now sail to discover new landmasses and unlock deep-sea diving gameplay to explore the underwater world.
This expansion focuses on uncovering unknown areas of the world. Players knew the map would be significantly expanded, but the exact scale of the addition remained unclear. As demonstrated by Twitter user Okami13_, "Unknown Journey" expands the game world far beyond everyone's expectations.
In a video posted on Twitter, Okami13_ showcased the complete map after installing the DLC. By comparison, the base map, which was already considered excessively large, now occupies only a small corner of the entire explorable area. Although a significant portion of the new content consists of navigable seas, all underwater areas support full free exploration.
Given that Red Desert is already renowned for its massive map, this expansion is quite an impressive technical achievement. However, I can't help but wonder if the developers are deliberately downplaying some of the game's controversies. Many players already felt that the continent of Pevell was too large, and it seems "Unknown Journey" has no intention of changing the minds of those who struggle with such vast open worlds.