Crimson Desert review: 20 hours in, bigger open worlds aren't better

2 hours ago 1

Published Mar 18, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT

Crimson Desert proves that bigger isn't necessarily better

Damiane stands in front of Hernand Castle in Crimson Desert.

After spending more than 20 hours with Crimson Desert on Windows PC, I'm amazed at the immensity of this feature-packed open world — but more so at its emptiness. This single-player action-adventure game, developed by Pearl Abyss, promises unlimited activities, but forgets that activities are supposed to be entertaining.

Six and a half years after its announcement, the standalone title from the creators of Black Desert Online is finally here. Two things are clear: Expectations are sky-high, and it'll take a few hundred hours to fully judge whether they're justified. As I didn't have that much time between receiving the game and its launch day, an impression of Crimson Desert's early game will have to suffice. To be clear, my official on-the-clock time is closer to 30 hours, but I spent a lot of time testing various aspects of the game for coverage, so my "real" playtime is likely closer to 20 hours. But my philosophy is thus: If it's no fun after 20 hours or frankly even 10 hours, it's not worth the 10 hours. And this is coming from someone who loves these types of games — last year, I wrote about how Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is the "best RPG I've ever played."

Imagine the most generic fantasy protagonist, and you'll get Crimson Desert's leading man, Kliff. A man of few words, this former Instagram model turned warrior is a member of the Greymanes, a ragtag band of rugged mercenaries who are at war with the Black Bears, another ragtag band of rugged mercenaries.

Kliff performs a spell on a path in Crimson Desert on Windows PC but not PS5 or Xbox because those versions haven't been playable in time for the review embargo

We still don't know what Crimson Desert is like on PS5 and Xbox

We were only offered access to the Windows PC version of the game

In Crimson Desert's opening scene, Kliff gets killed in battle, but is mysteriously revived in the "abyss" realm. This doesn't seem to faze Kliff, who promptly runs, jumps, and climbs his way to the abyss's exit before respawning on a riverbed. Still unfazed, he gets up to have a chat with a local, who tells him he should stay longer, but the ever unfazed Kliff replies with "I'll be going now" and heads to the nearby town of Hernand.

There, Kliff descends into the sewers for no apparent reason (as is scripture for a certain type of RPG), where he finds and rescues a bound noblewoman. The woman tells him to go and "help others as he helped her," so Kliff sets out to clean a chimney and rescue a cat. His next stop is Hernand Castle (again, for no apparent reason), where he walks through a portal and ends up in another abyss. He finds the exit again, returns to Hernand, and sets out to help more citizens. I'm describing this to you because it perfectly illustrates Crimson Desert's storytelling, which is a never-ending patchwork of completely random events, as told through a character who's yet to show any emotional response.

Kliff cleans a chimney in Crimson Desert.

To be clear, I've nothing against the stoic warrior type, but where someone like Geralt of Rivia intrigued me with his tragic backstory, unusual appearance, and hilariously sarcastic remarks, Kliff is more like an empty husk. His sparse voice lines don't go beyond generic grunts like "Are you alright?" and "Have you seen any bandits around here?", and if he has a backstory, 10 hours in, I haven’t seen it.

Of course, not every game needs a good protagonist or even a good main story. Undeterred, I decided to leave Crimson Desert's main quest for a while and try the side activities. Fishing, cooking, and mining ore for the locals brought me little joy, but at least bounty hunting sounded promising. Fully expecting to be gathering clues and fighting tough battles, however, the reality was this: You track the quest, go to the right location, tackle the outlaw with one click of a button, then hit them in the face with another click of a button, and then you carry them back to the local guard.

Bounty hunting around Hernand Castle, though not exactly entertaining, wasn't too much of a hassle, for the outlaws were already close to the guard station. However, some of the targets were located on the other side of the massive Hernand region. I convinced myself that surely, surely, this game didn't expect me to travel half an hour on horseback just to turn in a minor side quest… right? Wrong! There's no fast-traveling with outlaws in Crimson Desert — no shortcuts on chores!

Kliff caught an outlaw while bounty hunting in Crimson Desert.

As I tried more faction quests and side activities in Crimson Desert, the pattern remained unchanged: Every wave of excitement at a discovery was followed by disappointment. When I stumbled upon the mystical, fairy-like Pororin village in the woods and was promptly knocked unconscious by its inhabitants, I was thrilled; finally, something interesting was happening! So, when one of the fairies promised me access to the village if I retrieved an item for them, I immediately ran toward the quest objective. There, my hopes were elevated even higher when I found the item on a large, walking tree (think Ents). But once I approached the tree (who gave zero reaction), climbed up in about two seconds, grabbed the item, and ran back to Pororin Village, it dawned on me that this was just another fetch quest. It would've been all right if Pororin Village was actually interesting, but so far, I've found nothing besides another fetch quest and a "research center" where you can spend money in return for crafting recipes.

Kliff stands next to an Ent in Crimson Desert.

Somehow, obtaining a homestead in Crimson Desert was even less thrilling than finding the mystery village. Perhaps there's more to the Greymane Camp than meets the eye, but for now, I'm stuck with a useless house (it doesn't serve any purpose) and a camp that requires 500 food and 250 pieces of timber to grow.

Perhaps it would be best to forget about factions and missions and solely focus on world exploration. Such a huge map must contain interesting sites, right? While there are a few challenging puzzles, unexpected enemies, and nice vistas to be found in Crimson Desert, it's a shame they're a thousand miles apart, especially since traveling in the early game is a bore, unless you like endless horseback rides through similar-looking forests and cliffs, or climbing and gliding mechanics that are severely limited by a short stamina bar. An abundance of fast travel points might've lessened the struggle, but life in Pywel clearly isn't meant to be convenient, for teleport options are few and far between.

Kliff admires the view in Crimson Desert.

It doesn't help that Crimson Desert's control system, which is often key to solving environmental puzzles, is a nightmare. Let me give you a quick tour of the basics using a controller (as recommended over keyboard and mouse by Pearl Abyss): For normal interactions, press A. To use the lantern, hold LB — so far, so good. To use Axiom Force, which allows you to grab, lift, and pull puzzle-related objects, hold the left stick and aim. To lift other kinds of objects, such as tree trunks, hold Y + B. To lift them manually, hold LB and aim, press X, hold LB again to select a deposit location, and press Y.

To perform a special interaction, such as cutting a tree, open the tool wheel, select tools, select the axe, then hold LB, which also draws out the lantern, but you can ignore that. To use Blinding Flash to reveal points of interest, hold LB + RB, but mind that this also draws your weapon, so be sure to press the left arrow to sheath your weapon before using it again. To use Blinding Flash - Concentrate Light, which is used for puzzle interactions as well, hold LB + RB, let go of LB, move the right stick to the target, then press and hold LB again.

Don't worry, the fun isn't limited to object interactions; to quickly greet strangers, hold X, but to talk to strangers and get stuck listening to their unskippable yapping, hold X also (it's a trap!). To speak with quest-related strangers or vendors, hold L, then press X. To pickpocket strangers, bump into them before pressing X. Yes, this does, indeed, lead to many… misunderstandings. Let it be noted that the hefty bounty on Kliff's head is entirely due to accidental robberies resulting from his polite nature — you'd best not try to greet strangers while running through crowded streets.

Damiane triggers the pickpocket interaction in Crimson Desert.

When Crimson Desert's… intricate control system had driven me to the brink of insanity, their refusal to let me end my suffering is what tipped me over: I had to hold the main menu button, select the "others" menu, go to the "options" menu, click on "title screen," hold the "confirm" button, wait for the start menu to open, and hold the "exit" button just to exit the game. Yeeting the whole PC out the window and ordering a new one might be faster.

While I'm all for complex control systems that take time to master, it’s only worth mastering control systems that are built on logic and intention. In Crimson Desert, I suspect the most basic interactions were made needlessly confusing to create an illusion of depth. There's really no reason why a single interaction prompt should not be sufficient to cut down a tree, or why a game needs three different mechanics to reach a similar outcome. The only aspect of gaming where an abundance of button combos usually works well, is in combat.

With that in mind, Crimson Desert's combat system is its strong suit. Although I completed most early game battles through button mashing (an onslaught of bandits requires no more than basic attacks aimed in the right direction), the first boss battles were surprisingly challenging. I found I could kick, pull, and knock down enemies, imbue my attacks with elemental powers, and perform a multishot ranged attack. After experimenting with Kliff's attacks for a while, I found no less variety in Damiane's abilities, the second of the three playable characters to be unlocked in Crimson Desert. It's a shame she came with the worst character introduction imaginable (she gets randomly dropped in Kliff's camp, then ignored), for her lightning-fast ranged attacks, tornado kicks, and smiting strikes are amazing.

Kliff fights the Reed Devil boss in Crimson Desert.

That brings me to another Crimson Desert feature I do like: the character swapping. Instead of teleporting the inactive character to the current character's position, the player teleports to their inactive character's last position. For example, if you leave Damiane in Hernand Castle while exploring the wilds with Kliff, swapping from Kliff to Damiane takes you back to Hernand Castle. This feature allowed me to explore Pywel more freely by reducing the need to abandon missions for practical reasons, as Kliff and Damiane share an inventory. It's a shame that Damiane is locked out of certain quests and areas, which forces her into a background role while Kliff takes center stage.

I'd like to emphasize, once more, that Crimson Desert is huge, so I haven't experienced mid- to late-game yet. Perhaps the story improves, the characters gain depth, the traveling becomes easier (I've heard something about a dragon), the map becomes more varied, and the Greymane Camp gains a purpose. But after hours of disappointments, I'm tired of waiting for the fun to start. To me, an all right character system and occasionally challenging boss battles aren't enough to make Crimson Desert worth playing.

As Crimson Desert arrives with high expectations, I had to wonder if this is, perhaps, a case of "this isn't the type of game for you," but as a fan of open-world adventures, that can't be the issue. Although I would've liked to see it, Crimson Desert really doesn't need to mimic The Witcher 3 or Skyrim in terms of depth and storytelling, but it's nowhere near an Elden Ring in its environmental variety, beauty, exploration mechanics, or boss fight density either. If someone had taken the trouble to cut all the nonsense from Crimson Desert, removing the fetch quests, basic battles, and hefty chunks of map filler, you'd probably be left with a decent experience. As it stands, its most noteworthy feature is how long you can travel in one direction without encountering anything worthwhile. This Crimson Desert is about to be deserted.

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