Crimson Desert Review: Big, Beautiful, and Brilliant

2 hours ago 1

Published Mar 18, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT

Christian has over three years of experience writing in the gaming industry, including guides and reviews, for publications such as DualShockers, Attack of the Fanboy, and PC Invasion. He has been an avid gamer since he was a kid, viewing it as the best possible art form and medium. Some of his favorite genres include Survival Horror, Soulslikes, and RPGs, but he finds joy in almost any type of game.

In the past couple of decades, there have been a handful of open-world games that can be considered genre-defining. Skyrim for its deeply engaging world with deep lore, Elden Ring for its secrets and discoverability, and Red Dead Redemption 2 for its unpredictable moments. It's safe to say these three games are the magnum opuses of the open-world genre, and it's rare for a game to come out that holds a candle to them.

Crimson Desert, announced all the way back in 2019, is a game that looked like it was created to challenge those giants in the genre. This was reinforced through its marketing cycle, with trailers showcasing pretty much everything that made those games great, to the point where a lot of the gaming community believed it was too good to be true.

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The early footage of Crimson Desert was so good that it had people questioning whether it was even real or saying, "There has to be a catch." The preview of a massive open world, fast-paced combat, camp building, deep exploration, the ability to ride a dragon or mech, and much more made people feel skeptical.

And to be honest, I don't blame the gaming community for feeling this way. I was also skeptical since it was increasingly rare to see a game that doesn't hold your hand and allows you to pretty much do anything you can think of. However, after playing Crimson Desert for over 100 hours, I can confidently say that Pearl Abyss has created the next open-world gem that will be talked about for years, even decades, to come.

A Challenge Worth Embracing

As I sit here writing this review, I'm thinking to myself, "How do I even write a review for a game of this scale?" Is it even possible to touch on everything that Crimson Desert offers? Realistically, I don't think it is, so I will stick to the most important aspects of an open-world action adventure game: exploration, combat, character progression, and secrets. While I will be touching on the story, and I am factoring it into my score, I don't think it's the main reason you should play or not play this game.

Let's start off with the combat of Crimson Desert. The best way to describe the combat is fast-paced action with a demand for technical skill. I say technical skill because mastering this combat system is not easy, and the game demands that you learn its many button inputs in order to pull off some incredible combos. In this regard, the combat in Crimson Desert kind of reminded me of a fighting game like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter when it comes to the number of button inputs it asks for.

Your combat kit, such as the combos you can pull off, all stem from the massive skill tree that Crimson Desert offers. The skill tree consists of three sections, Blue, Green, and Red, each offering unique abilities that decide how you engage in combat encounters. Blue is the foundation of your standard weapon and bow attacks, adding attack patterns to your kit, such as spinning your sword in a wide sweeping circle, shooting multiple bows at once, vaulting over the enemy Prince of Persia style, and then striking down, etc.

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On the other hand, the green part of the skill tree focuses on Spirit skills, abilities that use a magic-like meter to command the battlefield. It's here where you can find the ability to slow down time, block projectiles with the wind, lift heavy objects off the ground, and more. Meanwhile, the red section of the skill tree is for utilizing the elements to deal damage, such as frost, fire, and lightning. Within these three skill sections, you will also find abilities that allow you to glide, solve certain puzzles, reveal secrets, etc.

The best way to describe the combat is fast-paced action with a demand for technical skill.

As you unlock nodes on the skill tree, it adds additional button inputs to learn within your combat kit. In other words, there is no "equipping abilities" or ability wheel here, and instead, it's all about muscle memory. I played with a controller, and in order to do a Stab attack into a Turning Slash into a Grapple attack, the button input is as follows: R1 + Triangle, R1+R2, and then Triangle + Circle. Doing this consistently is tough, and this is only three moves out of many more.

It's not an easy combat system to master, and I can imagine that not everyone will click with it. However, if you get into a proper flow and begin to understand how to utilize all attack moves at the correct time, the combat feels truly incredible. There's no better feeling than going up against a challenging boss or hordes of enemies and pulling off some crazy combos that seemed almost impossible when the game first taught it to you.

A Seemingly Endless World

I have rarely ever felt the need to explore a game as much as I have with Crimson Desert. It features an incredibly vast, shockingly dense world, filled with secrets around every corner. It follows the formula of "If you can see it in the distance, you can go there and explore." And, more often than not, exploring these areas will lead to secret puzzles, hidden caves, valuable loot, or interesting lore drops.

One of my favorite gaming moments was when I stumbled upon a random elevator in Elden Ring, took that elevator down, and discovered an entire city built underground. If you are a FromSoftware fan, you know exactly what part I'm talking about. No game since has been able to replicate that sense of awe and wonder, but Crimson Desert has come pretty damn close multiple times.

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One prime example is when I was exploring the Abyss, the sky map in Crimson Desert, and after progressing through multiple platforming sequences, I encountered a gigantic structure hovering high up in the clouds. This structure was so beautifully designed and simply mesmerizing that I just had to fly over to it and explore its secrets and discover what it held inside.

Crimson Desert does this constantly. No matter how dedicated you are to finishing a quest you set out to do, something will catch your eye, and you can't help but get sidetracked, go over to it, and check it out. Sometimes you'll find ruins with a rare piece of armor, a hidden chest with valuables inside, and even a whole castle, filled with NPCs and merchants ready to give you quests and sell you goods.

Most of the time, you'll stumble upon an Abyss Cresset while exploring, which is this game's version of puzzles. This game absolutely loves its puzzles, which is clear as day due to the sheer number of them, so it's a good thing that they're actually designed very well.

No matter how dedicated you are to finishing a quest you set out to do, something will catch your eye, and you can't help but get sidetracked

The puzzles are no joke when it comes to difficulty, though, and most of them put your critical thinking skills to the test. Expect puzzles that provide cryptic hints, require certain skills to complete, don't hold your hand, and can take upward of an hour to complete. I think it's great that these puzzles are so hard, because solving them feels so much more satisfying. This is especially true because each Abyss Cresset rewards you with an Abyss Artifact, the most important item in the game.

Earning these Abyss Artifacts is the main reason why you want to constantly explore the world of Crimson Desert, since these items are the foundation of character progression. Abyss Artifacts are used to upgrade weapons, unlock new skills, increase stats such as Health, Stamina, and Spirit, and can even be sold for a ton of Silver.

In other words, exploration is necessary to make your character stronger in Crimson Desert. Instead of using experience points or a leveling-up system like most other action-adventure games, Crimson Desert rewards those who go off the beaten path and run with their curiosity — and I absolutely love it for that.

Bounties, Fishing, Mining

One of my favorite parts about Crimson Desert is that there is always something for you to do. I'm not just talking about quests here, as there are plenty of activities and minigames to participate in during your stay in Pywell. For example, you can gamble, arm wrestle, engage in archery competitions, participate in horse races, try your hand at fist fight competitions, play rock, paper, scissors with the neighborhood kids, and much more.

All of these minigames help make the world of Crimson Desert feel more alive, rather than a space filled with mindless NPCs. They are a great way to unwind after a long main quest or a difficult boss fight, and I appreciated the game giving me that option.

Then there are the activities you can focus on to help with character progression and surviving the world of Pywell. For example, if you're running low on food, you can go hunting for ingredients or fish in a nearby pond, and then cook some meals that will help keep that health bar high. Or perhaps you're running low on money and want to make a quick buck, which you can easily do by catching bounties and bringing them to jail.

I even spent plenty of hours searching the world for mining deposits, which drop materials that are crucial for upgrading weapons and armor at the Blacksmith. The best part about this is that once you find a mining deposit, an icon is permanently saved on your map, allowing you to go back to that location later to mine even more materials. Once it respawns a few days later, of course.

Also, the game even has a camp management system, which has the player dispatching comrades to complete missions around the map. Doing so is important as it will expand your home base, making it easier to purchase necessary items and materials, have easier access to cooked meals, farm ingredients, etc.

Overall, you will always have something to do in Crimson Desert, and almost everything is actually meaningful and beneficial to your characters. It's this reason that the game doesn't feel very bloated, unlike most open-world games that release these days.

A Few Missteps

I understand there has been mostly praise so far in this review, but I would be lying to say Crimson Desert is perfect. It's a game not without its faults, but none of them are big enough to deter players from an otherwise incredible experience. For starters, the boss fights don't always hit the mark, and some of them are way overtuned and aggressive.

I found a good chunk of the bosses to have very small windows of opportunity to attack, resulting in button-mashing or pure luck on my part. It might be a skill issue, but the game doesn't teach you anything leading up to the fight that will help you take down the boss. Or, if it does teach you a helpful mechanic, it's easy to miss it since the game doesn't hold your hand at all. Because of this, I found myself being ragdolled across the arena way more than I'd like to admit.

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Also, the weakest part of Crimson Desert is the story, unfortunately. It's definitely serviceable, but it would have been nice to have a story that kept me hooked for the 100 hours I spent playing. Instead, I found myself getting bored during some cutscenes, drifting off during dialogue sequences, and not very interested in seeing the overall outcome of the plot.

However, as I mentioned earlier in this review, I don't believe the quality of the story should be the reason why you play or don't play Crimson Desert. If a strong story is an absolute must for you, then I'd recommend looking elsewhere, but if you're simply interested in an engaging adventure that will take you places that you rarely witness in games these days, then this is the game for you.

I found myself getting bored during some cutscenes, drifting off during dialogue sequences, and just not very interested in seeing the overall outcome of the plot.

I do have a minor nitpick with some of the side quests in Crimson Desert, though. While most of them are definitely worth it due to the rewards you receive, there are quite a few that I would consider "fetch quests." You know, the classic "go there, get this item, and return it to me" type quests. They aren't necessarily bad, but they can definitely feel like filler content to a certain degree.

Simply put, if the bosses were a bit more fine-tuned, the story was as extraordinary as pretty much every other aspect of the game, and there were a little less filler quests, then I'd be giving Crimson Desert a perfect score. But those three aspects are why I'd like to call this game a "flawed masterpiece" rather than a genuine one.

Crimson Desert combines all the phenomenal aspects of some of the most notable titles of the past decades. It has the sense of discovery like Elden Ring, a deeply engaging and dense world like Skyrim, unpredictable moment-to-moment gameplay like Red Dead Redemption 2, and the exciting exploration and overall feel of the latest Zelda games. It's simply one of the biggest games I have ever played, with an astonishing amount of high-quality content, an absurd amount of complex puzzles, and a world so gigantic that I still haven't come close to seeing everything after 100 hours of playtime. While the story isn't the best and some bosses seem downright unfair, those flaws do little to diminish Crimson Desert, an absolute marvel and one of the best open-world games on the market.