Crimson Desert basically came out of nowhere to become one of the most-hyped games of the spring. Impressive visuals and a sprawling open world catapulted the not-RPG to the top of the Steam wishlist charts. Now, just a day before the game hits digital store shelves for download, reviews are out in the wild and collectively they sound like a big bubble just popped. While some people love it, others aren’t impressed with the lack of a strong story and all the bland, bloated systems.
Out March 19 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, Crimson Desert is a big fantasy sandbox adventure from Pearl Abyss, the studio behind the popular MMORPG Black Desert. It takes place on the sprawling fantasy continent of Pywel, filled with rival clans and mythical creatures. It’s earned buzz with glowing Digital Foundry previews and viral clips of horse drifting, but also raised some eyebrows for holding base console footage close to the vest until just days before launch. The only codes that went out for advance reviews were for the PC version.
So what are the early reviews saying? Polygon‘s review-in-progress didn’t hold back. “After 10 hours, Crimson Desert‘s massive open world hasn’t shown me a single interesting thing,” reads the title. Bloomberg‘s Jason Schreier only played a few hours but was equally unimpressed. “Feels like a game designed for people who just want to Consume Content,” he wrote on Bluesky. Others have been lauded the detail of the world and especially the satisfying third-person combat, though the control scheme sounds like a mess.
It’s currently sitting at a 78 on Metacritic and a 79 on Open Critic. Not bad! But also a bit shy of the radioactive levels of hype Crimson Desert was reaching on social media as the second coming of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Still, while some critics have called the game flawed, flavorless, and generally just kinda meh, others are singing its praises. Forbes‘ Paul Tassi believes it lives up to the promise. “If the question was if Crimson Desert could really be that big and really play that well and really keep you entertained the whole time, the answer, for me, is unequivocally yes,” he wrote, giving it a 9.5/10.
Here’s what other reviews are saying about Crimson Desert:
I’ve played over 110 hours of Crimson Desert and already feel like I’ve seen just about all there is to see, but until I complete the main story and explore whatever secrets the endgame holds, I’m not ready to stamp a final score onto this ambitious yet flawed RPG quite yet. So far the highs have been very high, and the lows have been very low, which has made for an amusing adventure that’s also difficult to recommend outright. I’m looking forward to seeing how the story wraps up (though I’m not expecting much from it at this point) and what the post-game experience looks like. I should be ready with a final review in the coming days. – Travis Northup
It’s disappointing that you’re frequently pulled away from combat and exploration to manage your inventory. You only have access to a few slots in your backpack, and while you can expand it by completing side quests and purchasing extra pockets, absolutely everything takes up inventory space. That means any extra weapons and armor, aside from the ones already equipped; all of the various crafting materials you need to upgrade your gear; the tools you need to use to acquire these materials; quest items that stay in your inventory even after you’ve finished the relevant quest; furniture you can use to decorate your home; ingredients needed for cooking; the actual cooked meals themselves; books, wanted posters, notes, and recipes; the items you need to unlock new abilities in the skill tree; any bugs you catch; flowers you pick; everything. – Richard Wakeling
After a while, you realize you can just leave it all behind, go riding into the horizon and see what meets you there. Out on the road, I encountered a living diving suit, a walking tree, a castle full of baby dragons and a network of celestial teleporters, all more intriguing than anything in the main campaign. I’m constantly a bit poor, but never so cash-strapped that it feels frustrating, which I like. The puzzles can be truly mentally stimulating, so I can feel smug about solving them. And god damn, is that world pretty. The simple act of travelling makes me want to break into Photo Mode every ten minutes. – Joel Franey
Crimson Desert is a game that tries to do it all. A jack of all trades. Master of some, perhaps. If you can think of it, this videogame probably has it. While it creates a lack of focus in parts, I also can’t help but feel weirdly endeared to it all. It’s not as shallow as an open-world collectathon, but doesn’t quite have the mechanical intricacies of, say, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 or Red Dead Redemption 2. If those games are Forza, Crimson Desert is Forza Horizon. – Mollie Taylor
Make no mistake, Crimson Desert is a technically proficient game with killer combat (pesky lock-on aside). Yet its characters and story are fatally undercooked. And for all Pywel’s spectacular visual construction which impresses in its gigantic scale and gleaming prettiness, it lacks a certain distinctiveness. Think of the Witcher games: you can practically taste the fetid water, churned-up mud, and hunks of charred meat dined on by noblemen. Those are works of grit, texture, and a genuinely idiosyncratic sense of place. How does Crimson Desert taste? Well, it is not nearly so flavoursome – imagine, instead, a banquet where almost every dish has the faint taste of cardboard, and you have to eat it for what feels like forever. – Lewis Gordon
More than anything, there’s a foundation with Crimson Desert that I hope can be built upon, and considering this is Pearl Abyss’s first single-player game, I wonder how much of this can be chalked up to growing pains. The studio clearly took liberal inspiration from other games, but I hope that there can be something more looking toward the future. Crimson Desert has something special buried beneath its surface, if all those unneeded layers can be cut out. – Hayes Madsen
With a world that limits exploration except for discovering environmental puzzles, a narrative that got less compelling and more convoluted as it went, and immense difficulty spikes, I didn’t have the best time with Crimson Desert. I wanted to love it, I wanted to have that power fantasy that the trailers advertised, and most of all, I wanted to immerse myself. Instead, I got busywork with an occasional beatdown. Those vistas, though, are truly spectacular. – Paul Kelly
At its best, it offers a breathtaking world filled with meaningful exploration, impressive scale, and moments of genuinely thrilling combat. Pywel is one of the most believable open worlds in recent memory, and simply existing within it can be a joy.
But that brilliance is weighed down by an overabundance of unfocused systems, a weak narrative, and combat that struggles to maintain consistency. Too often, the game prioritises scale over cohesion, resulting in an experience that feels cluttered rather than refined. – Charlie Champion
It’s jarring and often immersion-breaking, and while you can eventually emerge victorious – I’ve worked my way through 30 of the game’s 76 bosses in my 150 hours – it doesn’t feel particularly rewarding. Not all bosses are built the same, however, and there are some truly fantastic boss fights here. Though some, particularly in the last chapter (oh my god), did almost do my head in.
Rather than mastering patterns and overcoming your opponent with skill, your best bet is to hunt deer for one hour, turn them all into Hearty Grilled Meat, and hope that you can heal your way through the damage by sheer attrition. When the advice is “just heal,” you know something isn’t quite right. – Harry Alston