Crimson Desert Reviews
I think of Crimson Desert as an unrefined-but-still-promising The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild successor, but with a lot more Rockstar-design-level shenanigans in play. You have to give Pearl Abyss huge credit for somewhat succeeding in that action-adventure role-playing game design front, as well as listening to the community while implementing important changes for its long-term health. Crimson Desert's going places, but for now it's in quite a half-baked-but-still-entertaining state.
Crimson Desert is best for explorers, screenshot hunters, and system tinkerers who can live with rough edges. If you crave a tight story and carefully tuned combat, you will bounce off its excesses.
A gorgeous, punishing adventure weighed down by bugs, lighting woes, and a story that never quite keeps up. Crimson Desert, despite its issues, proves to be a very capable RPG/soulslike game that offers a ton of interactivity in what appears to be a compelling, living and breathing world. Those who are veterans of the souls-like genre will likely feel overwhelmed here with its staggering 168 missions just inside the main story alone. It may feel like a copy-paste of Game of Thrones at times, but for the most part, its diverse portfolio of characters delivers a somewhat fun and engaging gameplay experience, enriched by its epic boss fights and jaw-dropping daylight scenery. Crimson Desert offers a lot of content that will keep you busy for weeks long after the main story has drawn to a close.
Crimson Desert represents an impressive milestone in the open-world genre, offering a virtually endless array of things to explore, activities to undertake and enemies to face. However, it is not a perfect game: there are moments when the clarity of the mechanics and the user-friendly nature of a title of this scale seem to disappear. Many games promise too much and then disappoint. Crimson Desert is not one of them.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Crimson Desert is a visual titan that borders on Platonic perfection on its surface, but stumbles over its coarse substance and a soulless narrative. With addictive combat and breathtaking photorealism, it invites us to get lost in Pywel despite its clear technical rough edges and the weight of overwhelming hype—accepting that the purest beauty can also be imperfect.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Crimson Desert is a messy, ambitious RPG that constantly battles against itself. It’s frustrating and uneven, but its sheer scale and ideas make it hard to walk away from. A bold and often brilliant experience, this is the kind of game that sticks with you long after you’ve put it down.
Crimson Desert isn’t a tidy, ultra-focused RPG. It’s rough around the edges, chaotic by design, and absolutely full of ambition. That ambition can feel overwhelming at times, and some systems like camera control or story pacing could use refinement. But when everything clicks — traversal, combat, world exploration, base building, and character play — Crimson Desert delivers moments that feel genuinely next gen rather than just big.
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Review in Italian | Read full review
At this point in time, especially when Pearl Abyss is deeply dedicated to patching the game, Crimson Desert might be the perfect definition for a “Wait for it…” title. Given the developers’ update pace, it’s only a matter of time before the game realizes its potential. That said, it isn’t for everybody, but those who can power through the opening segments will be rewarded with an experience chock-full of systems and activities, far more than what others can normally offer. Crimson Desert is packed to the brim, and that may even be an understatement, and it simply will not respect your time (in a good way) because you’ll find yourself wanting to explore every nook and cranny in a world full of possibilities.
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Crimson Desert is a game that knows how to make you feel small and wonder-struck, then immediately trips over itself trying to be everything at once. Pearl Abyss has built a technically impressive open world packed with systems, secrets, and genuine moments of discovery — but buries them under a incoherent story, frustrating boss design, padding that stretches 60 hours of content into 100, and visuals that rely heavily on post-processing to mask surprisingly modest character models and geometry up close. This is not a misunderstood gem waiting to find its audience. It's a competent, occasionally brilliant, fundamentally overdesigned action RPG from a studio making its first single-player game. The foundation is there. The execution isn't quite.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Crimson Desert offers one of the most impressive open worlds of this generation and stunning combat that rewards creativity. However, a bland protagonist and shallow story reveal that Pearl Abyss is still learning to walk outside MMO territory.
Review in Unknown | Read full review
Crimson Desert is an ambitious and visually impressive sandbox that excels in delivering exciting combat, player freedom, and a richly interactive, immersive world. Its bold vision and emphasis on exploration and player choice stand out as its greatest strengths, offering a unique and experimental experience with countless ways to approach the world. However, clunky mechanics, sometimes overwhelming systems, and a weaker narrative hold it back from greatness. While it may not satisfy those seeking a deep RPG or story-driven experience, it remains a rewarding adventure for players who highly value freedom and immersion, even if it won’t appeal to everyone.
As an open world game Crimson Desert feels like next gen, but lame story telling makes it feel quite hollow.
Review in Finnish | Read full review
Crimson Desert is one of the most interestingly different games one would have played in a long time. There are times when it's grand without always being graceful, kind without always being thoughtful, and so full that respect and tiredness start to go together. The game sometimes feels like an exciting next step for fantasy action games.
Pearl Abyss built something massive with Crimson Desert, and the cracks show alongside the ambition. The visuals are the best I’ve seen in an open world, the combat is one-of-a-kind, and I never ran out of reasons to keep exploring. But the story lets the whole thing down, Kliff is too blank to carry a game this long, and a lot of the side content just doesn’t hold up. It’s worth playing, but go in with your eyes open.
I didn’t think it was possible for a game of this scale to exist yet, and I don’t recall the last time I ever played a game that wasn’t designed to be replayable that hooked me for such a long time. But here we are. The game lived up to its hype, and even though it isn’t perfect, Crimson Desert is one of the best RPGs I have ever played.
Chaotic, frustrating, but undeniably ambitious. Crimson Desert constantly tests our patience with technical problems and a confusing narrative, before letting us enjoy its ambitious combat system, exploration and stunning visuals. A game that demands time and a lot of patience for those who manage to overcome the barrier of its lack of polish.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The world design and combat of Crimson Desert are a resounding win for fans of free-form exploration, but the bland story and the tedious flow of Crimson Desert stop it from becoming the true masterpiece it could have been.
Crimson Desert is by no means a perfect game. It’s an amalgamation of perhaps slightly too many ideas, and that makes for a weirdly paced experience that demands a lot of the player without offering much in the way of help. And yet, it left me in awe more times than anything else I’ve played in recent memory with its dazzling open-world. Crimson Desert may not be the best game you'll ever play, but it’ll certainly be up there as perhaps the most memorable.