Crimson Desert Reviews
Crimson Desert is one of those games that manages to seamlessly combine elements from our favorite RPGs and open world games. While you can see some of its original MMO roots in the quest design and side activities, it’s clearly meant to be a wonderful, immersive and engaging action RPG focused on exploration and with a good, emotional story to boot.
Crimson Desert is one of the most ambitious games in a long time. It's an expansive, and deeply detailed fantasy world that constantly invites exploration and rewards curiosity. Its fluid, skill-based combat and sheer scale are genuinely impressive, but that same ambition often works against it. A lack of focus, overly complex systems, and a slow, demanding progression can make the experience feel overwhelming and, at times, exhausting. It's a game of extremes: deeply immersive and rewarding for those willing to invest the time, but far from accessible for everyone.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Crimson Desert is a demanding, complex RPG that can feel punishing and occasionally unfair, especially without constant progression. Yet it offers a breathtaking open world with unmatched scale and depth. Its reception will vary widely'frustrating for some, but deeply rewarding for those willing to fully invest.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
I had high hopes for Crimson Desert, but... I was more disappointed than thrilled. A single-player MMO based on things we love from other great games—it just couldn't work out as well as we thought.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Dark Souls has often been used to measure one's gaming prowess, but that measuring stick has changed with Crimson Desert. Not only does it boast some of the most challenging boss battles ever seen in the industry, its required levels of patience, determination, and ability have set a new gold standard.
An ambitious adventure set in a visually stunning world that tries to do a bit too much, ultimately feeling underdeveloped in some respects.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Crimson Desert offers a vast and visually stunning open world, full of freedom and exploration, but its simplistic story and unclear objectives may frustrate many players.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
If you can ignore a bad story and lacking quests with a "the more the better" approach, but enjoy turning every stone in a world in search of loot, you will have fun with Crimson Desert. But while a really like good games with friction in the design, even after 20 hours this game manges to grind my gears all too often and of all the many, many things I could potentially do in Pywell, there are too few worthwhile to make me stick around for much longer.
Review in German | Read full review
Crimson Desert could have been so much more. Pearl Abyss's ambition is real and occasionally tangible — exploring Pywel can still surprise even after dozens of hours. But that sense of wonder is constantly interrupted by a combat system that wears thin, an unconvincing narrative, disorienting controls, and bugs that can cost hours of progress. Recommended only to the most patient.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Crimson Desert is an undeniably ambitious open-world RPG, but its impressive scale and technical spectacle are constantly undermined by fragmented systems, uneven pacing, and a lack of identity.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
This game has been polarizing from the very beginning. Some will love it for specific reasons: its length (easily around 120 hours), the numerous and varied quests, and the engaging and fun combat. Others, however, will find the game sorely lacking in inspiration when it comes to its story. The truth lies somewhere in between. Crimson Desert offers plenty of enjoyment for those who like to engage in various activities at their own pace. But if you’re looking for a deep story where you’ll grow attached to the characters and people you meet along the way, you couldn’t be further from it. So you have to take the game for what it is: an adventure RPG that stands out without being the blockbuster everyone was expecting. And that’s perfectly fine.
Review in French | Read full review
Crimson Desert is a sprawling open-world action RPG that impresses with its world-building and combat — even if its ambitions occasionally outpace its execution.
Review in German | Read full review
Crimson Desert has some of the most stacked and immersive content you will see in a video game – in the modern era, anyway. Despite the updates, the game still has many glaring positives; however, it has just as many glaring negatives. Having said that, this game is a highly enjoyable sandbox experience, and, as mentioned earlier, I will continue playing because it has countless things to offer.
Crimson Desert is exactly the kind of game that will divide players. Some will see it as a massive, ambitious adventure, while others will view it as an enormous patchwork of ideas borrowed from better franchises, without ever truly understanding what made them work in the first place. Unfortunately, the formula doesn’t come together here. The exploration feels reminiscent of Zelda without delivering the same sense of enjoyment, the protagonist tries to emulate Geralt without the charisma or strong writing, the combat aims for epic scale without ever reaching the heights of Horizon, and the story constantly chases the emotional depth of God of War without ever coming close.
Review in French | Read full review
It is not for everyone, but Crimson Desert rewards patient players with vast exploration, tough combat, and a world that feels alive despite its many imperfections.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Of course, it has its flaws and shortcomings, and I already tried to address them above. But the massive vision it presents, along with its pure sense of adventure and freedom, is so powerful that it deserves to go down in history as one of the boldest and most spectacular games the industry has seen in recent years. Every player who wants to experience limitless freedom, chaos, and exploration should step into the continent of Pywel and experience this game for themselves.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Crimson Desert doesn't always know exactly what it wants to be, but it's very clear about what it wants to offer. Between accumulating systems, intersecting stories, and a world that constantly beckons exploration, the story feels more like a journey through Pywell. Its greatest strength may lie not in what it tells, but in everything that happens along the way.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Pearl Abyss came very close: all it would have taken was a slightly more inspired story and some less complex gameplay mechanics, and we would have been looking at a true masterpiece. It’s an excellent game nonetheless—one we recommend even to those who aren’t fans of the genre—that immerses players in a vast open world and captivates them with a solid, dynamic combat system. You’ll be tempted to keep playing even after finishing the main quest to enjoy its world with hours of activities and pure fun. And watch out, because all the pieces are in place for the developer to expand and improve it even further.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Crimson Desert is an ambitious open-world epic that succeeds through its dense, rewarding exploration and weighted combat, even while stumbling over a generic story and a flat protagonist. While unintuitive controls and momentum-killing puzzles can cause occasional frustration, the sheer scale of Pywel and its deep progression systems offer a level of discovery unlike anything seen before it. Ultimately, the game’s narrative shortcomings are overshadowed by its immense depth and breathtaking world, making it a flawed but deeply memorable adventure.
Despite the AI controversy around the launch of Crimson Desert, I’ve found a lot to enjoy during my time with the game. There is a lot of content to explore, and freedom to do so at your own pace and style. So much so, that even with some annoying interface and controller decisions and an initially confusing storyline, I found myself compelled to keep coming back and enjoying the moment to moment experiences.