A Note for Our Readers
You’ll notice this review arrives nearly two months after launch. We intentionally delayed our verdict because a game as big as Crimson Desert cannot be judged in a rush. We wanted to experience the full scope of the Greymanes' journey, test the post-launch patches, and ensure our impressions were based on a thorough playthrough, not just a first glance.
Having initially previewed Crimson Desert last year, this very much feels like a full-circle moment, but nothing could have ever prepared me for the full package Pearl Abyss had in store. It doesn’t try to be just any ordinary open-world action-adventure game. It aims to be so much more, something unique and unlike anything you’ve played before.
For the most part, it pulls that off brilliantly. But as much as I admire what it does well, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t stumble along the way.
There’s only one place I can start this review, and that’s with the game’s map. The world of Crimson Desert is massive, and I don’t just mean that in the sense of it being a big map with lots of empty space. I quite literally mean dense, layered, and almost overwhelming in its sheer scale.
I can only go off my own previous experiences, and for me, the comparisons that come closest are Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2. But even then, Crimson Desert feels like it outdoes both with ease.
You start in the region of Hernand, and when I say start off, I mean you are there for large parts of the game, despite there being four additional regions to visit. While Hernand was the main area of focus for what felt like forever, I was able to travel and explore other parts of the map at my own free will, unless a pop-up message with a countdown timer told me otherwise.
Because of the sheer depth and scale of Crimson Desert, it was absolutely imperative for Pearl Abyss to fill it with meaningful content, and I genuinely feel like they executed this to perfection.
And that’s where Crimson Desert really distinguishes itself: the sheer variety of activities and distractions built into the world. You can go fishing in quiet rivers and lakes, sit down for pub games in towns, take to fighting pits, hunt wildlife, cook, gather resources, and so much more. You can spend hours doing things that have nothing to do with the main story and still feel like your time was well spent.
There was so much to explore and uncover that it rarely, if ever, felt empty. One of my favorite aspects was the hidden secrets, items, and treasures stored throughout Pywel. I lost count of how many times I’d just be minding my own business, only to stumble across a concealed cave or a tucked-away entrance that led to something valuable. That sense of discovery never got old; it consistently felt rewarding and made exploration feel worthwhile rather than a chore.
No matter how much I had played or how far I had progressed through the story, the game continued to shock and surprise me in ways I didn’t expect. Just when I thought I had seen everything it had to offer, it would throw something else at me, whether that was a hidden location, an unexpected encounter, or a new gameplay mechanic. It genuinely feels like a game that constantly has new tricks up its sleeve. Even now, nearly two months on from its release, I find it hard to believe that every single secret within its world has been fully discovered.
Pywel itself is truly something special. If you could picture a world filled with life, beauty, activity, magic, mystery, and variety, Pywel is what you’d see. Each region offers something different: from rural countryside villages to vast deserts, snowy mountain ranges, and dense forests. Across these regions, you’ll encounter a wide range of NPCs with varying ages, personalities, and origins, alongside different environmental structures like mysterious towers, castles, ruins, camps, forts, and lively towns. There’s also an endless amount of wildlife and nature to discover, both common and rare, which adds even more depth to exploration.
There was one moment early on where I was supposed to meet an NPC in a nearby town. On the way, I spotted a group of civilians being held hostage by bandits, stepped in to help, and that spiraled into tracking down their camp, which then led to uncovering a hidden cave that stored treasure. By the time I got back to the main quest, I had completely forgotten what I was doing beforehand. That’s Crimson Desert in a nutshell, and I recall several moments like this throughout my playthrough. There’s always something pulling your attention away from whatever you originally set out to do.
The story of Crimson Desert heavily centers around revenge and reunion. It follows Kliff, a grizzled mercenary captain who is forced to lead a shattered group known as the Greymanes after a devastating betrayal. As the story progresses, the conflict expands beyond just faction warfare into larger, more mysterious forces affecting the world of Pywel behind the scenes.
While it might sound intriguing at first, the main story ultimately turned out to be one of Crimson Desert’s biggest disappointments.
The narrative is fine, but from the prologue onward, it started to lean a bit too heavily on familiar ideas. It didn’t take long before things began to feel a tad generic and, at times, predictable. That’s not to say it didn’t have its hooks, because there were definitely unanswered questions I was curious to get to the bottom of, but I could envision where the story was heading before the game actually took me there.
It’s by no means a bad story, and I’ve certainly played through far weaker, but it never quite surpasses being anything more than okay, and that ended up feeling like a missed opportunity.
Then there’s the central protagonist, Kliff.
Look, there’s no denying Kliff has a strong visual presence. He’s got all the cool armor, weapons, and carries that classic badass monster-slayer vibe. But personality-wise? He’s as dry as a desert… no pun intended! He lacks charm, lacks energy, and rarely reacts in a way that makes you feel connected to him. I kept waiting for a moment where he’d truly come alive, but that moment just never arrived.
I honestly can’t remember a time when he said any more than a few words in a sentence during cutscenes; he always seemed so blunt, bland, and straight to the point. It’s a shame, because the world around him is so mind-blowing, yet the character you spend the most time with feels oddly flat.
There are also two other playable characters besides Kliff, but if I’m being honest, they felt a little bit pointless and wasted. I barely spent any meaningful time playing as them, and their inclusion never really added much to the overall experience. It felt like they would have been better off as NPCs, with more focus instead being put into making Kliff a stronger, more memorable character.
That’s really where the disconnect started to become obvious. For a game that puts so much detail into its world, be it the environments, the atmosphere, or the sheer scale, it’s hard not to feel like the same level of attention just wasn’t implemented into the story and its characters.
Everything surrounding Kliff feels meticulously crafted, yet the narrative threads tying it all together come off a little undercooked, as if they needed more time in the oven. Both the story and its cast feel slightly rushed, lacking the polish you’d expect from a title this ambitious. It’s not enough to ruin the game, but it does leave you with that lingering thought that this could’ve been something truly special if the writing had matched the world it was built in.
Playing Crimson Desert is a bit of a rollercoaster. When it clicks, boy does it click well. But getting there takes some patience. Movement and combat feel great, there’s weight behind your actions, and fights can feel incredibly satisfying.
Combat isn’t just about swinging a sword and hoping for the best. Believe me, that very rarely ends well. Movement ties everything together. Dodging, parrying, sprinting, and jumping all open up opportunities to reposition and strike back. A well-timed dodge or parry can instantly shift momentum, and once you find a rhythm, fights feel more natural as you adjust and look for the next opening. It’s really no exaggeration to say, and I can’t emphasize this enough, that knowing when to attack and when to retreat can be the difference between life and death in Crimson Desert.
Different weapons genuinely change how fights play out. Swords feel quick, balanced, and reliable, spears give you extra reach, and bows, especially with fire and explosive arrows, are great for controlling space or dealing with large groups.
In addition to standard enemies scattered across camps, forts, and the open world, boss fights also play a major role throughout. These encounters are tied not only to the main story but also to exploration and discovery, often rewarding you with new weapons, apparel items, or Abyss Gears (more on them later). What stood out most was the variety; different bosses require different tactics, approaches, and levels of preparation. Some felt manageable, but others were incredibly punishing, to the point where I found myself getting frustrated enough to step away and come back later. Those more difficult encounters, while occasionally rage-inducing, were also some of the most satisfying to overcome.
There is another catch: the mechanics themselves felt janky and confusing at first. The control scheme wasn’t, and still isn’t, exactly easy to grasp, and there were several moments early on where I fumbled basic actions because I simply couldn’t remember what button did what.
Over time, it did get a lot better. Muscle memory kicks in, things start to make sense, and the systems become clearer to understand. But I can’t lie, those first few hours were rough.
It’s also worth noting that Pearl Abyss has released several major patch updates since Crimson Desert’s launch, and they’ve had a noticeable impact on the overall gameplay side of things. Additions like difficulty settings, improved controller input, enhanced performance options, and general stability tweaks have helped smooth out many of the early frustrations and made the game more accessible.
Pearl Abyss has been quite adamant in avoiding the RPG label for Crimson Desert, but despite that, many of its mechanics lean heavily into RPG territory. Deep customization options, gear upgrades, progression systems, and story-driven quests all play a huge role. Whether officially labeled as one or not, it certainly feels like it belongs in that space.
One area where the game really leans into its RPG-like systems is through its skill tree. Each playable character has access to upgrades tied to Stamina, Health, and Spirit, and investing in these regularly felt absolutely essential to becoming stronger. Stamina affects how long you can dodge, sprint, and fly; Health boosts survivability during encounters; and Spirit determines your ability to use more advanced skills. Balancing these upgrades became a must, and ignoring them for too long instantly made the game all the more challenging.
Enhancing gear stats and unlocking new skill upgrades for these three categories can be done through Abyss Gears. These are powerful, craftable items that, when paired with Abyss Artifacts, unlock nodes in each character's skill tree. Often found while exploring, completing quests, or successfully defeating a boss, some would automatically be allocated to my stash for immediate use, while others would only become accessible once a specific challenge had been completed.
After reaching a certain point in the main story, Kliff and the Greymanes relocate to a new camp, which can then be upgraded over time. These upgrades unlocked new facilities like ranches, training stations, and vendors; increased recruit slots for comrades; and enabled advanced dispatch missions for resources, converting the camp from a small, basic shelter into a large, fully functional hub. This gradually added another layer of progression that I didn’t expect but really enjoyed. It actually reminded me quite a bit of Red Dead Redemption 2 in how it gave you a sense of growth and belonging within your group away from the mayhem.
One system that quietly became significantly important was the inventory and storage setup. At first glance, it feels fairly standard, with limited space that fills quickly as you gather gear, crafting materials, and loot while exploring. That restriction soon starts to matter, especially in a game that encourages you to stray off from your main objectives. What makes it more interesting is how Crimson Desert ties inventory expansion to actual gameplay, with loot capacity increasing through quests and side activities rather than just simple shop purchases.
Storage works as a natural extension of this system, with shared spaces in towns and your camp letting you safely store excess items for later use. It turns inventory management into a constant cycle of deciding what to carry, what to stash, what to leave behind, and what to sell, without ever feeling like you’re being punished for your choices. Later camp upgrades also expand storage and improve resource handling, making this one of the systems that supports exploration without drawing too much attention to itself.
Pacing is another mixed bag. The game gives you a ton of freedom, which is great, but it also means momentum can stall, and nowhere is that more obvious than with the puzzles.
Some of them are genuinely impressive: complex, layered, and satisfying to solve. I remember spending nearly an hour trying to figure out a mechanism involving rotating pillars and laser beams. When it finally came together, it felt good.
But in other moments, I just wanted them gone altogether. There were times when I was fully invested in a mission, with the tension building up nicely, only to become stuck solving a puzzle that completely kills all momentum.
That’s where the cutscenes also became a sticking point. I appreciate that they are a necessity for a game like this, but some felt as if they went on far longer than they needed to. At times, missions and quests felt very stop-start. So, the fact that there’s a fast-forward option was a genuine lifesaver and a very handy inclusion.
Another feature I appreciated was how the game handled traversal. Despite the sheer size of Pywel, I always felt like I had control and freedom over how I wanted to explore it. If I wanted to call upon one of my many mounts and travel across the world manually, whether on land or even through the air, I could do that. But if I preferred convenience, fast travel was also available, as long as I had already unlocked the relevant fast travel point on the map. That balance between immersion and accessibility worked really well.
From the moment you step into the game, it quickly becomes apparent that an incredible amount of love, passion, time, care, and dedication went into making it look and feel as immersive as possible. It’s a game filled with so much detail that it’s hard to fully appreciate it unless you just stop and take it in, which I found myself doing time and time again.
About halfway through this review, I upgraded from my base PlayStation 5 to the PS5 Pro, and the difference was noticeable almost immediately.
Frame rates felt smoother, especially in busier areas, and the visual clarity got a nice bump. I wouldn’t say it was a night-and-day transformation, but it was enough that going back would’ve been tough. Everything just felt more polished and stable.
That brings me to my next point: performance is surprisingly solid.
One of the biggest talking points leading up to launch was performance on consoles. Most of the pre-release gameplay footage circulating online had been captured on high-end PCs, which naturally raised doubts about how the game would actually run on the PS5 and Xbox Series.
A lot of players, myself included, expected a compromised experience with unstable frame rates, heavy downgrades, and a general lack of polish once it hit consoles. But in reality, the final release exceeded those expectations. Optimization is far more stable than what was initially anticipated, with consistent performance modes that actually hold up during both exploration and combat-heavy encounters, and visuals that don’t take much of a hit in the process.
I went in expecting bugs and the usual post-launch headaches. But I’ve got to say, I ran into very few issues. A couple of minor glitches here and there, but nothing that necessarily spoiled my playthrough. For a game of this scale, that’s seriously impressive and left me wondering what all of the fuss was about in the first place.
At the end of the day, Crimson Desert feels split between two sides. The story and characters are just about acceptable, although often predictable and lacking the depth you’d expect from a world this rich. But everything around that, the open world, the graphics, the combat, the customization, and the upgrade systems, is where the game truly shines. In my opinion, it’s not the narrative that keeps you playing, but the freedom, progression, moment-to-moment gameplay, and the sense of discovery that carry the experience.
Crimson Desert is one of those games that’s hard to sum up.
On one hand, it’s incredibly ambitious and often delivers on that ambition in ways that genuinely surprised me. The world is massive, detailed, and constantly engaging. The visuals are stunning. And when the gameplay systems click, it can be thoroughly enjoyable.
On the other hand, it’s not without its flaws. The story lacks depth, Kliff never quite rises to the level of a compelling protagonist, and certain gameplay elements, especially puzzles and confusing controls, can put a slight damper on it all.
Despite all of that, I kept coming back. Even when I was frustrated, even when I felt like the pacing had stalled, there was always something pulling me back in. Another location to explore, another secret to uncover, another boss to defeat, another reason to keep going.
Is Crimson Desert perfect? No, but it doesn’t need to be. What it does well, it does really well, and it leaves a lasting impression because of it. It’s weird, wonderful, ambitious, and at times overwhelming, but it’s also one of the most memorable open-world adventures I’ve had in years.
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