'Crimson Desert' Review: The Most Gorgeous Disaster I've Ever Played

Author's Note: The author was provided a Steam code by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Crimson Desert has had years of anticipation behind it, so much so that many gamers thought the game was "too good to be true," after developer and publisher Pearl Abyss confirmed that the game would be bigger than Red Dead Redemption 2; it would have fishing, mining, and all other kinds of crafting and gathering; it would be single-player only with no plans for multiplayer; it would be focused on providing an immersive open-world action-adventure game, with a world full of discovery.

The big thing on a lot of fans' minds was not gameplay-related questions; it was actually the performance of the game. Ironically, the performance and visuals are the best part of the final game.

After playing through the main story (and some of the side content), I'm disappointed to say Crimson Desert is one of the most flawed games I have played in recent memory. From its overly complicated controls to its cumbersome inventory system to its weak narrative and characters to its insistence on introducing new mechanics even 30 hours in, Crimson Desert has the scope of an ocean but the depth of a puddle, and unfortunately misses the mark on almost every aspect that makes a video game fun, and the game really was too good to be true.

Gather the Crew

Crimson Desert follows the story of Kliff, a Greymane, on the continent of Pywell. The Greymanes are keepers of peace, warriors. Suddenly, they are attacked by a rival faction, the Black Bears, which scatters the Greymanes and allows Kliff to awaken to new powers and new discoveries in the world of Pywell.

That's the setup of the plot. If it sounds generic, that's because it is. Crimson Desert is a gameplay-focused game. There is a story, but it is full of paper-thin events and characters, so much so that I forgot most of the characters as soon as they were introduced. Each character has one main character trait, and that's about it. There's the drunk with a heart of gold, the "little sister" of the group, and several other tired archetypes.

The story serves more as a gameplay function--to get you to a new area and continue exploring. There's nothing wrong with that. So, in that regard, the story serves its purpose just fine. If fans are looking for a narrative in the same vein as games like The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2, they will be disappointed. Think more like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; the story is there, but it's not a major focus.

Kliff himself is equally generic. After dozens of hours, I struggle to even pen down what his personality actually is. He's just the good guy who will help random citizens and wants to save his friends and clansmen. That's about the extent of Kliff's characterization. Again, that's not necessarily a bad thing given how focused this game is on the open world exploration rather than the story, but I feel like it needs to be brought up.

Kill the Bandits... Again

The actual gameplay structure of Crimson Desert is, essentially, a mix of an MMO (like Black Desert Online, World of Warcraft, or Final Fantasy 14) and Breath of the Wild. That means there is a huge, beautiful world to explore, full of caves, secrets, encampments, and a lot more, but it also means the structure surrounding those things is full of fetch quests and repetitive activities.

Crimson Desert attempts to mix those two genres, but the result is a game that is worse than the sum of its parts. It's not uncommon for you to be tasked with talking to an NPC, being told to kill a group of bandits, going to talk to another NPC, and then going and killing another group of bandits. Or you may be tasked with following a cat to collect something and then tracking down a missing sheep and bringing it back for a different NPC.

The same-y design of the game's main quests and side activities makes the game feel very grindy--just like an MMO. The difference is that almost all MMOs are designed to be played for thousands of hours, and the grind for a new mount or weapon is tolerable or even enjoyable because of how much you enjoy the game's core mechanics, the social nature of an MMO, and the personal attachment you have to your player-created character.

That doesn't exist in Crimson Desert. This is not an RPG. You are not grinding out levels or progressing on a difficult raid boss. You are doing all of the mundane activities because you are forced to in the main story and in the side stories.

Breath of the Desert

Since the game does feel like a mix of Black Desert Online and Breath of the Wild, it's probably not a surprise that the game's world itself also feels like a half-baked version of those two games. The game itself is drop-dead gorgeous. Possibly one of the most beautiful games I've played in years. From impressive draw distances to stunning landscapes, Crimson Desert's world is an open-world showpiece.

Additionally, the game's performance is equally impressive. Running the game on an RTX 3080 at max settings, I was consistently getting 100 FPS the entire time. Not a single frame drop, even during "busier" encounters, cities, or events. I also only had one hard crash the whole game and only a few minor bugs that required a reload to fix. It's an insanely impressive game (visually). Pearl Abyss's BlackSpace engine is one that should be studied for how to handle open-world games. It may not be the most detailed game ever, but it certainly runs like one.

In terms of gameplay, exploring the world is mostly enjoyable, but there are some drawbacks. One of which is the lack of consistent fast travel points. They are usually marked with a cloudy question mark on the main map. You then have to find the pedestal, step on it, and then you have access to it. More fast travel points are opened when you solve the game's many puzzles, too.

Another problem is the lack of actual NPC and world interaction. You feel like you are engaging more with the mini-map and the checklist of what you're supposed to be doing rather than being immersed in this large fantasy world.

The map is large. So, sometimes you may be tasked with going a long way to a mission marker, only to discover the next location you need to go to is either in a new area or not near a fast travel spot. In one way, that design works because it forces players to explore the world, and that's one of the better parts of the game. On the other hand, it also forces players to come to terms with other shortcomings in the game, such as the inventory system.

Crimson Desert does not hold your hand at all. You may need to solve a puzzle to continue. There are very few, if any, hints or indications regarding what you're supposed to be doing in those scenarios. For example, an early main mission requires you to be "unarmed" to access the fighting arena. I thought the game was telling me to unequip my weapons. Then, as it turns out, I couldn't unequip my weapons. Eventually, I figured out you don't need to unequip your weapons; you just need to equip your gloved hands. Things like that happen frequently in the game. It's frustrating, overly complicated, and simply unpleasant.

Inventory Full

Despite taking heavy inspiration from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, Crimson Desert does one thing drastically different--limited inventory slots. In the review period, we began with just 20 slots for inventory. Everything you pick up in this game uses a slot, from books to cooking ingredients to potions to alchemy ingredients to weapons to armor to key items and everything else. A patch was implemented that increased the starting inventory size to 50 instead of 20 and also added new, increased inventory slot rewards for some missions, which is a definite improvement. However, the game essentially forces you to engage with the side activities from local villagers, do their tasks, complete their quests, and then earn more inventory space.

I don't know why the decision was made to have a limited inventory, unless it has something to do with the BlackSpace engine, but I found my inventory getting full roughly every half-hour of gameplay. It also doesn't help that there isn't a way to "store" items you are not currently using, and key items do not leave your inventory once they've been used. Though there is a future update planned that will offer storage.

The result is endless micromanagement of your inventory. Again, that is not dissimilar to an MMO, but in a game that encourages exploration and experimentation, I was shocked to see such a limited inventory in the game.

Quantity Over Quality

Some fans were skeptical of this game as more and more mechanics were revealed for it. There are around 30 mini-games. There is a mining system, a crafting system, an alchemy system, a fishing system, and a lot more. Again, like an MMO, there are a lot of mechanics. It's easy to be overwhelmed at first and even hours into the game, because the game consistently introduces new mechanics on top of existing mechanics.

The problem is not that these things exist in the game. The problem is how shallow each and every one of them is. The mining mechanic is simply: equip a pickaxe, walk up to a minable source, hold the left bumper, push the right bumper, collect the fallen materials, repeat until the source is run dry. The same thing happens with chopping down trees for lumber. Equip the axe, slash it a few times, then again when it's on the ground, collect the lumber, repeat.

Those tasks are needless. I wish the game had expanded other mechanics and left some of them out of the game completely, simply because of how mundane, simple, and lifeless they feel.

The same thing happens with the mini-games, too. For example, you walk into a tavern and arm wrestle someone by tapping one button, then hitting another button when the meter is full, and it's over.

All of these things add unnecessary padding to the game. If players could just walk up to a mining area and push one button to obtain the materials, very little (if anything) would be lost. Most likely, the game's general lack of focus would be at least a little narrower.

The quantity over quality feel of Crimson Desert even applies to the game's menus. There are menus within menus within menus, making the entire experience confusing and unintuitive.

But, overall, the single biggest problem with Crimson Desert is its controls. The game feels very heavy, and there is a degree of input latency that makes Kliff and the other playable characters "feel" heavier than they actually are. Additionally, there are a lot of button combinations to do several actions, even outside of combat. It's common to be forced to position the camera in a certain way, hold the left bumper, and then press the X button to talk to someone. The problem? That button is also the jump button when you're not holding the left bumper. I found the game's controls to be cumbersome and downright annoying a lot of the time. It reminded me of Red Dead Redemption 2's controls, but amplified.

Slice and Dice

One of the strongest parts of Crimson Desert is actually the combat system and skill progression. Combat options are plentiful, and the combat is designed like an open-world sandbox. You can mash light attack through most fights, but the combat has several layers to it that are very fun to explore. Seeing Kliff charge into bandits headfirst with a shield bash, to then quickly sweep the legs of enemies, stab them on the ground, and then quickly pick up an enemy and toss it toward another group of enemies, all in one motion, is a joy to pull off.

The boss fights are also a highlight. There are around 70 of them, and while I wasn't able to do all of them, they all feel like unique puzzles to figure out. If you find one too challenging, you can just leave, explore other areas, and come back with better gear or more abilities, similar to Elden Ring. I found most of them to be quite clever, and all of them made me wish the normal enemy encounters were up to that level. It was a glimpse of what could have been for the whole game.

For progression, there is a skill tree system of sorts. You earn Abyss Artifacts from various quests or by completing activities in the open world. You can freely choose what to earn and when, giving a degree of customization and player expression.

An Open-World Mess

It's hard to touch upon every aspect of Crimson Desert in one review because of how large the game is and how many mechanics are in the game, but, in general, I feel like the game is a mess in almost every way. It feels like it wants to be an "adult" Breath of the Wild, while also lacking the stellar gameplay design of that game. It has realism features like needing to put on thick clothes in the cold areas, just like Red Dead Redemption 2, but without the connection to the world, characters, and story.

Ultimately, Crimson Desert is an unfocused, uneven, grindy, poorly-controlled game that does not measure up to modern open-world games or even the games that inspired it. While there is some fun to be had in the game's combat, it's difficult to recommend the game to anyone who isn't a hardcore fan of open-world games, and those people may need a lot of patience for the game's dozens of mechanics, limited inventory, and cryptic puzzles in order to experience the few shining moments the game does have.

Crimson Desert releases on Thursday, March 19, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.