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Crimson Desert is definitely among the finest action-adventure video games of this technology. Developer Pearl Abyss supplies fashionable, outstanding fight in an distinctive open-world expertise with spectacular visuals that make it a must-play.
It supplies little to no steering, giving gamers whole freedom to suppose outdoors the field in each exploration and fight encounters, using distinctive mechanics to beat puzzles, enemy ambushes, and the opposite obstacles that await you.
Assessment data
Platform reviewed: PC
Out there on: PS5, Xbox Sequence X|S, PC
Launch date: March 19, 2026
- Crimson Desert at Amazon for $1.29
Regardless of preliminary fears of a ‘catch’, Crimson Desert ticks all of the vital containers for a sport that can hold you coming again for extra, with moments of distraction throughout discovery, large-scale battles, implausible voice performing, and a robust authentic soundtrack to accompany gamers all through their journey.
After 80 hours of taking part in, I nonetheless have the identical smile from my first hour of diving in, as there’s nonetheless a lot extra that awaits me within the continent of Pywel.
Getting misplaced in Pywel
(Picture credit score: Future / Isaiah Williams)
Crimson Desert‘s map is totally huge, a lot in order that I had solely seen eight per cent of it by the 60-hour mark. The continent of Pywel is stuffed with a lot to find, and I usually discovered myself getting sidetracked and distracted on the trail to principal story quests on this well-crafted open world.
Whether or not it is a cave you have stumbled upon, stuffed with traps to finish a puzzle, or an ambush led by a non-playable character (NPC) who fools you into believing they want your assist, Crimson Desert is consistently retaining you engrossed and curious to uncover what lies past its principal path.
As Kliff Macduff, you lead the Greymanes after a sudden ambush by fierce rivals, the Black Bears, leaving Kliff and his comrades left for useless. Your job is to seek out and reunite the surviving Greymanes and avenge all that was misplaced, however there’s greater than what meets the attention right here.
It is vital to notice that Crimson Desert isn’t a narrative-driven sport, and there is a heavier concentrate on the open-world sandbox and its immersive nature. Having stated that, I used to be fairly stunned to see that Pearl Abyss constructed an attention-grabbing story that not solely helps you develop connected to characters among the many Greymanes but in addition leaves you consistently questioning what lies forward in your journey.
Following the sport’s grand opening, Crimson Desert provides you vital starter instruments and primarily lets you freely discover any area you select. You successfully choose your individual problem by both in search of out gear by way of boss battles or discovering Abyss Artifacts to unlock new expertise, all early on, or head into quests or large-scale battles with out them for a problem.
Discovering these Abyss Artifacts isn’t any straightforward feat, as many require fixing puzzles throughout the map. Keep in mind after I stated there was no hand-holding? You are not getting something however a number of hints with Crimson Desert‘s puzzles, and it felt so rewarding to finish them, as I used to be persistently excited to see how every new ability I unlocked would change my playstyle.
(Picture credit score: Future / Isaiah Williams)
For instance, you would possibly discover a puzzle with stone slabs and symbols that should comply with a specific sample for every section. Whereas there are probably clues for what that sample is in one other hidden location on the map, likelihood is you have not discovered it. When you lastly succeed via trial and error, the sense of aid is profoundly cathartic.
That applies to each puzzles in informal exploration, facet quests, and principal quests, so it is best to be affected person with every of them. The dimensions of Crimson Desert‘s open world is one thing I’ve not seen in any sport till now, and meaning most gamers will simply move the 50-hour mark, and nonetheless be within the sport’s beginning area, Hernand.
Now, that does not imply you possibly can’t journey to any area you need; you possibly can. Nevertheless, I give you the perfect of luck in doing so with out discovering the best gear, and levelling up accordingly, because the enemies and executives in Crimson Desert are very unforgiving – typically to the sport’s detriment.
Suplex metropolis
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(Picture credit score: Future / Isaiah Williams)(Picture credit score: Future / Isaiah Williams)(Picture credit score: Future / Isaiah Williams)(Picture credit score: Future / Isaiah Williams)(Picture credit score: Future / Isaiah Williams)
Fight in Crimson Desert is a wrestling fan’s dream and extra, simply standing out because the strongest side of the sport. Whereas there’s a lot to get pleasure from by way of spectacle, particularly when mounting dragons, utilizing jetpacks, or just deploying instruments like Axiom Pressure to traverse the map, Pearl Abyss has carried out an outstanding job at making the battlefield your playground.
As soon as you have geared up sufficient Abyss Artifacts, you possibly can both select a construct devoted to unarmed fight, with fashionable combos that jogged my memory of Satan Might Cry 5, or one which focuses on particular assaults like Pressure Palm.
The good factor is you possibly can dip into each, and mix a number of kinds, however you will must grasp fight and the sport’s controls to take action. You will know you are starting to grip fight once you run into formidable base enemies who can pull off among the identical strikes you possibly can, and also you’re in a position to time your dodges and parries and execute your counters earlier than shifting again into defence, as they’re fairly exhausting to tug off persistently.
It additionally has you stringing specific combos collectively promptly, particularly since sure particular assaults and combos can solely be executed on surprised enemies and executives. For instance, Kliff can clothesline enemies, pull off a Randy Keith Orton (RKO) — sure, I am not kidding — a suplex, and an elbow drop multi function string if timed properly, and will even prevent from an ambush as their impression can push different enemies again away from you.
Luckily, it did not take me lengthy to turn into properly accustomed to the controls, which might be barely complicated at first, particularly for those who’re not used to intense motion video games. As soon as you possibly can seize enemies utilizing Axiom Pressure, and use the sport’s basic mechanics (that are normally best for puzzles) in fight, the expertise excels, notably when coming throughout aggressive foes.
All three playable characters in Kliff, Damiane, and Oongka have their very own ability timber and weapons, and most significantly, various combating kinds. Utilizing Damiane, I might seize an enemy for a ground-slamming assault, however then hit the identical mixture once more, just for her to inflict a number of knee assaults mid-air on an enemy’s face, or ship them crashing into the bottom once more.
(Picture credit score: Future / Isaiah Williams)
Enemies will not provide you with any ready time both, usually working by ambushing you and attacking , making you keep in your toes to return out of encounters alive. It flows extremely properly, and the problem inside regular enemy and faction encounters feels very well-balanced.
Sadly, that is not the identical case with a few of Crimson Desert‘s boss battles. Two of the worst offenders have already been showcased in advertising: Kearush the Slayer and the Reed Satan.
Bosses within the sport usually set off particular and large-scale assaults which might be able to killing you in a single hit, and there needs to be a good probability to evade these assaults.
Nevertheless, Kearush the Slayer has a particular assault that’s virtually unimaginable to dodge, parry, and even run away from — and the one resolution for me was to desperately Pressure Palm myself into the ceiling of the corridor the battle takes place in. Kearush can be extremely aggressive, to an unfair diploma, leaving little time so that you can react.
It is a lot worse within the Reed Satan encounter, particularly a second section that has you destroying sure objects to proceed, however you possibly can hardly transfer as a result of ferocious assaults that simply break via your defence.
You will end up hard-pressed to defeat bosses with out coming into every encounter with tons of meals or different therapeutic gadgets, as a result of every boss will get much more aggressive via every section, and there is not any checkpoint in between every of them.
(Picture credit score: Future / Isaiah Williams)
Going from difficult however truthful enemy ambushes, informal open-world exploration, and enjoyable mini-game actions, to overly aggressive boss battles in the primary story made it really feel like I used to be taking part in two totally different video games at occasions.
I am positive there will be gamers who’ve a greater time throughout these encounters, particularly if care is taken to make use of most Abyss Artifacts on stamina and well being upgrades (and maybe if Pearl Abyss does tweak a few of these encounters post-launch), however they have been irritating for me.
It isn’t all doom and gloom, although, as I bumped into a number of epic and interesting boss battles that gave me a good alternative to return out victorious with out feeling exhausting carried out by. I simply hope that, on the very least, Pearl Abyss can embrace checkpoints for people who characteristic a number of phases.
Let’s get technical
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(Picture credit score: Future / Isaiah Williams)(Picture credit score: Future / Isaiah Williams)
I am going to admit, I used to be apprehensive about Crimson Desert‘s efficiency earlier than getting my palms on it, however thankfully, these fears have been quelled immediately. PC gamers can be glad to know that Crimson Desert runs like an absolute attraction, and the BlackSpace Engine from Pearl Abyss is outstanding.
I ran Crimson Desert on an RTX 4080 Tremendous, with 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and an AMD Ryzen 5700X3D processor. At a local 3440×1440 decision, on the utmost ‘Cinematic’ graphics preset with none upscaling, I used to be in a position to hit round 70 frames per second (fps) and extra in a number of graphically intense eventualities.
The optimization from Pearl Abyss right here is outstanding, and as I speculated beforehand, it is the primary title on PC I’ve seen in years that does not want to make use of any type of upscaling for good efficiency. Keep in mind, on the Cinematic preset, solely 6GB of VRAM was being utilized.
It is also simply one of many best-looking video games of this technology, with superb vistas alongside fabric physics and water simulation that depart me surprised every time I take a breather whereas exploring.
The one points I bumped into have been quality-of-life annoyances and game-breaking bugs. Studying the latter would possibly make you panic, however do not. These have been softlocks that occurred when resetting expertise, which eliminated ones that have been basic to sport development, and one other that locked the sport’s digicam in place after a boss battle, with none approach of progressing.
(Picture credit score: Future / Isaiah Williams)
I’ve by no means been a fan of fixed stock administration, and sadly, it is at its worst right here in Crimson Desert. You end up discarding gadgets to unlock house, and since there isn’t any storage on the Greymane camp, it was a continuing interruption to the circulate of gameplay for me.
Pearl Abyss has already made enhancements by fixing these softlock points, and have been very fast to reply to suggestions concerning quality-of-life. The day one patch ought to repair lots of the points I got here throughout in my evaluation interval, and the builders have promised a housing replace for added storage at a later date after launch.
General, I had an absolute blast taking part in Crimson Desert, and whereas it is not an ideal sport, it is a number of tweaks and updates away from being a mastercraft, and is already a robust sport of the 12 months contender.
Do you have to play Crimson Desert?
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Accessibility options
Crimson Desert would not characteristic any problem choices, in contrast to different action-adventure video games, however fairly depends on participant exploration and discovering the best gear, successfully leaving them to kind their very own problem.
There is not a variety of settings out there by way of accessibility, with no colorblind choices, no controller or key binding configuration choices, and the shortcoming to fully take away the sport’s HUD.
Luckily, the sport consists of particle results, blur depth, and digicam shake sliders, appropriate for these delicate to flashing lights throughout fight, and preferring a much less intense visible expertise, together with the selection to scale back HUD and cutscene subtitle dimension.
There are alternatives to not show all three characters’ equipment, however this feature would not appear to use to headgear, and there is not a transmog system in Crimson Desert.
Blood might be disabled solely, however there is not an excessive amount of on show when the setting is enabled.
Pearl Abyss has additionally included an choice that lets you preview the sport whereas altering graphics settings, which is good for fast changes. DLSS and FSR Body Era will also be enabled or disabled with out the sport requiring a restart.
(Picture credit score: Future / Isaiah Williams)
How I reviewed Crimson Desert
I examined each 3440×1440 (ultrawide) and 3840×2160 (4K) show resolutions, utilizing an RTX 4080 Tremendous, Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR4 RAM, and an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D, and had no efficiency points all through my time taking part in.
The monitor I used was the LG UltraGear 45GS95QE OLED ultrawide, just like the LG UltraGear GX9 45GX950A we have reviewed, because of its immersive 800R curvature, however it would not characteristic the 45GX950A’s 5K show decision. As for the 4K TV, it was the TCL QM8 55-inch mini-LED, making the most of the sport’s unbelievable lighting with excessive brightness.
I additionally examined Crimson Desert on my Lenovo Legion Go S Z1 Excessive handheld utilizing SteamOS, and managed to attain round 30 to 40 frames per second on the medium graphics preset with AMD FSR 3.1 balanced enabled.
My handheld testing was carried out early into receiving my evaluation copy, and would barely run with out utilizing ‘Proton Experimental’ — with out it, an error message would state that the graphics machine is not supported. I think efficiency and visuals can be a lot sharper after launch, and drivers are up to date and appropriate for the sport on SteamOS.
First reviewed March 2026
Crimson Desert: Worth Comparability
