Initially conceived as a prequel to Pearl Abyss’ blockbuster Black Desert Online franchise, Crimson Desert was spun off into its own game early in development. Since its 2020 reveal, the game has attracted a great deal of excitement and going into 2026, is one of the most-anticipated releases of the year.
Out of the gate, Crimson Desert boasts a score of 78 on Metacritic, reflecting broadly positive sentiment towards the game but also highlighting some frustrations critics have had while playing the title.
Overall, reviewers seem to enjoy the game’s combat and world, while lamenting the sheer systemic complexity and a lack of polish in the characters and story.
Story woes
Writing for Eurogamer, Lewis Gordon gave the eagerly-awaited title 3/5 stars, saying that while the game is clearly “technically proficient” and has “killer combat”, “its characters and story are fatally undercooked”.
Criticisms of the game’s story are echoed in PC Gamer’s review, where Mollie Taylor writes that this narrative is “not exactly riveting”, something that she believes is in part due to Pearl Abyss’ heritage as an MMO developer.
“It’s the genre’s exact brand of serviceably bland and nonsensical,” Taylor wrote. “There’s no clear timeline of events, and I’m never sure of any character’s motivations, even my own.”
“I know Crimson Desert’s main story can do better, because all the charm it’s missing can be found in its side quests”
Mollie Taylor, PC Gamer
She continued: “What’s more frustrating is that I know Crimson Desert’s main story can do better, because all the charm it’s missing can be found in its side quests.”
VG247’s guides editor James Billcliffe sums up the conflict between Crimson Desert’s good and bad rather succinctly in his 3/5 star review.
“So I’ve said the story doesn’t make any sense and it’s a chore to play, but also that Crimson Desert could be one of the best games of the generation? What’s up with that?”
He continued, saying that the scale of Crimson Desert’s world is “unbelievable, genuinely amazing”, going on to describe witnessing a sunset in the RPG as “one of the most visually breathtaking scenes in recent memory”.
IGN’s Travis Northup said in his review-in-progress that the open world is “absolutely gorgeous”, adding that “it feels like anything is possible”.
The open world is an aspect that most critics seem to be enamoured with. GameSpot’s Richard Wakeling wrote in his 7/10 review of Crimson Desert that he “can’t overstate how incredible” this aspect of the game is.
“There were a few times where I picked a direction and simply explored for hours on end, just for the sake of it,” he said.
“It takes a special kind of open world for me to do this, and Crimson Desert’s is exactly that.”
Fighting chance
Another area of Crimson Desert that has attracted near-unanimous praise is its combat, which PC Gamer’s Taylor said “absolutely rips”.
“It felt like every time I pressed buttons in a slightly different order, Crimson Desert had bespoke animations or action chains for it,” she wrote.
Billcliffe adds that combat is “unassumingly deep” and that he ended up craving “larger battles” where you can fight hordes of enemies.
GameSpot’s Wakeling, meanwhile, described the combat as “excellent”.
“[Protagonist] Kliff hits with a visceral ferocity that’s immediately satisfying,” he wrote. “As you get to grips with his versatile style of combat, the more fluid he becomes as you start chaining together combos, thrusting his sword forward before leaping into a dropkick that ends with your downed opponent skewered on the tip of your blade. Enemies have a tendency to swarm in large numbers, and they don’t wait their turn, forcing you to parry and dodge incoming blows as you reposition for another barrage of attacks.”
Michael Hoglund over at Windows Central said in his 4.5/5 review that the options available to you when it comes to combat are huge, but they “never felt overwhelmed or underwhelmed”
“Combat is just pure, unadulterated fun that never really grows tiresome,” he wrote. “Whether it’s against the easier NPCs that you’ve out-levelled, or the terrifyingly strong armies of Demenis, your rather violent neighbour, Crimson Desert’s combat is so fluid, the end result is always satisfying.”
Praise for this aspect is not unanimous: IGN’s Northup described the combat as “uneven” and laments that encounters “go on way too long”.
Systematic chaos
GameSpot’s Wakeling says that at a macro level, Crimson Desert is an incredibly impressive experience, but adds that “it’s on a smaller scale where cracks begin to show”, such as frustrations around inventory management and healing. He says that being pulled away from combat and exploration to manage your inventory is “disappointing” in its frequency.
VG247’s review shared similar frustrations, describing them as “baffling UI decisions”.
“Unlike every other game, enemies don’t have a viewable inventory so you need space for everything they’re carrying before you can loot them, but you also can’t see what you’re picking up before it’s added to your bag,” Billcliffe said. “Meaning you have to grab every piece of junk before immediately throwing it away.”
Windows Central’s Hoglund also points out that while the game has a wealth of options when it comes to things to do, such as mini games, “that cataclysmic number of activities can sometimes backfire”, saying that they often lack depth or polish.
Watch on YouTube
“That ‘every so often’ of coming across needless or pointless activities didn’t really bolster my love of Crimson Desert’s open world,” he said. “Instead, it was a negative on the experience, making the sum of the total parts feel disconnected from the game.”
The sheer number of things to do also makes progress slow when playing the game. Eurogamer’s Gordon described the game as “baggy” and having an “audacious pitch”.
“The developers at Pearl Abyss have attempted to summon a world of inexhaustible things to do,” he said. “This is the promise of a life-dominating MMORPG transposed to a glittering single-player experience which can last anywhere between 50 to 100 hours (and likely even more depending on playstyle and ability). Even past hour 15, I was still being fed tutorial screens.”
“Despite these sore spots, Crimson Desert is a frequently thrilling game, elevated by an open world well worth exploring and hard-hitting combat”
Richard Wakeling, Gamespot
For PC Gamer’s Taylor, this vast number of systems and mini games is a mixed bag.
“It’s an infinite trail of gumdrops, one where every new step contains a new sugary treat for me to pop into my mouth,” she said. “Not all these systems are made equal.”
Despite his frustrations with Crimson Desert, Wakeling is optimistic that Pearl Abyss can address them going forward.
“The good news is that issues like these can be rectified with a few tweaks,” he said.
“Whether that happens or not remains to be seen, and the quality of quests and blunted narrative are much harder shortcomings to fix. Yet despite these sore spots, Crimson Desert is a frequently thrilling game, elevated by an open world well worth exploring and hard-hitting combat that delights with its depth and emphasis on player expression.”
