The goalposts on how to make a truly great game are always shifting. Some say that graphics make the game (and sorry if you still think that way in 2026). Others focus on gameplay experience. Some might say the music is what makes the game great; others may think the story is what gets them playing. But what does Crimson Desert do that makes it different, and what does that mean in an era where everything is coalescing around AI and the studios’ insistence on profit over quality, often at the cost of the other aspects of gameplay?
You play as the Greymanes Kliff, Oongka, Yann, and Naira on the continent of Pywel. Their rivals, the Black Bears, attack the Greymanes, and it’s up to Kliff to reunite his comrades, rebuild their civilization, and confront the Black Bears once and for all. This action-adventure game has you traveling, solving puzzles, and fighting enemies in a hostile yet interesting open-world environment.
My first impression of Crimson Desert is that it tries to do a lot (and I mean that literally and figuratively). You can do the main quest, side quests, fight on horseback, explore, solve puzzles, cook, fish, hunt, and of course, fight. Cramming all of this into a game often requires you to pull everything off with precision—a delicate balance that only a few games have achieved successfully over the years. It tries its best to offer something to everyone, but falls short in doing so. One glaring omission is the lack of storage at launch (since added in a post-launch patch), which is a testament to modern gaming’s focus on profit over a finished (yet alone polished) product.
Some things I liked about the game were the graphics. Pearl Abyss wanted to make an AAA game, even if it suffered a bit due to my penchant for using the entire computer (turning everything up to ultra/max settings). Building your base and sending out allies to gather resources makes the game a bit less grindy, but the combat is often drawn-out and frustrating, which can turn off more impatient players. The story is also nothing to write home about, as well as the character development, and that can get rather mind-numbing as you spend hundreds of hours doing everything Pywel has to offer.
As expected with all games, Crimson Desert gets harder as you progress in it, but the difficulty ramp is practically vertical. Enemies come at you in ridiculously large packs that will test the skills of even the most skilled gamer. While I love challenges, these types of challenges, when I’ve already slogged through some serious flaws throughout the rest of the game, make this more frustrating than something to embrace. That doesn’t mean I think it’s a bad game, but rather that I would have preferred it delayed rather than released with serious flaws and other shortcomings one would expect in an action-adventure game.
The silver lining is that, despite all its flaws, Crimson Desert can be patched, but as the saying goes, first impressions count, and that, of course, graphics don’t make the game. But that is an argument for another time and place. It’s worth a play if you’re patient enough to wait for all the hotfixes or don’t care for a good story with your game, but otherwise, this is an ambitious project that sought to do everything other games already did better.
Developer: Pearl Abyss
Publisher: Pearl Abyss
Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Words by Jose Alvarez
Also published in GADGETS MAGAZINE Volume 26 Issue No. 9