(Credit: Peart Abyss/PCMag)
I can't get enough of Crimson Desert ($69.99 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S), an innovative action-RPG that fuses Dragon's Dogma's visceral combat with Breath of the Wild's massive scale and sense of adventure. Although it draws heavily from modern open-world releases, Crimson Desert also introduces fresh mechanics that enrich the overall experience, making it a standout title rather than a mere imitation of other popular games. Most impressively, developer Pearl Abyss has continued to support the Crimson Desert post-launch, with several patches that smooth out the title's rougher edges. It's a superb adventure to lose yourself in—just as I'm doing.
The Early Game: Mastering the Fundamentals
In Crimson Desert, you play as Kliff, the leader of a mercenary squad called the Greymanes. As the band regroups to pay their respects to recently lost members, it's attacked with no time to mourn, thrusting the protagonist into action. After a series of fights, the Greymanes are scattered, and Kliff is killed. It's only thanks to divine intervention that he's plucked from death to serve a greater purpose.
To say Crimson Desert is ambitious is a massive understatement. However, that ambition comes with a steep learning curve. It's a systems-heavy title that uses every gamepad button (and even button combinations) to unleash Kliff's abilities. On the one hand, this leads to unique ways to interact with the world that haven't been seen in some time: for example, you use the game's Ocarina of Time-style targeting system to focus on NPCs to engage in conversation.
On the other hand, there's a steep learning curve even for the most mundane tasks, owing to the numerous controls, context-sensitive actions, and the weightiness of Crimson Desert's engine. This has been improved considerably in subsequent patches: For example, you can now put the lantern away without menu-surfing, which was a big sticking point for me at launch. Likewise, revisiting memories is dramatically improved. Early on, Kliff finds a helmet relic that lets you witness NPCs' residual memories, akin to crime-scene reconstruction in the Batman: Arkham games. Initially, this required a lot of tedious menu swapping to initiate at launch, but it's now performed automatically when you investigate a scene with your lantern. These are much-appreciated updates.
Some of Crimson Desert's other quirkier controls have also been improved. You can now sprint by holding down the button or repeatedly tapping it (it was tap-only at launch, which was an odd way to implement running). Gliding has been radically enhanced, too, letting you stay airborne for much longer and cover more ground. That said, I still have many gripes about the controls. It took me several hours to build muscle memory and become comfortable with them, since I essentially needed to relearn mechanics that are genre-specific staples. It’s like spending your life driving an automatic car, only to be handed a new one with a manual transmission. But the controls are worth learning, as Crimson Desert is incredibly fun.
(Credit: Pearl Abyss/PCMag)A GTA-Like World With Consequences
The game world is a dynamic, lived-in backdrop that feels heavily inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2's realism, but filtered through a fantasy lens. Like that Rockstar Games classic, Crimson Desert features impeccable attention to detail, including dynamic NPCs who go about their daily schedules and react to many of your actions. Even mundane actions like petting animals, sitting on benches, or simply leaning against a wall help bring the world to life.
One element that surprised me is the Grand Theft Auto-style wanted system. You can bully and assault NPCs, but you'll be flagged as a criminal who must flee the crime scene before being caught by guards. I learned this the hard way when I tested my suplexing ability on a hapless peasant wife strolling down the road. Until then, I assumed NPC reactions to me drawing my weapon were just visual fluff. I was wrong and deemed a criminal for my actions. The game warns that failing to escape or further escalating matters puts your freedom at risk. I still haven't been arrested, but it's on my bucket list. Stealing and pickpocketing are other aspects I haven't experimented with nearly as much. There's an entire criminal element to the gameplay that I fully intend to explore in due time.
I experienced somewhat generic quests and story beats, but the excellent voice acting breathed life into what would otherwise be banal busywork. Sure, rescuing a cow from bandits may not seem all that interesting, but the way the farmer described his plight made the task all the more intriguing. This adds to Crimson Desert's realism and atmosphere, further cementing that lived-in feeling.
Familiar Movement, Weapon Creativity, and Puzzles
Like Tears of the Kingdom, Crimson Desert lets you climb almost any surface or use a glider to extend jumps and dives. This also applies to larger enemies, so I scaled those big boys to do battle as I did in Dragon's Dogma or Shadow of the Colossus.
(Credit: Pearl Abyss/PCMag)The game engine's physics and properties also foster creativity, recalling the modern Zelda titles. For example, I lit my arrow on fire by holding my bow over a sconce. Then, I shot it to burn vines that choked a doorway. I liked that my curiosity was rewarded.
Many puzzles involve using the magical grapple ability, Axiom Force, which I tapped to snag and levitate objects. In my playthrough, I leveraged Axiom Force to move blocks and shift massive, ancient gears on an island in the sky.
Because there's very little hand-holding, properly applying those mechanics was entirely on me, giving Crimson Desert an old-school "figure it out" vibe that I haven't enjoyed in quite a while. On top of that, there are many oddities that only add to the experience. For example, I climbed a small rock formation to mine for ore, only to be attacked by crab-monsters mimicking said ore. In my mad dash to escape, I climbed to the top of the rock formation, where I noticed pretty flowers—and promptly dropped dead as I approached. Curious, I returned from the nearest checkpoint to investigate further, and dropped dead again. Was that a bug? Were the flowers cursed? I don't know! That said, it made for an awesome little story among my many other misadventures in the world of Pywel.
Combat: Wrestling Mooks and Wrangling Bosses
Crimson Desert's action is by far the biggest departure from any recently released open-world RPG. Although there are basic light and heavy attacks to employ, the real fun comes from unlocking new abilities in the beefy skills tree. For example, you can upgrade Axiom Force to pull enemies toward you for easier crowd control, as Nero does to foes in Devil May Cry. Similarly, I opted to learn wrestling moves, including the lariat and suplex, to utterly style on hapless bandits. Some of these fancier moves don't work against larger enemies and bosses, but I grappled and scaled those foes to dispatch them effectively.
I appreciate that Pearl Abyss has added new difficulty settings. Easy Mode makes enemies weaker and more passive. Hard Mode makes them more resilient to damage and more likely to evade and counter your own attacks. You can swap between difficulties whenever you want, so you're never stuck if you find the challenge lacking or overwhelming. Bosses have been tweaked, as well; thankfully, they're no longer invulnerable when they perform signature attacks (at launch, they could not be attacked while unleashing these, forcing you to play keep-away).
Thanks to all of these abilities and tweaks, Crimson Desert’s action is open and free-form: it rewards the effort you put into it. You can play methodically, like a Souls game, and use your core attack and block skills to chew through enemies. That said, you can invest in several other skills to broaden the action. Every new ability felt like a new toy for me to experiment with, and the more I played, the more I enjoyed using them in battle. It's everything I enjoy about Dragon's Dogma, without the restrictive class system that stymies the action.
(Credit: Pearl Abyss/PCMag)PC Performance: A Gorgeous Romp Through a Fantasy Wonderland
I played Crimson Desert on my test PC, a rig outfitted with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 GPU, and 16GB of RAM at medium settings and 1440p resolution. This let me play at roughly 60fps. The frame rate dipped to 40fps in hectic, action-heavy areas; even 30fps, at times. I didn't want to lower the resolution to 1080p, so I was willing to make that performance compromise.
Crimson Desert is beautifully dense. Reactive foliage, moody and dynamic lighting, and visual flourishes across the board make it a showstopper of a game. I also loved how the sun and moonlight reflected on surfaces, illuminating objects differently depending on your location. A forest at night is inky black, while a moonlight stroll across a mountain is filled with gentle, cool blue rays that reflect off the glittering snow. This is true for towns and villages, too. The lighting and visual design make even a humble stone on a wall pop with detail. That's to say nothing of the wonderfully weathered cobbled streets or the plastered walls in the old post-and-beam buildings that fill the world.
Crimson Desert Is the Ultimate Genre Mashup
Crimson Desert feels like the next landmark action-RPG, alongside Breath of the Wild, Elden Ring, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It's an impressive buffet of gameplay ideas that manages to charm, impress, and inspire. Although the early game moments present a steep learning curve due to the unusual controls, the experience becomes vastly more intuitive once muscle memory takes over. Likewise, the combat freedom is almost overwhelming, but finding new ways to clobber enemies is an absolute blast. The atmospheric detail and hyper-realistic interactions add to the game's appeal. Crimson Desert has delivered more than I ever expected, and I can't wait to sink even more hours into it.