Crimson Desert is a bold fantasy action RPG from Pearl Abyss, released on 19 March 2026 across all major platforms. After spending plenty of time with it, it is clear the studio is aiming high. With its huge world, cinematic presentation, and hard-hitting combat, it makes an immediate impression. The real test, though, is whether all of that ambition adds up to a genuinely memorable adventure, or simply a very good-looking one.
This is our final review of Crimson Desert, written after spending an ungodly number of hours in the vast world of Pywel. You can also check out our early impressions here.
Story & Structure
The story, at least so far, feels a little loose. There is not really a strong central hook driving you forward in the opening hours. Instead, the game gives you a bit of background on your character, Kliff, then largely lets you loose in the world to find your own momentum.
After a brutal ambush by an enemy faction, Kliff’s main drive is to find survivors of the Greymanes, rebuild their faction and take back what was lost. You very quickly become the chosen one and gain access to old powers and uncover mysteries of the Abyss.
Combat & Progression
One of the strangest mechanics I’ve come across so far is the way you learn new abilities by watching other characters perform them. We’ve seen something similar recently in Where Winds Meet, and it has always felt a little awkward to me. Here though, it somehow works, even if it does so in a very odd, almost anime-inspired way.
In one early boss fight, I faced a heavily armoured enemy wielding a greatsword. The first move he used against me was a flying double kick that knocked me flat on my back. Because I was locked on to him while he performed it, Kliff learned the move on the spot. I then started using it against him over and over to throw him off balance. It was ridiculous, but also strangely satisfying.
Progression in general feels packed with things to unlock and improve. I’ve already unlocked new sets of powers for Kliff, and there always seems to be another mechanic, system, or side activity waiting to demand your attention. That depth is exciting, but it also adds to the feeling that Crimson Desert may be a bit too much for some players.
Controls & Interaction
When you first start playing Crimson Desert, it can feel unwieldy, especially on a controller. Even basic actions and attacks often require multiple button holds, and some abilities feel more complicated to trigger than they need to be. Early on, that makes the game feel awkward rather than empowering.
Given enough time, though, things do start to click. This isn’t a fighting game, or rewards button bashing. This realisation hit me around the eight-hour mark. The controls began to feel more natural, combat flowed better, and I found myself settling into the game’s rhythm. It is a system that improves with familiarity, even if it makes jumping back into other open-world games feel a little strange afterwards.
What helped most was thinking about the combat in a similar way to Final Fantasy XV. Once I approached it from that angle, it all started to make much more sense. You can hold the light attack button to perform a combo, or hold the heavy attack button for stronger strikes. As you unlock more skills, you can weave extra inputs into your attacks. A good early example is Evading Slash, which lets you press B during a light attack to strike while jumping backwards at the same time.
Where the controls still struggle is with simple interactions. Opening drawers can be fiddly, and speaking to characters is more awkward than it should be. Rather than just walking up and pressing a button, you often need to hold the left trigger, focus on the right person, and then press X. Even then, it does not always work as expected. Sometimes you only greet them instead of starting a conversation. It is a small issue, but it makes those early hours feel clumsier than they should.
Performance
Performance-wise, I spent a good chunk of my time with Crimson Desert testing it on PC. I played natively at 4K, as well as at an ultrawide resolution of 3440 x 1440 using the cinematic quality preset, and the game looks absolutely gorgeous. For context, I am running a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 32GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, so with hardware like that you would expect most games to look and run at their best.
That said, I also tried Crimson Desert on my Lenovo Legion Go 2. With everything set to low and a few custom tweaks, I was still getting between 30 and 50fps. It is definitely jarring going from a high-end desktop setup to a handheld, but the important thing is that it still feels playable. That should be reassuring for anyone planning to jump in on a lower-spec machine.
Conclusion
Crimson Desert is a vast and beautiful game. While there is an overarching story, it rarely feels like the main draw. This is a game about the journey, not the destination.
It is not easy to neatly sum up everything Crimson Desert tries to do, because it pulls from so many different ideas. The best way I can describe it is as a masterpiece of borrowed mechanics, held together by world-building that only Pearl Abyss could deliver.
Some of those systems take time to understand, and in a few cases I had to rely on community-made guides to properly get to grips with them. Even so, my favourite part of the game is building up camp and helping re-establish the Greymanes’ stronghold. It gives the world a real sense of life. There is not a huge amount of customisation, but recruiting people, sending them out on missions, and then seeing those tasks play out makes the system feel genuinely rewarding.
It has been a real pleasure to play, and just as interesting to read about other players’ experiences along the way. Few seem to have exactly the same journey, which makes exploration feel all the more worthwhile. You can follow guides and interactive maps, or simply head out and discover things for yourself. Either way, the game rewards curiosity.
That said, Crimson Desert does lean a little too heavily on its community to explain some of its less clear mechanics. Even so, it offers a rich, absorbing world that is easy to get lost in, and even easier to keep thinking about once you put the controller down.
Crimson Desert offers a rich, absorbing world that is easy to get lost in, and hard to stop thinking about once you put the controller down.