Review of Crimson Desert: one of the most impressive open-world games you will play in your life

Pearl Abyss is betting on an ambitious and visually impressive RPG that gains strength the more time you spend exploring its world.

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There are games that hook you from the very start, and others that need a bit more time to unfold everything they have to offer. Crimson Desert clearly belongs to the latter group. After over 60 hours of playtime, the impression it leaves is quite striking, at least in my experience: we’re dealing with an enormous, ambitious adventure with a very distinct personality that you can either love or hate, but it won’t leave you indifferent, especially from the early stages of the game.

I played Crimson Desert on PC via Steam, using a setup consisting of an RTX 4080, an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, and 32 GB of RAM, and the first thing I can say is that the game is a true visual spectacle when run on powerful hardware. But beyond the technical aspects, what matters is how it feels to play for many hours, how its combat system evolves, and how its open world responds as you explore it.

Important:

• Before diving into the different sections, it’s worth clarifying: this analysis is based exclusively on the PC version, as that’s where we’ve been able to play it. We haven’t had the chance to try the Xbox Series version yet, something we hope to do later to share how the game performs on console.

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Technical Aspect

If there’s one thing that grabs your attention from the start in Crimson Desert, it’s its visual aspect. Pearl Abyss has built a world that seems designed to be observed with calmness. The scenarios are full of details and convey a constant sense of scale and life. Full of details that make you feel like you’re in a living, constantly changing world, where every inch of the map feels unique, with a care and work behind it that’s worthy of admiration. Honestly, there are few open-world games that can compete head-to-head with the work created by Pearl Abyss.

In my case, I ended up playing with 1440p resolution, all graphics settings at maximum, and ray tracing enabled, and the result is simply impressive. The dynamic lighting, reflections, and atmospheric effects help create a very powerful ambiance; it’s all a combination of visual and artistic work that’s brutal. Additionally, all the graphics configurations are quite scalable, so you can play with almost all the game’s graphics settings, meaning that even if you have a lower-spec machine, you can still get a good experience.

There are moments when you simply stop to observe the landscape. Distant mountains, dense forests, bustling towns, or castles rising on the horizon. Everything conveys the feeling of being in a living world, something that’s not always achieved in open-world games.

One of the most positive aspects is the huge number of graphics options available on PC. The game allows you to adjust almost all visual parameters, from shadow quality to draw distance or lighting effects. This makes it easy to adapt the experience to each player’s hardware.

With the setup I used, the performance was quite stable throughout most of the game. In a game with such a large world, it’s normal to find moments with higher visual load, but overall, the behavior was fluid, and I could play smoothly, almost always above 60 FPS, a luxury for the game’s scale.

Another point to highlight is the Spanish localization, something very important in an RPG with so much text, dialogue, and missions. The game arrives completely translated, allowing you to follow the story and conversations with comfort. The voices are in English and fulfill their role correctly.

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Gameplay

The gameplay of Crimson Desert is probably one of the aspects that can generate the most debate among players. It’s not your typical RPG. From the early hours, it’s clear that it tries to offer something different, especially in its combat system.

At first, it can feel a bit strange. The movements, abilities, and the way attacks are chained require a small adaptation period. During the first hours, it’s easy to feel like you’re not really dominating the system. But something interesting happens: the more you play, the better it works.

After about ten hours, you start to understand how to take advantage of combat, how to combine attacks, and how to manage abilities. At that point, the system starts to show its full potential. The fights have rhythm, impact, and a fairly marked physical feel. There are encounters against more powerful individual enemies, group battles, and situations where the environment also plays an important role.

This learning process makes combat increasingly satisfying.

Now, it’s not without some minor drawbacks. The controls can be a bit confusing at first. The button mapping isn’t the most intuitive during the early hours, and some functions, like the item wheel or certain game menus, can feel a bit overwhelming at the start. However, with time, everything starts to feel more natural. It’s not so much a design problem as an adaptation issue after a few hours of play.

The Story of Crimson Desert (No Spoilers)

The story of Crimson Desert revolves around Kliff, a warrior who’s forced to embark on a journey after a devastating battle that leaves his group scattered. After that confrontation, many of his companions have disappeared or been separated. Kliff decides to undertake a journey to reunite them and recover everything they’ve lost.

Along the way, he’ll encounter new allies, relentless enemies, and unknown forces whose true nature is still a mystery. What begins as a mission to rebuild his group ends up becoming something much bigger.

As the story progresses, Kliff discovers that the world he lives in is more complex than it seemed, and there are threats that no one expected. Gradually, the plot introduces new conflicts that expand the scope of the adventure.

Without entering into spoilers, the story starts in a relatively classic way, but it grows with each passing hour and ends up showing a much larger dimension than it initially seemed.

One of the most interesting aspects of Crimson Desert is the sense of freedom it offers the player. The game doesn’t force you to constantly follow a specific line. You can advance in the main story or dedicate yourself to exploring the world, completing side missions, or simply discovering new places.

The world is full of activity, and there always seems to be something to do. This constant sense of adventure is one of the game’s greatest attractions. Not all side missions have the same level of interest. Some are simpler or more routine, but many are well-designed and provide context to the world and its characters.

There are also some puzzles and more paused sections that can slightly break the game’s rhythm. They’re not too many, nor are they frustrating, but they do feel somewhat disconnected from the action at certain moments. However, they also help introduce new mechanics and add variety to the experience.

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Duration

Completing the main story of Crimson Desert took me approximately 64 hours of playtime (I had to start it twice, due to a patch during the review period that erased game progress), so mostly advancing in the campaign and completing some side missions along the way, but without stopping to explore absolutely everything the world has to offer.

• Even so, it gives the impression that the game can be extended much further if you decide to dedicate time to all the optional activities. The map is full of side missions, events, and small tasks that expand the adventure and allow for further character development.

Not all secondary tasks have the same impact, that’s also true, but many provide context to the world and help make the sense of journey more complete. Plus, the game’s design itself invites you to deviate from the main path constantly to discover new places or face unexpected challenges.

In that sense, Crimson Desert is an adventure that’s more enjoyable when played without haste. The main story already offers considerable duration, but the game’s true potential appears when you decide to explore its world calmly and take advantage of everything it has prepared for the player.

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Conclusion

The first hours can feel a bit strange, especially due to its combat system and some controls that require adaptation. But when you start to master its mechanics, the game shows everything it has to offer. The world is impressive, the combat improves with each hour of play, and the sense of freedom is one of its strongest points.

Not everything is perfect. Some menus can be overwhelming at first, certain puzzles slightly break the rhythm, and not all side missions have the same impact. But even with those nuances, the overall experience is very positive.

On PC, with the right hardware, Crimson Desert is one of the most visually spectacular RPGs and open-world games you can play right now. Now, it remains to be seen how it will perform on Xbox Series. When we have the chance to try that version, we’ll share more details.

Crimson Desert is an RPG that rewards the patient player. The more time you spend in its world, the more you understand its systems, and the more you enjoy what it proposes. And when that happens, it’s very easy to get caught up in the adventure and become immersed in the work that Pearl Abyss has created over the years for us.

We thank Best Vision PR for the material provided to make this analysis possible.