Crimson Desert comes from the creators of Black Desert and was originally supposed to be an MMORPG. Now many players are asking: Is that noticeable? How much MMO genre is in it? MeinMMO reveals it to you.
Why is the MMO question even raised? Crimson Desert not only comes from the experienced MMORPG developers at Pear Abyss (Black Desert), it was originally even announced as an MMORPG.
Later, there was only talk of a probably optional multiplayer. Meanwhile, Crimson Desert is a purely single-player adventure, without any form of multiplayer or co-op mode.
Such a genre change usually leaves its marks. Just think of New World, which changed from a survival sandbox PvP MMO to a theme park and struggled for years as a result. A current question from many players before the release on March 19, 2026, is therefore: Does Crimson Desert still show its MMO roots?
Singleplayer game with MMO scope
To make this very clear: Crimson Desert has no content or options at release that allow multiplayer or co-op. The most sociability comes into play when you’ve unlocked the a total of 3 playable characters and explore the world together with them – you control one fighter while the other two follow you.
If anything reminds you of the MMO roots of the game, it is mainly the size of the game world as well as the sheer number of features, systems, and content. Marketing chief Will Powers explained in an interview that this scope is only possible because the developers at Pearl Abyss think in MMO sizes and originally conceptualized Crimson Desert as an MMO.
A hint of the actual size of the game is given by the statistics from the knowledge area of the game. 75 bosses to be spread over 573 territories? 28 different mounts and 150 collectible resources? These are normally numbers found in the MMO genre.
GameStar colleague Michael Obermeier was allowed to play Crimson Desert for several hours at the preview event and reveals his first impression:
What about stories and quests?
When looking at the playable content from the recent preview event, one cannot yet make a final judgment on the story of Crimson Desert or the quality of most quests. However, the first impression looks like this:
- The main storyline around Kliff and his clan is elaborately staged, and the dialogues have been recorded by experienced voice actors. Most lines of dialogue in the game are indeed voiced (unfortunately not in German, but there are German subtitles).
- Although Kliff’s adventure starts dramatically, the story events of the first hours have not yet thrilled most preview players – the stoic Kliff remains rather bland as the main character.
- The quest tasks are varied, but within the quest lines they do not always logically build on each other: suddenly after completing task A, you are supposed to continue with the new goal B, although there was no hint of that through dialogues or documents.
- With the bounty quests, there is at least one content that could quickly feel quite repetitive: track down the corresponding NPC, overpower them, beat potential evidence out of the criminal, and then take them to jail.
However, there is currently no indication that the majority of quests consist of pure kill or collect tasks, like those known from many MMORPGs.
How much Black Desert is still in Crimson Desert?
Those who have played the MMORPG from Pearl Abyss, are likely to get Black Desert vibes from every trailer of Crimson Desert. The clearly Western-influenced, fantasy-enhanced medieval game world, the graphic style of the BlackSpace engine, the powerful, action-packed battles – the big similarities immediately jump out.
But you can also clearly see many areas in Crimson Desert that are clearly influenced by Black Desert. For example, both games have
- a parkour system that allows the characters to overcome or climb almost all objects in the game world (even large enemies)
- wild horses that can be tamed
- pets that collect loot
- a selection of life skills like fishing, cooking, crafting
- NPCs to whom you can assign tasks
- housing
In various other areas, Crimson Desert also clearly distances itself from the MMO. In Pearl Abyss’s new single-player adventure, for example, you will not find a powerful character creation tool, no lengthy XP monster grind, no aggressive service monetization, and no PvP content.
All in all, this is such an exciting mix for a purely single-player experience (even if we miss character creation, at least you can dye armors!), that the anticipation for the release is high at MeinMMO editorial: Due to an MMORPG, Crimson Desert is the game I am looking forward to the most in 2026
