For almost 2 weeks now, we have been allowed to play Crimson Desert. In our experience report, we reveal to you what the open-world adventure from Pearl Abyss does wonderfully well and what has regularly annoyed us.
“Ecstatic and deeply saddened” – as if old Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had played Crimson Desert a few hundred years ago. Because that’s exactly how I felt about the new game from Pearl Abyss (Black Desert) over and over again.
On one hand, I am thrilled by this immersive world – it sets standards: the graphics are beautiful, the view is breathtaking, and there’s something to discover everywhere. Also, the fights rock. Many of the boss fights are wonderfully varied and challenging. The puzzles are no walk in the park. I often had a lot of fun with Crimson Desert.
On the other hand, I had to struggle for hours with the unintuitive controls before they finally became somewhat second nature. Much in Crimson Desert is frustratingly under-explained. Even as an experienced player, I often think to myself: What does the game want from me? And then the balance is off, making some challenges unnecessarily frustrating.
And then this continent is also so large and packed with content that you can easily spend hundreds of hours in Pywel. Great for open-world fans with plenty of time. Not so great for those who want to see the credits after 50 to 60 hours at the latest.
I’ll elaborate on all of this for you a bit more in the following sections so that you can make a purchase decision suitable for you from the release of Crimson Desert on March 19, 2026. You can jump to the relevant sections via the table of contents:
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Karsten has been looking forward to Crimson Desert since the first trailers. In the past 2 weeks, he has spent almost every spare minute on the continent of Pywel. He has accumulated nearly 65 hours. One first insight: He probably has to invest just as many hours again to beat Crimson Desert.
What is the story about?
One of the biggest question marks after the play sessions and trailers was regarding the quality of the story of Crimson Desert. As is known, the main character Kliff is the focus, whose gray mane clan is crushed at the beginning of the game by the rival Black Bears.
One of your tasks is henceforth to find the survivors scattered in all directions, to build a new home for them, and ultimately to revenge yourself on the Black Bears. Triggered by the attack, Kliff also stumbles into a larger conflict that could destroy the entire continent.
Crimson Desert tells the main story and various larger side quests repeatedly in elaborately staged in-game sequences that you can fast forward but not skip. The English speakers usually do a great job in the fully voiced dialogues.
Especially the rough gray mane members have grown dear to me over time as a collective – even though the clan is not as interestingly depicted as, for example, the gang from Red Dead Redemption 2.
In terms of the main character, RDR2 then even wins by a large margin: While I shed tears during Arthur Morgan’s long ride, Kliff’s stoic reactions sometimes feel almost like a parody. No matter how crazy things happen around him, you often don’t get more than a “Hmmph” out of the Jon Snow lookalike.
Ultimately, though, the stories from Crimson Desert work for me much better than the storytelling in Black Desert did. The narrative strands behind the quests infuse life into the various factions and personalities, enrich their conflicts, and let me dive even deeper into the world of Crimson Desert.
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