00:00Crimson Desert is proof that excess and maximalism can be awe-inspiring and wondrous,
00:07or it can just as easily be overstimulating and leave you feeling detached from what's before you.
00:14Crimson Desert is forever trying to straddle that line, with results sometimes stunning and sometimes
00:21numbing, as it presents an open world fantasy action RPG of humongous scale and depth,
00:26one clearly inspired by multiple RPGs from the past decade. The result is as spectacular as it is
00:34exhausting, and dozens of hours in, I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface.
00:41Perhaps that's why the end result is a game with a litany of problems, but one I keep coming back
00:47to
00:47nonetheless. In a buffet this big, there's bound to be something to everybody's taste.
00:54Crimson Desert is a swords and sorcery fantasy following a Lost Warrior Commander Cliff trying
00:59to get the band back together for one last massacre. What makes it noteworthy is that its setting,
01:05the land of Pywell, is chock-a-block with side activities, diverse mechanics and general content.
01:11It really is endless. Cattle rustling, investment banking, dye manufacture, civil infrastructure,
01:18mining, bounty hunting, mech piloting, sumo wrestling, imports and exports, card hustling, puzzle solving,
01:27interior design, bug catching, business management, siege artillery, detective work, cookbook collecting,
01:34carrying live porcupines to mountaintops, just because you can. That's not even close to a full
01:41accounting of everything you can do in Crimson Desert's massive open world, which is somehow both
01:47fiercely ambitious and timidly conventional. It's stuffed with ideas to the point of excess,
01:54but only those proven and tested by games that came before. The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild,
02:00The Witcher 3, Dragon's Dogma, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, God of War 2018, Red Dead Redemption 2,
02:07and more are all visible in Crimson Desert's ancestry. I can certainly think of worse influences. But of all of
02:15those, The Witcher and Zelda have the biggest presence. Much of the puzzle and traversal systems
02:20feel lifted from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, including puzzling peninsulas of Sky
02:26Islands. While The Witcher 3 lends a gruff tone, roly-poly combat, and a less-is-not-necessarily-more
02:33mindset for side content. These are fine jumping off points as inspirations go, and occasionally Crimson
02:40Desert does step out of its forebearers' shadows in interesting ways. Combat against large groups
02:45is where the game shines most, especially when you start unlocking various grapples and wrestling
02:51techniques. So that's all excellent! No notes there! The problems arise in nuance, specifically a lack of
02:59discipline in much of the design. Breath of the Wild and The Witcher 3, for example, were masterpieces
03:05not just because they were so big, but because they were also highly refined. Nearly every element
03:11was so obviously considered, tested, and removed if it didn't serve the greater whole.
03:18Crimson Desert is not always so elegant, even if it matches its inspirations for budget and particle
03:25effects. Boss fights, which range from brawls against crow mages to skirmishes against enraged cubes,
03:32are wildly inconsistent in challenge, and it never feels like regular combat has been training you
03:38for these outrageous difficulty spikes. Your inventory is far too small and finicky for all
03:44the crafting items, ingredients, and spare ammo you're encouraged to carry, and you don't even get a
03:50stash at your base to drop off loot you don't currently need, leading to a constant, your inventory is
03:56full frustrations. The camera is prone to misbehaving, which can be lethal in combat, and you have to
04:04brute force your way through many of the challenges by just spamming healing items. Hardly thrilling.
04:10Meanwhile, failing a platforming challenge can often mean several minutes of just trying to get back
04:16to the start, which is less stimulating and more, I'm going to kick my TV in half.
04:22So much of what Crimson Desert does should be amazing, and often is, only to be hampered by
04:30frustrations born of sloppy design. Abilities can be unlocked before you even have the stamina or
04:36mana to use them, so that's an upgrade point wasted until 10 hours later. Mechanics are poorly explained,
04:44and often forgotten about for long stretches, like a bag of holding you're given but never told how to open.
04:51Newly playable characters are unlocked but don't integrate meaningfully into the game,
04:56especially when they either show up too late or lack essential powers needed for puzzles or exploration.
05:02Crimson Desert can never be a true masterpiece while it's perpetually hampered by the background static of
05:08minor irritations. But sometimes I can see the vision past that static, and in those moments of
05:16clarity, it feels like a completely different game. Crimson Desert's world is both massive
05:23and visually spectacular, whether it's mountain vistas sparkling with fresh snow, flying islands
05:30thrumming with ancient technology, or the reddened sands and sunburnt wastes for which the game is named.
05:36And it's not just a backdrop, there's real effort made into making the world of Piwell feel active
05:43and dynamic. I've seen stags butting horns and hawks plucking live salmon from rushing streams,
05:50all in engine and out of cutscene. This world feels alive. Well, at least until you start meeting the humans
05:57and named characters. So what's the narrative holding all this together? Our hero is Cliff,
06:06leader of the Greymanes, a platoon of soldiers attacked by a group of burly villains in the game's
06:11intro, for reasons that are impenetrable if you're not reading the in-game glossary every couple of
06:18minutes. Cliff gets the requisite near-death experience where he is mortally wounded and saved
06:24by a friendly local, and must reassemble his team of hired goons and retake his homeland,
06:30with occasional divergences where he is kidnapped by poorly explained wizard gods and bestowed arcane
06:36superpowers. While Crimson Desert's gameplay is solid if sloppy, its plot isn't even that.
06:44Understanding what's happening requires quite a lot of work, and never feels worth the effort to do so.
06:51Problems arise, are resolved, and never brought up again. Characters are one-dimensional,
06:58and never rise above their flattened archetypes. Worldbuilding inconsistencies and flat dialogue
07:03give towns the tone of a theme park rather than anything believable. The tone is meant to be gritty
07:10and grounded, but the writing itself is juvenile and shallow, leading to disjointed shifts in mood.
07:17One major boss goes unseen, unnamed, and unexplained until the very encounter where you kill him.
07:26It might be better if our hero were more inspiring. Cliff is a frustratingly incurious protagonist,
07:35an appropriately stone-faced sword for brains who has almost no interest in what's around him beyond its
07:41most pragmatic and immediate function. When summoned to a higher plane to consult with a godly being in
07:48a cosmic library filled with all the secrets of the universe, all Cliff thinks to ask is what old
07:54beard he wants, as though he fully understands he is just talking to a quest giver and wants to skip
08:01forward.
08:03My initial feelings with Crimson Desert were not great. The story was losing me,
08:09the mechanics felt sloppy, and a spate of bullying boss fights had made it all very tiresome. But over
08:16time, my feelings began to change. Now, over 80 hours in, I'm genuinely looking forward to each fresh play
08:24session. I know, I know. It gets good if you invest a working fortnight, is weak praise. But it's still
08:33true. It does get better. Part of that comes from understanding the game well enough to navigate its
08:39flaws. Certain powers aren't worth the upgrades. There are swathes of tedious side activities,
08:46a story you can comfortably fast forward through, and some poorly balanced bosses that I endured
08:52rather than savoured. But beyond that, there is real charm. After a while, you realise you can just
09:00leave it all behind. Go riding into the horizon and see what meets you there. Out on the road,
09:07I encountered a living diving suit, a walking tree, a castle full of baby dragons, and a network of
09:14celestial teleporters. All more intriguing than anything in the main campaign. I'm constantly
09:20a bit poor, but never so cash strapped that it feels frustrating, which I like. The puzzles can
09:27be truly mentally stimulating, so I can feel smug about solving them. And god damn is the world pretty.
09:36The simple act of travelling makes me want to break into photo mode every 10 minutes.
09:41So, yes, I recommend Crimson Desert. Assuming you want a game the size of 5 other games combined,
09:49and are willing to overlook the occasional mechanical misstep and dull story. At its peak,
09:55Crimson Desert is legitimately enthralling, and that's what stuck with me more than anything else.
10:02We give Crimson Desert 4 stars out of 5. But the question is, will you be playing Crimson Desert?
10:10Does this open world behemoth sound like a bit of you, or are you not feeling it?
10:15Let us know, and stick with GamesRadar for the biggest reviews of 2026.
10:20We'll be right back to the next episode.
10:20To be continued...
10:23To be continued...
Comments