Crimson Desert – PS5 Review

Crimson Desert seems like something too good to be true. At least in the marketing, Pearl Abyss’ attempt at an open-world sandbox was throwing out all the stops. I wasn’t too sure how a studio known for massively multiplayer adventures would transition into the realm of something single player. Turns out, they’ve given this game a very familiar blueprint.

A lot has been said about Crimson Desert‘s launch. It is a divisive game with a lot of ambition. There’s been a lot of questionable decisions in the realisation of that vision. I’ll keep it positive, the world is vast and, for the most part, worth exploring. It can be overwhelming and I genuinely feel swamped by it. It invites you to investigate landmarks, run off and see what trouble you can get into.

It’s also very lively. People potter about their daily business, towns feel cramped and populated and the whole world feels dynamic. I found myself being ambushed at a hut, only to emerge and see someone herding a large flock of sheep outside. I’ve seen people performing maintenance on bridges, people cleaning chimneys and it all feels lived in. I adore that attention to detail and it matches the scale nicely.

I’ve been playing on a base Playstation 5 and the balanced preset has largely kept things at a steady framerate. There is an unfortunate exception during a Chapter 5 boss that tanks the framerate. I find that genuinely unplayable. Pearl Abyss have been quick to rectify issues and I do hope they keep that up. Compared to the PC, it’s a step behind but I still think it’s a sharp and crisp look with lots of detail.

As a single-player experience, Crimson Desert has drawn some obvious comparisons. The design of the quests feel very basic and throwaway. There is a lot of systems to teach but, when the game decides to teach them is out of order. You have access to a large settlement early on and, despite almost every vendor being available, I was taken through a mission to dye some clothes 30 hours in. There’s an absurd amount of systems on offer but I’m not sure it was best to show all of it in such a rigid format.

The main story focuses on Kliff and the Greymanes, a ragtag outfit quickly dispersed by the Black Bears. You’re tasked with getting the members back together, although the game sidelines that for literal hours whilst you get thrust into world-ending affairs. It doesn’t flow, lacks cohesion and, whilst it does try to evoke the likes of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the writing is sub-par. So far, the tale’s been forgettable and the characters are not growing on me.

As a sandbox with things to do, Crimson Desert soaks you in mechanics. You can mine, gamble, steal, run camp management, and so on. There’s a wealth of side missions to curry favour with the surrounding towns. Generally, quests are short and, at best, they’re simple diversions to get you the gear, inventory space and money that you need. Whilst it is optional, the main story has some obvious roadblocks that make these tasks more essential. It’s not a game you can rush. It’s too big to let you.

It’s a slow burn but the world is there from the first minute. Fast-travel does make it seem a touch smaller and connected but, until you start opening faster traversal methods, things take a pedestrian pace. There are times where I don’t mind that. I can find it quite relaxing just to take time out exploring or getting resources together to upgrade weaponry. It did feel like I was no progress in the first twenty hours. This game is a big commitment, more so than some of it’s contemporaries.

Combat has some neat ideas. You gain new moves by observing them or picking them from the skill tree. You can also bolster the usual health and stamina meters but the combat excels when you start expanding your moveset. I will never get tired of wrestling enemies to death. It’s got a solid weight to it, although encounter design does settle on throwing mobs at you. I got tired of it quickly. The bosses offer more of a challenge. Not all of them are great and some early ones will test your patience. The camera defaults to a loose lock-on which favours battlefield awareness over precision. Fine against a group but, one-on-one fights require a more rigid perspective. The game does provide one but it’s not your default option. Neither camera handles airborne or jumpy enemy especially well. I lose track of them often and that can make fights a crap shoot.

You do obtain pills that give you revives. Those did help me brute force a couple of bosses and you can craft more. I still treat it as a limited resource, as a last resort when a fight is down to the wire. It’s a nice luxury to have. In terms of boss design, there’s variety to them. You fight mostly humanoid enemies but there are scraps against a smoke cloud and a magic orb that do try to introduce traversal into the encounter.

Another issue is the controls. It does not handle like a typical third-person adventure. There’s a lot of overlap between buttons and that can be something as simple as jumping an odd accomplishment. In theory, holding L1 allows you to interact with people and loot objects. In practice, it requires some precise aiming. In instances where there’s lots to loot, you are picking that stuff up one-by-one. Jumping has a couple of varieties. You have a basic jump achieved by pressing square. It’s not got the greatest of range and precision jumping feels like a response to that. Some of these struggles can be down to muscle memory but there’s no denying there’s an easier way to set these out.

Inventory management is pretty simple. You can expand your slots by dealing with shopkeeper requests. That extra space is very welcome but trying to sift through a full inventory for food or quest notes can be faff. At the very least, you can sort by item type so that can keep your healing together. The action does pause so you can spend as long you like looking for that hearty fish soup that’s going to get you back to fitness.

It’s these things that really dampen my enthusiasm for Crimson Desert. It puts a strong foot forward with the vast world to explore. That feeling never subsides but the controls have never stopped being a handful for me. Accidentally triggering the blinding flash or grappling hook during boss fights is just something I keep doing. Quests mostly boil down to bouncing between markers on the map and it really does open slowly. It is a fascinating product but it has exhausted me.