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Pearl Abyss' long-awaited open world action RPG Crimson Desert is set to release tomorrow, and the critical consensus is finally in. At the time of writing, the game sits at 78 on Metacritic based on 82 critic reviews, a score that will raise eyebrows given the pre-release expectations. Many players were expecting something closer to 85 or above, according to Metacritic's poll earlier this week.
The score is pretty spread, from high 10/10s to plenty of 6/10s and that tells us that this one is a bit like Marmite - You either like it or don't.
On one end, Digitec and Gameliner both awarded perfect 10s, Forbes gave it 9.5, and ComicBook called it a triumph that "stands atop the peaks of open-world games alongside legends like Elden Ring." On the other, VG247, Eurogamer, and PCGamesN all landed at 6, with Gamekult dropping as low as 5.
The praise across the board is consistent: the world of Pywel is visually spectacular, the combat is ferocious and expressive, and the sheer scale of the thing is genuinely impressive. Forbes spent 100 hours in the game and still had not finished the main questline.
The criticism is equally consistent. The story and characters are widely described as underdeveloped, with much of the narrative relegated to short menu blurbs. Quest design reads like a checklist in too many places. Inventory management is aggravating. The healing system frustrates more than it should.
Then there are the bugs. IGN, currently sitting at a 6 in an ongoing review, described a game-breaking quest progression bug that forced the reviewer to copy a colleague's save file to continue. A separate companion pathfinding issue and multiple hard crashes were also flagged. Pearl Abyss say they fixed the progression bug ahead of launch, but in a game this size, it is hard to imagine that is the last of it.
Eurogamer's summary captures the split well: the combat is excellent, but the world, for all its scale and visual construction, lacks a distinctive identity. The Witcher games have grit and texture. Crimson Desert, in their words, tastes of cardboard.
Now, this is not a bad score at all. A 78 is a decent game. But for a title that has been in development for this long and made this many promises, it feels like an opportunity not fully taken.
Crimson Desert Review scores
- 10 - Digitec
- 10 - Gameliner
- 9.5 - Forbes
- 9.5 - Dualshockers
- 8 - GameGrin
- 8 - TechRadar
- 8 - GamesRadar
- 8 - GameReactor
- 7 - CGM
- 7 - TheGamer
- 7 - Gamespot
- 7 - Screen Rant
- 7 - Game Informer
- 6 - VG247
- 6 - Eurogamer
- 6 - IGN (in progress)
- 6 - PCGamesN
- 5 - Gamekult
Crimson Desert screenshots
