After six hours, Crimson Desert is overwhelmingly chaotic and madcap

Crimson Desert is Pearl Abyss's first real solo outing after Black Desert Online, an action romp with light RPG trimmings that follows Kliff as he hunts for former comrades and gets pulled into increasingly strange plot beats. What begins with a solemn Greymane mourning quickly flips into full-on absurdity: a vanishing beggar leads to a floating technological sky fortress, Kliff gains a feathered cloak and a grappling hook, and he soon finds a helmet that reads memories and learns to lift trees with his mind.

The combat leans into that same gleeful madness. Kliff's skill tree overflows with options—archery, unarmed combos, swordplay, grappling moves that fling enemies (or himself), Spider-Man-like swings and even a Sonic-style spinning attack—while foes can swarm, grab and counter just as viciously.

It can feel overwhelming, but the game rewards experimentation: fights turn into a sandbox where the aim becomes finding the most spectacular way to finish an encounter. More characters expand that playground.

crimson desert, pearl abyss, kliff, black desert, skill tree, grappling hook, sky fortress, feathered cloak, combat, archery