Crimson Desert has the most diabolical lock and key system I've ever seen

As a guide writer, I enjoy games with lots of locked doors—tracking down keys, cracking them open and seeing what treasures lie inside. Crimson Desert offers some neat puzzles while exploring the world and tasks such as cracking the Hernand Castle Strongbox, but the way it handles keys undercuts that fun.

Rather than one key per door, you collect generic key items that work on almost any locked door. The problem is that simply walking into a door will consume a key and unlock it, and there’s no way to tell whether a door is locked until you push it. I reloaded a save and tried a controller to rule out control quirks; it wasn’t a control issue, and the system is also sensitive enough to open doors accidentally when you veer slightly off course.

With almost 50 hours in the game as I write this, I’ve found there’s no off-person item storage or place to stash keys, and you can’t leave them with your horse. You could drop keys on the ground, though there’s no guarantee they’ll remain where you left them.

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