Crimson Desert launches to mixed reception amid dense systems and controls

Crimson Desert has finally arrived and, upon contact with the gaming public writ large, appears to be a mixed bag. We gave it an 80 in our Crimson Desert review, with Mollie Taylor dubbing it both "a game for the sickos" and "full of archaic design choices that only make sense when you remember Pearl Abyss has been maintaining an MMO for 12 years."

The game is bloated to bursting with systems, which both lends it its own form of madcap charm and bogs it down. To support those systems, Pearl Abyss has constructed a control scheme "from the pages of an ancient wizard's spellbook," married with some occasional "moon logic" that expects you to just intuit a 12-step program to solve a puzzle, or get a pet dog or something.

Even if you play on controller (and you should play on controller), Crimson Desert is still prone to misinputs and clunky fumbling because there are so many things you can do. The combat is described as deep and satisfying, with the reviewer enjoying learning their ways around sword combos.

crimson desert, pearl abyss, mollie taylor, game review, control scheme, archaic design, moon logic, controller play, sword combos, misinputs