If there's one thing I've learned playing Crimson Desert for 75 hours

Reviewing games can be kinda weird. When I'm playing stuff for personal reasons, there's no deadline, no definitive date to roll credits or reach 100% completion — it's just me and the journey. Sometimes, though, I have to play as part of my job, and I spent the last week devouring as much Crimson Desert as I could alongside boring regular human stuff like cooking, showering and sleeping.

One of my biggest takeaways from 75 hours with the game is simple: don't devour it. It's a sippin' drink, not a tequila shot. Better savoured as "a sandbox than as a story" — a place where the journey is far more interesting and satisfying than the destination.

There are so many things to do that ignoring them in favour of questing to the credits feels wrong. Some of my best moments came when I halted the main story and spent time with the Greymanes, running errands, expanding allies at camp and watching it become a real community with merchants, farmhands and freeswords — a small, familiar home in an overwhelming world.

crimson desert, sandbox, open world, game review, 75 hours, main story, side quests, greymanes, camp, community