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| Crimson Desert is reportedly beautiful, vivid, expansive - and tedious. |
Despite its widely discussed shortcomings, there is no doubt that Crimson Desert is one of the most prolific open-world games to have ever hit the gaming scene. In spite of a bunch of leaked positive reviews prior to its launch, the game now appears to be struggling to maintain its reputation over at Steam, where players are delivering a verdict that falls far short of the pre-release hype.
According to the latest data provided by SteamDB, Crimson Desert has gathered over 8,000 negative reviews on Steam, which is over 41% of the total ratings received by the game. That puts the Pearl Abyss title in an uncomfortable "Mixed" rating category—a far cry from the glowing early impressions that circulated among critics and influencers before release. Metacritic awarded the game a somewhat modest 78/100, which now appears quite charitable in light of what players are saying on Steam.
For those tracking the game's performance in real-time, the full review breakdown is available on the platform's charts page.
Impressive visuals, lacking storyline: Crimson Desert gets slammed with "Mixed" rating
While there is no doubt that gamers who have played Crimson Desert have showered the game with praises for its visuals and impressively detailed open-world experience, the reaction to other in-game mechanisms has been rather poor. The stunning environments, character models, and lighting effects have drawn widespread acclaim, with many players taking to the review section specifically to highlight the graphical fidelity as the game's saving grace.
For instance, the game's inventory management and controls have been panned by gamers, and the same goes for its storyline and overall pacing. Players have described the control scheme as clunky and unintuitive, with some arguing that it actively detracts from what should have been a seamless action-RPG experience. The inventory system, meanwhile, has been criticized as overly cumbersome, forcing players to spend more time navigating menus than actually engaging with the world. Thankfully, patches have already been released for some of these issues, though whether they will be enough to shift the overall sentiment remains to be seen.
One gamer even claimed that the game was "tedious, not fun", which essentially sums up many of the negative reviews on Steam. The $70 price tag most definitely does not help the title either, and it's no surprise that someone paying that much will desire more than just enticing visuals. In an era where consumers are increasingly selective about their gaming investments, launching at premium pricing while delivering a product with significant structural flaws has proven to be a risky gamble.
Thankfully, a good chunk of these issues, such as those relating to inventory management, can be fixed quite easily with future updates. Pearl Abyss has already demonstrated a willingness to address player feedback, and the studio's track record with post-launch support suggests that mechanical improvements are on the horizon. The somewhat lacking storyline is most probably here to stay, however. Narrative shortcomings are far more difficult to remedy after release, and as one critic put it, "Initial excitement gradually gives way to a dull sense of routine"—a sentiment that echoes throughout the user review section.
The Pearl Abyss title arrived off the back of incredible pre-launch momentum, fueled by years of anticipation and a string of visually breathtaking trailers that positioned it as a potential genre-defining release. But its reception has proven to be far more complicated than anyone anticipated. Things appear equally gloomy over at PS5 land, where the game's strongest point—visuals—have been deemed disappointing to say the least, being compared to PS3-era titles. Console players have reported significant technical inconsistencies, with some arguing that the performance optimization simply does not meet the standard expected for a flagship release on Sony's hardware.
What makes the situation particularly noteworthy is the stark divide between critical reception and user sentiment. While professional reviewers largely focused on the game's ambitious scope and technical achievements, the player base has zeroed in on the day-to-day experience—the friction of awkward controls, the frustration of inventory clutter, and the disappointment of a narrative that fails to match the epic scale of the world it inhabits.
For a game that spent years in development and arrived with such immense expectations, the current trajectory is sobering. Whether Pearl Abyss can course-correct through patches, community engagement, and potential future expansions will determine whether Crimson Desert ultimately finds its footing or becomes a cautionary tale about style over substance in the open-world genre.
As it stands, the game serves as a reminder that even the most visually spectacular titles cannot coast on graphics alone. In an industry where player expectations have never been higher, the gap between what a game looks like and what it feels like to play has never mattered more.
Source(s)
SteamDB
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| A screenshot from Crimson Desert. |
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| Players are loving the visuals, but the same cannot be said about its storyline. |
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| Crimson Desert's controls have been criticized heavily. |