CRIMSON DESERT Steam Charts & Stats

Maybe it gets fun later on, but for four hours I'm being doing "quests" for random people that I don't care about and the dialog is long an uninteresting. It's so uninteresting that the devs added a fast forward button. If your game needs that, maybe it's time to re-evaluate. If you like dark souls, elden ring, and skyrim, but dislike the witcher 3 and MMORPGs then stay away from this game.

I dont know anyone who has completed this game. This is BLOAT - The game. So much unnecessary stuff. Too much really which sounds odd. This game gets boring pretty quickly. 57 hours in and ive not even explored 20% of the map. Does mean theres a lot of content, but the content is boring, the enemies get easy to kill to quickly. You dont get exp for killing enemies so after a point theres no reason to fight them, just run passed them.

This is the most solidly mid game I have ever played. It's pretty, interesting, and the core of everything is well built. And yet... 45 hours in I just don't know what I'm doing. Endless busywork quests with a lack of guidance in the game, and repeated near-forced tutorial quests because I didn't happen to focus on a specific direction. I'm not even out of the first region. Everything it tries to do mechanically it does in a mid-to-well way, but narratively this far in I haven't found anything engaging, only the mystery is interesting so far as I haven't had anything explained in the narrative. I think the game just simply has no respect for the player's time. It's slow, but not in the "slow but you feel progress" way that you feel in RDR2. I really think the first four chapters could have done with some more linearity. I have several special items that are at best explained by a third, with little beyond that, so I'm left guessing what X does, what I can do with Y etc. In an era of games where we have singleplayer masterpieces such as KCD2, RDR2, and a good number of others, I don't think I can actually recommend this.

Three months later, this game is not meaningfully better in any sense. I gave it more of a chance than I've given most games, and most games do not disrespect my time to anywhere near the degree this one does. Sucks. Bad game.

The quest design in this game is the worst garbage I've ever had the misfortune to experience. The game is designed to pad out and waste your time so much that you cross the refund threshold before you finish the tutorial sections. More bloat and tedious filler than game, designed to pad out the hours than do any entertaining. The UI is there to waste your time and pad out the "play" time. Quest design consistently contains just time wasting banal garbage just to pad out the time required to complete them. Pretty much all the dialogue is meaningless empty drivel that contains no lore, AIs would have done a better job. Apart from bosses, there are basically less than a handful of types of enemies, just dressed differently. The main story is just a series of random tasks and events with no meaningful narrative arc. The graphics are beautiful, the world is large and lush, there are mechanics galore, there are even quite a lot of well animated fight cutscenes, pity that they failed so badly in putting a good game in the world they built. I've heard the game gets good after many many hours, I'm at over 50 hours as of writing this and it's still just banal filler.

Pre-Chapter 9 - "This game's so good man. 9/10" "So many things to do. So many Cool outfits. Damn this game has this too???" Post-Chapter 9 and 100% completion - "How am i supposed to know this?? RNGGGG TF . 7/10" TL;DR : One of the Best and fun open world games . That's it , forget 100% completion . Enjoy the game.

Very fun game with a great open world. Only real issue is how obscure puzzles and certain mechanics can be. The game does not do a good job at cluing a player on what is and is not possible and what specific skills you need to do them.

Crimson Desert is an incredibly ambitious title that rewards players who enjoy exploration, challenging combat, and discovering hidden secrets. While its narrative and quality-of-life features could be stronger, its stunning world and engaging gameplay make it one of the most impressive open-world games in recent years.

I just hate this game. It stands for everything I dislike in modern gaming. Everything is surface level, everything is set dressing. The world is extremely pretty, but that doesn't matter when every npc, everything location, every faction, every quest that fills it is soulless filler. I don’t care that this started as an mmo. Don’t use that as an excuse for horrible quests. One of its most frustrating aspects is when it shows you/ lets you experience something cool, fun, or interesting and then completely ruins it. Get dragon? “Hey this is kinda fun”, you ride around for a bit and get off. Try to summon it again a bit later, nope. Gotta wait a couple days. Get a new weapon/ piece of armor. It’s the same as every other piece in the game. Save up to get a wagon to trade goods? Welcome to hell. You thought we would let you do something fun silly, greymane? Try waiting till Kliff gets a personality before being able to do anything you actually want to in the game. It doesn’t play by its’ own rules. At least 50 percent of bosses have frustratingly boring encounters. Example: Chapter 11 has like 5 of them or something, 2 are almost identical (basically a reskin) and were back-to-back. They are also some of the worst in game. This whole chapter is just using nature’s snare for 4 bosses with the exception to the last fight, which was just a standard fight. This happens a decent amount, with the reskinned bosses (not surprisingly) being the worst designed ones in the game. These are gimmick bosses, and they pop up to an annoying degree. The only thing they require of you is to cycle through all of your skills and see which one (better hope you unlocked it!) the developers decided would be this cube’s kryptonite. Once as you figure that out, the boss fight is over. It’s lazy as hell. Combat could be great if the camera didn't get stuck behind foliage or a wall every 10 seconds. There is so much clutter on screen in these fights, it's hard to know where you or your enemy is at. Still, it is one of the strongest parts of the game. It doesn’t functionally make you better at dispatching mobs, but it’s fun chaining combos and flying everywhere as Damiane. You will go through phases of thinking this game is good, and then having it make you hate it. I loved the first 10-15 hours, taken in by the beauty, visual fidelity, and sense of wonder. Then, I slowly slid into despising it for the next 30…enjoyed the next 20 or 30 hours…etc. The problem is that these are not just lows of “Oh, that’s kind of annoying”. It is more like wishing death on the whole development team and asking how 75% of the things in this game made it to release. And those lows are never balanced by something equally as good, especially once you get over the game’s eye candy. In something like Elder Scroll’s, you would get excited stumbling on a new location due to the mystery of what it could be. Is it a unique, hugely expansive cave system with tons of secrets, quests, loot, unique enemies i.e. Blackreach? No, it is never that in CD, never. You hear me? Stop thinking it will get better. It’s not. There is a point around 125-150 hours that you start to really understand how shallow and busted CD is. You ask “I am at full build/skill tree, I just want to climb this mountain as Damiane, yet I still have to worry about conserving spirit/stamina and climb this same mountain I’ve climbed with axiom force/skystep 10 thousand times and have to wait on a ledge for 5 seconds to regain stamina.” “Why do I still have a cooldown on Blackstar when I have his upgraded form and have almost everything on the map explored.” “Why do I still get the same, absolutely soul sucking, barebones excuse for a quest for the 200th time (not an exaggeration) 200 hours in?” “Why are the Pailune side quests tied to an arm-wrestling challenge/achievement that won’t unlock unless you find a specific side quest that randomly spawns in the region after completing another one.” You literally must look up locations for each of the side quest starting points, travel to them, and hope to the Sun you got the right one, or you are repeating that process until the game finally bestows that glorious golden glow on your map. Did I mention there are at least 24 (I’m not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ checking) of these missions that you have to do this for, EVERY TIME? This is just for one challenge. This is the constant theme of CD that never goes away. Completely unplaytested ideas that somehow made it into a fully released game. Doesn’t that sound fun!? Are you having fun yet loser greymane? This game doesn’t make you feel like batman. It makes you feel like you are at a 9-5 office job that sucks you dry mentally. There is always SOMETHING that will be so absurdly implemented that you will be convinced this game wasn’t playtested in the slightest. Kliff is the worst playable character, yet you will have to play as him almost exclusively until you beat the main quest, and sporadically after (ThIs Is cLifF bArs sToRy). Playing as Damaine is 10x better due to not feeling like I have sacks of potatoes around each of my limbs. Mixing rapier, grappling, hand to hand, and ranged is still fun after 200 hours. Oongka actually feels like a huge mfing tank and barbarian. Every hit is massive and substantial. He just sends dudes flying. Kliff just feels…slow. He sucks and is a bad boy. One last note. Updates after a games launch should not be applauded when you are sold a game that is half baked to begin with. That’s Stockholm Syndrome. I will never get to experience what this game feels like as a semi complete experience because I was dumb enough to buy it a few weeks after release. We paid full price for a game, yet the Stans will suck the devs pee pee’s dribble because they are putting tape over a crumbling foundation. Thank you for the nourishment while you beat me daddy! Just to be clear, I don’t wish these devs any ill will, that's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane. I do hate this game though. I do not recommend wasting your life to 100 percent this game like I did. Kill me.

8/10 After 368 hours and 100% completion, I can say Crimson Desert met my expectations. While I found the story disappointing, almost everything else kept me engaged from beginning to end. The combat stayed enjoyable for most of my playtime, although after nearly 400 hours it naturally became repetitive. It's simple and satisfying, but I wish there were more combos or mechanics that encouraged learning the combat system beyond the basics, the easy difficulty doesn't help me change my style. Exploration is where the game really shines. The world is beautiful, every region feels distinct, and I was constantly rewarded for wandering off the beaten path. Finding hidden caverns, ruins, unique armor pieces, or special weapons regularly surprised me. The puzzles were fun too, although after the first 20 or so they started reusing the same mechanics. The biggest weakness is the story. Too many important events happen with little explanation, leaving me wondering why things were happening instead of feeling invested. Another odd choice is that side quests are fully voiced, while Cliff often stays silent even when NPCs ask him direct questions. It made conversations feel awkward. Side quests were hit or miss. I barely remember most of them, but the infiltration missions and murder mysteries were enjoyable. On the other hand, the Pailune Resident Commission system is one of the worst quest designs in the game. Having only one random NPC offer the next quest with no indication of who it is just wastes the player's time. Character progression felt smooth throughout the game, but I wish equipment had more meaningful effects. Right now you mostly wear what looks best, which is nice for fashion, but I'd love to see more armor pieces with unique bonuses. For example, there's a pair of gloves that can stun enemies with lightning during unarmed combat—that kind of equipment is far more interesting. More gear synergies outside of Abyssal gear slots would add a lot to build variety. Technically, the game was solid for me. I had a few crashes after updates, but verifying the game files through Steam always fixed them. The only recurring bug I encountered was that some quest NPCs would become startled when I approached and refuse to interact until I walked away and came back. One thing that genuinely surprised me was the architecture. Every major city has its own identity, and each region feels completely different from the last. It makes the world memorable in a way that many open-world games fail to achieve. Despite my criticism of the story, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Crimson Desert. If you enjoy open-world games that reward exploration and player freedom more than storytelling, I can easily recommend it. If you're looking for a narrative-driven experience that carries the entire game, this probably won't be the one for you.