Much of the online discussion about Crimson Desert in the last 36 hours has revolved around its review score. It debuted at an excellent 77 on Metacritic and 81 on OpenCritic (later jumping to 78 and falling to 80 respectively), but these scores were deemed unacceptable by vocal segments of the gaming community, harassing reviewers and denigrating websites.
Many of these people thought that the game, which they had yet to play, deserved a much higher score than it did, and took it upon themselves to campaign for a better one. Until they played it.
The game launched on March 19 at 10 pm GMT/6 pm ET/3 pm PT, and within its first 10 hours, it received a 66 percent “mixed” rating on Steam, with nearly 5,000 negative reviews.
Anything between 70 and 80 on review aggregation sites is good. This might suggest that the game doesn't reach the heights some hope for, but it's definitely a good score. We have been conditioned to think it is not.
That is, unless you're a Pearl Abyss shareholder, who panicked following its reviews, and share prices plummeted 30 percent.
It turns out that, in fact, perhaps the critics shed a little light on the game, however, since its launch, Crimson Desert has received a wave of negative reviews on Steam, leaving it with a terrible “mixed” rating.
“The story is bad, the characters are bland, the characters don't feel good moving around, the puzzles are vague in a fun way, the boss fights aren't great, the user interface is one of the worst I've seen in a AAA game, the inventory system is weirdly vague, and the worst selected review of the game.”
Another reviewer compared the game to a cheap buffet, saying, “There's plenty on display, but none of it is particularly satisfying.”
Such huge depth and potential, only to be ruined by clunky movement and the worst controls (controller) I've ever played in a game.
Story and movement were the two biggest sticking points, but neither complaint came close to the number of complaints the game's control scheme received. One reviewer said, “Such immense depth and potential can only be ruined by the worst controls (controller) I've ever played in a game,” while a second added, “The UI and controls are ridiculously bad. There are 50 different actions that all require you to hold down a bunch of those buttons, when most of the key buttons can be easily held.”
Korean players are having an even worse time with Crimson Desert
Crimson Desert has a 66 percent positive score on Steam from English-language critics. However, that drops significantly when factoring in reviews in other languages. The overall score decreases from 66 percent to 58 percentAnd when you separate the South Korean-language reviews, things get even worse.
only 33 percent of the game's 2,169 reviews Positive in Korean, players can quickly win the title, which was developed in their country.
The author of the top-rated review from the country was angry at the control of the Crimson Desert, saying they “want to hang them. [the developers] Do the opposite until they become stubborn and feed them nothing but bulldak noodles with vinegar.” (Translated via Google).
The second-highest rating took a more serious tone, going to town on the game's “trash controls, terrible optimization, brutal puzzles, unethical tutorials,” and lack of user-friendly features.
While you might think that Korean players would have a sense of defensiveness for the game from their country, the opposite couldn't be more true. Players in the country are generally skeptical about games from developer Pearl Abyss because of Black Desert Online. MMOs have historically had terrible monetization, leaving a bad taste in players' mouths, and the communication, or lack thereof, about both DokeV and Crimson Desert only soured that relationship.
PlayStation players have their own gripes
PS5 Crimson Desert players will have to deal with all the problems that PC players have, except for an additional drawback: the visuals clearly suck.
On the Crimson Desert subreddit, there are literally dozens of threads bemoaning the state of gaming on Sony's consoles. One such thread, titled “Ps5 graphics are really bad,” has over 710 comments, many of them unhappy with how the game looks.
“The PS5 base is terrible. Yeah, that's why they couldn't show any gameplay from that console. It's blurry, low resolution, pop-ins like every couple of frames.” It's a disaster and feels more like a PS3 game than a PS5 game,” said a second. Unplayable. The world that is the best part of the game will not be the case for PS5 unless something changes. Looks terrible and plays even worse…”
Although it's not a bad Cyberpunk 2077 level, players are realizing that Crimson Desert may not be all it could be. I feel vindicated by this specific line in my recent preview: “Crimson Desert may be one of the biggest games of 2026, but I also have a feeling it could be one of the most divisive.”
- issued
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March 19, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood, drug references, intense violence, strong language
- developer(s)
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The Pearl Abyss
- publisher(s)
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The Pearl Abyss
