AD

Control of the player still feels less smooth than I'd like, but I feel much better about it. It keeps me in the game. Also, for player storage, I'd like the cursor to be available for sorting and such. Unless it's a bug on my end, I have to navigate it all with keys. I'm realizing that it's probably optimized for console in this way, so that would be a nice PC addition.

Tell me one BAD thing about this game.

@RinoTheBouncer Complaints pre-patch can help inform what shows up in the patch.

How do you feel about this?🚀

@DainnyC @NikoMueller @CrimsonDesert_ It's got a nice claymation look to it

@NikoMueller @CrimsonDesert_ Really struggling to get immersed in the Game! Its my fault with only having a Series S but come on its 2026 and 'next gen' whys my view look like Runescape?!

Review in progress: 🎮#CrimsonDesert After 78 hours I have reached the Crimson Desert. Saying this game is huge would be a massive understatement. #XboxShare

It also has a decent story, I think. The issue is that the game is so wide open, and intentionally placed more slowly, so people don't attend to it constantly in everything they are doing. But in the background, you have 1) experienced a significant tragedy; 2) been granted powers that you need to upgrade to 3) find your scattered comrades and presumably 4) get some sort of closure and save the world from something existential. Good enough for me.

10 hours into Crimson Desert and I can say with confidence — this game is something different. We live in an age of Reels, TikToks, and YouTube Shorts that have trained our brains to crave constant stimulation and zero patience. That's been slowly killing our ability to focus, think, and just *breathe*. Crimson Desert goes against all of that. No yellow paint. No handholding. No giant arrows telling you where to go or what to do. This game demands patience, observation, and a willingness to actually engage. And honestly? That's what makes it feel less like a game and more like a cure. It reminds me of what made The Witcher 3 legendary — the way it trusted the player to shape their own journey and get genuinely lost in the world. Crimson Desert may not match that on the story side, but gameplay-wise? It absolutely nails that feeling of immersion. So when I say play this game, I don't mean "give it a shot if you're bored." I mean you *need* to play it. Because in a world that's constantly pulling your attention in a hundred directions, this game will sharpen your mind and give it the stillness it's been missing.

At the very least, being upgradable to this ability would be a pretty awesome thing to aspire towards. If people knew they could eventually do this, it would create forward play momentum by itself. Maybe some sort of artifact or late game skill that would unlock infinite gliding. (For all we know, maybe it already exists!)

One of my very few complaints - flying depletes stamina - discovery would feel so much better with infinite stamina!

@RinoTheBouncer @SAPWharton We will see something like this in our lifetime. I can't wait.

@SAPWharton The game in my head would be something more detailed like RDR2 or Death Stranding, but I feel that Light No Fire is a somewhat similar concept to No Man’s Sky but with fantasy elements yes

I wish get a video game where you explore a whole earth-like planet captured 1:1 with every country, forest, mountain, river, cave and desert captured with stunning fidelity🚀 Gameplay would be platforming, exploration, survival, combat..etc

Eventually there will be a wiki of answers for every puzzle, but the cool thing is that at the start, nobody knows, and there are no easy cheats. It's a community effort to figure it all out, which makes it uniquely fun. Sort of a like a real life scavenger hunt or similar where everyone is in the same boat.

Puzzles in Crimson Desert can be quite difficult sometimes, but they genuinely feel so rewarding after finishing them. Not having the main character or a side character giving you constant clues and being left on your own to figure things out is something that I haven't seen in quite a long time. p.s excuse my admiration for that NPC in the end

In some games, this kind of thing is used to gate-keep certain areas until the player is further along. I haven't gotten the impression they are doing that. Or, if they are, it should eventually get to the point where gliding does not deplete stamina, so it can be a fun end-game thing to aspire towards.

CRIMSON DESERT HOT TAKE: For gliding they should just remove Stamina all together. Gliding is fantastic in this game but the stamina makes moving around the world slightly annoying. I know it won’t happen but they should consider it 💭

You know, even if someone didn’t have a great time with this game, what they are attempting to do, and have actually accomplished, warrants so much more than a 6. They are setting a standard here and innovating on formulas in ways that are truly interesting and compelling, and the game industry should be noting this. Even better games in the future will be possible because of this game.

What a dumbass

@TheRealZephryss I feel like the player movement is much more responsive, and that was my main complaint. Game changer, along with the player storage.

How would you rate Crimson Desert after the latest patch? Has it improved your experience or made it worse?

I think this is more amazing when you think that some things make sense as part of the nature a perfect, holy, necessary being (omniattributes), and you can even reason to it on some level. But the crazy depths of his forgiveness and mercy really do take you by surprise. Is God required to be this way given his perfect and holy nature? Could you reason there? I’m not sure you could, which makes it so stunning.

I’m not sure it’s possible to truly grasp how forgiving God is.

There have been some deep dives on this over the years, in terms of the industry, why the game failed, the guy who programmed it. Super interesting. I think there was even a documentary that went to try and find where all the cartridges were buried in the landfill when the industry collapsed and they couldn't sell them.

@afdevine_ @exQUIZitely That's funny. There was a great podcast that went into the whole ET fiasco but for the life of me, I can't remember.

I started trading games in the 80s (as a means to earn a few extra bucks). By trading, I actually mean legally buying and selling - not the "trading" that was more common in the 80s, for which I got busted at age 13. I went to trade fairs, second hand markets, and posted classified ads in several game magazines when I was 14. Over the years the collection grew. The basc principle was simple: Buy in bulk, haggle hard, be smart about rare games (meaning: know your shit), then sell with a profit within reasonable range. It's not rocket science but it requires patience, dedication, the courage to pick up the phone and call people - turns out being able to talk to people and sell stuff is a pretty useful life skill. I did all this almost until the end of my time at university. Then "real life" began, all the games were put into boxes and stored at my grandparents' house, roughly 6,000 games at the time, mostly C64, Amiga, Atari ST and PC games from 1980 to the early 2000s. I always dreamed of having my own place one day and a whole room dedicated as a games library. This is the room from which I now also work, surrounded by 20+ years of memories and from where I take inspiration for my posts. I sometimes just walk along the shelves and pick a game. The one in the picture is one of my all time favorites. What's your most favorite game - maybe one with some nostalgic value?

@BrokenLoboMedia @CrimsonDesert_ It's one of the first times I've seen water in a game and thought that it looks almost entirely natural. As good as water has gotten over the years, it's often looked like it's lagging behind other design elements.

Details (+): Crimson Reign Meticulous attention was paid to the most mundane, ordinary details in the pursuit of immersion. The water physics are the best I’ve seen, possibly ever, and the way the rain interacts with the river, the terrain and Kliff is 🤌🏾 👾: Crimson Desert

@Crimson_Kioku @rspywhspr715 @Grummz lol, yes there is. It's exactly what I said. You just need to have some patience to see it through.

@afdevine_ @rspywhspr715 @Grummz Stop trying to church it up dude. There is basically no story. Just stop

Dude...this game... Look, there is a lot of crap you have to deal with playing Crimson Desert. It's still offering stuff on a scale that's hard to match. Unique experience. They just...jammed in everything from everygame.

@exQUIZitely For real though, this is one of the earliest ones I played a lot as a kid:

@exQUIZitely lol, just kidding

The two sides of the faith/obedience coin are reflected very well in this story. It required obedience to be effective, but that obedience was a overflow of their faith/trust in God that he would save them. True faith in God often has skin in the game, where the numinous makes contact with the world and elicits our participation.

What saved the Isrealites from the Death Angel? Was it obedience? Or faith?

Not only that, but it has a very clear story structure that is common and compelling. It follows Kurt Vonnegut's "Man in a Hole" narrative paradigm, which he notes is the most common kind of story told often because it resonates deeply. It always follows this pattern: Start Up: A character, who is usually likable and relatable, is in a stable or comfortable situation. Down (The Hole): The character encounters adversity, losing control and falling into a "hole" of ill fortune (e.g., losing a job, losing a loved one, or being trapped). Up Again: The character struggles and works to overcome the crisis, eventually climbing out of the hole. Higher Ground: The character ends in a better place than they started, having gained wisdom, resilience, or greater success. The slow build currently has us in the "up again" stage, while obviously moving us towards "higher ground" and some sort of redemption/revenge arc. The build allows us to become enamored with the world and the people who live in it, giving it more resonance. I appreciate, actually, it isn't constant text or exposition. It feels more like real life, where you have a general sense of a bigger goal, with a truck load of minigames and interesting people.

Also, I find the story in Crimson Desert, at least so far, perfectly understandable. It's obvious that it's an appropriately slow build, as are most giant games. But it's easy to follow. MOST characters are well acted, and interesting. I have no issues with Kliff.

@Erw0Xy I think what I respect a lot is that you can see the fingerprint of a lot of great games here, but there's no sense that they are "stealing" ideas due to lack of innovation. It's more like they are paying homage to them while standing on their shoulders to create something new.

ممكن البعض يشوفه مجرد رأي أو تطبيل لكن بعد ساعات طويلة لعبة Crimson Desert أثبتت لي إن تقييمات المراجعين واللاعبين لا يؤخذ بها أغلب اللي قيموها يبون عالم يمسك يدهم ويدلهم وش يسوون ويبون الأمور سهلة ومستكثرين كم ساعة في البداية عشان يتعلمون أساسيات تجربة تاريخية زي ذي ​ليش اللعبة ذي ماستر بيس بالنسبة لي؟ 1- عالم حيوي ومتفاعل وفيه روح أكثر من Elden Ring. 2- عالم ما يذكرك إلا بـ The Witcher وينافسه بقوة. 3- مهام مجنونة وعالم حي بجدولة وتفاصيل تضيع فيها ولا تحس بالوقت. 4- عالم تنغمس فيه بدون ما تدرك تنوع كبيرر مستحيل تحصله بأي لعبة ثانيه 5- قتالات رهيبه وجذابة لدرجة من أول بوس واجهته باللعبة صارت ادمان وذا غير عدد البوسس وهاذا كله نقطة من بحر . ​اللعبة هذي صنعت لعشاق الاستكشاف والضياع أما اللي جوه تختيم قصصي خطي زي ذا لاست وانشارتد يروح يلعبهم ويفكنا من تقييماته اللي محد بياخذ فيها وتبي نصيحة؟ العبها وما بتندم👌🏻 #CrimsonDesert

@BonafideXP @CrimsonDesert_ I think that kind of responsiveness to the important issues is what creates loyalty and makes people willing to forgive growing pains early on.

@afdevine_ @CrimsonDesert_ Quick response

If this recent patch only addressed the storage issue, it still would’ve been great. I love that this game is finding its place in the community. 3M copies sold in 5 days is awesome to see, and all the negative press isn’t changing the overall user experience. Between the massive world this Blackspace engine has created, and all the secrets hidden inside, to the Pearl Abyss team addressing bugs and QoL features as fast as they have, there’s no question this will be a GOTY conversation by the end of the year.