{"id":1532923,"date":"2026-03-20T12:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/DAeUDVqLYn7Zo3AprQHazC"},"modified":"2026-03-20T12:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:07:16","slug":"crimson-desert-launches-to-239000-players-on-steam-but-mixed-reviews-and-its-mostly-because-of-how-dense-and-cryptic-the-whole-thing-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/crimson-desert-launches-to-239000-players-on-steam-but-mixed-reviews-and-its-mostly-because-of-how-dense-and-cryptic-the-whole-thing-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Crimson Desert launches to 239,000 players on Steam but &#8216;Mixed&#8217; reviews, and it&#8217;s mostly because of how dense and cryptic the whole thing is"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/crimson-desert\/\">Crimson Desert<\/a> has finally arrived and, upon contact with the gaming public writ large, appears to be a mixed bag\u2014we gave it an 80 in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/action\/crimson-desert-review\/\">Crimson Desert review<\/a>, with our own Mollie Taylor dubbing it both &#8220;a game for the sickos&#8221; and &#8220;full of archaic design choices that only make sense when you remember Pearl Abyss has been maintaining an MMO for 12 years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This is a game bloated to bursting with systems, which both lends it its own form of madcap charm <em>and <\/em>bogs it down\u2014and to support the grist of said systems, Pearl Abyss has constructed a control scheme from the pages of an ancient wizard&#8217;s spellbook, married with some occasional moon logic that expects you to just intuit a 12-step program to solve a puzzle, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/action\/crimson-desert-pets-how-to-get\/\">get a pet dog<\/a> or something.<\/p>\n<p>That unwieldiness seems to be the driving factor behind a mixed reception on Steam, despite launching to a <a href=\"https:\/\/steamdb.info\/app\/3321460\/charts\/\" target=\"_blank\">24-hour peak of around 239,000 players<\/a> at the time of writing. Taking a peek at the negative reviews, we can see the controls and systems bloat crop up time and time again:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Want to talk to an NPC? You need to press multiple buttons. Doesn&#8217;t matter if most modern games just have you press E or F,&#8221; writes <a href=\"https:\/\/steamcommunity.com\/profiles\/76561199323528651\/recommended\/3321460\" target=\"_blank\">one player<\/a>. &#8220;Puzzles are literal atrocities,&#8221; writes <a href=\"https:\/\/steamcommunity.com\/id\/frimgehnier\/recommended\/3321460\" target=\"_blank\">another<\/a>, adding: &#8220;The visuals from The Magic Energy are so everywhere that it&#8217;s often unclear did you activate a thing or it&#8217;s just effects that are bouncing off a non-interactable one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Even if you play the game on controller (and you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/action\/crimson-desert-controls\/\">should play the game on controller<\/a>), Crimson Desert is still prone to misinputs and clunky fumbling because there&#8217;s so many damn things you can do. This means the combat&#8217;s deep and satisfying, mind\u2014I&#8217;m enjoying learning my ways around my sword combos. <\/p>\n<p>I am enjoying learning how to loot efficiently far less. And if I were going into this game without looking at things like our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/action\/crimson-desert-tips-guide\/\">handy tips guide<\/a> (wink wink, nudge nudge) I wouldn&#8217;t know a ton of basic stuff the game utterly neglected to tell me. For instance, did you know you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/action\/crimson-desert-can-be-overwhelming-do-this-one-thing-in-each-new-city-to-make-your-life-much-easier\/\">need to ring bell towers<\/a> in towns to have your map revealed for you? Pearl Abyss didn&#8217;t tell me that. <\/p>\n<p>Our guides writer Sean Martin, who has been putting a frankly herculean amount of time into this game to try and figure all these systems out, had to tell me. This all leads to a game that I reckon is going to be cleanly divisive, though broadly more positive as time ticks on. Despite all her gripes, Mollie still thinks it&#8217;s &#8220;by far <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/action\/crimson-desert-review\/\">one of the most interesting games I&#8217;ve played<\/a>,&#8221; and an 80 is no poor score at all.<\/p>\n<div class=\"product\"><a data-dimension112=\"e7e18cbd-2585-42f3-a1a4-9b88da8da7ff\" data-action=\"Deal Block\" data-label=\"2026 games\" data-dimension48=\"2026 games\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure \" >\n<div class='image-full-width-wrapper'>\n<div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:661px;\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:98.94%;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"6offQUY4CXebir2TC27dMd\" name=\"kingdom come 2 square\" caption=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/crimson-desert-launches-to-239000-players-on-steam-but-mixed-reviews-and-its-mostly-because-of-how-dense-and-cryptic-the-whole-thing-is.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"661\" height=\"654\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" credit=\"\" class=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/new-pc-games-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-dimension112=\"e7e18cbd-2585-42f3-a1a4-9b88da8da7ff\" data-action=\"Deal Block\" data-label=\"2026 games\" data-dimension48=\"2026 games\" data-dimension25=\"\"><strong>2026 games<\/strong><\/a>: All the upcoming games<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-best-pc-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best PC games<\/strong><\/a>: Our all-time favorites<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-50-best-free-pc-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Free PC games<\/strong><\/a>: Freebie fest<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-fps-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best FPS games<\/strong><\/a>: Finest gunplay<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-rpgs-of-all-time\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best RPGs<\/strong><\/a>: Grand adventures<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-best-co-op-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best co-op games<\/strong><\/a>: Better together<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/action\/crimson-desert-launches-to-239-000-players-on-steam-but-mixed-reviews-and-its-mostly-because-of-how-dense-and-cryptic-the-whole-thing-is\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crimson Desert has finally arrived and, upon contact with the gaming public writ large, appears to be a mixed bag\u2014we gave it an 80 in our Crimson Desert review, with our own Mollie Taylor dubbing it both &#8220;a game for the sickos&#8221; and &#8220;full of archaic design choices that only make sense when you remember Pearl Abyss has been maintaining an MMO for 12 years.&#8221; This is a game bloated to bursting with systems, which both lends it its own form of madcap charm and bogs it down\u2014and to support the grist of said systems, Pearl Abyss has constructed a control scheme from the pages of an ancient wizard&#8217;s spellbook, married with some occasional moon logic that expects you to just intuit a 12-step program&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/crimson-desert-launches-to-239000-players-on-steam-but-mixed-reviews-and-its-mostly-because-of-how-dense-and-cryptic-the-whole-thing-is\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1532924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[23,748],"class_list":["post-1532923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc-gamer","tag-action","tag-games"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Crimson Desert launches to 239,000 players on Steam but &#039;Mixed&#039; reviews, and it&#039;s mostly because of how dense and cryptic the whole thing is | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Crimson Desert has finally arrived and, upon contact with the gaming public writ large, appears to be a mixed bag\u2014we gave it an 80 in our Crimson Desert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/crimson-desert-launches-to-239000-players-on-steam-but-mixed-reviews-and-its-mostly-because-of-how-dense-and-cryptic-the-whole-thing-is\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Crimson Desert launches to 239,000 players on Steam but &#039;Mixed&#039; reviews, and it&#039;s mostly because of how dense and cryptic the whole thing is | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Crimson Desert has finally arrived and, upon contact with the gaming public writ large, appears to be a mixed bag\u2014we gave it an 80 in our Crimson Desert\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/crimson-desert-launches-to-239000-players-on-steam-but-mixed-reviews-and-its-mostly-because-of-how-dense-and-cryptic-the-whole-thing-is\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-20T12:07:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/crimson-desert-launches-to-239000-players-on-steam-but-mixed-reviews-and-its-mostly-because-of-how-dense-and-cryptic-the-whole-thing-is.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/crimson-desert-launches-to-239000-players-on-steam-but-mixed-reviews-and-its-mostly-because-of-how-dense-and-cryptic-the-whole-thing-is\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/crimson-desert-launches-to-239000-players-on-steam-but-mixed-reviews-and-its-mostly-because-of-how-dense-and-cryptic-the-whole-thing-is\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"Crimson Desert launches to 239,000 players on Steam but &#8216;Mixed&#8217; 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