Crimson Desert gets thrashed in Steam ratings, gathers over 40% negative reviews

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.

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. Metacritic awarded the game a somewhat modest 78/100, which now appears quite charitable in light of what players are saying on Steam.

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.

For instance, the game's inventory management and controls have been panned by gamers, and the same goes for its storyline and overall pacing. Thankfully, patches have already been released for some of these issues.

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.

Thankfully, a good chunk of these issues, such as those relating to inventory management, can be fixed quite easily with future updates. The somewhat lacking storyline is most probably here to stay, however. As one critic put it, "Initial excitement gradually gives way to a dull sense of routine".

The Pearl Abyss title arrived off the back of incredible pre-launch momentum, but its reception has proven to be far more complicated. 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.