Crimson Desert's downfall will be caused by its controls if they're not fixed pronto

Crimson Desert is a new open-world action RPG from Pearl Abyss (devs of Black Desert) that was first announced in 2019. Stating that the game has generated a lot of hype would be an understatement. Comparisons to The Witcher 3 and Dragon’s Dogma and its trailers have made it one of the most anticipated games of 2026. However, alongside the game's launch, a lot of negative feedback is showing up online regarding its control scheme. Many players are warning that the steep learning curve and unorthodox inputs are spoiling the game. This one Reddit user summed it up very nicely: "Bad controls can, sadly, ruin a great game."

Despite the hype, forums are now collectively voicing frustration. Dozens of posts and comments share this sentiment on Reddit alone. The tone of those comments range from concerned to downright furious.

Worst controlls i ever seen in a game. For real for real.
by u/ChroneXoX in CrimsonDesert

Whoever made these controls needs to be fired
by u/PressureCalm7971 in CrimsonDesert

Another post drew dozens of comments regarding odd mappings and glitches. Steam community users aren't behind - for example, one player describes an absurd sequence just to pick up a flag: "4 button presses hold and release to pick up a war flag and move it… or 3 buttons to interact with an NPC in town. There are certain things you should just have to do with 1 button…". Reports like these are strong evidence that many players find the default control bindings convoluted to the degree of near-unplayability.

At the same time, reviews and previews are also explicitly calling Pearl Abyss out for doing a terrible job in this aspect. From PC Gamer's coverage:

For how wildly vast and ambitious Crimson Desert is… its controls kinda suck. They’re clunky, awkward…

Even players who enjoyed the game are agreeing that the control scheme is finicky.

Controller controls ????‍????
by u/Fancy-Serve8687 in CrimsonDesert

What’s wrong with the controls?

Players are having an assortment of problems with Crimson Desert. Briefly, the most common complaints are:

• No easy remapping (especially on controller): Many users are angry that core keys are locked or impossible to change. In the words of this redditor, "A game not letting you remap controls in 2026 is just absurd" - and he's not wrong. (On PC you can rebind many keys, but console players have no native way to swap out certain functions.) Another comment points out the odd design of the keyboard scheme: "movement keys are hard locked and can’t be changed, along with various other things". In short, many fans feel like they are being robbed of basic customization that nearly all modern games allow.
• Multiple controls share buttons in an extremely confusing way. "WHY IS THE ACTION BUTTON THE SAME AS THE JUMP BUTTON?" was one player's complaint - meaning that attempts to interact with an object often causes the character to jump instead. Another example: talking to important NPCs requires holding a "focus" button plus press, whereas other NPCs need only a tap of the same key. Another user asked, "do you need to press and hold ctrl and then E to talk to key NPCs, when you can just press E for many others?". This inconsistency is visibly forcing players to learn which mode they’re in for the simplest tasks.

• Cumbersome multi-button combos: The combat system intentionally maps many moves to button combinations, but this is already proving to be a bad decision. The general sentiment is that all the coolest moves require pressing two to three buttons at once. For example, to launch into the air and drop a magic arrow, players had to jump, then quickly press L3 and R3 in sequence. These layered inputs can be hard to execute in the heat of battle. Also, even in action sequences, some inputs don't register at all, and the character feels delayed when parrying or shielding. Quoting PC Gamer yet again

What got on my nerves is the noticeable lag between button presses and follow-through. My inputs always felt one step behind the action.

• Nearly every action in Crimson Desert demands either a double-tap or a multi-second hold of a button. For instance, sprint is toggled by tapping run twice rather than holding it, and many interactions require holding a button until a meter fills. As another frustrated player on Reddit pointed out, "so many modern games demand that you hold a button down for two seconds to perform any action… I shouldn’t need to spend 12 seconds picking up a handful of potatoes". Indeed, doing something as simple as picking up an item or lifting an object often involves an extended press sequence, which feels counterintuitive to many.

Pearl Abyss has indicated it will issue updates after launch, but as of now, the day-one patch notes show no specific fixes for control mapping or responsiveness. The patch log has fixes for quests, animations, and UI text, and some known issues mention rare control glitches (e.g. an NPC choice breaking controls), but nothing about improving the core scheme. Meanwhile, community moderators for r/CrimsonDesert believe that pre-release "preview" builds might feature an "updated control scheme," which means the developers are listening (the new scheme was expected to be revealed around March 4th). It remains unclear exactly how or whether Pearl Abyss will rework the controls at this point.

If these complaints persist, however, the game does risk losing goodwill. On the flip side, if the team can swiftly patch in more intuitive bindings or optional (yet simpler) schemes, they can avert disaster. For now, the reviews are tanking on Steam, and all players can do is hope for an early patch.

At the same time, not everyone believes the issue is permanent. One Pearl Abyss executive reportedly compared the system to learning how to ride a bike (see below) - he says that the controls begin to feel natural over time once players get used to them. Ultimately, it's the word of the end-users against the devs and executives, but it won't be wrong to say there's still hope for Crimson Desert.

Buy the 8BitDo Ultimate 2C wireless controller on Amazon.