Glowing Crimson Desert review leaks, noting stable performance but brutal difficulty

With the Crimson Desert review embargo ending on March 18th, more impressions are surfacing early. The latest insight comes from a Korean streamer who managed to complete the enormous open-world game. He touches on some gameplay elements that haven’t received much attention. PC users also have a better idea of how Pearl Abyss optimized the title’s performance (spoilers below).

Is Crimson Desert as huge as expected?

Players who intend to finish the main campaign will need to make a serious time commitment. The YouTuber explained that he spent 10 hours a day exploring Pywel, but avoided around 50% of the bosses. He referenced the massive scope of Red Dead Redemption 2, which the streamer sank 600 hours into.

Even evading some challenges, the title could introduce a steep learning curve. An earlier leaked Crimson Desert review detailed how the combat system requires some trial and error. Certain regions in the open-world game are also more daunting than others. It appears that upgrading Kliff’s skills and stats will be essential to survival.

Fortunately, managing inventories may not add to the difficulty, as some players had feared. The YouTuber revealed that completing side quests provides more space to accumulate loot.

While one hero dominates the Crimson Desert story, other playable personalities appear. As in GTA 5, there are cinematic transitions when taking control of these characters. Gamers can strategically select different combatants more equipped to defeat an enemy.

Promising performance for PC gamers

With rumors that Pearl Abyss only issued review codes for PC versions, console performance on the PS5 and Xbox is more uncertain. Still, the streamer reported that using an RTX 5080, frame rates were steady at 1440p. That may not seem impressive, but he had the especially demanding cinematic mode active.

Due to embargo restrictions, the Korean broadcaster couldn’t share many details about the narrative. Regardless, without predicting a Crimson Desert Metacritic score, he called it the “game of his life.” A comparison was made to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, widely praised for its immersive 3D world.