Crimson Desert launches to impressive player numbers but mixed reviews

Crimson Desert is finally out, and while it's already passed a major player milestone, its reviews leave something to be desired. It's been a long road to this point, with Pearl Abyss delaying the game multiple times since its 2019 reveal and some fans being upset by the lack of console footage until right before release. Now that Crimson Desert has been officially launched, it has found itself in a precarious position.

Hype was high for the massive open-world game leading up to launch, but things started to look a little shakier as the reviews rolled in. When the stock markets opened on March 19, Crimson Deserts reviews sent Pearl Abyss shares down nearly 30% from the day before. While critics had mostly positive things to say about the game, they didn't shower it with as much praise as investors had hoped for. The consensus was Crimson Desert is a good game, but not great in everyone's eyes, and now that players have gotten their hands on it, it seems they feel the same way.

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Crimson Desert has a rule you need to learn early

Crimson Desert looks like a game you can rush through, but learning to slow down and explore its world is key to avoiding its toughest roadblocks.

Crimson Desert surpasses 230,000 concurrent players but has mixed reviews

According to data from SteamDB, Crimson Desert peaked at 239,045 concurrent players on Steam just a couple of hours after launch. It might not be a big surprise, like Crimson Desert topped the Steam charts before it evened out, but the financial success hasn't translated into a solid reputation among gamers. At the time of writing, the game has a “Mixed” rating on Steam, with over 11,000 reviews in all languages. Crimson Desert holds the number one spot on the platform's bestseller list right now, and it's just outside the top five most played titles, but all of these players don't seem to agree on how good the game is.

Some players started to feel skeptical about the game even before its release. Just a week before the launch, Crimson Desert added the controversial Denuvo DRM anti-tampering software. While Pearl Abyss assured fans that the performance released before it already had Denuvo implemented, some PC gamers worried about the technology's impact on how the game would perform. But Denuvo and Crimson Deserttechnical performance has not proven to be the major concern among players. Rather, in line with many of the critic reviews that came out first, users have taken issue with the game's user interface and controls.

Reviewers say Crimson Deserts controls can be uncooperative and that its inventory system can be confusing and difficult to manage. Many of the player feedback on Steam echo the same sentiment. In general, people like the large open world and combat of the game, but they are largely frustrated with the controls and interface. These common themes appear in positive reviews of Crimson Desertalso, so players don't necessarily agree on the severity of these issues, but there is a broad consensus that they affect the overall experience. It's also necessary to note that the game has been out for less than 24 hours at this point, so Crimson DesertThe Steam rating could easily change in the coming days as people sink in more hours. Also, these reviews and player count only reflect Steam users, not anyone playing on Xbox or PS5.

It is too early to say how much of an impact these issues will have Crimson Desert Forward. Pearl Abyss may address players' concerns in future updates, and when it does, fans may come back to it. Many games have survived bad launches in the past, including some that met with much harsher criticism than this one Crimson Desert have seen so far, so nothing is set in stone.