Crimson Desert is a name we’ve been hearing about for a long time. The game was first announced back in 2019, and after multiple delays and changes in direction, it’s finally launching on March 19, 2026.
Pearl Abyss has revealed a lot about the game recently, showcasing the massive amount of features it offers. This built serious hype for Crimson Desert, but it also made some people cautious about whether the game can actually deliver on everything it’s promising.
In this article, we’ll outline the biggest announcements about Crimson Desert and what some fans are worried about.
The Open World and Combat
The game was initially an MMO, but Pearl Abyss changed it to a single-player experience. They removed the MMO features and built a massive open world instead.
The world map is twice the size of Skyrim and bigger than Red Dead Redemption 2. The game has little to no loading screens, and you can move around using horses, dragons, mechanical mechs, or just climb and parkour your way through.
There’s plenty of side content like fishing, cooking, hunting, arm wrestling, sheep wrangling, and horse taming. You can also build and upgrade your Greymane camp, farm resources, and manage your mercenary group.
Fighting is central to Crimson Desert and features incredible complexity. This is an action-adventure game, not a Soulslike. Players choose between swords, spears, bows, spells, grapples, wrestling throws, Taekwondo kicks (motion-captured from martial artists), and punches. You can switch weapons on the fly and chain different combat styles together. There’s equipment customization with armor sets that offer different stats.
The Story
Crimson Desert is set in a medieval fantasy world on the continent of Pywel, where multiple factions fight for control of the land.
The protagonist is Kliff Macduff, a seasoned mercenary and leader of the Greymanes, a kinship-bound fighting order. The Greymanes are struck down at the beginning when their sworn enemies, the Black Bears, ambush them. Many members are killed, and Kliff and the survivors are scattered across the continent.
Kliff’s mission is to reunite with his comrades, rebuild the Greymanes, and get revenge against the Black Bears’ leader, Myurdin. However, Kliff is an unlikely political player who is tasked with protecting an artifact of unclear significance while rebuilding his mercenary company. He also faces a larger conspiracy that threatens the entire continent.
Some Concerns
Some people feel cautious about the number of features Pearl Abyss announced. The game has combat, base building, fishing, cooking, hunting, mechs, dragons, and a massive open world. It’s trying to do a lot at once.
A common concern among creators and some journalists is that the game might lack a clear identity. With so many different systems pulled from various games, Crimson Desert could feel unfocused. People worry it might end up being a collection of features instead of everything working together as one cohesive experience.
Final Words
Crimson Desert is one of the most ambitious games we’ve seen in years. Pearl Abyss showed us a massive world with tons of features, from complex combat to side activities like fishing and base building. The scope is impressive, but that’s exactly what makes some people cautious.
The game releases March 19, 2026, and we’ll finally see if Pearl Abyss can deliver on everything they promised. Whether Crimson Desert lives up to the hype or not, we’ll know soon enough.