Crimson Desert Is Here—And So Are the Reviews: “It Only Gets Good After Two Weeks”
“It only gets good after two weeks of play”—that’s the most honest compliment a reviewer could muster for Crimson Desert. Between one critic clocking 200 hours without seeing the credits and Pearl Abyss’s stock dropping 29%, the picture is anything but simple.
Out now on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC, Crimson Desert was hyped as the next big thing in open-world gaming after weeks of community buzz. But its 78/100 Metacritic score—based on 91 PC-only reviews—tells a different story: a colossal game that some absolutely adore and others find utterly exhausting, with scores swinging wildly from 4/10 to 10/10.
Image credit: Pearl Abyss
Critical consensus: a gigantic world that hides its best features
All 91 reviews on Metacritic come from the PC version. No console codes were sent to reviewers before launch—a move that brings back memories of the Cyberpunk 2077 debacle in 2020. Digital Foundry did get to test the PS5 Pro version, with promising results thanks to the PS5 Pro’s technical muscle. There are three graphics modes on console (visual quality, framerate, and balanced), and performance holds up outside of the most chaotic battles. Still, early doubts about the console versions linger, since there’s a lack of independent testing.
On the consensus front, critics agree on a few things. Pywel’s world is massive, visually stunning, and the combat system gets near-universal praise. But the story is weak, systems are poorly explained, and the fixed, unchangeable difficulty is as frustrating as it is thrilling. Scores range from 4/10 to 10/10—a rare spread that shows just how impossible it is to put Crimson Desert in a single box. As one reviewer put it: the game tries to do everything, excels at a few things, and falls flat at others.
200 hours in and still not done: the mind-boggling scale of Crimson Desert
The most jaw-dropping stat comes from a reviewer who spent over 200 hours in Crimson Desert—and still hasn’t seen the end credits. “There are too many systems, too many quests, a world that’s just too big to explore,” they wrote, adding that even after all that time, they were still discovering new mechanics. Another tester sank 150 hours and called the game “deeply flawed,” but praised its “exceptional” combat. For comparison, most open-world RPGs wrap up in 60 to 80 hours. Here, the game just refuses to end.
And it’s not just the main quest. Crimson Desert piles on activities with a generosity that borders on overkill:
- 76 bosses to fight, with wildly varying difficulty
- A camp management system with recruiting, dispatch missions, and crafting
- Environmental puzzles inspired by Breath of the Wild
- Trading, animal husbandry, interior decorating, bug hunting
- Multiple playable characters to unlock as you go
This overabundance is polarizing. For some, it’s an incredible richness that justifies the game’s unusual business model—no microtransactions, no season pass. For others, it’s just pure filler. “If someone had bothered to cut all the nonsense from Crimson Desert—the fetch quests, the basic fights, the map bloat—you’d probably have a decent experience left,” one review says. Jason Schreier of Bloomberg is even more blunt after a few hours: “It feels like a game made for people who just want to Consume Content.” Pearl Abyss’s stock crash—down 28.9% to 46,600 won after the review scores dropped—shows shareholders, who were hoping for a 90/100, share that disappointment.
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The verdict that stings: “It only gets good after two weeks”
The line that sums up the Crimson Desert paradox comes from GamesRadar+’s review. After more than 80 hours, Joel Franey admits with disarming humor: “I know, I know—‘it gets good if you put in two weeks of work’ is a pretty weak compliment, but it’s true. It really does get better!” He adds that this improvement comes partly from understanding the game’s flaws: some skills just aren’t worth investing in, whole chunks of side activities are tedious, and you can fast-forward the story without missing anything essential.
On the flip side, the most enthusiastic takes are a wild contrast. Paul Tassi, who gave it a 9.5/10 after 100 hours, can’t stop raving: “A hundred hours in and I’ve never been bored. There’s just so much to do—so many progression paths, quests, crafting, puzzles, boss hunts, territory grabs—the list just never ends.” At the other extreme, IGN’s provisional review (6/10 after 110 hours) slams “painfully uninspired stealth sections” and “puzzles you brute-force instead of solving creatively.” Two reviewers, hundreds of hours each, and a 3.5-point gulf between their scores.
This chasm says something fundamental about Crimson Desert: the game doesn’t give itself up easily. It demands a massive investment before showing its best cards—dragon battles, mech piloting, Dragon’s Dogma-style climbing—and not everyone is willing to wait 50 hours to get there. Pearl Abyss built a monument to raw ambition, but forgot to put up a welcome sign at the door.
Crimson Desert might just be the most polarizing game of 2026. It asks players for blind faith, promising the payoff will come—but only for those willing to slog through dozens of hours of frustration and opaque systems. The big question: will the community be as patient as the critics who sacrificed their nights for it?
PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
