We are (almost) absolutely hyped for Crimson Desert here at VULKK. I asked our coverage team to share exactly why this game has our full attention.
Crimson Desert is a third-person action-adventure single-player game from Pearl Abyss. It is set in the open-world fictional continent of Pywell. It releases on March 19th, 2026 (or 20th, depending on your local time zone).
The narrative follows Kliff and his fellow Greymanes during a period of conflict. It offers visceral combat, deep progression systems, free exploration, a ton of secrets to discover and mysteries to solve.
To learn more, check out our ongoing coverage in the days leading up to the game’s release as well as our full guides and walkthroughs after March 19th. Now, let’s check in with each of our guide writers why we are all hyped up for this title and will be all over it in the coming weeks and months.
Ruby:
Anticipating Deep Exploration and Combat Theorycrafting
I had heard about Crimson Desert back when it was designed as an MMO, and eventually, development time led to me not keeping up with it. I’ve been following it very closely after its recent showings at events like Summer Games Fest and the Game Awards.
Exploration is the biggest draw of Crimson Desert for me. I’m all for finding the hidden loot, caves, and other things tucked away in the corners of the world. Based on everything shown of Crimson Desert so far, there is an abundance of opportunities to explore.
Combat is another huge draw for me, as I love theorycrafting and testing different weapon and ability combos. With the number of gear slots available and the Abyss Gear also playing a role, there’s huge potential to combine many different options.
I’m overall just excited to dive in. I’m hopeful that the game sticks to their currently listed PC Specifications, keeping it playable by a larger audience.
Adrian:
Overcoming Skepticism for Complex Combat and Rewarding Exploration
I didn’t learn about Crimson Desert until a few months ago. The comments about how long it’s been in development and the immense hype around it made me very skeptical about it. Sadly, it’s been common in recent years for games to be incredibly hyped and fail everyone’s expectations.
Whether because they simply didn’t deliver what they promised at launch (Halo Infinite, No Man’s Sky) or because of technical disasters that hurt the game’s performance (Jedi: Survivor, Cyberpunk 2077).
When another game starts to meet some of the same criteria, I immediately think of the titles mentioned above and hope for the best. From what the developers have shown and comments from people with access to it, most of these doubts seem to have dissipated by now.
The complex combat system and emphasis on exploration are the two things that made me want to play this. While I have enjoyed games like Assassin’s Creed: Shadows and Horizon Forbidden West, the lack of complexity in their combat systems made it feel dull at times.
I want something that is overwhelming at first, but incredibly satisfying when you master it. As far as exploration goes, I’m hoping that we get to explore every corner of Pywel and get rewarded by it. Not necessarily by obtaining unique items; an amazing view or fun easter egg is enough for me.
The game looks extremely promising, but I’m still cautious about being overly excited. Hopefully, it’ll be a smooth launch with little to no major issues for PC and console players.
Endonae:
Intrigued by the MMO Scale and a Mature Approach to Open-World Formulas
I’m a bit more skeptical of Crimson Desert than some of my colleagues. I’m more into soulslikes playing as a ranged caster and this definitely gives more hack-and-slash vibes, but the WWE moves I see the main character doing look pretty fun and remind me of the Berserker Solo Build I had a blast with in Cyberpunk 2077.
The sheer scale of the game has piqued my curiosity. Crimson Desert was initially meant to be an MMO, and in case you’ve never played one, they’re typically gigantic, like substantially bigger than AAA open-world single-player games. I am excited to see MMO DNA spliced into a single-player game.
Crimson Desert also seems to have taken a lot of inspiration from Legends of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, both in terms of gameplay and art direction. But Nintendo designs its games for children first, and the necessary guardrails and simplifications they have to put in place to keep the game approachable to inexperienced players can be quite cumbersome and overbearing to veteran gamers.
The Zeldas were designed for Nintendo Switch 1 and the WiiU, the former of which is nearly 10 years old and used miniaturized mid-range parts that fit in a handheld and match the performance of even older mid-range tech found in the WiiU.
It’s crazy that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom manage to look so good with such significant performance constraints, especially when we see developers like GameFreak unable (or unwilling) to match that fidelity with Pokémon games, despite being the highest-grossing media franchise of all time.
Of course, not even the mainline Zelda games can manage to cram in all the enemies we will get to slaughter in Crimson Desert. Running down Ganondorf’s armies has to be tackled by separate games in the Hyrule Warriors series.
Perhaps I’m reading too far into it, but it feels like the Koreans at Pearl Abyss are looking to upstage their Japanese rivals at Nintendo.
Vulkk:
Embracing the Distractions of a Rich Open World and Rewarding Exploration
I first heard about Crimson Desert about five or six years ago. I had tried Black Desert Online long before that and didn’t like it much. My main MMO has been (and still is) Star Wars: The Old Republic.
About a year ago or so, Pearl Abyss started posting more gameplay clips and recently they added four wonderful feature videos showcasing gameplay and game systems.
This is a pure single player solo third-person action game with big emphasis on exploration. It is exactly in the golden middle of my preferred games genre.
I am a huge fan of Midle-earth: Shadow of War. Crimson Desert’s combat reminds me of them a lot, though it’s more complex and a lot flashier. The game also borrows elements from other modern open-world games I love – Ghost of Yotei, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Horizon Forbidden West, and my all-time favorite, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Crimson Desert has a lot of similarities to Where Winds Meet as well. It has a ton of (typical for) MMO systems crammed into a solo experience, which is something I love about Where Winds Meet and I expect I will enjoy here too.
Crimson Desert’s feature videos and Will Powers’ countless social posts and interviews all promote an incredibly rich and vibrant world I definitely want to be a part of.
I enjoy distractions. I love it when I attempt to go somewhere for a quest but get sidetracked exploring a mysterious cave or an ancient ruin, and end up discovering unique and valuable loot and rewards. The sheer amount of optional content that fills gaps between quests and boss fights is something I always look forward to.
