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PC Gamer
PC Gamer
Joshua Wolens

Crimson Desert does what other games do backwards and that's why it's a beautiful freak of nature, says imsim vet at Arkane Lyon

Kliff stands in ornate armor, sans helmet. It is a screenshot of Crimson Desert.

Crimson Desert, a game about simulating a large Scottish man and his friends and sometimes their adventures in space, is pretty weird. Depending on which precise member of the PC Gamer editorial staff you ask, that's either high praise or venomous criticism (I'm neutral—the game runs terribly on my machine, so I've not played much of it).

Dinga Bakaba, studio director at Arkane Lyon whose name is on all three Dishonored games (including the first game's Dunwall City Trials DLC, against which I bear a personal blood grudge), is firmly in the former camp. He's all about Pearl Abyss' wacky wonderful world. In a post on X, Bakaba donned his analytical hat and pointed out that "Crimson Desert functions opposite to most games of this type."

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