Crimson Desert, the ambitious single-player open-world action-RPG by Pearl Abyss, will soon release on March 19, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Windows and Steam.
So Pearl Abyss has decided to release a series of three gameplay overviews covering various aspects of the game in the lead-up to Crimson Desert's release, starting with a gameplay overview of its story and open-world gameplay.
The overview starts with introducing us to the main playable protagonist, Kliff, a warrior hailing from the Greymane faction, sworn to uphold peace throughout the continent of Pywell.
One day, though, the Greymane faction was shattered and driven from their homeland by a faction of barbaric marauders called the Black Bears. Your personal goal as Kliff is to explore the land for surviving members of the Greymanes, take revenge against the Black Bears, and reclaim your faction's homeland.
However, your personal journey will gradually pull you into a deeper conflict beyond faction warfare as dark forces from a mysterious realm known as the Abyss threaten to plunge the entire continent of Pywell into chaos.
You won't be alone on your journey as the gameplay overview reveals that Kliff will be joined by two additional playable characters, each with their own unique gameplay styles for combat and exploration.
One character is an agile female human warrior wielding magic, a greatsword, and a pistol, while the other character is a huge male orc barbarian wielding a greataxe, an arm cannon, and a pickaxe for mining crystals.
You will need all these characters' skills to help you explore Pywell because it is a massive continent comprised of five distinct regions — Hernand, Pailune, Demeniss, Delesyia, and the titular Crimson Desert.
Each region contains its fair share of civilizations to shop for equipment and take up quests. There are hidden secrets and treasures strewn throughout the environment, along with challenging puzzles, platforming segments, and hordes of unique enemies barring your path.
To traverse these locales, the game will offer a wide range of mobility options for those who take the time to unlock them. These include riding on horseback, climbing cliffs by hand, using magic to double jump or glide in mid-air, or even riding on dragons and rocket-firing giant mechs.
Will this game success or falter under it's lofty ambitions?
We've been hearing about Crimson Desert for many years now, and every time I see a new trailer for it, I can't help but feel skeptical about it because it looks too good to be true.
The combat system looks like an insane mix of Monster Hunter and Witcher 3 (with slight elements of WWE wrestling, as you can perform Randy Orton's iconic 'RKO' finishing move in the game), the open-world looks so gigantic it would give MMORPGs like World of Warcraft a run for their money, and now it's adding new playable characters and rideable giant mechs into the mix.
I can't imagine how the final product will function when Crimson Deserts launches next month.
Ambitious open-world games like this tend to run a high risk of suffering crippling performance issues due to demanding workloads and subpar optimization. Case in point being Monster Hunter Wilds' broken PC port that took nearly a year to fix.
Personally, I hope Crimson Desert doesn't suffer the same fate at launch because this game has the potential to be one of 2026's best Xbox and PC games if it can pull off its gameplay and premise right.
In the meantime, we'll keep an eye on the rest of Pearl Abyss' gameplay overviews for Crimson Desert, so you don't miss out on more exciting reveals for this promising action-RPG.
Are you excited to play Crimson Desert? Do you think its graphical and framerate performance will hold up under the weight of its massive and ambitious open-world gameplay and content?
If you have any thoughts on the matter, let us know in the comments below.
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