Palworld lead finally completes Crimson Desert after 189 hours, says only The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind comes close to making him feel the same "sense of wonder and adventure"

Kliff loiters on a street corner in Crimson Desert as guards in green march past, led by a bulky mechanical suit of armor that's curiously sci-fi-inspired against the medieval fantasy style elsewhere.

It's safe to say Palworld's communications and publishing head John "Bucky" Buckley is a fan of Crimson Desert, as the dev has been gushing about the open-world hit over on Twitter.

Crimson Desert isn't the highest-rated game of 2026 (that honor goes to Resident Evil Requiem and Pokemon Pokopia as far as Metacritic is concerned, or Saros for OpenCritic) but it's definitely one of the biggest games of the year in terms of fan reception. People have fallen in love with it, and it's consistently been in the top-played Steam games since launch.