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.
One of the game's biggest fans is Bucky, who's taken to Twitter to announce he's 100% completed all of Crimson Desert's achievements after 189 hours with the game. He says, "Simply put, Crimson Desert made me feel a sense of wonder and adventure that no other game has. The only thing that comes close for me is Morrowind." He adds that it's "easily… my GOTY."
Ironically, 100%ing Crimson Desert actually just means you completed every challenge. I still have like...20hrs+ worth of side missions still available to do. Such a fantastic game...Genuinely made me feel like a little kid again.Thank you, Pearl Abyss. pic.twitter.com/0dFnt62nbNApril 22, 2026
However, completing the game's achievements doesn't mean he's done, as he notes: "I still have like...20hrs+ worth of side missions still available to do. Such a fantastic game…"
Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for the right moment to start Crimson Desert. Frankly, a game that big and all-encompassing is daunting, and unless we hit a real drought of games I'm interested in coming out, I may not get to it for a while. Maybe it'll finally happen if GTA 6 gets delayed again and we have a big gap from all the games that tried to avoid its release date.
Take a look at our Crimson Desert review to find out why it's one of the hottest new games for 2026.
