Crimson Desert launched to big Steam concurrents, but it’s currently on a “mixed” user review rating on Valve’s platform, with most of the complaints revolving around the controls.
Pearl Abyss’ hotly anticipated open world action game launched yesterday across PC and console, and while we don’t have console player numbers, Steam concurrents hit a peak of 239,045 — enough to make it the third most-played game behind only Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 for a time.
However, user reviews are on “mixed,” and the controls (Crimson Desert encourages PC players to play with a controller) are at the heart of the reaction.
Some are saying the controls feel unintuitive and unresponsive. Generally speaking, players say the controls feel good in combat, but normal movement and exploration feels awkward, with an aim to jump mechanic that has come under fire from some quarters.
Elsewhere, Crimson Desert asks you to focus in on people and press Square (on a DualSense controller) to talk to them, but then sometimes you actually need to hold Square and pressing it will cause a jump. Crimson Desert has a jump button, but when sprinting and you tap jump, it can sometimes feel like the luck of the draw if playable character Kliff is actually going to jump or just run off of a ledge.
“Controls on the controller are so bad,” reads one negative Steam review. “It's REALLY annoying to have to hold one button then aim with a stick, then press another button JUST TO TALK TO AN NPC. Why would you design it like this? Picking up items is really slow and has an animation for everything. For example, you will have to physically pull out a note from your inventory and go through the animation to take it out and read it. Then you have to put the note back into your inventory before you can move. WHY can’t I just hover over the item in my inventory and read the note there? As other reviews have said the movement feels really sluggish and unresponsive, which makes the clunky controls even more obvious. If they just fix the controls to be like every other third-person game it would be such a better game afterwards. I want to like it, but man this is pretty rough to play and really takes the fun away from just roaming and doing quests and exploring. Let me have fun, don’t bog me down with four buttons to do anything that should be one button.”
It’s a similar sentiment on the growing Crimson Desert subreddit, which is littered with complaints about the controls. “Great open world — nice ambience music. Worst controls ever seen in a game,” reads one thread. “I find a solution for a task — I want to grab my loot: not working. Literally feeling like someone with a disease. For this you needed so many years? Who QAs this and says yeah lets go live with it?”
“Controls are single-handedly hurting the game,” reads another thread. “I had an easier time with Sega’s Lion King game. WHY IS THE ACTION BUTTON THE SAME AS THE JUMP BUTTON? If the context selection for use pops up I shouldn’t have to get right the hell on top of it to make it work.
“RUN SHOULD BE L3 TAP, ACTION SHOULD BE X, I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HOLD L1 AND POINT AT SOMEONE’S FACE TO TALK (I’m going to shoot them with an arrow with an L2 mistake — RD2 style).”
That mention of Red Dead Redemption 2 was a recurring theme during Crimson Desert’s first day. Rockstar’s open world western was also criticized for its fiddly controls, although it is considered by many to be a masterpiece and perhaps even Rockstar’s greatest achievement.
Will Powers, PR and marketing director at Pearl Abyss, has been answering player questions on social media since Crimson Desert's launch, and directly responded to one person who complained about the controls to say that once you learn them, they come “naturally.”
“Think of it like riding a bike, it comes naturally after you learn it,” Powers insisted. “Just takes a minute.” Then: “I'm agreeing with you, saying that it takes time to learn, but it comes naturally after you do.”
Pearl Abyss will be keen to address the common complaints with Crimson Desert, and to improve that “mixed” user review rating on Steam. Yesterday, IGN reported on how Pearl Abyss saw its stock price plunge nearly 30% in what was seen as a reaction to review scores. Today, the company stock fell a further 9.78%.
We’ve got plenty more on Crimson Desert, including patch notes for its day one update, IGN's Crimson Desert Review So Far, and our launch interview with Will Powers. We've also got a Crimson Desert PC performance review.
And if you’re jumping into Crimson Desert’s huge open world, we recommend you take a look at our guide to Things to Do First in Crimson Desert, plus Things Crimson Desert Doesn’t Tell You (we’ve got 28 and counting!). We’ve also got a guide to the Best Early Weapons we recommend picking up, the Best Skills to Get First (including a handy explainer of the skills system), and 34 Essential Tips and Tricks to help you succeed in Pywel.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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