Crimson Desert Faces Criticism Over Controls Amidst Poor Steam Reviews
Crimson Desert has been live for about 12 hours, and with a peak of 240,000 concurrent players on PC, it’s already racked up over 13,000 reviews on Steam. The feedback is quite polarized. Out of 13,477 ratings, nearly 60 percent are positive, placing the game firmly in the “Mixed” category.
This sentiment aligns with the critical reception, as seen in the 98 reviews from reputable sources on Metacritic. The game currently holds a solid overall score of 78, but that number is influenced by a handful of unusually high ratings. Even this hasn’t been enough to keep investors engaged, making Crimson Desert one of the most contentious titles of the year.
Steam reviews are notoriously chaotic. Positive ratings often come with heated complaints, while negative ones can stem from personal grudges. About a quarter of the positive reviews I encountered explicitly state they were written in retaliation against critics’ opinions (one review simply states, “IGN sucks”), with many others attempting to “counter” perceived narratives. This makes relying on player reviews a tricky endeavor. However, there is a consensus on the game’s controls, which are widely criticized as “shockingly bad” and “clunky.” One particularly harsh review claims, “The controls are tedious and feel like they were designed by some creature that doesn’t have hands.”
On the flip side, a positive review notes, “the movement is weird, the game’s a bit buggy at times, there are a ton of systems to keep track of, and the story is a bit confusing.” Another user highlights that the “Accessibility Options” only allow for UI scaling, which doesn’t offer much in terms of accessibility. “It’s like Pearl Abyss blended some of the top 100 games together and hit start,” says another positive reviewer. Several players are also voicing frustration over pre-ordering the Deluxe version without receiving their bonus items. Interestingly, at least two players gave a thumbs up simply because the game allows you to cuddle a crying cat, which is hard to argue against.
Yet, the focus remains on those controls, where players are bombarded with new systems that are mapped in odd ways to either keyboard or controller. However, Pearl Abyss’s PR and marketing director took to social media to clarify that it’s “like riding a bike,” suggesting that it becomes second nature once you get the hang of it.
I’m not sure that’s the best analogy to use, as “like riding a bike” typically implies you can jump back in and pick things up right away. Will Powers seems to be leaning more towards the “It’s like learning to ride a bike” perspective, where you might wobble, fall, and get a few scrapes before you can ride smoothly. While that might be accurate, it’s not exactly the reassuring message one would hope for.
The first patch is already rolling out for PC, updating the game to version 1.00.02, while the PlayStation release is being staggered in two parts, with the first half now available for download. This patch introduces a new tutorial quest for a system from chapter 3, along with various tweaks and fixes, and notably, it has “removed the bear’s instant-kill damage.” However, there’s no mention of any improvements to the controls.
