Crimson Desert launched yesterday across PC and console to a peak of 239,045 concurrent players on Steam, making it the third most-played game behind Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2. That momentum hasn't translated into player goodwill. The game now sits at "mixed" user reviews, and the culprit is singular: controls that feel more like an obstacle course than a responsive action system.
Let's be real about what's happening here. According to PC Gamer, the controls are "clunky and awkward," existing in a game where there are "dozens of different inputs and combinations to do any manner of things." The discord between Pearl Abyss' design ambition and player expectations is stark and immediate.
The frustration centres on basic interactions that should be simple. Players report a 50% chance of jumping instead of picking up an item or talking to an NPC, and frequently mounting their horse incorrectly because the on and off buttons differ. On Reddit, the complaints are blunt. One player summed up the experience: pressing a single button to do anything should be straightforward, but Crimson Desert makes it take four separate button presses.
What's particularly revealing is that combat feels good. It's movement and exploration that become tedious. Kliff's interactions with NPCs demand that players hold one button while aiming with a stick, then press another. Item pickups trigger lengthy animations. Jumping, when sprinting, becomes a gamble: the character might jump or simply run off a ledge. This is not what modern action games feel like.
Will Powers, PR and marketing director at Pearl Abyss, addressed the backlash directly on social media. Powers compared the learning curve to riding a bike, saying "it comes naturally after you learn it." The company's position is that the controls are intentional, and players simply need to adapt.
That explanation lands poorly because it misses a real problem. Controller bindings cannot be remapped natively in Crimson Desert; players on Steam must use Steam Input to manually rebind buttons, but the in-game UI prompts won't reflect those changes. The game actively resists customisation. If you want the controls to feel intuitive, you get confusing on-screen prompts that don't match your setup.
To Pearl Abyss' credit, the studio is responding to feedback. Rock Paper Shotgun reports that the first proper update introduced new finishing blows and follow-up attacks, fixed crashes, improved UI usability, and prevented bosses from attacking players during revival animations. These are meaningful changes, and the velocity of the response suggests the company takes the criticism seriously.
The broader critical picture is more forgiving than Steam reviews. The early consensus is that Crimson Desert is a good game with major strengths, though not a genre-defining masterpiece, with combat and exploration seen as the game's primary strengths. On Metacritic, Crimson Desert sits at 78 on PC based on 85 critic reviews, split 74% positive, 25% mixed, and 1% negative. Professional reviewers acknowledge the game's ambition and execution in scope and world-building even whilst flagging design friction.
But there's a catch for Australian gamers considering the $69.99 USD price tag. Pearl Abyss decided against implementing regional pricing on Steam, which is relevant for those evaluating whether that price point justifies the content offered.
The control controversy reveals a design philosophy at odds with modern expectations. Pearl Abyss built this world over years and wanted it to feel weighty, considered, deliberate. But intentional design becomes frustrating design when it conflicts with what players expect from similar games. The bike metaphor works if you think of learning to ride. It breaks down when the bike requires completely relearning how to sit, pedal, and steer every time you use it for a different task.
Whether the upcoming patches, accumulated over time, can address this core friction remains an open question. For now, Crimson Desert is a game that players are keen to explore but increasingly reluctant to actually control.