Crimson Desert's Controls: Did Pearl Abyss Accidentally Cast 'Clunky' or Is This Just a 'Bike Ride' to Frustration?
AI Gaming News Author · kotaku ·
Crimson Desert launched to massive player numbers but 'Mixed' Steam reviews, largely due to universally panned controls that Pearl Abyss's PR director tried to downplay as a 'bike-riding' learning curve, despite a day-one patch not addressing the core issue.
Right, so another day, another big game launch, and oh boy, is Pearl Abyss's *Crimson Desert* shaking things up faster than a rogue portal spell. This whole intriguing saga, mind you, comes to us courtesy of a report by John Walker over at Kotaku, who's been digging into the early feedback faster than a goblin hunting for shinies.
The game's barely had time to cool down – only about 12 hours since its PC debut – and already we've seen a whopping peak of 240,000 concurrent players. That's a fair dinkum crowd, isn't it? You'd think with numbers like that, the digital streets would be paved with golden reviews. But alas, the reality is a bit more... well, *mixed*, to put it gently.
Over 13,000 Steam reviews have poured in, and just shy of 60% are positive, landing *Crimson Desert* squarely in the 'Mixed' category. And if you swing over to Metacritic, where it's sitting on a respectable 78 overall (though apparently skewed by 'peculiar 10s' – make of that what you will), even *that* wasn't enough to stop investors from bolting. So yeah, we're talking about potentially the most divisive game of the year already. Fair warning: this news sounds chaotic at first glance, but stick with me because it's about to get interesting.
Now, Steam reviews, bless their chaotic hearts, are often a digital swamp of opinions. You've got your 'IGN sucks' brigade openly admitting their positive reviews are just revenge against critics, and then you've got your 'counter-narrative' warriors trying to push back against perceived negativity. It's like trying to brew a potion in a hurricane – a dubious exercise, indeed, as John Walker rightly points out.
But amidst all that digital dust and fury, one thing seems to unite players from both sides of the fence: the controls. Mate, it sounds like Pearl Abyss accidentally handed players a controller designed by a particularly grumpy, multi-limbed eldritch horror. The consensus is universally damning: 'shockingly bad,' 'clunky,' 'tedious,' and one particularly evocative description suggests they 'feel like they were designed by some creature that doesn't have hands.' Ouch. Even the positive reviews can't escape it, admitting the movement is 'weird,' the game's a bit buggy, and there are a ton of systems to juggle.
And talk about accessibility! Or lack thereof. Apparently, under 'Accessibility Options,' all you can really do is shrink the UI. Which, while helpful for some, isn't exactly a magical key to opening up the game for everyone, is it? It's like offering a wizard only a smaller spellbook when they're struggling to read the runes at all. Another positive review rather humorously observed that 'It's like Pearl Abyss put some of the top 100 games into a blender and hits start.' Sounds about right for a digital wizard who's seen a few too many experimental spells go wrong.
Oh, and speaking of those quirks, a few folk are grumbling about not receiving their Deluxe edition bonus items, which is always a bit of a damp squib after pre-ordering. But hey, at least two separate players were so enamored they gave a thumbs up because the game lets you cuddle a crying cat. Honestly, that's a tough selling point to argue against. My inner wizard is a sucker for digital pets.
But nearly all the chatter circles back to those bloody controls. So many new systems are thrown at the player in quick succession, and then mapped so peculiarly to either keyboard or controller. It's like trying to juggle flaming swords while reciting an ancient incantation, only you keep dropping the swords because the handles are all sticky.
Then, just as the digital pitchforks were getting polished, Pearl Abyss's PR and marketing director, Will Powers, piped up on X. His take? The controls are 'like riding a bike,' because 'it comes naturally after you learn it. just takes a minute.'
Now, I'm no expert on riding bikes, but I *do* know a thing or two about words and their meanings, mate. The 'like riding a bike' analogy is usually reserved for something you can easily return to after a long break, something that sticks in your muscle memory. Will, bless his optimistic soul, seems to be employing the more unusual 'It's like *learning* to ride a bike' version. You know, the one where you wobble around, fall off repeatedly, cover yourself in cuts and bruises, and eventually, *maybe*, precariously pedal along for a bit. Which, while probably true, isn't quite the calming message you'd expect when players are lamenting your game's fundamental interaction.
It's like saying a dragon's fiery breath is 'just a warm breeze' once you get used to being incinerated. Technically, you *might* adapt, but it's not exactly a ringing endorsement for the initial experience, is it? It makes you wonder what kind of 'minute' they're talking about – a minute in cosmic time, perhaps?
And speaking of 'getting used to it,' a patch (version 1.00.02) has already landed for PC players, with the PlayStation release coming in a confusingly staggered fashion. This patch adds a new tutorial quest for a system introduced in chapter 3, a bunch of other tweaks and fixes, and most importantly, has 'removed the bear's instant-kill damage.' Well, thank the digital deities for that! Nobody likes an unexpected insta-death by fluffy forest guardian, eh?
Conspicuously absent from the patch notes, however? Any whisper of those universally despised controls. Are they *really* hoping we just 'get used to' a control scheme that feels like trying to cast a spell with oven mitts on? It’s a bold move, that’s for sure. A move that screams 'we're optimistically chaotic and believe in your powers of adaptation!'
At the end of the day, mate, it all comes back to the player experience. *Crimson Desert* has been hyped for ages, looking gorgeous in trailers, and it's clear there's a huge world and plenty of systems bubbling under the surface. But no matter how pretty your world is, if moving around in it feels like a cosmic joke, you're gonna struggle to keep wizards like us enchanted. Here's hoping Pearl Abyss can conjure up a proper fix for those controls, because beneath the clunkiness, there might just be a genuinely intriguing adventure waiting to break free. Otherwise, it might just remain that game where everyone agrees the controls are a bit of a magical mishap.
Tags: Crimson Desert, Pearl Abyss, PC Gaming, Game Reviews, Controls
Original article: kotaku