It's hard to describe Crimson Desert. We've gotten our hands on the game three times now, and even still there's so much that it's hard to hold in your hands without a lot more context that we just don't have quite yet. As Crimson Desert is shaping up to be one of my most-anticipated games of 2026, and easily the most ambitious game Pearl Abyss has released to date, I wanted to do my level best to sum up the upcoming title, cobbling together what we do know at this point ahead of any last second final previews, and ultimately our chance to get our hands on the final game. Welcome to the world of Pywel - welcome to Crimson Desert.
If you're unfamiliar with the Pearl Abyss team, they're the developers behind the widly-successful MMO, Black Desert. With over 55 million registered players, Black Desert launched in 2016 in North America (2014 in its home country of Korea) and has grown steadily since then, giving us massive annual expansions yearly, with minor upgrades and seasonal content dotted throughout. Even more impressive, they also focus regionally, offering content specifically for those areas relevant to that part of the world (e.g. Land of the Morning Light is a a Korean-inspired content expansion). In 2019, the team was looking to build a prequel to Black Desert Online, announcing Crimson Desert as that title. Through development, however, it transitioned into the single-player open-world action-adventure game that it has now become.
THE STORY WE KNOW...
Crimson Desert tells the story of Kliff, a member of a group of peace enforcers called the Greymanes. As a force of good, the Greymanes looked to unify the land under a banner of peace, but when the game begins, they've unfortunately failed at that task – the team is scattered, and the world is at war. Following a devastating ambush by the "Black Bears", the leader of the Greymanes, Jian, has been killed, scattering the ragtag group to the wind. Now the land of Pailune faces war between these two forces, and it's up to Kliff to rebuild the faction to face the Black Bears. Political intrigue aside, however, it turns out the Black Bears aren't the most dire threat on the horizon.
A dark and malevolent force has emerged from The Abyss – a mysterious series of floating islands flying above Pywel, full of sorcery and magic. It turns out the floating continent itself holds power, and fragments of it can be used to unlock abilities beyond that of mortal men. Preventing this and restoring the balance between these two worlds is an important part of our journey, though we don't quite have enough context to how that unfolds. It does, however, explain some of the more fantastical elements we've seen in the trailers for the game – they possess power and technologies that the world of Pywel simply does not, and Kliff will use magical gates to travel to the Abyss to earn them for himself in some fashion.
It's in this journey that I think things get the most interesting. We have what appears to be a somewhat grounded (magical powers aside) world with real political and personal power struggles juxtaposed against otherworldly supernatural forces destabilizing the land as they emerge from this unknown threat - the Abyss. The warring factions, townsfolk with agendas and lives, and small slices of life are a candy shell on top of an ancient power that lies underneath the surface. It should create some compelling narratives as these two worlds collide. Will these warring factions be able to put aside their squabbles to unite against a common threat? Time will tell, but until then, it'll be interesting to roam a land where danger and opportunity lie behind every stretch of wilderness.
We are working with limited information, with roughly three hours of personal hands-on time and the footage that has been released to the public to go on, but what immediately stands out is how alive the world feels. Towns bustle with activity; merchants talk to one another and seem to haggle, guards patrol, and villagers go about their daily routines. Outside the walls, the landscape is as varied as it is dangerous, ranging from from snowy peaks to windswept plains, dense forests, and sun‑baked ruins, with the desolate Crimson Desert carving dangerous crossings between them. Dynamic events occur throughout the world and without warning — bandit ambushes, wildlife encounters, faction skirmishes — giving the impression of a world that isn't merely staged and waiting for the player to interact with it. Even the massive battles we took part in during our demo were dynamic. Skirmishes erupted all around us, and I could easily try to help press each one to resolution, or I could bust through with my trusty steed and aim to cut the head from the snake to resolve it once and for all. The choice was mine to make, and the game didn't seem to be forcing me down any particular path over the other.
COMBAT AND CHARACTERS
Despite seeing Kliff whipping all sorts of elemental sparks around in combat, he doesn't actually possess any magical ability of his own. Instead, he relies on magical equipment, central of which is the Axiom Bracelet. Using a selection wheel, this bracelet allows the player to select from several elemental powers (fire, lighting, ice) that can be unleashed in a variety of ways. Enemies can also have elemental attacks (especially bosses) so keep in mind your elemental opposites to counter. These powers can be leveled up with skill points earned as you level up, with special powers granting additional effects like shoving enemies back or electrifying the ground.
While it's not overtly expressed, we can infer that Kliff (and ultimately his two companions) will gain their powers via fragments of fallen Abyss. Perhaps raw, and perhaps when forged, these artifacts unlock new skills and upgrades to powers you've already obtained. Some are useful for combat, and others are used to grant additional powers like the ability to lift objects psychically - useful for puzzle solving and more. One example, a power called Force Palm, can shove enemies back, knock back items in the environment, and elements can be infused into it via the skill system. It can also be fired at the ground to launch Kliff into the air, granting recovery time, building up a meteoric strike towards the ground, and other combinations. Frankly, it's these elemental combinations that are likely to make combat easy to pick up and wonderful to master – I look forward to seeing what people come up with at launch.
Though you'll start the story as Kliff, you won't always be playing as him. Throughout his story you'll meet, befriend, and ultimately recruit a swift female warrior named Damiane who wields a massive claymore and a flintlock pistol, and a bruiser of a man named Oongka who wields a massive axe and a hand cannon. All three of these characters not only have their own weapons and armor, but their own fighting styles and powers, meaning you'll have three ways to play through the game. It's unknown precisely how this will work , whether it's freeform like Grand Theft Auto or a choice before you embark in a similar fashion to Assassin's Creed Shadows, but we have seen what appears to be a selection wheel to switch between them suggesting at least some aspect of the former.
We've seen a bit of variety in combat in our demos and in videos. One-on-one combat, boss battles (more on that in a moment), and battling monsters are all staples of any good RPG, but here we can also add massive army against army battles with literally hundreds of skirmishes in the immediate area. While your banner lords, villagers, and peasant petitioners might ask you to solve various quests, mount a rescue, or find an artifact, the most powerful of them might ask you to assault a rival faction's territory, which might be blockaded or worse. Defeating the troops of the rival lord, and likely the lord themselves (or a lieutenant), will free that area, restoring it to the area's hopefully-rightful hands. You'll see people reappear to retake their homes, going back to their daily lives and chores as it's now safe, thanks to you.
We've faced off against bosses in our preview events, and they are as much a puzzle as they are a foe. These named characters typically have some sort of key to defeating them quickly, if you can figure it out. These are tough fights, but are more in line with action adventure games than Soulslike titles. These bosses often have some sort of mechanic you can exploit to take them down efficiently, though grinding them down the old fashioned way will (eventually) work as well. During one fight, I used a skill I'd learned earlier that day as I reset poles that had been knocked over by a rival army. In this fight, I was raising the poles to drop on this foe's head, stunning him for a brief moment and making him vulnerable.
Defeating these foes can result in all sorts of help in your journey. Making the area safe might bring with it access to a new vendor that was otherwise in hiding. It could reward you with the weapon they used against you in battle, or a new set of armor. It can also be things like hidden treasure maps, which could lead you to undiscovered loot. Maybe it's a hidden trapdoor, or perhaps a bookcase that rotates to reveal a hidden room - whatever the case, it's yours to discover, as is the reward.
THE WORLD OF PYWEL
The world of Pywel is split into five regions that we know of so far. Hernand is a mountainous region with rivers that cut through it, serving as the start of our adventure. There's also Pailune, the northernmost region and also the homeland of the Greymanes. Demeniss is the center of Pywel's political and military stage, with the region of Delesyia at the forefront of science and technology. Finally, there is the Crimson Desert, a lawless expanse of arid red sand filled with bandits and lawlessness. Within each of these regions lies a wealth of castles, towns, villages, mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers, basins, and much more. They also feature individual factions, with minor houses serving as lords over the area, providing protection or at least oversight of each. In the brief looks we've had, we have seen the map dotted with dozens of landmarks, locations, and areas of interest to explore, but the game doesn't force you down any particular path – you are welcome to engage with these side missions as much or as little as you see fit.
TRAVERSAL IN PYWEL
We've seen several methods of traversal in Crimson Desert, though we've only gotten to try out two of them – grappling hook/climbing and horses. Kliff can climb cliffs, use a grappling hook to cross gaps and help leap up obstacles (which is useful when taking down watch towers), and even mount wildlife like bears, wolves, dinosaurs, wyverns, and eventually dragons. We've even seen two varieties of dragon, with a flesh and bone version as well as a massive golden metal mechanical beast. We've also seen him use a sort of mechanical bipedal mechanized robot, armed with missiles of some kind. Scaling mountains provides a wonderful showcase of the game's incredible draw distance, as well as an opportunity to use Kliff's eventually-obtained "Crow Wings" that allow him to glide through the air. We've seen Kliff help an NPC with a quest that had him riding in a wagon. We've also seen hot air balloons, rowboats, and even larger ships, but like the wagon, it's not known if those are going to be directly controlled or not. The team has said that the game is roughly double the size of Skyrim or Red Dead Redemption 2, and it seems like there are quite a few ways to explore it.
While you are exploring the world, you'll also engage in several life skills that will help in your journey. We've spotted hand gathering of mushrooms, logging with an axe, mining with a hammer or pickaxe (or even explosives!), fishing, cooking, astronomy, and horse taming in videos throughout the years. It's reasonable to assume you're collecting all this stuff for a reason, and that points to the persistent rumors about crafting, hunting, farming, and building your own home being a part of the game being true. We have seen snippets of quest names like "Harbor Lighthouse Construction quest" and "Build a lighthouse" which are all but confirmation.
LOCKED IN AND READY FOR LAUNCH
Crimson Desert is almost here. If any of the info above has you as excited for this game as much as I am, you'll have a number of ways to pick it up. The team declared that it had "gone gold" (sent off for physical manufacturing) on January 21, 2026 with a release date of March 19th, 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Mac, and PC. Several versions of the game are available for preorder – a standard edition which includes the base game and a Khaled Shield for those who pre-order, a Deluxe Edition which includes the base game, a Limited Edtion Steelbook, a map of Pywel, a letter from the developer, character cards, a brooch pin, patches, and a Kairos Plate Set, Balgran Shield, Exclaire Horse Tack as pre-order digital goodies. For those who are all in, I wish you luck, but wow is there an amazing dragon at the end of the Collector's Edition rainbow. This epic collection includes everything you'll find in the Deluxe Edition, as well as a 17" exclusive diorama statue of Kliff fighting Golden Star, the aforementioned mechanical dragon we've seen in a few trailers, as well as the Tormented Soul Bow / Derictus Spear / Sielos Longsword, an upgraded cloth map of Pywel, and something called a "Shroud Lantern". If you're picking it up on the PlayStation 5, you'll also grab the Grotevant Plate Set as an added bonus. If you're an all-digital player, you aren't left out – there's a standard edition with the same goodies as its physical counterpart, and a Deluxe Edition to match the physical edition again, minus the real-world goodies, naturally.
All of the information comes from what I could bring together based on following this game for years. It's obviously my interpretation in some places, and any older videos were subject to change, of course. I don't know about you, but I'm very ready to get lost in the world of Pywel to find out for myself. Let us know in the comments – are you as excited to explore the world of Crimson Desert as we are? If so, you won't have to wait long...
