“One of the Worst Intros of All Time” Crimson Desert Fans Think the Start of the Game Is a Slog

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Players are sharing their disappointment with the beginning of Crimson Desert, Pearl Abyss’ new single-player game. While the game—a spin-off from their popular Black Desert—offers a promising action-sandbox experience with open-world elements similar to Breath of the Wild, many feel the initial hours are particularly frustrating. Despite its potential, the game isn’t starting off on the right foot.

Crimson Desert has been a strong seller, and the developers at Pearl Abyss plan to continue improving it. Even as it is now, the game offers a huge amount of content and many hours of diverse gameplay. However, the initial few hours are a real struggle. It doesn’t do a good job of introducing you to the main character, Kliff, and forces you through a series of mini-games. While people have compared Crimson Desert to games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Witcher 3, most agree that the way it introduces new players is surprisingly poor.

Players Agree That Crimson Desert Has an Awful Intro, Calling It a ‘Terrible Dud’

One Reddit user, CYDLopez, described the first two chapters of Crimson Desert as a very weak start, almost causing them to stop playing. They even said it was one of the worst game introductions they’d experienced. Surprisingly, many other players on the game’s subreddit agreed, generating a lot of discussion and engagement. This negative feedback also showed up in the game’s initial Steam reviews, though the overall rating has since improved significantly.

Okay, so the beginning of Crimson Desert is… a lot. Basically, you start playing as Kliff, and his whole clan gets wiped out right away. Then, he’s brought back to life by some mysterious ancient technology – and we don’t get any explanation for that! After that, you spend what feels like forever doing random jobs – seriously, arm wrestling and cleaning chimneys for hours! – before the actual story even begins. It’s not the biggest issue with the game, the controls are a nightmare to customize, but it’s definitely a weird problem. A lot of us on Reddit have pointed out that it feels like Pearl Abyss accidentally gave us an MMO-style intro for what’s supposed to be a solo adventure, and it just doesn’t flow well.

One of the best things about Crimson Desert is how open and free it is compared to many other role-playing or action-adventure games. For instance, you can actually use trees to launch yourself or attack enemies – it’s a legitimate strategy! This makes it feel more similar to the recent Zelda open-world games than most others. However, the game starts very slowly, which is a major drawback for many players, and Pearl Abyss hasn’t quite fixed this issue. It’s also a bit strange that Crimson Desert focuses on a detailed story and pre-designed characters, while still offering such a flexible, open-world experience – some players have pointed this out as a disconnect.

It’s uncertain if Pearl Abyss will address the somewhat weak beginning of the game. Fortunately, Crimson Desert becomes much more engaging after the initial tutorial, making these early issues less critical. Pearl Abyss likely has more pressing concerns, such as the surprising absence of permanent mounts. They’ll probably prioritize major, game-changing updates in future patches, and the introductory experience might remain unchanged.

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2026-03-26 13:04