At Gamescom, a few years ago, I was lucky to get my hands on Crimson Desert, an excellent hack and slash, that seemed to have shades of Game of Thrones and Witcher. Now, the game is finally out, and it has had quite a launch. From selling like hot cakes and going viral for letting you pick up chunky cats to gamers finding AI art strewn over, it is a smoother launch than Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man’s Sky.Both games have shown that with enough commitment, they can really turn things around to make it a true journey for both players and studios alike. Crimson Desert falls squarely fall in that category as there is a lot more to love about this game, but some things are in desperate need of fixes. You assume the role of a hardened warrior Kliff, part of a tribe called the Geymanes. After a devastating attack by a rival faction called the Black Bears, Kliff is left for dead and his companions scattered across the land of Pywel.Now it is up to you to rebuild the Geymanes, reunite the clan and take on the Black Bears once more. Yes, there are some metaphysical elements, such as the technological gods that show up now and again, but this is as deep as the story gets. It is apparent from the first 20 minutes into the game that Crimson Desert is a patchwork of open world tropes, starting with a medieval dark fantasy setting with odd technological constructs inspired from Assassin’s Creed to a tone reminiscent of Game of Thrones with a healthy dose of Witcher and Red Dead Redemption 2 as well.If you are a well-travelled purveyor of open world titles, you will find your memory constantly being pinged as these familiar love letters pop up to other open world games. Yet, it never seems to get to the greatness of these games — from a middling story, and bad dialogue and writing, to passable combat and exploration, it never does one thing well.Where things start breaking down is in the smorgasbord of control schemes the game is built upon. As of this review, developers have been patching the worst of them, especially the clunky movement, speed and run taps.And yet, there are still some frustrating choices. In an early scene, for no reason, you need to arm wrestle a character, and my hands hurt, because you need to mash one button, while hitting a timed press on another. Combat is a muddle of fingers, and one move requires you to press R1 and R2 at the same time; the action itself saw my thumb move the right thumbstick. Crimson Desert does not have a standard control scheme but multiple competing ones. Each interaction introduces a new rule, and the game never teaches you which one matters. This adds a lot of cognitive load when playing the game.Crimson DesertPublisher: Pearl AbyssDeveloper: Pearl AbyssPrice: ₹4799 on PC, PS5, Xbox OneCombat is janky, but straightforward. As you slice through enemies and dodge, the difficulty spike is overwhelming from sword-fodder enemies to some truly tough multi-stage bosses. As someone who has beaten Sekiro and Elden Ring multiple times, two of the toughest games out there, I struggled with the difficulty ramped here. What Crimson Desert does really well, is the large open world that is teeming with life. Towns are bustling with people going about their business. If you are willing to explore, there is a lot to do, with a variety of side quests that let you fish, play mini games and more.It is breathtaking in its expanse and packed with fat cats and doggies to adopt as pets, apart from questing to the edges of the map to find cute clothing and armour for them. This pretty much sums up all the hours I’ve put in thus far — strutting through town with my legion of pets for all to admire.Traversal across the world is great, as Kliff has a lot of mobility moves up his sleeve, from his speedy steed that drifts, to the ability to stack jumps and catch wind on a cloak of feathers. Puzzles and platforming are decent and there is a lot of loot to find. Though, the inventory system is a nightmare to navigate at the moment, it is something the developers are working on.Crimson Desert has all the makings of a really good game that is constantly at war with itself. It is a technically stunning open world undermined by systems that constantly work against the player. Given some time, this could very well join the ranks of redemption stories such as Cyberpunk 2077. For now, if you are interested, I would suggest keeping an eye on the patch notes as Pearl Abyss is sending out a steady stream of updates.