For PC gamers, Steam reviews provide instant feedback to anyone browsing the storefront, especially since the rating is prominently featured on any given game’s store page. Crimson Desert launched and was quickly hit with a ‘Mixed’ review rating, but it has been on the up since then. An early patch has already addressed many of the launch complaints, bringing the overall Steam rating up to ‘Mostly Positive’ – meaning at least 70% of reviews are positive.

Now, Crimson Desert has jumped up to the ‘Very Positive’ tier, which means at least 80% of user reviews give it a positive rating. At the time of writing, the game has more than 65,000 ratings across all languages, with other 23,000 of those being English reviews, which count towards the ‘Very Positive’ rating that English-language Steam users will see at first glance.

Crimson Desert’s Steam reviews are improving

Developers (and publishers) Pearl Abyss have been quick to address some of the major issues and complaints early on. Crimson Desert currently has one patch (version 1.00.02) to its name, bringing “various performance stability optimizations” as well as dealing with crashing issues. It also makes sweeping improvements to controls and responsiveness. On the console side of things, it also brings a much-needed 120Hz toggle to help solve earlier graphics issues.

It’s nice to see a much-anticipated game not sinking to a negative review rating and attention quickly being brought to outlying problems so soon. Pearl Abyss also maintains a list of known issues, so you can browse through those to get an idea of what the team may be working on next.

Sometimes it takes a whole lot of time and convincing (complaining) before AAA titles really turn around poor initial ratings. The first game that comes to mind is Monster Hunter Wilds, which still holds ‘Mixed’ ratings, but has been massively improved in the optimization department. It’s practically a U-turn compared to the previous negative rating. Another title with mixed reviews is Borderlands 4, though it has received a couple of big performance updates since its release last year.

About the Author

Charlie Noon

Charlie is the Affiliate manager for PC Guide. He has a vast understanding of most PC hardware and consumer essentials, using his knowledge to provide the best products and the biggest deals.