TheRetroArcade
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Posts: 2,013
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
It's the lesser of two evils.
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For how wildly vast and ambitious Crimson Desert is… its controls kinda suck. They're clunky, awkward, and exist in a game where there are dozens of different inputs and combinations to do any manner of things. You'll realise that almost instantly when the game asks you to perform Blinding Flash during the intro.
And hey, I know we're PC Gamer. Mouse and keyboard is absolutely my favourite way to play most games, despite having grown up for 25 years as a console enjoyer. But you owe it to yourself to play Crimson Desert on a pad, if you own one.
Controller play isn't perfect, either, mind. All of those inputs have to be bound to a much smaller number of buttons. Yes, there is a 50% chance you will jump instead of picking up an item or talking to somebody. You will accidentally melee your horse a bunch of times instead of mounting it because for some reason it is a different button to get on and off your steed. You might even accidentally unleash a flurry of attacks instead of initiating Blinding Flash.
But that containment is also good, in my opinion. At least when a boss is knocking off half your health in a single hit, the binding to quickly heal up with some food is right there, on the d-pad. On a keyboard? You're gonna have to reach those fingers sky-high all the way up to F3. Yeah.
There's also the bizarre choice to bind sprinting, either as Kliff or on your horse, to Shift. For some reason sprinting with Kliff only requires a couple taps before he starts running, but your noble steed will need you to constantly hammer that Shift key to keep up the pace. You know what also happens if you rapidly hit Shift? Sticky keys, baby. If that's something you have enabled on your PC, it's not gonna mesh very well with Crimson Desert's default keyboard bindings. It will also destroy your pinky over the course of a multi-hundred-hour action RPG, as our guide writer, Sean Martin, unwittingly discovered.
In a game where you're constantly dancing around, doing dozens of different attacks and switching weapons (and possibly even armour) on the fly, I don't want my fingers to be frantically dancing around the keyboard to hit all the inputs. I suffered through too many hours of that in Final Fantasy 14 before I finally gave in and coughed up the money for an MMO mouse.
The one thing I will hand to keyboard controls in Crimso...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
For how wildly vast and ambitious Crimson Desert is… its controls kinda suck. They're clunky, awkward, and exist in a game where there are dozens of different inputs and combinations to do any manner of things. You'll realise that almost instantly when the game asks you to perform Blinding Flash during the intro.
And hey, I know we're PC Gamer. Mouse and keyboard is absolutely my favourite way to play most games, despite having grown up for 25 years as a console enjoyer. But you owe it to yourself to play Crimson Desert on a pad, if you own one.
Controller play isn't perfect, either, mind. All of those inputs have to be bound to a much smaller number of buttons. Yes, there is a 50% chance you will jump instead of picking up an item or talking to somebody. You will accidentally melee your horse a bunch of times instead of mounting it because for some reason it is a different button to get on and off your steed. You might even accidentally unleash a flurry of attacks instead of initiating Blinding Flash.
But that containment is also good, in my opinion. At least when a boss is knocking off half your health in a single hit, the binding to quickly heal up with some food is right there, on the d-pad. On a keyboard? You're gonna have to reach those fingers sky-high all the way up to F3. Yeah.
There's also the bizarre choice to bind sprinting, either as Kliff or on your horse, to Shift. For some reason sprinting with Kliff only requires a couple taps before he starts running, but your noble steed will need you to constantly hammer that Shift key to keep up the pace. You know what also happens if you rapidly hit Shift? Sticky keys, baby. If that's something you have enabled on your PC, it's not gonna mesh very well with Crimson Desert's default keyboard bindings. It will also destroy your pinky over the course of a multi-hundred-hour action RPG, as our guide writer, Sean Martin, unwittingly discovered.
In a game where you're constantly dancing around, doing dozens of different attacks and switching weapons (and possibly even armour) on the fly, I don't want my fingers to be frantically dancing around the keyboard to hit all the inputs. I suffered through too many hours of that in Final Fantasy 14 before I finally gave in and coughed up the money for an MMO mouse.
The one thing I will hand to keyboard controls in Crimso...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?