Crimson Desert On PS5 Pro Offers A ‘Phenomenal Experience,’ Says DF Report

Tech wizards Digital Foundry have got their hands on Crimson Desert and put Pearl Abyss’ open-world RPG through its paces on PS5 Pro, and to say it impressed is quite the understatement – it’s a ‘phenomenal experience,’ apparently.

DF managed to go hands-on with a “near final” build of Crimson Desert, which as previously reported, features three graphics settings in the form of Performance, Balanced, and Quality. All three utilise ray-tracing, albeit to varying degrees depending on the setting you choose. In regards to PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), which upscales image quality using AI, the report states that this feature works well in the sense it upscale the image to 4K, but noted there’s some minor visual hiccups that can catch your eye.

It should be noted that PSSR is running the current version and not the upgraded iteration that Sony is planning to roll out soon. Crimson Desert is among the games that will support PSSR 2.0, presumably clearing up any issue with the current version. DF does observe that “limitations can be more felt” in regards to CPU usage, as frame rate drops are noticeable in Performance in busy areas, such as bustling towns and heavy combat sequences.

However, DF states that these issues are “never enough to feel that the game is poorly optimised. The signs are looking good — and certainly for PS5 Pro owners, Crimson Desert delivers a phenomenal experience,” DF concludes.

Crimson Desert is scheduled for release on March 19, 2026 for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.

The game’s narrative follows Greymanes Kliff, Oongka, Yann, and Naira, during a period where Pywel is experiencing great tension and conflict among its people. This already fragile period is disrupted further by an attack by the Black Bears, a rival faction to the Greymanes, killing many of its members. In the aftermath, Kliff and the survivors are scattered, and so it’s up to him to reunite with his comrades and rebuild the Greymanes, before confronting the Myurdin, the leader of the Black Bears.

[Source – Digital Foundry via PushSquare]