Crimson Desert Finally Got Its First DLC, and Steam Noticed

What's actually in Charting the Unknown

The DLC was originally due October 15, but Pearl Abyss pushed it back two weeks to polish things up, which is usually a good sign rather than a bad one. It finally went live on October 29 and takes hero Kliff out to sea for the first time, opening up new islands and underwater areas that weren't part of the base map.

• Ship-based ocean exploration, including new coastline and islands beyond the original map
• Underwater zones you can actually swim and fight through
• A fresh chunk of story content continuing Kliff's arc
• Extra side systems reported in press previews, including base or mansion building and some genuinely odd additions like controllable robots

Why this bumped it back up the charts

Crimson Desert itself launched back in March after basically a decade of hype, delays, and "is this still coming out" jokes. It turned out to be a solid open-world action game with souls-like combat, horse and dragon riding, and a dense map to dig through, currently sitting at Very Positive on Steam with roughly 84 percent positive reviews out of more than 110,000. Paid DLC for a single-player game doesn't always move the needle months after launch, but this one clearly did: Crimson Desert landed back in Steam's global top ten sellers the same week the expansion dropped.

Who it's for

If you already rolled credits on the main story and wanted an excuse to go back, or you held off on Crimson Desert entirely and like the idea of buying in now that the map is bigger, this is a good week to jump in.