5 Great Single Player MMOs to Play After Crimson Desert (When You Finally Finish It)

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Here are five great single-player MMO-like games to dive into after finishing Crimson Desert.

5) The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker

The Black Grimoire is trying to give players a solo version of Runescape. That means relatively lackluster graphics but an in-depth world to explore. There are several different combat and crafting skills to master, letting you select your path through the story. Obviously, most players will tend toward the combat abilities, but if you want to spend your time smithing and cooking, the developers won’t stop you.

That said, there are a few limited opportunities for interaction with other players. The Black Grimoire employs something it calls “social multiplayer,” which means that you can chat with other players and inspect their equipment. You can’t help each in combat or even trade gear, so don’t expect to get a huge combat boost from friends. Still, The Black Grimoire can largely be played on your own and is a great way to dive into old-school MMO gameplay.

4) Crosscode

Crosscode is a little different from every other game on this list. It’s a 2D action RPG set inside an MMO. It’s not exactly trying to ape the feeling of being in an MMO, but it does take steps to emulate that experience. It’s a bit hard to explain, but the long and short of it is that MMO fans will have a blast.

There are over 100 quests to solve and more than 30 different boss fights. Expect to spend dozens of hours delving through everything Crosscode has to offer. It’s not trying to replicate the gameplay of a classic MMO, but you’ll feel like you’re playing with online pals thanks to the well-written NPCs.

3) Dragon’s Dogma 2

Dragon’s Dogma 2 tosses players into a massive open world that’s ripe for exploration. There are dozens of quests to uncover and a host of NPCs to befriend. The world is your oyster, and developer Capcom isn’t afraid to let you try to pull things off in your own way. Experimentation is encouraged, and sometimes required.

That said, there are elements of an MMO in Dragon’s Dogma besides the gigantic open world. Most notably, you can create your own Pawn character who helps you in combat. Early on, you can also add two Pawn characters created by other players, giving you a party of four to take on Dragon’s Dogma 2‘s greatest challenges. It’s not an exact one-for-one, but there’s plenty for MMO fans to love about Dragon’s Dogma 2.

2) Erenshor

Now, we get to the good stuff. Erenshor was literally made by its developers to be a single-player MMO. The team explicitly wanted to create a game that replicated the feel of diving into a classic MMO. That means NPC characters who will partner with you for difficult dungeons and even join a guild.

In fact, it so perfectly replicates the classic MMO experience that you might be reported by AI players and then get a modmail from fake GMs to police your in-game actions. It’s still in early access, which is why it doesn’t take the top slot, but if you want a single-player game that replicates what it was like to play MMO games in the 2000s, Erenshor is the place to be. The team plans to hit 1.0 in 2027, which means fans can expect plenty of new content over the coming months.

1) Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Kingdoms of Amalur was made as something of a test case for publisher 38 Studios’ planned MMO. Unfortunately, a mix of poor sales and mismanagement doomed that project, but the single-player version nailed the feeling of playing through an MMO by yourself.

There is so much content to dive into, with a world created by writer R.A. Salvatore. The team had plenty of lore to draw upon, thanks to the then-in-development Project Copernicus. Sure, some of the quest design was repetitive, but that was the norm for the MMO space in the 2010s. Kingdoms of Amalur wasn’t breaking new ground, but it wasn’t trying to either. Sadly, Copernicus never came to fruition. Granted, 38 Studios had much larger problems than that. Still, it’s a shame we never got to see what the team would do with a full-fledged MMO, especially given the success of Kingdoms of Amalur.