Black Desert Online Review: Don’t get sand in your shoes (Sandbox pun)

<p>Now I’ve not been on an MMO for quite some time&period; I was rather put off by the likes of <em>World of Warcraft<&sol;em> which seemed repetitive and focused more on leveling up rather than providing a meaningful and fun journey&period; Not to insult those who play it as I can understand and respect its popularity&period; For me&comma; I’m just not into MMOs nowadays&period; But I got the chance to play <em>Black Desert Online<&sol;em> after the trailers and gameplay videos grabbed my attention&period; Was it the epic looking combat&quest; The vastly beautiful world or just those damn sexy characters wielding big shiny weapons&quest; Let’s find out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;582660&sol;ss&lowbar;782abab3065efd34ce49bd324a10031253336f76&period;1920x1080&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1496091049" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Black Desert Online&comma; Kakao Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Black Desert Online<&sol;em> offers players a compelling journey of RPG elements and character development integrated into a fantasy epic of self-discovery&period; You play as a protagonist who awakens with no memory and is guided by a sinister and mysterious creature known simply as Black Spirit&period; You devout your trust into the evil-looking cloud &lpar;seriously you can tell it&&num;8217&semi;s pure evil with its big red eyes and creepy childlike voice&rpar; and together you’ll discover who you are and the secrets of Black Desert&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That’s pretty much it&comma; go off&comma; build your character&comma; fight a great evil and save the day&period; Isn’t that pretty much every other MMO&comma; RPG and 50&percnt; of games on the market&quest; True the plot itself doesn’t stand out&comma; but what is fascinating is the immense world you inhabit&period; There’s an interesting lore interloping a complex history of a deadly plague&comma; 30 years’ worth of war and the merging of humans and creatures into a grueling class system&period; There are interesting themes on display as you often see human treating goblins like complete crap which can echo many aspects of our modern society&period; The only main issue is that the narrative doesn’t excel past predictable plot points or deliver enough interesting characters for you to care about&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;582660&sol;ss&lowbar;1e8cbc809f9dd62a632894b85a223155b08c5dd4&period;1920x1080&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1496091049" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Black Desert Online&comma; Kakao Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Then again<em> Black Desert Online<&sol;em> provides a compelling world thriving with life and complexities that help add depth to the gameplay&period; There is an abundance of events and activities to engage in along with factors such as weather to change the balance of the game world&period; Black Desert also harbors plenty of smaller dynamics that keep you invested during your travels such as keeping your horse healthy during long treks across the game world &lpar;there’s no quick travel&rpar;&period; You can fish&comma; band together to fight armies of orgs and engage in all-out war&period; Although there’s poor explanations on many of the game’s functions and understanding certain mechanics or gameplay elements can be completely baffling&period; Often enough I would have to read up information online and dive back into the game&comma; breaking the immersion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As an MMO title&comma; combat is excellent and highly satisfying&period; Choosing from several interesting classes of characters you’ll be able to play out a variety of unique fighting styles and special abilities from each class&period; Ranging from Berserker&comma; Dark Knight&comma; Ninja&comma; Tamer and more&comma; there’s plenty of experimentation and replay value that’s feel truly diverse with each class&period; Even with a grinding nature to leveling up&comma; <em>Black Desert Online<&sol;em> ensures players feel the power of their character will an awesome array of attacks and special abilities that help devastate the battlefield&period; Fighting a group of enemies alone or with friends can make turn out to be an epic display of visual beauty and spectacle&period; There’s PVP to help flesh out the substance of combat and leveling&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;582660&sol;ss&lowbar;d1a781d791f57700c28b6afc24b83d8439f4dbcd&period;1920x1080&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1496091049" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Black Desert Online&comma; Kakao Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Black Desert Online<&sol;em> has excellent pacing as you never feel as though you’re being forced to level up and reach the end game&semi; instead&comma; you go at your own pace&period; <em>Black Desert Online<&sol;em> forces itself away from games like WOW which I found to push players to gain level 70 in order to truly enjoy the game&period; Here&comma; players are rewarded for exploration&comma; completing tasks and combat like any other game but the freedom to do as you please and yet still feel highly functional even if you’re only level 10&period; <span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;000000&semi; font-family&colon; Calibri&semi;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Black Desert Online<&sol;em> is a beautiful game that you can explore endlessly for hours&period; Be wary as it’s a pretty demanding game for specs&period; Characters classes look awesome although they’re gender locked&comma; so Berserkers are all male and Dark Knights are all female which is a shame as customization is limited and this restricts it even further&period; Features and physical aspects of playable characters are vastly detailed yet costume variation is much narrower in comparison&period; Meaning you have to compromise on certain aspects such as the gender if you want to be a certain class or feel limited in the style of clothing on offer&period; It doesn’t help as well that additional clothing and gear is highly expensive&period; Yet a loyalty system helps with obtaining extra loot and funds&comma; so playing or just simply logging in every day will help out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Black Desert Online<&sol;em> is a highly engaging MMO that for someone who doesn’t play them or does so anymore&comma; has grasped my attention to keep coming back&period; While the story is limited along with large elements of customization and the grinding nature to progressing maybe off putting&period; It’s vastly beautiful game with plenty of activities to get involved in&comma; great sense of exploration&comma; immense mechanics that truly immerse you into the world and an enthralling sense of combat that’s highly enjoyable&period; This is definitely worth checking out considering the price point and you don’t need to pay monthly for it as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC Review Copy of Black Desert Online was provided by Kakao Games for the Purpose of this Review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;