Review
Black Desert Online Review
A stunning open world RPG adventure awaits in Black Desert Online…
By: Ben Rushton (Shakkaho), on 04/01/2021.
Black Desert Online is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in which the player can create a character from a massive list of classes to fight their way through one of the largest open worlds I have ever seen.
Whether you hack and slash or sling spells, the combat is fast paced and exciting. The story is gripping and the graphics simply incredible. A game with unlimited hours awaits and the following is my personal experience within this beautiful game.
The player first creates their character and I have to say that character creation to me is especially important. I love pushing the systems to the fullest to see what character I can concoct and Black Desert Online did not disappoint. With a huge number of classes, the player can create any character they would like and proceed to make that character look as strong or strange as they wish. I chose an all-powerful wizard.
The game then proceeds to introduce us to the story with a thrilling cutscene before launching us straight into the action. The quests are all very well lined up to keep running out of the equation, with an auto run function to take you to the destination. I particularly loved this feature because I am very lazy and have played enough RPGs to loathe the unending walking between the same three places. The introduction quests felt very well put together to get the player right into the fun.
Within my playthrough I played as a wizard and the huge number of spells available to me from the very beginning was great, with several hours of fighting I could change up my combination of spells to keep things different. The skill tree is very in depth to compliment the huge number of spells and I appreciate being able to improve them at my own discretion. I tried and failed to include a picture of a skill tree but it would be several pages long!
The combat requires manual aiming and free movement which is a refreshing change to the typical target system which can feel repetitive and “point-and-click”. Avoiding enemy attacks while aiming at the enemies with my cursor and firing high damage spells felt like a first-person shooter at times which I must stress feels much more engaging than any other MMORPG I have ever played. The variety of enemies met keeps the combat from getting stale, with different attacks to avoid and other tactics required.
Stunning and well designed MMORPG!
Black Desert Online feels like it has put into practice the lessons learned from other MMORPGs. The fighting is fresh, the minor annoyances and grievances eliminated, and the player launched right into the fight.
The game is very well suited to new players, having a very well put together series of quests to have the player learn the systems involved. There is even a growth server which grants a 100% boost to exp gained to help new and returning players get right up to speed with the end game content.
The game has numerous Player versus Player (PvP) options to battle it out with other people if that is your jam. For those like me who prefer a world boss or raid there is nigh unlimited end game content to keep you entertained.
All things considered I can’t recommend Black Desert Online enough and this review only touches on the core concepts, but this game has so much content that it truly must be seen to believed.
My personal favourite touch is our demon spirit buddy within the inventory screen!
