Black Desert - Beta Impressions

For anyone that's been excited by the upcoming release of the MMO Black Desert Online, HardcoreGamer's beta report will be welcome news.

I had the chance to spend some time in the closed beta of Black Desert Online, the new MMORPG from Korean developer Pearl Abyss. The game has been in development since 2010 and will be coming to Europe and America as a full release in 2016. The game shows a huge amount of promise.

Anyone who has seen screenshots or video of Black Desert Online will be awed by the visuals. Even on a midrange PC, with a lot of settings dialed back, the game simply looks better than any other MMO currently on the market. Its artistic design is basically High Fantasy 101, set in environments — at least in the sections of the beta that I played — that suggest the geography and flora of the Mediterranean coast. A full day and night cycle, dynamic weather, and very effective use of lighting — not uncommon in games, but rarely done so well in an MMO — bring the world to life. The photorealism brings to mind the graphics of Star Wars Battlefront in their crisp detail.

By far, the game’s character creation tool is the most powerful in any current game, genre aside. The level of photorealistic detail that can be manipulated is simply amazing and made me wish that this tool could be used in other RPGs or a game like The Sims, where creating a lifelike and distinct character is so important. It’s a huge bummer then that when tossed into the world, my character was wearing the exact same starting gear as every other in my class, which to me is one of the most immersion-breaking things an MMO can do. I get the need to start with newbie-level gear, but why not allow for some small degree of customization, especially given the tools available?

In recent Western RPGs, we’ve come sort of expect class-less characters that can be developed in any direction and with whatever combination of skills we want to use, whether or not those builds are ultimately effective. Black Desert Online sticks to a traditional class/gender/race character development model. Want to be a melee fighter with sword and shield? You will be a human male. Want to be a dual-wielding, fast attack ninja? You will need to be a female. Only six classes were available in the beta, but it may be that the final release includes more, with options for all classes to be open to both genders.

More information.