Black Desert Online
- Publisher
- Pearl Abyss
- Genre
- Fantasy
- Mode
- MMORPG
- Platform
- PC
- Rating
- T
Black Desert Online is maybe the most unique MMORPG on the market. Terrible for some, amazing for others, it truly is a mix of blazing fun and insane hardcore difficulties for a game out there. Black Desert is indeed hardcore. No matter how many years you could spend playing the game, you can’t master all of the levels available.
There may not be a story in the game - really, there isn’t - but Black Desert Online offers superb combat. Building and exploration run so deep in the game, but fighting is satisfying enough to carry the experience on its own. There are 14 classes available, and each commands a diverse and exciting set of skills. Rangers and Witches are fun, but Melee is where the money’s at. The sheer number of combos you can string together is staggering, especially given how natural it all feels on a mouse and keyboard.
This is not a cooldown-driven MMORPG where you just macro skill rotations. Black Desert’s combat system is a playground of invincibility frames and animation cancels that’s every bit as fun to experiment with as its world. Much like energy and contribution, you get skill points just by fighting stuff. You can also reallocate those points whenever you want, so it’s easy to find out what skills you enjoy using, upgrade them and purchase ‘flow’ skills that take your combos to the next level - and then unlock your alternate ‘awakened’ weapon to do it all again.
Whether you talk to or pummel everyone you see, Black Desert always comes down to choosing your own adventure. As a result, you can wring some great stories out of the world despite its lackluster central narrative. For instance, your characters all share the same family name.
Black Desert is not like most MMORPGs, and where it tries to be, it falls short. But it is a stunning and organic fantasy sandbox ripe with choices to make and questions to answer. It also recently came to Steam and has another major update on the way, so there’s never been a better time to give it a go. It’s a game that defies expectations. That’s precisely why it turns some people off, but also why it’s so damn fun.
