Years before Black Desert Online was Originally published for Microsoft Windows in 2015, the Korean video game developed for nearly 5 years. Black Desert Online is best described as one of the few True-to-form sandbox massively multiplayer online role-playing games that have been created since the early days of its kind. 

The fantasy video game was developed by Korean video game developer Pearl Abyss and is free-to-play in some countries. At the same time, it has adopted a buy-to-play business approach in other editions. These include the English-language editions. Black Desert Online officially got its mobile version, Black Desert Mobile, released in early 2019. This was the same year that it was made available for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 as Black Desert.

Storyline

Set in a high fantasy world, Black Desert Online Chronicles a rivalry as old as the time between two enemy nations, the Kingdom of Valencia and the Republic of Calpheon. The international rift begins from the nations’ warring opinions and views of life. While the Kingdom of Valencia is a spiritual nation, the Republic of Calpheon is much more materialistic.

The title of the game itself gives a glimpse into its storyline. Once Valencia and Calpheon existed as two of four neighboring nations at peace. However, the Black Death soon spread across the land, leaving the nation scrambling for safety and survival. In the process, a war broke out, pitching them against each other. This war then goes on for three decades, during which one of the nations discovers a vast supply of valuable black stones and starts trading them to the other nations. 

These mysterious black Stones are a source of great power that was once wielded by the Ancients and was instrumental in the rise of the Ancient Civilization. Valencia, a peace-loving state, luckily has a large Black Desert of these precious black stones. On the other hand, Calpheon has no land blessed with the black stones, leading them to steal from their neighboring nations, especially Valencia, the nation with the largest Black Desert. Conflict brews even deeper.

Game Objectives

Black Desert Online is an action-oriented 3D game that provides you with a large, open world to explore and uncover the hidden secrets of the Ancient Civilization through the histories of the four great nations, including Calpheon and Valencia. The game proudly boasts of the power to help you unravel lost memories and the secrets of your enigmatic guide, the Black Spirit. 

While embarking on the journey to seek the truths of the Ancient Civilization and the Black Desert, you will be highly engaged and captivated by the plethora of gameplay features like crafting, player housing, mounted combat, animal breeding, and group PvP battles.

How to Play Black Desert Online

First, you are required to choose your character from one of the eight character classes provided and distinguish your avatar through extensive character customization. Black Desert Online’s developers make avatar customization as fun as possible as the seeing is constantly re-done and reprogrammed frequently.

You also get to fight the most interesting of opponents, including goblins and weasels, a chance to enjoy the game’s impressively fluid combat and parkour system that requires careful aiming and dodging. Black Desert Online does not make it all about the combat. The game allows you to exist in this world as a true citizen. You can explore the game’s Robust Trading System by investing in towns by exercising your trading skills, buying and selling property, hiring workers to drive caravans between encampments to maximize profits, and gather resources.

You’re also not left alone throughout the game, as you can converse with NPC to learn more about the world and how to run it. You can also unlock additional quests and items through an excellently designed mini-game. Find your guild and fight with them as a team vying for survival and resources.  

Major Strengths of the Game

One of the most impressive features Black Desert Online offers is its genuine sandbox MMO format down to the very last detail. Of course, while this means great news and familiarity for some, it also means that you can expect to see a whole lot more grind for all the various elements of the game, whether it be crafting, adventuring, questing, trading or PvP. 

As an entirety, Black Desert Online proves to be a good game as it perfectly caters to the needs and techniques of each kind of player as best as it can. I also enjoyed the beautiful Graphics. The travel, environments, and the opponents you fight were also very cool. The Combat was not the quickest to pick up, but once it is understood, it becomes interesting to play with.

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Flaws Spotted in the Game

While there is plenty to love and appreciate about this game, three is also plenty to dislike. The first being the slightly boring quests you are faced with as you progress in the game. To really enjoy this game, I noted that you need to make quite a lot of money every day to afford pretty much any of the cool stuff or the really desirable upgrades.

Black Desert Online’s user interface was an immediate no for me as I found myself scrambling to activate the simple skills that required up to four button combinations.

Final Verdict

Overall, Black Desert Online is a fun game to play for a while, but as expected with a game of its features, it starts to get tedious after a while. I also liked playing with friends and exploring the excellent gaming system graphics, The landscape, armor, and the impressive visual effects.

Still, most of the characters were Gender-locked, and you go into the game blind with no form of a tutorial whatsoever. Combined with the clunky user interface and the downturn of the quest, the guild wars were what really kept me playing.