Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Review in Progress Part One
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Review in Progress Part One
Black Desert Online is refreshing. While there've definitely been bumps along the way, the game is finally hitting western shores with the head start for pre-orders currently ongoing. We've been playing since last week, after dabbling in the beta tests, and are finding the non-conformist way the game unfolds before you to be a very nice change of pace from the usual MMORPG fare.
Comments
If you are interested in making a MMO maybe visit my page to get a free open source engine.
Systems are somewhat cool, but for see redundant boredom with them. Combat was absolutely terrible to me, hated it. Could have been the most amazing game(which it isn t) but the combat alone killed it for me.
It seems that grouping is heavily encouraged for leveling. It's faster (more XP and XP boosts) and you can kill loads of baddies easier. But I haven't had the need yet. Bear in mind, I'm currently addicting to running trade routes and cooking.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
Forgot some carrots on a long ride back from south of Heidel and had to cope with my horse meandering along. I took about 50 screenshots along the way and Velia was a welcome sight some 15 mins later as evening was drawing in.
To be honest Black Desert is decent at what it's doing, sadly it's lacking a lot of the important things that other MMOs have - Great PvE/PvP Endgame (Raids, Dungeons, Battlegrounds, Arenas, WvWvW). The score for the longetivity will be very low, because honestly there just isn't enough content, not nearly enough for the majority of MMO gamers.
Those things that you say BDO is lacking is what, for many of us, makes BDO such a welcome and refreshing alternative to the hundreds of clones featuring that same end game content. All I can say is hallelujah to the fact that BDO doesn't have raids, dungeons, battlegrounds, arenas etc. Those are game features that remove players from a vibrant world resulting in worlds that are empty, lifeless, boring and frankly not worth living in.
I don't care about gender locking, the lack of dungeons/raids (did myriads of them), battlegrounds (dont belong into MMORPGs anyway imo) or even the overpriced cash shop. I can afford it and usually I need very few if any things from cash shop.
What worries me most currently are griefers and the possibility of p2win later on. I heard on Korean servers there is no or very little griefing. But they reduced the karma penalties on NA/EU version. I have no clue why. Probably some griefers whined. Bad for me. So griefing might become an issue. Also not sure why they force you to flag for PvP after 45. Why not let people decide for themselves ?
I am not really fond of the action combat. Couldn't do this "action" stuff for hours and hours. But I can probably live with that because I would spend a lot of time with other things anyway.
On the other hand I like the open world, no fast travel, the crafting, housing, fishing, taming, seiges, guild wars. All that stuff looks amazing. And the graphics are really nice. Although the awakening weapons look a little over the top.
So I am a little torn as you can see. But I have no time for BDO till end of next week anyway (damn real life), so I will wait and watch it for now.
Sorry for the rant.
P.S. By the way, someone wrote that houses, though instanced, are limited and have to be bought via player auctions after all are taken ? This is nonsense, right ? Please says so, because I doubt I could compete with no lifers and their huge amounts of ingame money. I searched the internet but it is hard to find reliable info about this.
I totally agree with everything you've said. If you are looking for a PVE gear treadmill MMO this isn't it.
Same for me. The combat was dull and and quests were very "kill ten rats"-feeling.
You know, I'm kinda re-nigging here but these type of games tend to be more about alts than any crazy amount of endgame progression.
When the combat is engaging and interesting it becomes substantially more fun to play an alt.
In our old tab-target mmos it was just clicking things in a different order, so that's how I see the "endgame" in this game going. Rather than a constant focus on gear treadmills, experiencing the game so vastly differently from class to class from a combat perspective.
I enjoy both tbh, and I may end up biting when the game goes on sale but I just don't enjoy playing solo mmos when there are amazing offline single player rpgs so for me it has to be discounted.
I get that there is more to do if you explore and stuff. But with only pvp at the end I just cant see the value in this game unless you are a huge PvP fan.
Sure some might say that "sandbox" MMO's don't need any kind of content updates, but there is a reason why these kind of MMOs can't compete with the "themepark" MMOs at all. Usually once you are 100 hours into these kind of games you've seen it all, and you just kinda RP till the end of your life. However BD doesn't fall into either category, it's both sandbox and themepark, it's supposed to deliver on both ends, and currently it's not doing a very good job at it.
As a sandbox MMO it's in a solid place, some features and systems are exceptional, though far from perfect. If they'd concentrate on making it 100% sandbox, the game would have been way better. But as a themepark it doesn't offer anything at all. Quests are garbage, especially with the newer MMOs featuring very good voice acting and story writing (ESO, SWTOR). There is no option to level through dungeons. If you want to enjoy BD you need to love grinding, and well most players don't..Besides nearly all MMOs allow you to grind, so it's not like it's some additional feature.
I would like to say that it's PvP will be so crazy good that at least PvPers will continue to fund this game, but that's just not going to happen. PvPers have far better alternatives in other MMOs.
I just think many players now days just don't know how to play in a sandbox. The very definition of a playing in a sandbox is to be dropped into a world and given very little direction of where to go and what to do. A player is just given the tools by which to chose to be occupied with and then left to fulfill their own interests.
In respect to "grinding" that is what we all do in every MMORPG. Doing dungeons over and over again is a "grind." Doing raids over and over again are a "grind." Crafting is a "grind." Everything about playing an MMORPG is a "grind." Even PvPing with other players can be considered a "grind" unless there is a given purpose behind PvPing.
That said, I am fully cognizant that there will be a good amount of players who will criticize BDO, and the vast majority of those players will be players who have been raised and indoctrinated into the MMORPG genre by WoW style game play and the many clones that spawned from it in its many variations.