Let's Review "Black Desert"

Black Desert is an online multiplayer sandbox role-playing game developed by Pearl Abyss. The game is available for the Xbox one, PS4, and Microsoft Windows. The game takes place in a fantasy world where two rival nations are in conflict. The game is online only and this review is based on 30 hours of Gameplay. The game potentially has thousands of hours of gameplay but this review will give you the gist of what it's like to play in the first instance.

The first thing you do in Black Desert is to create your character. You can select from multiple classes and it's the most comprehensive creative system I've ever seen in a game the detail is incredible the character models look gorgeous and it's a great start that really gets you excited about playing the game. Then you're dropped into the game world where you have to endure a tedious and poorly structured prologue but after a short time you can freely explore the large world and take on quests as you see fit.

There are hundreds of quests maybe even thousands fetch quests, seek and destroy, boss fights, and more busywork than you can shake a stick at. The world feels pretty well thought out and it certainly has a lot of character but a lot of the missions suffer from glitches where objectives don't spawn in so you have to restart the game and redo the mission and despite a large number of quests I can't say there were any that I really enjoyed.

The combat system is fairly straightforward with a more button-bashing approach than anything too tactical think dynasty warriors with some magic but the combat is fun you know it doesn't require you to think too hard so it's a good game if in that regard you know if you just want to switch off. You can acquire pets in the game go fishing meet other players get horses to get involved in trade and the economic system is very complex so you'll never be sure of things to do. But all of the positives are kind of hindered by the glitches the game suffers from. If you enter an area with a few players the game slows down frame rate drops things freeze and the overall technical performance is shocking. It's quite a surprise as it's not a new game and you'd think these issues would have been remedied by now.

So, it's the type of game you could play every day for an hour do some quests button-bashing combat but the technical performance over time will really grind you down and ultimately that was the reason I stopped playing. Graphically, it's a nice-looking game world and the character creation detail is sensational however the graphical performance is an absolutely appalling feature with constant framerate issues slow down glitches galore and it really damages the enjoyment level. Also, the menu system is poorly optimized and it's so unnecessarily complex and it's just very cluttered. It feels like a really lazy pc port and a game that's not really been tested patched or optimized for the PS4.

In terms of sound, the music is well suited to the game world. The voice acting is okay sound effects ambient sounds functional. The character creator is amazing and the best I've ever seen the game mode is vast and relatively interesting. The combat is fun for a while and there are lots of missions to take part in. The gameplay loop gets repetitive very quickly the technical performance of the game is horrific it has a lot of graphical problems. There's way too much monetization even more than a free-to-play game it feels like a lazy paw and it and it's just a game that is a little too over ambitious for its own good without actually refining the basic core elements first so it's probably been a victim of its initial success.

Final Thoughts

Black Desert is a huge game with lots of variety and different things to keep you busy. The character creator is sensational. The combat is fun albeit fairly limited and the game world is well created and it's absolutely enormous. However, the game feels quite hollow after you scratch the surface. The missions of which there are many feels like glorified fetch quests and even the combat-based ones are very basic and very forgettable.

So, it's a game that you'll either really love or you'll just be indifferent to if you play it five hours and you really love it then you'll enjoy the rest of the experience but if it doesn't grab you in that initial phase then I'd say move on to something else. The reason I only played it for 30 hours as I just couldn't bring me to carry on because it's very repetitive and once you've done 30 hours of missions combat exploration it kind of all just felt like doing the same thing over and over again. Add to that the technical problems with the PS4 version are awful and it makes most sessions feel like pulling teeth out. The bad frame rates, the glitches, the loading issues slow down, it's honestly embarrassing to see a game that's been out this long still have technical issues you'd expect from an early access game. So, it's got its strengths and weaknesses but for me the highlight again is the character creator it's just a shame you can't use that character in a game that's better overall quality. I mean is it worth trying. There are better online RPGs there are better online games this is not in the top 10. If you like creating characters you might actually just like getting this game just to make up characters you know maybe get it on steam for like five pounds just to make characters.