One more 'loooong' review.
First a TL;DR
Here are my tastes so that you can see if they match your own:
In an MMORPG I like: good graphics, arena pvp, open area pvp (aion, tera) and big map pvp with objectives (gw2, potbs, eso). I like action combat, I like loot, I like character progression via improved visuals (armor and weapons), improved stats. I like non-instanced housing, I like puzzles, dungeons, exploring. I like healing classes and helping out. I like grouping to achieve goals and I like interesting and diverse quests. I prefer a hard and complex game to an easy and simple rise to the max in 2hours game.
In an MMORPG I tolerate: crafting, transporting, minigames, gathering, mild grinding, generic quests.
In an MMORPG I despise: poor graphics, poor animations, clunky interfaces, OP cash shops, heavy grinding, too many generic quests, unchallenging monsters throughout, limited class choices, lack of interesting and diverse biomes to explore.
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In Black Desert I found:
Pros
- Great graphics (character creator, the world, the spells, etc.).
- Nice combat
Cons
- Poor tutorials
- Generic voicing and cutscenes
- Terrible Interface
- Cash shop has too much of an impact
- The combat system (it's a pro but also kind of a con; it doesn't feel that great having to do all of these key combos all the time. Mind you I only played as a wizard)
- The many systems - This isn't exactly a Con but the housing, trading, gathering, crafting, the many systems the game has, with all it's minigames, as I explain in the review, are just not for me. I don't mind a bit of this in these games, but it's not my type of play. Not a con, but I'd like to put some of this stuff in the Pro area and I can't.
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The REVIEW
I am a fan of mmorpgs. I am also a fan of beautiful graphics which makes exploring a treat.I don't shy away from action combat games either so, I picked up this game and played it for some 50 hours.
The game has many different systems in play. Housing, workers, nodes, crafting, trading, transport of goods, npc minigames, questing, etc. I first tried to play the game just by going through the motions, trying to experience a bit of everything. I am experienced with such games and usually figure things out. I failed with black desert in this regard. I believe the game does a very poor job of explaining itself to you. So I stopped playing and went on to read a bunch of guides and watched a bunch of videos to try and learn more about the game. These provided me with tons of information that the game failed to give me. Afterwards I was able to get things going. I grabbed some houses, invested in some nodes, hired some workers and things started to improve. While I did all of this I kept doing some quests, killing some beasts and experiencing the combat mechanics.
Ok. We are supposed to have fun when playing a game, that's the goal. After 50 hours I started to think about what I wanted to get out of it. When playing mmorpg's I usually enjoy improving my character. I like to have access to new abilities that give me more power and different gameplay options. I like leveling up so that I can have access to new areas to explore and new equipment that changes my visuals. While I level up I like to be challenged with different mobs that have special abilities that require a different combat approach or even different scenarios that offer specific tactics (I'm talking dungeons here). Some game's even offer interesting quests (different from the usual deliver or kill x) and or jump puzzles like guild wars 2 did for example. Then there's also loot. Who doesn't like to find good drops here and there that give you more stats but also a different look.
I am not a crafting freak. I mean, I like crafting. I like the option of creating my own items and the ability to participate in the market and earn a bit more money and I don't mind some mild gathering. But this is a means to an end. What I really want is the money and the items that will improve my character. The 50h I must spend doing it to achieve those goals are not that much fun FOR ME. Others might have fun all throughout. Some might enjoy a fishing minigame and I don't mind doing it a couple of times, any mini is ok if only repeated 2 or 3 times but after that? No thank you.
I am not a housing freak. I don't mind building a house and decorating the outside like you could do with archeage. It's something that will exist in the game, serve an aesthetic purpose and that's ok. But putting furniture on an instanced house that no one will see takes time and effort that is just not fun FOR ME. Other's will enjoy this a lot. There are many minecraft players out there that like building stuff ad nauseam. Myself, I play survival mode because I need action and purpose and not just the legos.
Transporting goods, fixed warehouses, these things add a bit of a real feel to the game's towns but honestly it's a limitation I could do without. I have to transport things myself, do some actions to move things around and I don't get any fun out of it. I remember doing trade runs in archeage and basically having to walk things over long distances. The goal there as well, was the money at the end and the trip itself gave me no pleasure. In fact I often just played another game like hearthstone on another screen whilst my character walked. I did enjoy the aspect of danger associated with the trade runs though. There was more profitable areas that were pvp areas and you had to be careful when handing in your goods. Also, you could form a group and go try and steal trade goods from others. This potential action was a lot more fun than watching paint dry, I mean, walking your character over long distances.
The towns and cities never felt distinct to me. I like feeling that place is special and has interesting characters. The towns and cities felt a bit too overcrowded with npcs that don't matter. You can talk to too many people witch serves no purpose. There are these minigames that you can perform with too many npcs forcing you to spend time and literally energy so that you can get a discount on some goods and this is true for so many npcs, it's just unnecessary. I can spend time doing a mini with one npc, energy, wait for it to replenish, spend more energy till I finally can get a discount on some potion. I have fun fighting and I pop a potion now and then. Going through all those hoops to get said potion is not fun FOR ME.
I enjoy some pvp. In my 50 hours of play, the game didn't create any opportunities for me to pvp. Low lvl pvp is as fun as high lvl pvp as everyone learns the game and offers different challenges. In BD i didn't find any. In comparison to say GW2, there was an arena that I could join at any time to improve my fighting skills and learn how to fight other classes. There was an entire pvp map where only pvp mattered (solo and grouped), with objectives, which is fun too, and you could do that from level 1. I like having these different options as they offer variety to one's tasks and stop boredom from setting in.
I like solo play but I also enjoy grouping. I like it when a game throws a grouped area in your path as you progress through the leveling. Maybe even, have a dungeon area that offers a map with specific gameplay that a group of people must figure out. Again, this offers variation from the usual grind or 'go kill x' quests. In my 50h of game I found no real group options with the exception of a couple of gathering guild quests. Not exactly fun.
I like visuals. I like to change the looks of my character as the game progresses. You see someone's armor and you know their strength. You see someone wielding a specific weapon and you recognise it's power and also, it just looks good. This progression should exist in the early levels and not just when you reach max level. After 50h my wizard still looks like gandalf and all wizards around me also look like gandalf. There are some nice costumes in the cash shop which doesn't help matters. Also, I like to play females because I am not a roleplayer at heart, I don't see my character as myself in the game but more of a companion and as such, being a male, I prefer to look at a female for 50h. The game not allowing me to create females with every class...in a modern mmorpg....it boggles the mind. The game's graphics are quite nice though and the character creation is a treat.
In conclusion, all these points lead up to the following: the game doesn't offer enough fun things to do, for me. I explained everything from my point of view but I can understand how others might have different tastes and enjoy these systems. I know plenty of people that appreciate the opportunity to furniture an instanced house, or enjoy grinding or gathering for hours or even playing mini games non-stop till they get everything maxed. It's just not for me.
Thanks for reading
PS: The point of reviews in my opinion is not to complain. The idea is to explain the game to others whilst inserting your own tastes into it so that people with similar tastes might take something out of it. If this helped someone then hey, quest completed!