Black Desert Online – Preview
There have been loads of MMORPG’s but nothing can really seem to replace the older gems that have been released. One of the recent possibilities is Black Desert Online, which has just had its first closed Beta period. The question remains if it will get a spot into the ‘hall of fame’.
Narrative wise, there isn’t much of information before you actually start the game. You can create a character and you start at a certain random place, where you get infused with a rather dark spirit. It seems that you’re one of the few capable of resonating with this species. From there on, you need to complete certain quests for your dark friend, in combination with missions you receive from the townspeople. After a while, it is clear that strange things are going on but it isn’t clear yet how these events will turn out.
Taking a closer look at the graphics it is safe to say that it really looks amazing, even on older computers. You will notice some lag spikes now and then, but nothing that cannot be slipped through your fingers. The fun already starts with the character creation, as there are so much stunning possibilities (not everything is available just yet). Entering the world you’ll notice that there is a lot of late-time rendering, meaning that when you get up close on certain areas, you’ll see some items pop on your screen. Let’s hope that this will still change during the upcoming development time. Next to that, there are a few graphic glitches that might need some attention as well, like kitties humping the ground… Fun sights but not so normal.
The music and sound effects are really top notch as well. You’ll get some really nice soothing or more up-tempo tunes, which fit the setting to the fullest. Something that is missing quite badly, is some voice acting. When triggering certain cutscenes, you go from a vividly animated area to a quite silent moment, which is really painful to witness. We’re hoping to hear some voices in the upcoming beta sessions!
As this was a rather short beta trial, we only had the chance to test a few features of the game. There are loads of things you can do and we’re going to give a small overview of what we were able to test.
First of all there are six classes you can choose from, ranging from melee to wizards and rangers. For now, you can only choose a particular class with one gender but it is the idea that you can choose both male and female. After selecting a few elements like a constellation, appearance and stance, you can start the game.
You can run around and talk to several NPC’s. Even more, certain people are very important to talk to as they give you extra knowledge about the area and particular knowledge circles. The purpose of this all isn’t that clear yet, but it seems that you can start more ‘deep’ talks with certain important NPC’s if you have gathered enough intel. Doing this will cost some energy though.
Next to the knowledge part, some people also have side quests, shops or other necessary elements. This can be spotted due to icons above these players. It is a good indication to see what you can do with certain characters and these small icons can even be seen on the small minimap. Talk about being informed a lot!
It could be that you get tired of questing, and there are loads of alternative things to do. First of all, you can buy your own house! To do so, you need to have enough contribution points (how to get those isn’t that clear yet) and you’re good to go. You can enter your home sweet home and start decorating.
Another feature is the gathering system. When you’re roaming the world, it can be that you find certain plants or nodes that can be gathered. The use of these goodies isn’t really clear yet, but it surely can be used in professions. Even more, you can also do other things like fishing for instance.
Conclusion
Overall, from what we have witnessed, Black Desert Online will have loads of features that will appeal a lot of players. The graphics are really amazing although there are still some imagery rendering on the last minute and some voice acting would have been nice. We’re hoping to get another glimpse of the game soon.
Black Desert Online - Preview,
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