Massively multiplayer online video games (MMOs) have always had a special place in my heart when it comes to my games library. World of Warcraft, Blade & Soul, and Rift molded me as a gamer and strengthened my growing passion for the world of video games. Interacting with hundreds of players across the same server, chaotic raid battles and repeatedly beating groups of poor defenseless creatures to farm levels… ah yes, a good old MMO to no life for a couple of months.

Black Desert Online fascinated me on release and I was really keen to get my grubby little paws on it but sometimes life gets in the way of such things. This last week a kind friend decided to gift me the game and I hurriedly downloaded it and began the installation. I hit a few difficulties with installation, language struggles, and initial launch issues but nothing too major. The astonishingly loud intro scene gave me a bit of a fright but oh was it music to my ears. The character creation of Black Desert Online is extensive, the sky is the limit here, the sheer amount of customizable elements creates a world of possibilities for overall character design. I spent a good couple of hours here, perfecting my character to suit the badass white-haired sorceress with two different eye colors that I had in mind.

The first couple of minutes with a new MMO is usually a run-around, discover the world and smack things to test out abilities sort of day. The most obvious element of Black Desert Online that I noticed was staring me right in the face, literally. The graphics (take into consideration that I’m running the Remastered graphics) are beautiful, bright colors and realistic looking textured landscapes as far as the eye can see. I had a brief exploration of the nearby areas and scouted out the creatures of the world, I was actually pleasantly surprised, the animals were adorable and well designed… great, that means I have to smack these cuties later. Finally, I stalked back to the main camp and started the quests, simple ones to kick off as always, examine this, go talk to that guy, go stare creepily at the animals, you know that kind of thing. The black spirit (a little ghostlike figure with a giant smile and glowing red eyes) first appeared within a few seconds of gameplay and my initial reaction was “okaaayyyyy.. what the hell are you?”. This little floating hooded ghost thing did not seem friendly,in-fact, it seemed the complete opposite of it. He gave me main storyline quests that seemed to completely contradict the quests that the NPC’s gave me so it leads me to question who I should trust.

I love a storyline, I’d happily play on graphics that looks like its run on a potato if the storyline is rich and unique. It’s still very early days with Black Desert Online but so far I don’t feel enchanted by the storyline at all, I hope that it hooks me later on but at the moment I’m still chasing the ‘ooh I’m interested moment’. I will admit that the fighting mechanics and style heavily do make up for this, it’s quick to pick up and the movement is pleasing and smooth. It can be a huge learning curve for beginners, MMO players know to spam buttons until something happens but without a set tutorial, it can be a little confusing.

Overall I would say I’m enjoying Black Desert Online so far, It’s immersive and a game where I personally can spend hours just roaming around. I’m looking forward to exploring more of the world and hopefully getting deeper into the storyline discovering the many secrets of this game.