The South Korean sandbox MMO Black Desert is set to come to the West and breathe new life into the struggling MMORPG market. We present it in a preview and highlight classes, gameplay, housing, sandbox, and PvP.
Currently, the third phase of the closed beta of Black Desert is running in Korea. The first detailed insights are also appearing in the West. The game feels like the currently popular Korean MMO ArcheAge, albeit with significantly better graphics and an action combat system similar to Tera.
2015, 2016 marks the Asian invasion; MMORPGs need fresh ideas
After 2014 experienced a resurgence of the Western market with The Elder Scrolls Online and WildStar, MMO experts predict a strong influence from Asian MMORPGs in the coming years, which could revitalize the market with sandbox elements. The upcoming Western AAA projects – like Everquest Next – are also heading in this direction.
Alongside the ArcheAge released in September and the somewhat aged Blade and Soul, which is supposed to come to the West in 2015, fresh games like Black Desert and Bless Online have set their sights on our market.
Black Desert is likely the hottest contender at the moment. Currently, the MMORPG is in the third closed beta in Korea, and the first tests in Europe are expected to begin in early 2015, with the game set to release in 2016. It’s high time we introduce you to Black Desert in more detail. We will take a current video from mmobomb from the Closed Beta as a reference.
Unusual for the West: Race and Gender Lock
In character creation, players encounter a first surprise: the “classes” available have a set race and gender. The “Berserker” variant of Black Desert, an offensive warrior wielding two weapons, is only available as a male giant, hence the class is called Giant. Currently, 4 classes are playable in Korea, with four more to come.
Even though the classes, decidedly unusual for us, are rigidly fixed on race and gender, Black Desert features an extensive character creator. When it was presented in a video a few months ago, it made people’s mouths water here. It really did look fantastic. And it single-handedly ensured that Black Desert appeared on many mental maps for the first time and lodged itself there.
The eight classes of Black Desert
The four classes already playable in Korea are:
The Ranger, a female archer.
The Warrior, a classic male tank with sword and shield.
Sorcerer, a magician who is agile and shines with damage spells from a distance.
And the Giant, a large berserker as melee DPS with two oversized axes.
The four additional classes that are yet to come are:
- Tamer, a “tamer” who relies on a sword and her animal companions. So a pet class.
- The Wizard, a male wizard, somewhat akin to Gandalf with a staff and focusing on AE spells.
- Valkyrie, the Valkyrie, serving as a counterpart to the male tank, the women focus more on support skills.
- And the Blader, another melee DPS variant that fights with more finesse and elegance than the brute Giant.
Gameplay: Quests are rather dull, sandbox elements dominate
One of the few criticisms noted in the video is the quests, which seem generically dull to us in the West. However, this criticism has been a recurring theme in the history of Asian MMOs in the West. ArcheAge and Tera struggle with this as well. And also sandbox games usually don’t shine with intricate stories and exciting quests; the content is provided by the players for each other.
So it seems, according to the video, that in Black Desert, a frequently used alternative is to skip quests and instead grind mobs. Since every character primarily focuses on AE, this is quite practical.
In the long run, Black Desert is more of a sandbox PvP game with strong crafting elements. A description that also applies to ArcheAge. Guilds could occupy fortresses, players might go hunting for others, and a karma system is implemented.
Through the crafting system, it generally tends to be that each player sets their own goals and aims to pursue their chosen goal Y on day X by completing step Z. While in Western MMOs, it tends to be a fixed progression path from zone A to B, questing until the maximum level and then diving into the item spiral. This won’t be the case in Black Desert. As in ArcheAge, the path to the best gear goes through crafting and sandbox elements.
Combat System: Really Good, But Potion Heavy
The combat system is one of the highlights of Black Desert. It is entirely free, not tab-based. The attacks are fluid. You can feel the weight behind each attack (this is somewhat of a holy grail among combat system fans).
However, combat in Black Desert, as is common in Asian MMOs, is also “flashy,” with blood splatter and a shaking screen, making it seem restless and exaggerated. Western players might need to get used to this.
In Black Desert, there are no healers. Healing potions are on a five-second timer. The game practically encourages players to become potion junkies, which can be quite annoying sometimes.
The combo-based combat system becomes more appealing as players unlock skills with increasing experience in combat, allowing for fresh combinations. Black Desert mimics the combat system of modern Asian MMOs, where the goal is to string together spectacular combos. It has a bit of a Street Fighter feel.
Crafting: Now It Gets Interesting
The crafting system is complex like in ArcheAge. There are also some parallels to the sandbox MMO. However, the traderuns in Black Desert do not have to be taken on directly, but players can hire NPCs for that. These also take care of resource gathering. Since these characters do not (like now in World of Warcraft or Rift) only exist in some sort of mini-game, but instead are really visible in the world and follow their daily routines, the game feels lively and interesting in the cities.
As in ArcheAge, crafting capacity is regulated by a kind of “energy” system. In Black Desert, players will also not be able to craft until they drop, but are limited to specific energy boundaries, similar to a browser game.
Gossip and a Roof Over Your Head
Black Desert introduces a sort of “gossip” system. This allows players to improve their relationship with individual NPCs in a mini-game, leading to discounts or unlocking quests. The mini-game involves integrating the individual NPCs into a social matrix, enabling them to obtain information about others that interest them.
Housing plays a key role in Black Desert. Not only do you need specific furniture in your house to advance in crafting, but you can also build huts for NPCs under your command.
Things like crafting, housing, and mini-games are still relatively difficult to describe and thus make appealing to readers because they don’t translate well into a three-minute video like the combat system does. But ArcheAge or even the long-lasting Eve Online show that MMO fans appreciate a deep and immersive crafting system and honor it with loyalty.
How to Traverse the World: Mounts, Parkour, and Low Doors
The game differentiates itself from current MMO representatives by taking mounts and world navigation seriously. While in other MMORPGs doors symbolize access to instances, in Black Desert they can be opened and walked through. In fact, larger characters even crouch.
The world is walkable, explorable, and climbable. There’s a sort of parkour system allowing players to scale a city. Above all, the graphics are revolutionary. It rains, puddles form, the hero wades through it, and clothes get wet – a tremendous leap from what we know and see today.
Also, Black Desert answers the mount question differently than its competitors. Mounts cannot simply be stored in a magical bag after use but must be returned to a stable or picked up on-site. They can also level up and be equipped with gear. Mounted combat is also expected to come. There’s also talk of naval combat, though we haven’t seen that yet.
Black Desert Could Hit the Mark, But Will Still Require Compromises
My MMO states: Black Desert sounds almost too good to be true at the moment, like the logical symbiosis of two games. Many are bothered by Tera’s lack of depth. ArcheAge lacks a more dynamic combat system and a “wow” effect in graphics for some. If Black Desert can hit the mark here, the future could indeed be very Asian.
However, Black Desert should hurry. One and a half years is a long time. If delays occur during the port, as with other MMOs, the enthusiasm and anticipation felt by many may turn into frustration.
In principle, many MMO veterans yearn for a sandbox game, for an experience that is different from World of Warcraft and its epigones. Currently, there are only a few sandbox alternatives on the MMORPG market, and those offered are often either old or aimed at the indie niche. A modern triple-A game could be a hit here, as long as it hurries with the porting and doesn’t just offer a pretty façade but also proves its depth.
Whether local players are willing to make compromises is still open. In the video about character creation, many were indeed astonished at first with open mouths at the possibilities. However, they waved it off when they heard about the gender lock: many were not willing to accept this compromise. Because for many MMO players, such signals trigger memories of many cheap Asian grinders that quickly burn players out and leave them frustrated. For Black Desert, it will be about convincing Westerners that it has nothing to do with certain notorious Eastern imports.
But this is not a one-way street. Although the publisher of Black Desert, Daum, has assured that it will respond to the peculiarities of the Western market, Western players will have to make compromises if they truly yearn for something new.
As much as it has long been clear that Black Desert will not be a World of Warcraft with a Chinese coat of paint or some clone, it aims to offer players a new experience. Whether they are ready for that and whether Black Desert can truly deliver it, time will tell.
Black Desert is set to enter a beta phase in Europe in early 2015, with release expected in 2016.
