Black Desert is our MMO of the month. We will tell you what speaks for the new MMORPG.
Admittedly, the choice for MMO of the month was difficult for us in February. In January, we had a neck-and-neck race between Diablo 3 and Blade and Soul, but there wasn’t much going on in February. There were few content updates in the games, no new releases, not much happening. Everything is gearing up for March.
Highlights in February included, besides a content patch for FF14 and Blade and Soul, the closed betas for Black Desert and the MMO shooter The Division.
We chose Black Desert in February, even though the game could only be played for a few days in a closed beta. But at least I had more “aha” moments in the two, three, four days of the beta than in weeks of other MMORPGs. These are advance praises that we are handing out here, but the 30 or more hours I spent in the beta would have already been worth the purchase price of about 30€ (without extras).
Black Desert starts on February 28 with the head start. I rarely looked forward to an MMORPG as much as this time.
Black Desert works differently than our games
Black Desert is a Korean MMORPG focused on combat, exploration, trading, and crafting.
In the MMORPGs we are used to, you are sent from village to village. The NPCs stand in formation and tell you their entire life story and want you to do something for them. There are quests in bite-sized pieces, it’s all “questing by numbers,” the world is divided into portions waiting to be consumed gradually.
In Black Desert, you arrive in a village and first have to chat with the residents, gain their trust before they provide you with quests. You have to establish an existence in the world, uncover secrets, or perhaps build a small trading empire.
Five reasons why Black Desert is our MMO of the month February
It’s beautiful – A lot has been written about the character editor, but the landscape itself has a lot to offer as well. I have rarely spent so much time alone in the starting area, and it has rarely been so okay for me to run from point A to point B. It is a world where you simply enjoy being.
It’s mysterious – Right now, you see everywhere “I played the beta, I have no idea what’s going on. But I look forward to figuring it out.” Exactly, that’s the appeal. Black Desert is exotic and underexplained. The node system, the knowledge system, how it all works – I have no idea after x hours in beta. I have a faint idea, the glimmer of understanding glows, and that is enough for me at the moment. This may be a disadvantage for some. For me, who felt like I had “seen through” the game in the first 2 hours of the last MMORPGs, it’s an advantage. Finally unexplored land again.
It’s fun to slay monsters. In the first beta, I was out with a berserker. It was really fun to smash the monsters just because they were there. The combos and actions flowed smoothly. And I had no need to stare at the quest counter or the EXP display. Good thing! In the second beta as a ranger, I had a completely different gaming experience. That wasn’t really for me. For the release, I am still fluctuating between berserker and something entirely different; maybe it will be the tamer.
Exploring is worth it again. Anyone looking at the map in Black Desert sees something worth exploring. There is a collection of stones here, a cave on the coast there. What lies behind the waterfall? I have no idea, but I want to find out and get the “knowledge” about it. This will then be noted in the quest log. Who knows what it’s good for!
Black Desert is foreign. For two years, I have been writing about Black Desert, wondering from afar how this or that system would work in practice. It operates on unknown patterns and can surprise me with it! Man, when was the last time you could say something like that about an MMORPG?
Black Desert is our MMO of the month February. Tomorrow, on February 28, the first head start begins, followed by two more until it starts for everyone on March 3. I am really looking forward to it!
