Black Desert Online, a high-fantasy MMORPG by Pearl Abyss, is known for its stunning graphics, detailed character customization, and expansive world. Launched in 2015, it is available on multiple platforms, including PC (Windows), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with optimizations for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S through backward compatibility. The game features dynamic, skill-based combat and a range of non-combat activities like fishing, crafting, and trading. The game’s open-world exploration is complemented by a player-driven economy and housing system. Despite criticisms of grind and pay-to-win elements, its immersive combat, vast landscapes, and in-depth life simulation aspects make it a favourite among MMORPG players.

I’ve never intended on playing Black Desert Online, mostly because people have always mentioned the insane amount of grinding that’s involved with the game. But when I saw it for sale for just a dollar on Steam, I just thought to myself, surely its worth a dollar right? (or 80p in my case). I then noticed that the game appears to have high popularity with active daily players, Twitch viewers and Google searches so I decided to give it a try.

This review is my first impressions of the game as a brand new player and we’re going to look at whether this $1 MMORPG is any good.

BDO can be easily installed via Steam and this will also create a Pearl Abyss account linking to your Steam account or from the Black Desert Website.

Once into the game you can begin the character customisation which is a big part of the game. A huge stand out at the very start is the sheer amount of different classes to play. While it can seem quite overwhelming choosing one, it’s also great to have a lot of variety as these all have their own individual combat play styles.

Upon choosing a class, a thing to note is that you are limited on certain aspects of your characters physical appearance. I picked a Guardian for example and I’m locked in as being a female character with certain characteristics. For the first time in an MMORPG I am playing as a female character!

While some aspects of the character creation are limited such as the gender, there’s also a vast amount of detail that you can customise on your character. BDO has one of the most in-depth character creation menus I’ve ever seen. You’re able to choose every little detail of your character, the hair alone allows you to choose a hair style, then customise the front, middle and back length of the hair, then adjust the amount and length of curl, adjust the colour and shine along with the tips and the roots colour. Each sub menu is just as detailed giving you unlimited options on how you want your unique character to look.

I typically always play as a Tank. If it’s an MMO where Tanking isn’t really valuable, I typically go for a tanky melee DPS. Going off my usual gameplay style I choose Guardian as it was wielding a One Hand and Shield. I also maxed out my characters height as I always do which I’m now very regretful about and you’ll see why in a moment.

When first starting out you have the option of a Season character. This is definitely the option to go for if you are new to the game as it acts as a catch up method for new players. You’ll gain a lot of materials, upgrades and gear by levelling up and completing certain tasks and quests relating to upgrading gear. Once you complete the season pass and claim everything you can graduate your character but you’ll be geared and prepared for the later game content.

Upon starting the game, I went through the movement tutorial which also acts as the main story starter and after a cutscene, the combat tutorial and then the main story cutscenes as the plotline unfolds bringing you to the first area the Forest of Seclusion. The beginning of the game is dominated by story quests and I didn’t fight another enemy from the initial tutorial until 65 mins into the game when I was finally directed to kill some wolves. I then spent a good 10 minutes killing them to try and get to grips with the combat system.

During my first session, the surrounding visuals were a big highlight and the main story was also interesting and engaging but the Black Spirit seems kind of evil but it looks like I am stuck with the little fellow for now.

With the tutorial being entirely story related you don’t learn a whole lot and throughout the “beginner” area you aren’t really taught much about the game and everything is kind of left to you to figure out. With combat there is an on-screen help which is showing you how to use skills and also different combos you can use when in combat situations and this is a big help early on as you try and figure out how to damage and kill enemies effectively.

Navigating all of the menus and UI was also a bit of a task early on, there’s so many things on the UI, so many red dot notifications with little explanation on what they are. I did try to make some changes to my UI, one of the main ones being wanting to turn off my character name above my head but the setting didn’t appear to exist anywhere.

During various cutscenes I began to notice that my character simply didn’t fit into the camera view so this is something to look out for when making your character, and NPCs were often talking to my characters stomach, this made quite a few of the cutscenes quite ropey and more comical than anything especially when my character was towering above everyone else.

The story is overall very engaging in the beginning and you’re fully involved and it’s fully voice acted. This was quite a surprise but after a while things change quite drastically. Once you do a quest to leave the first main town and area you’re in, all of this basically comes to a sharp halt.

My character was just too tall to fit on the screen for cutscenes…

The main story quest suddenly has lots of dialogue to read and almost no voice acting. Where you were originally part of the story with your character and your character was in the cutscenes, it all changes really weirdly where you’re now watching cutscenes of events that are happening that you’re not even part of and you’re kind of just “seeing” what’s happened and then have to do a task for an NPC based upon that.

At this point it does become much less enjoyable and I did become a bit disinterested in the game because of this. Many of the quests seem to have a ton of dialogue with very little reward, especially experience rewards and these quests are just necessary for the main story progression rather than any character progression benefit. So when you combine the lacklustre rewards and lack of enjoyment and reduced engaging plots it makes questing become a chore compared to at the start when its actually enjoyable.

Combat

I’m an experienced MMORPG player with over 20 years playing different MMOs but figuring out the combat in BDO was admittedly a bit of a challenge.

I’m very used to just straight up remapping my skills to my F keys and using them on the side of my mouse but BDO has a very different combat style. In this game, you have a real time action combat system where you need to combine different keys to do different combo attacks and performing abilities felt much different to most other games I’ve played. It does require good knowledge of the system to use it effectively but it does feel engaging and skilful once you master it and start to use the right skills and combos along with dodging, aiming and strategically taking down enemies.

I kept the on screen prompt initially showing me which skills to press which is a nice touch for beginners but take a lot to get used to and remember. After a little while I figured out a few nice skills that combined well together and I pretty much just blasted through all enemies repeating that. I guess it was quite boring in some ways but it’s largely just down to not having stuff unlocked so early in the game.

I did really enjoy some of the more challenging fights. When I met certain bosses, this combat style is suddenly not as simple as just hitting a few combos, you have to play through a range of mechanics while using skills at certain times and the fight designs were fun and engaging while also a decent challenge.

Overall visually BDO is a great looking game with vast landscapes and beautifully designed areas which really matches up well with the detailed character design and visuals. There’s a lot of intricate details such as seeing characters breath when in a cold area. Its those kind of details which make the game feel more alive and real. The lighting in underground areas and inside building is fine but the torches are not lit making you wonder where the light is coming from.

The sounds and visuals of the cutscenes are fantastic and really well done.

The music is fitting of the game but does sound very much like your standard generic MMORPG music. This does change the ambiance effectively depending on the area you are in though and the music and sounds helps to create that.

In the early stages of the game it is fully voice acted and aside from the mouths of the NPCs not moving in time with the audio, it’s done well and makes the early game engaging especially when you have so many quests to do.

The combat animations and sounds are great and make every hit seem really impactful.

BDO has a very busy general chat but a lot of it can be hard to understand for new players as there are lot of in game terminology used which I had no idea what any of it meant. Players seemed friendly enough and would occasionally help other players who were asking questions which is good to see, this is likely helped by the fact I was on a novice server.

As you progress in the early phases of the game you are basically playing a single player RPG in a shared world, there’s no incentive to communicate or group up with other players. This doesn’t seem like it’s going to change any time soon until I am higher level and farming specific items.

During some boss fights, you see other players fighting but you can’t see the boss or enemy they are fighting. When you reach the same quest you’re then able to see a boss, but only your own boss. It’s an odd system because it’s actively discouraging group play which is the fundamental of why I play MMORPGs.

Later down the line guilds become an integral part of the game which is good where you’ll do guild missions, Guild vs Guild combat and fight over territories and resources. There’s a big focus on world bosses, group quests, monster zones and scroll groups for PvE alongside trading, crafting and even fishing expeditions, then siege wars, node wars and red battlefield for PvP.

My early verdict of the game is somewhat mixed.

The game is beautiful, the world is highly detailed and it’s one of the best looking MMORPGs around with a vast open world that feels alive. The combat is very exciting and different, it’s an action packed, real time, action combat system that requires strategy. I was really engaged by the early game story, but upon leaving the starting area the questing became a real chore and very off putting.

There’s lot’s of activities to do with life skills, constant events and character development. The early game character development is well paced and you can level up fast by AoEing enemies but this does slow down as you get closer to level 60. As you get into the endgame there appears to be plenty to do and being part of a guild seems like a vital part of the game.

There is a downside with things such as inventory management being an endless issue that is something you don’t want to have to worry about early in a game but because you get given so must stuff from rewards, events, daily logins, twitch drops and coupons you are constantly battling with your inventory.

If you don’t like to grind then this won’t be the game for you. Both levelling and improving gear proves to be quite a huge grind as you progress towards the end game and it will require considerable amounts of time to do both. When enchanting gear it’s heavily reliant on RNG which does lead to quite a bit of frustration.

While there doesn’t appear to be any forced purchases in the early phases, you are constantly badgered to look at store items, some with big discounts which try to persuade you to buy. Over the years BDO has gained a reputation of being a Pay to Win game, and while purchases aren’t essential, spending money can significantly make progression much easier.

The lack of traditional endgame and group content can be a particular issue if that’s the content you mostly like doing. During the early stages of playing as mentioned already there’s basically no reason to group up nor does the game encourage it. While there are late game activates to do as a group both for PvE and PvP, BDO simply doesn’t have the typical content you might expect such as dungeons and raids.

Its not an accident that this 8 year old game is one of the most popular MMORPGs out there.

BDO won’t appeal to everyone as there are some fairly drastic downsides to it especially those pay to win and AFK elements, but its a game that requires time and patients to enjoy. If you can get involved and familiar with the game and the combat system this could quite easily become your next main MMORPG but it will require a decent amount of learning and a huge amount of grinding.

If you enjoy a range of activities including questing, killing enemies, farming, fishing, trading, PvPing, guild combat and hunting down world bosses then you will likely enjoy what Black Desert Online has to offer. In the early phases it will feel like a shared world single player RPG but the game thrives much later on when you join a guild and start to participate in group activities.

The game is so cheap at just $1, you’ll frequently find it on offer and you can get a lot of enjoyment out of the game without purchasing anything else. With the possibility of creating a season character you can progress through the game to a decent stage and collect a lot of items to help you catch up and participate in the guild and endgame activities.

Is this game worth playing? For a dollar, absolutely.

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