Black Desert Online started developing back in 2010 and finally released to NA in 2016. It's a Korean semi-sandbox mmorpg (which means it will most likely be very grindy, as Koreans love grinding) that's completely open world (no load times, no instances, one huge world) with a bunch of special classes like ninjas and kunoichi, berserkers (which are gigantic men), tamers (really a summoner), maehwa (korean swordgirlthing) and your assorted rpg classes like warrior, wizard, ranger, etc. As a sandbox mmo, you can basically do whatever you want with no real progression. I have no idea what the main storyline is because I don't read it. Something about losing memories and then being possessed by a black spirit.

I got my 7-day guest pass at this website. It may or may not have any keys left by the time you read this, but as of writing this they had about 3230 keys. Yes, it looks sketchy as fuck, but it worked. Make sure you use a burner email though. I suggest using a gmail account as a yahoo one apparently isn't whitelisted. Or you can try one of those throwaway domains, but I don't think those are whitelisted either. Anyways, after you get a code, head on over to the official site and create your account. Then go here to apply your code.

IMPORTANT: Your 7 day trial begins the moment you apply the code. So don't apply the code if you can't play for awhile. The game is also about 35GB, but it's not really a big deal because 7 days is actually a lot of time. The game is $30 USD so it is quite cheap compared to most games.

This blog will detail my 7 3 days of playing this game and whether or not I will buy the game (unlikely as I am a cheap fuck). It is also very image heavy, so sorry about the scrolling you will need to do. If only there was an option to put images as an expando, so people could just click the link and it would expand in-browser without creating a new tab. *coughv4cough*

Character Creation aka Extreme Lewdness Simulator

Character customization is very detailed. It is quite similar to that of Sims 4, in which you can drag certain parts of the body to modify as you wish. Yes, this includes boobs. No, this doesn't include crotches. You can't make a snake. But you can make lewd gestures. He knows about that eye contact.

You are also able to pose your characters for some strange reason. I don't really see a reason why this was implemented. Maybe to make screencaps with?

Dragging the boobies as those eyes stare straight to my soul. I'm sorry, it had to be done. Boobie sliders weren't made to be ignored.


No idea what I was trying to do here. In my defense, it is very difficult to use the pose feature.


My beautiful character. Lewd hand gesture?

Starting the game

When you start the game, you're unconscious and lost your memories and a little black spirit wakes you up and tells you that you are nothing without it. Cool.

(This picture is from a bit later in the game)

Then you do a little tutorial quests and stuff and the black little shit gives you quests too, which introduce you to the skills and combos in this game. Extensive combos. You got Shift+RMB, ⬇️+E, ➡️+LMB, just a bunch of different configurations that makes it confusing at times. Fortunately, you can just put the skills on a number bar and be pleb. If anyone has played Dragon Nest before, I would equate the skills system to be similar. As you do more quests for your little evil spirit, he starts gaining features, first a mouth that keeps chattering, and then some parts of the torso. I'm guessing he'll manifest completely after completing all his quests and then you get to fight him, and then you "awaken" and gain your memories and real powers back.

Here is what he looks like after a good amount of quests have been completed.


The first NPC I met. Paint me like one of your French girls.


You can actually zoom uncomfortably close. I can only imagine why this was implemented...most likely to accommodate the needs of depraved individuals much like the ones that buy mousepads with boobs. *cough davidcough*


Peekaboo


The first player I played around with. She tried to duel me and then ran away before I could kill her. :(

Map

This world is YUUUUUGE. And I'm not exaggerating. Instantly reminded me of Skyrim when I opened the map.


One of the unique features BDO has is something called Node Management. Basically these nodes are certain NPCs that you talk to in order to unlock them on the map. Once unlocked, these nodes allow for a trading route to be establish if in the future you decide you want to play Feudal Work Simulator 2016. It actually looks really cool on the map with all the nodes.

NPC Interaction + Knowledge feature

Knowledge is incredibly important in this game and affects both NPCs and monsters. For NPCs, certain knowledge is needed to talk to certain NPCs. This means you won't be able to complete a quest when you report to an NPC unless you've gained the right amount of knowledge about him, forcing you to talk to every NPC you see, and there are a lotttt of NPCs. By interacting with NPCs, you also gain relationship points which can unlock special items, similar to the system in Mabinogi. You could also try to steal from them, but you need "contribution points," whatever that means.

To gain knowledge about an enemy, you have to repeatedly kill a certain enemy, which will then unlock their HP as you have no idea how much health an enemy has initially if you do not have the knowledge unlocked. As you continue gaining more knowledge, more information will be shown. I think the max grade is A+. Even in games, Koreans are studying and trying to get A+. smh.


When you decide to start life as a worker gathering and mining, you could even hire slaves workers to do your dirty work while you profit because you have coin. Why are these workers not human? Otters, goblins, dwarves? Why can't I have a human slave? Sure sounds like racism to me. Koreans are racist! Just look at this slave auction. *TRIGGERED*


There are mounts in this game. Like my black ass, Badonkadonk, which was given from a quest reward. Later on, you have to actually hunt down and lasso a wild horse and tame it. Also, elephants. Yes, elephants.

Conclusion

The game is pretty fun, but it's not quite what I'm looking for. The biggest difference Black Desert Online has compared to other MMORPGs, is that there is very little PvE content. Aside from World Bosses, which are powerful monsters that take multiple players to take down, dropping fat lewt, there is little to no endgame. As there are no raids or dungeons, most of your time spent playing this game will be questing and professions (gathering, fishing, mining, trading, etc.)

In terms of PvP, however, there is a good PvP system in place, but you need to be around lvl50 or so to partake. PvP content includes things like Conquest, where your guild can siege a castle occupied by another guild and attempt to take it over, or Red Battlefield which is just a giant PvP battleground. Since Black Desert Online is a fully open world game, once players have reached the threshold for PvP (lvl40 or lvl35 if you complete a certain quest) you will be able to attack any player that is at least lvl40. Yes, this means players will probably kill you while you're out farming or questing because there are limited farming spots.

I rate this game a solid 7.8/10. Definitely worth trying out, but personally, I was looking for a bit more and I don't think it's worth $30 in my eyes. I'd like to note that in Korea and Russia, BDO is actually F2P. NA always shafted. gg no re.