How can I begin, I have mixed feelings towards Black Desert. I gave it a try back during 2016 on NA servers and it felt like it was the MMORPG I was dying to play. A really massive fantasy themed world with unique life-skills, fun combat system and game-play. I started with 5 other friends who were also genuinely as excited as I am to try on the new world but over-time, we reached end-game and realized apart from grinding mobs, there's not much co-op content we can do together and we just lost interest after finding out it was just an AFK simulator.

After the recent major updates, changes and addition of seasonal characters, I decided to give this game another chance after taking a 2 years break and I wanted to write a review on how I feel about the game at the current stage.


1. A one of a kind game

Black Desert Online is a truly one of a kind game. Although the game could be way much better and I've stopped playing on multiple occasions, I keep coming back because other MMORPGs could not give me the same experience as Black Desert have for me.

2. Character Customization

One of the features that made me fall in love with this game was it's character customization. The game is really creative when it comes to it's advanced character customization system and unlike other MMORPGs where everyone looks exactly the same, in Black Desert however, you can be your own unique character. But don't worry if you're not a big fan of making your own character appearances but you want a decent looking character, there is a feature called the beauty album which lets you copy a top-voted appearance onto your character and it just takes seconds. There are also contests held by the developers which awards the top creators with special prizes.

3. The price of the game

Unlike other big MMORPGs where expansions just eats up $60 of your wallet with monthly subscriptions, Black Desert has a really cheap one time price of $10. Although it's arguable since the game has a lot of micro-transactions in the in-game store and the price of the items in the shop can be expensive. However, when it's just to try out the game, the base price of the game is really affordable and even cheaper when it's on sale, going as low as $1 so it's not a bad idea just to buy it during sales just to try out the game.

4. Satisfying Combat-System

While the game has a hot-bar that you use to quick cast some abilities, unlike other traditional MMORPGs the game doesn't solely rely on the hot-bar as the combat in BDO instead mostly relies on memorizing combos and performing different actions and spells out of a giant skill tree that you can mess around with. I'm not great at the game but I get a oddly satisfying experience that other games could not replicate when I'm smashing my keyboard and mouse and watching my character destroy some poor mushrooms.

5. MASSIVELY open and beautiful world

The world in Black Desert is MASSIVE! I don't know how its possible but I can travel the entire continent without going through loading screens and how the city nodes are connected to one another is really satisfying. But the best part about the game is how the world looks. The graphics in the game may not be the best but the way the NPCs act like the world is alive and when I'm exploring the world, I can't help but stare off into the horizon and see a vast sky with pretty beaches and distant mountains, it just really adds to the immersion and I can't help but notice how beautiful the game really is.

6. Fun Life Skilling system

The game has a really fun life skilling system where you can grow your own farm, chop trees, gather ingredients and cook makes me feel like Black Desert is a lot of other games packaged into one. In Black Desert, life skilling is not just a secondary aspect like other MMORPGs but it is a really important factor in the game as it is one of the best sources to make money and a part of some questlines. There are some players who are solely dedicated to just life-skilling and plays the game just to cook or train/breed horses. There are also houses and rooms you can rent that helps with life-skilling or just for you to decorate and live inside and treat it as if it's your adventure house.

7. Auto-Move to locations

I hate to admit it but I'm a really lazy person and I hate holding my W key to navigate to places. The game is really convenient for someone like me because it has a polished auto-move feature that allows me to travel to other towns and to my quest objectives. While in rare occasions there are issues where my character can get stuck or it won't go to the quest objective that I want, it's still a really convenient feature.


1. Micro-Transactions

While the base price of the game is cheap, the in-game shop micro-transactions are not. It is arguable whether or not the game is pay-to-win since there's a market that players can buy from other players for the items that are sold on the shop with in-game currency but it can take over a month to find that amount of money. However, I want to add that the price for outfits and min-maxing your character can easily take over $100 through micro-transactions and some important functions are locked behind a paywall such as increasing the weight limit that your character can hold in the inventory. So in my opinion, you don't even pay to win as the benefits you get from paying is not worth it and I feel like you're just paying to lose.

2. The game can get really grindy and repetitive

One of the reason I felt burnt out from Black Desert and I needed a break was because of the hellish grinding experience. While the combat system is really fascinating, after being sent to kill 5,000 monsters there, 3,000 monsters here and 2,000 more monsters over there, I grew quickly tired of the game and I just started thinking why I'm making myself go through this torture. Most of the CO-OP gameplay in this game is just forming a party and grinding at a place for an hour or two. The game could be a lot better.

3. I don't feel attached to the story or NPCs

For me, the storyline and my attachment to the NPCs of the game is really important in my long term interest of the game. Unlike other MMORPGs where I can feel myself really liking one NPC or experience a written storyline and immerse myself in it, the only thing I can immerse myself in Black Desert is the massive and beautiful but empty world. While the story is there to follow, there are fragments that just don't connect to one another and it just starts to feel like its forced and lost.

4. Lack of new content, slow progression

Black Desert is really slow to release new content and the requirements to actually enjoy the game is insane. I get that progression is meant to be slow for MMORPGs but in Black Desert, it's too slow that you'd lose interest before you even get to end game. While the release of new seasonal characters and servers made progression faster, there's not enough content due to the lack of an actual dungeon system and no other content to enjoy.


Black Desert is a unique MMORPG that I still could not find another MMORPG that could give me a similar experience up to this day. I had a lot of fun playing this game when it was still new and I've enjoyed the combat system and explored the beautiful world to the fullest but I find it sad that there's not enough new content for older players to enjoy. However, for new adventurers who're thinking about starting Black Desert, I wholeheartedly recommend it due to the base price of the game being affordable and there's tons of things you can do here that other games could not offer.

*SPOILER FREE!*


1. Story-Rich

Among all the popular and successful titles that Bandai Namco Entertainment has developed, Code Vein is my absolute favorite because of the immersive story-line that it has. As the story dug deeper into each character's past and experiences, I became engrossed in both game play and story-line which makes it one of my most favorite video games of all time.

2. Content and New Game +

While you can just play the game by following the main storyline, there are many other contents such as weapons, armors, blood codes and side quests that you can collect and complete. Also, this game has multiple endings which you can only achieve by completing more than one play-through. You also have the option to increase the game's difficulty much higher by entering New Game+.

3. The game is just BEAUTIFUL

I've already mentioned how beautiful the game's story-line is but generally, everything about this game is beautiful to me. The music while traversing a post apocalyptic city is surprisingly very soothing for my heart. I recommended this game so that everyone can experience the happiness that I felt playing this game. *mini-spoiler* My eyes watered when Eva started singing *spoiler-ends*

4. Epic Customization

Code Vein has one of the most satisfying character customization compared to all other video games that I've played. You can go for any anime look and fashion you like without adding mods and skins from the game itself!

5. Co-Op System

The Co-Op system in this game is very unique and interesting. This game requires teamwork and understanding between you and your Co-Op partner as monsters and bosses get buffed when the game enters Co-Op mode. Resurrection in this game is beautiful. It takes away health from the player and transfers it to team, reviving dead players and healing wounded teammates as well. Playing Co-Op also rewards you with Mark of Honor medals which unlocks rewards such as titles. It is encouraged that players find a co-op partner to enjoy this game together with!

6. Custom Skill Builds and Classes

One of the most captivating thing about this game for me is that you can build your character the way you want it to be. You can become anyone from someone who one-shots bosses or a high DPS magic user.

As for me, I built myself around my partner as a healer and let him carry me while I watch over him from the back-lines and keep him healthy and alive. However, there are some bosses that we cannot win with me in the back-lines as a healer, so I switch around to a ranged Bayonet class so I can help him output more damage. You can mix and match many skills and passives to get the type of game-play you want from your character. Not to mention, weapons and armors too.


1. You shouldn't buy this if you hate hard games.

While the game has so much to offer and explore, this game is very hard even on the first play-through if you are not careful. The monsters in the game can catch you by surprise and the boss fights are really difficult (which is also the main interest points of the game). Imagine an anime dark souls ^^. It also gets harder if you enter new game plus but you have an option to choose not to.

2. You shouldn't buy this if you hated Dark Souls (explained above)

3. You shouldn't buy this game if you hate grinding.

The game has many content which will require a lot of time and focus. It has multiple endings, many items to collect, skills to level and side-quests to complete which can easily take up days and weeks off your busy schedule.

4. You shouldn't buy this game if you are looking to play Co-Op with more than one friend.

While I listed as Co-Op being one of the attractions of the game, the Co-Op system in the game is a little flawed as-

A) It only allows one Co-Op partner to exist in one adventure.

B) You have to complete one story, two times. When your partner helps you complete your mission in the map, it only counts as story completion on your end. You also have to do the mission all over again to help your partner complete their own story.

TL;DR

The game is really beautiful in my eyes and the story-line is to die for. I've cried like a baby for most of the game and if you're into video games with rich story-lines, I recommend for you to really get this game. The experience I've had in this game is already worth more than the money I've spent to get Code Vein.