

It's been a long time since those days, since World of Warcraft tore down that idea and replaced it with the theme park MMO model. Screenshots pulled from Black Desert Online's Reddit community. The problem is if you didn't know where to find that info or you ran into a troll, your experience wasn't a pleasant one. This had the added benefit of improving player communities through the sharing of relevant information. Communities sprung up around providing these explanations for players who simply didn't have the time or inclination to puzzle things out.

These games would throw you into a world with some explanation, but you ultimate direction to be puzzled out. In the old Everquest days, MMOs were hard and obtuse. Is there a decent amount of pop-in and framerate dips at times? Sure, but I think it's worth it for some of the vistas you'll find.īlack Desert Online's strong visual presence is probably helping bring new players into the game, but what they find under the all the shine is what will determine if they stay with it or not. Even better, this is one of the few MMOs where night actually feels like night in the real world you'll need to equip a torch, otherwise, you won't be able to see beyond your immediate area. Snow falls, sand storms whip up, and heavy rains blanket the countryside. Standing on a hill at dusk on a clear day looks completely different from standing on that same hill on a foggy morning. These systems all work together to create wildly varied world conditions. Black Desert Online features an impressive graphics engine, with great lighting, a full day/night cycle, and dynamic weather.

This visual quality extends to the rest of the world. Pearl Abyss deserves some applause for developing a character creator more flexible and easy to use than some major studios. The character creator is also a bit easier to manipulate than what you'll find in games like Fallout 4. If you're willing to put in the time, you can create some amazing-looking characters in BDO. You've probably heard of Black Desert Online because of its absurdly beautiful character creator. Black Desert Online wants to give you a window into a world completely unlike your own, but it doesn't always give you the tools you need to thrive there.
