Black Desert Online

 PC
  • Publisher: GameOn
  • Release Date: Mar 3, 2016
User Score
6.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 1667 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,021 out of 1667
  2. Mixed: 105 out of 1667
  3. Negative: 541 out of 1667

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  1. kyriores
    Aug 1, 2017
    3
    Good game, but do yourself a favor and play on a private server. You won't have to deal with Kakao's greed, which is pretty much the only thing that's ruining this game.
  2. SimplyMog
    Mar 5, 2016
    4
    This is a hard one to review, but i'll be trying to be as unbiased as possible... The game has a brilliant character creation system, by far the greatest i've ever used, to the point i spent hours in it. The graphics are nice and controls fairly easy to get the hand of. Unfortunately, in it's current state the game is in a bit of a mess...

    There is a point where everyone leaves their    This is a hard one to review, but i'll be trying to be as unbiased as possible... The game has a brilliant character creation system, by far the greatest i've ever used, to the point i spent hours in it. The graphics are nice and controls fairly easy to get the hand of. Unfortunately, in it's current state the game is in a bit of a mess...

    There is a point where everyone leaves their horses in certain spots, and due to not being able to toggle them from your own vision, the screen can get fairly clustered with other people's horses, not just yours. The game feels also quite like a mobile game, in the sense there's quite a few "waiting" portions, however, while some may have a problem, the game offers multiple ways to shorten that time, if you're observant.

    While my biggest complaint is directed at the character customization, and don't confuse that with character creation, it's much different. When you first receive new armor or a weapon, you're excited to equip it to change your characters default look, only to realize, it doesn't actually change. Some going in blind to this game will be incredibly disappointed, for a game that stresses character customization there is a significant lack of.

    One of the "best" ways to change your looks is through the cash shop, where my other large complaint comes in, through purchasing of costumes and accessories. I completely understand vanity items, and that they're not a necessity, but $30 for a full set, or $16 for the torso/main piece only. If this had been a F2P game, i would completely ignore this matter, but that isn't the case.

    However, this game does offer a lot in the sense you can leave your computer running, and it will accumulate points for various sections of the game, and even when offline. However, while this is a nice time saver, this relates back to the feeling of a "Mobile game", which it shouldn't be, it's an MMO on a PC.

    Combat is nice and fluid, but some classes are more interesting than others. The skill tree system (currently) feels vast enough for me to say it's enjoyable to try out new skills when I get them.

    Voice acting in the game is... actually really bad. It pains me to say it as they must have put a lot of work into it, as a lot of NPC's speak when you're simply idling in town. If i had the option to just have the korean audio, i would take it.

    Overall, BDO gets a 4, a deserving 4. Does this mean the game is crap, no, no it does not. Does it mean you should throw your wallet on the screen, as i did, no, no you should not. The developers need to really consider what it means to have a game "Buy to Play", for as it stands, it feels like i've been playing a glorified farmville, apologies for the analogy to those hurt by that comment, but think about it...

    You start out with nothing, go out do missions, eventually get to crafting and the core section, and things start costing points that are returned by waiting: making food costs points, chopping trees costs points, making swords costs points, and getting those points back takes literal time. There are ways to get points back besides quests and waiting, through "loyalties", or real money, speeding things up, like a mobile game.

    I, like others, believe Black Desert will go F2P if things continue as is, and that's a shame, as i would love to see it prosper.    … Expand
  3. LypseDK
    Mar 5, 2016
    2
    The Bad..
    Voice and text are not matching.
    The black spirit... who thought that whine when summoned was a good idea.
    Mobs die in one hit.. then at the first real fight with the summoned imp you almost die... very strange.
    So many systems in place, that are just diffrent grinds?
    I got the most fun out of the character generator, then it fell apart after that...
  4. snooze4321
    Mar 4, 2016
    4
    Black Desert Online is enjoyable if you like pvp or running goods between cities for profit. But the games pros are outweighed by its cons.

    Pros: - An amazing parkour system where you can climb over any wall and onto roofs etc. - The game looks great and has good optimization - The autorun feature means you can set a destination to a quest or location and just hit your run key - The    Black Desert Online is enjoyable if you like pvp or running goods between cities for profit. But the games pros are outweighed by its cons.

    Pros:
    - An amazing parkour system where you can climb over any wall and onto roofs etc.
    - The game looks great and has good optimization
    - The autorun feature means you can set a destination to a quest or location and just hit your run key
    - The lack of fast travel gives the game a more life like feel to it. Combined with a trading system that has you running goods between cities.

    Cons:
    - THE ENERGY SYSTEM. Everything you do requires energy, if you cut down 10 trees you then have to wait HALF AN HOUR to cut down another 10.
    - The voice acting is atrocious
    - Such little effort has gone into the quest text and dialogue, combined with how fast you level it might as well not exist
    - The ludicrous cost of cash shop items. An outfit will cost the same amount as the game itself. Your auto loot function costs $10. And the dye system is a joke.
    - Daum's business practises. The way they interact with the community, the prices they put on items and the fact they had you waive your rights to a refund if you pre-ordered the game all ties into the fact that Daum can not be trusted. I really would not be surprised if they made the game free to play 6 months later.

    You will get enough fun out of $30 if you can ignore the cons just don't support bad business practises; don't buy cash shop items.    … Expand
  5. boxgurl160
    Mar 3, 2016
    0
    Black Desert Online Is a buy to play MMO with a price tag of $30

    This game has a lot of issues. Most mainly being from it's terrible publisher DAUM. I think it's quite clear that this game for them is nothing more then a quick cash grab. Let's talk about DAUM's communication skills If there's anything this last week proved it's that DAUM is terrible about communicating to their    Black Desert Online Is a buy to play MMO with a price tag of $30

    This game has a lot of issues. Most mainly being from it's terrible publisher DAUM. I think it's quite clear that this game for them is nothing more then a quick cash grab.

    Let's talk about DAUM's communication skills

    If there's anything this last week proved it's that DAUM is terrible about communicating to their player base. During the 2nd closed beta people were given a look at the cash shop items, a lot of people were upset with the pricing and RNG items. A costume would cost more then the actual game. So DAUM created a thread on the official forums to keep all the angry players in one spot. A whole week of people complaining and DAUM said nothing to anybody. At the end of the week it was the last day to pre-order and still DAUM had said nothing about it. Only the day after the pre-orders ended did people finally get a response. It's almost like they purposely waited till after pre-orders ended to release a statement to make sure they got no more negative press. They also didn't get the response from DAUM, they got it from MMORPG, that's right a third party site.

    Did they listen to their players? Well yes and no. They did reduce the price---of just the costumes, and only by $3 from $32 to $29. In fact it almost seems like they lowered the prices by $3 just to shut up the people who were complaining about costumes being more then the game itself. Everything else stayed the same in the cash shop.

    During the Early Access stage of the game people like myself who spent $100 on the game tried to claim our pre-order items had many issues. What happened when you tried to send in a support ticket asking for help? Nothing, Till this moment I still haven't gotten a response to my ticket asking for help. Sure eventually I got my items after the game launched, but it's really telling when DAUM can't be arsed enough to even reply to support tickets asking for help.

    on 3/3/2016 the game officially launched. When it went live there was a 1 gig patch. Normally with a MMO you expect for there to be some sort of patch notes. So was there any patch notes? Nope, apparently 1 gigs worth of changes isn't important enough to tell their players about.

    Now let's talk about character customization.

    BDO has a very detailed dye system, and a good amount of dyes. How do you get dyes you ask? Well through the cash shop of course! There's no way to obtain dyes in the game itself without paying for them. Oh did I mention that the dyes are rng one time use items? I hope you don't have a certain look you want because good luck getting the dyes without spending $100.

    I bet you're thinking "well if I can't dye my gear surely I can just use a wide variety of costumes at my disposal!" you'd be wrong. Each class has about 4 different outfits in the game, that's right 4. There's more in the cash shop of course. So really if you want to look different then other people you're gonna have to pay money at some point. It's almost mind boggling, since you can play mmos from 16 years ago that offer more character customization then BDO does(without using cash shop items). Heck even modern F2P games have more customization then BDO does.

    Being able to style and customize your character in an mmo is a very important feature, and has been a fundamental part of MMOs for over a decade. The fact that DAUM has restricted that customization to the cash shop is disgusting.

    DAUM sold a B2P game which has a worse cash shop then most F2P games. I like the game, but I would not recommend it to anyone with how greedy and lazy the publisher DAUM is. Black Desert Online does not have a bright future if DAUM keeps up with their shenanigans.    … Expand
  6. Marulk
    Mar 3, 2016
    0
    Moneyscammers i say who does nothing to fix the problems who overflowing atm . Can`t even login on my server and it`s no use write a ticket as they got 0 support. Beta i would say but u pay for Alpha..if i could i would sew their lazy money asses on all they got...
  7. Edean
    Mar 4, 2016
    0
    This game has no pve endgame content and the combat gets really boring after few hours.
    The only reason this game is getting any good reviews is that you can play as pornstar looking skimpy anime girls.
    Stay away. Its not worth your time.
  8. Bjoernen
    Mar 3, 2016
    1
    The game have their classes gender locked. Meaning that if you want to play as a specific class, you are forced to play either a little asian girl or - if you are a Bezerker - a huge monstrous man.

    People are defending it by saying its "in the lore" which in all RPG's is a **** excuse to limit player customization and personal choice. If only the female gender can pick up a bow in Black    The game have their classes gender locked. Meaning that if you want to play as a specific class, you are forced to play either a little asian girl or - if you are a Bezerker - a huge monstrous man.

    People are defending it by saying its "in the lore" which in all RPG's is a **** excuse to limit player customization and personal choice. If only the female gender can pick up a bow in Black Desert the "lore" is a **** disaster.

    I never made a character. I usually play spellcasters in games, and I was limited to the choice of being an old man. The game is Korean. It shows. A lot of skimpy dressed pretty females fighting monsters.    … Expand
  9. zutkos
    Mar 3, 2016
    0
    The game had potential, I'll give it that. Sadly the final product is just horrible. For all you PvE lovers, just turn back and never return, BDO has no PvE at all.
  10. bemaniac
    Mar 4, 2016
    2
    I find that the games icons are confusing and cheesy voice overs are embarrassing to listen to. I get the sense of an inferior product as there doesn't seem to be much player cooperation in the game and everything is much too easy to kill. Leveling up was so quick and then there was nothing to do except pvp. I find the character graphics as good as they say but the world is blurry in theI find that the games icons are confusing and cheesy voice overs are embarrassing to listen to. I get the sense of an inferior product as there doesn't seem to be much player cooperation in the game and everything is much too easy to kill. Leveling up was so quick and then there was nothing to do except pvp. I find the character graphics as good as they say but the world is blurry in the distance and the pop in on all settings is really bad. It's like a really broken version of the Arcania Gothic 4 graphics engine but ends up looking less attractive as a result. I think the steady solid graphics of Rift and Wow are more appealing. All the icons and wibbly screen effects in this confuse the eyes. For 4k gamers in particular the game only runs in 24 frames per second when you choose 4k.… Expand
  11. archanjo
    May 17, 2016
    3
    boooriiiinggggg yawnnnnnnnn .
  12. KrytyNiekrytyk
    Mar 9, 2016
    4
    Pros:
    - great graphics
    - great character creator - sandbox Cons: - boring (go to place B from place A and kill everyone, do the same from B to C etc). - no equipment system (you will look the same from lvl 1 to lvl 50, or you can pay 30 euro for some epic outfit) - hud - no tutorials - combat system has too many keyboard shortcuts, so you can be pro player if you will just hit    Pros:
    - great graphics
    - great character creator
    - sandbox
    Cons:
    - boring (go to place B from place A and kill everyone, do the same from B to C etc).
    - no equipment system (you will look the same from lvl 1 to lvl 50, or you can pay 30 euro for some epic outfit)
    - hud
    - no tutorials
    - combat system has too many keyboard shortcuts, so you can be pro player if you will just hit keyboard with your head.

    So:
    Wait for f2p or for equipment system patch, and this will be quite better (like 6/10).    … Expand
  13. Dragonfire14
    Mar 8, 2016
    4
    PROS:
    - Unique character creation
    - Multiple character slots - Interesting trade route system - One time purchase CONS: - The UI is confusing and all over the place - Combat keys are random, for example to do a skill you may have to press a combination of keys such as "S, SHIFT, left click). Acts more like a fighting game. - Quest trails don't lead to the next objective for    PROS:
    - Unique character creation
    - Multiple character slots
    - Interesting trade route system
    - One time purchase

    CONS:

    - The UI is confusing and all over the place
    - Combat keys are random, for example to do a skill you may have to press a combination of keys such as "S, SHIFT, left click). Acts more like a fighting game.
    - Quest trails don't lead to the next objective for some quests
    - Boring dialog
    - Bad english voice overs
    - Male characters limited to one class (unless you want to be old or a giant)
    - Energy system that limits your gameplay
    - Energy is used on almost everything. From Gathering to talking to some npcs
    - Game feels like an alpha
    - characters sometime appear as default class looks
    - feels unpolished
    - Game mechanics are not explained (or not explained early enough)
    - classes are gender locked
    - First boss is a massive increase in difficulty compared to all the enemies you fight before hand
    - Many free to play systems in play
    - boring quests
    - random arrows that point to nothing    … Expand
  14. DeanNovelli
    Mar 6, 2016
    1
    Pay to Win, Breast sliders and fetch quests, i think that sums up the game after leveling to 50.

    Don't get me started on the black spirit which is easily the worst part of the game.
  15. mishayangg
    Mar 7, 2016
    2
    No dungeons. No raids. No endgame. What is the point of gearing up? Guess I will go to max level because I was forced to buy this free to play game....
  16. Wandering_Fox
    Mar 7, 2016
    2
    BDO gets a lot of the basics right which give it a lot of attention. However it lacks a true end game and has too much in the way the game has become pay to win. Furthermore, they turned a F2P game from KR into a Western Buy to Play game with a Free to play cash shop.

    Its really starting to feel that these KR ports are becoming cash grabs from the unsuspecting western audience that is    BDO gets a lot of the basics right which give it a lot of attention. However it lacks a true end game and has too much in the way the game has become pay to win. Furthermore, they turned a F2P game from KR into a Western Buy to Play game with a Free to play cash shop.

    Its really starting to feel that these KR ports are becoming cash grabs from the unsuspecting western audience that is too willing to forgive in order to fill a gap in the current MMO market for open world gameplay.    … Expand
  17. MagicSquid
    Mar 17, 2016
    1
    I came back to give this game a lower score/review. I had uninstalled it and decided to re-install it. Despite its bugginess, the general lack of enemy AI that I had seen, and all the other issues, I figured I'd give it another chance.

    Well, upon creating a new character, I loaded into the game and found that every single one of my key bindings, including the Escape button to bring up    I came back to give this game a lower score/review. I had uninstalled it and decided to re-install it. Despite its bugginess, the general lack of enemy AI that I had seen, and all the other issues, I figured I'd give it another chance.

    Well, upon creating a new character, I loaded into the game and found that every single one of my key bindings, including the Escape button to bring up the menu to re-bind the keys, as well as the mouse buuttons, had been unbound.

    Currently there's no way within the game to re-bind the keys, so the game is completely unplayable. This game breaking, massive bug, on top of all the other issue I encountered and the utterly lack-luster combat system that I had seen, earn the game a dismal 1/10.    … Expand
  18. PrincessRose
    Feb 13, 2019
    0
    I liked this game at first, but that was before I realised it had soul destroying RNG for everything. Want to upgrade gear, it's not too difficult until you try and get tet gear I failed many times and spent nearly 3 billion on cron stones so my gear would not degrade back to duo. It's a terrible system of non stop failure, tedium and effort and getting no reward for my efforts.

    Decide    I liked this game at first, but that was before I realised it had soul destroying RNG for everything. Want to upgrade gear, it's not too difficult until you try and get tet gear I failed many times and spent nearly 3 billion on cron stones so my gear would not degrade back to duo. It's a terrible system of non stop failure, tedium and effort and getting no reward for my efforts.

    Decide that you want a better horse, spend many months, as training them and getting good skills is also random and you are more than likely to end up with a dud horse that you can spend money on to try and change it's skills which could end up costing you $100's to get all the skills you want.

    If you eventually get a courser to try and turn into a Pegasus, that is also random and can take 50+ attempts and it is also random and you may not get the dream horse you want.

    Everything in this game is a trap that gives lots of failure to encourage lots of spending of money to try to increase your success, but even then you aren't guaranteed to get what you want.

    This game is a trap, stay away escape while you can, this game is rng heavy designed for lots of tedious frustration and failure to try and milk you of your money. Avoid at all costs.

    Only recommended for those who like wasting money and time. As this game feels like work with no fun or reward for your efforts.    … Expand
  19. OriginalConcept
    Mar 6, 2016
    4
    Black Desert Online is a game that's cool until you realize how much grinding everything takes. Wanna make a boat and go deep sea fishing? You'll have to spend 10 hours getting it.

    Combat involves pulling enemies into a group and dropping AoEs. Even the "bosses" have laughably telegraphed attacks. It's flashy but it's not deep. I haven't tried PvP. Sounds cool, but I'm not going    Black Desert Online is a game that's cool until you realize how much grinding everything takes. Wanna make a boat and go deep sea fishing? You'll have to spend 10 hours getting it.

    Combat involves pulling enemies into a group and dropping AoEs. Even the "bosses" have laughably telegraphed attacks. It's flashy but it's not deep.

    I haven't tried PvP. Sounds cool, but I'm not going to grind for 50 hours so I can be on level footing.    … Expand
  20. alex_dragon
    Mar 7, 2016
    0
    Cashshop is completely p2w. gear are not equalized in any means meaning someone can just spent $1000 on this game and owns everyone in open world.

    its not about skills because if someone spent more money than you they will have an easier time beating you, sure you can gear up ur stuff for free but that will take forever and the grind in this game is insane. combat system it doesn't    Cashshop is completely p2w. gear are not equalized in any means meaning someone can just spent $1000 on this game and owns everyone in open world.

    its not about skills because if someone spent more money than you they will have an easier time beating you, sure you can gear up ur stuff for free but that will take forever and the grind in this game is insane.

    combat system it doesn't really require strategic thinking and is just buttons smashing. however it has the best graphics and character customization no doubt.

    lack of PVE content i am hugely disappointed bu this. the game as a whole right now is just a open world pvp game    … Expand
  21. Monstreur
    Mar 6, 2016
    0
    NA/EU ip block, KR ip block and bans, RU ip block, JP ip block and bans... They give you a great character creator but the all gear in this game looks the same, if you don't buy a 25U$ skin. Back to Blizzard.
  22. Bombzy
    Mar 7, 2016
    2
    I was really looking forward to this game, but I have to say I am disappointed. Character creation is quite nice and very detailed - but gender locked classes was a bit annoying. However, that was the best bit - it is really all downhill from there. The game itself is a mess. Confusing and cluttered UI, glitchy graphics, lag, lighting effects where you can't see what the hell is going onI was really looking forward to this game, but I have to say I am disappointed. Character creation is quite nice and very detailed - but gender locked classes was a bit annoying. However, that was the best bit - it is really all downhill from there. The game itself is a mess. Confusing and cluttered UI, glitchy graphics, lag, lighting effects where you can't see what the hell is going on half the time. Combat looks quite good but is way too easy. Maybe this changes at higher levels, but even the first boss fight with the Giant Imp required no thought, planning or skill. Quests are boring and unimaginative and text and voice acting is truly awful. Steer well clear - this will be F2P soon.… Expand
  23. Sajonara84
    Mar 7, 2016
    4
    ignore 10/10 and 0-1/10 reviews, those are clearly paid reviewers....
    As i predicted this is just another overhyped asian grindfest with nice graphics and combat mechanics.
    Everything else is just mediocore at most with terible UI/Story/PvE/fetch quests
    If u like endless grinding and u are fan of echii thats game for you, otherwise stay away from this...
  24. CroGerA
    Mar 7, 2016
    3
    I played it for few days with an "guest pass", and this game is one of the most terrible mmorpgs i ever played. Really glad i didn´t pay for this **** Its like the most of asian mmorpg - they just cant do it.
  25. Proudsoul
    Mar 6, 2016
    0
    When it comes to DAUM the word Greedy just doesnt fit. They are without a doubt the WORST company I have ever given my hard earned money to. They have ZERO communitcaton with their customers, they STILL havent given people what they paid for from the pre-order. They THEN promise COMPENSATION and have yet to deliver it nor even speak of it ! If you want to be robbed of your money and play aWhen it comes to DAUM the word Greedy just doesnt fit. They are without a doubt the WORST company I have ever given my hard earned money to. They have ZERO communitcaton with their customers, they STILL havent given people what they paid for from the pre-order. They THEN promise COMPENSATION and have yet to deliver it nor even speak of it ! If you want to be robbed of your money and play a game that is just another Archeage this is for you ...Oh lets not forget the GREED of DAUM want to make you character lok better with gear well you cant you have to BUY gear with Real money ..ok so $5 $10 is okay ..no $25 for an outfit ...Pass on this game.… Expand
  26. macho41
    Mar 9, 2016
    0
    This childish community can't take a criticism so I'm giving it a zero...

    Othervise the game is not that bad it's just not as good as the others.

    My biggest gripe with it is that it doesn't have any pve content...
  27. julama23
    Mar 9, 2016
    0
    My god this is hilarious. Aren't we done with these korean garbages already? Blade and soul failed 1 month ago and now this failure. Korea just stop, you suck.
  28. jon43
    Mar 9, 2016
    0
    Is this the new trend? Releasing crappy korean MMOs?

    PROS - Graphics, character creator

    CONS - everything else

    TLDR: Get a better MMO..............
  29. davana
    Mar 9, 2016
    0
    Lol people going nuts because of 2 or 3 guys said they prefer ESO. I'm not even playing ESO, but I can at least see where they are coming from. When I played ESO there was at least high quality stuff, I don't see anything that good in BDO. Get a better taste people.
  30. mary94
    Mar 9, 2016
    0
    Maybe I'm just too old, but there is nothing that Black Desert does, which hasn't been done before or done better. Same old, just of a mediocre quality. Might as well play WoW, at least it has some PvE.
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Awards & Rankings

12
#12 Most Discussed PC Game of 2016
4
#4 Most Shared PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 35 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 35
  3. Negative: 0 out of 35
  1. Merlin'in Kazanı (Turkey)
    Jan 1, 2018
    80
    With it's massive and unique open world, Black Desert Online is inviting you to a great adventure.
    Read full review
  2. Digital Chumps
    Jul 27, 2017
    50
    Overall, Black Desert Online is a typical MMO in every single way. While I disagree with their claim that it’s the “next generation” of MMOs, I did find the character creation to be the most robust of any MMO out there. Unfortunately, the character customization is the game’s biggest highlight, and many of the other elements of Black Desert Online can be found in many other MMOs.
    Read full review
  3. The Overpowered Noobs
    Jun 11, 2017
    70
    Black Desert Online comes to the table with an intricate character sculpting tool, gorgeous graphical presentation, and a nuanced, exciting combat system overlying a less immediately apparent, but very unique, sandbox-style resource management simulation. Those looking for a rich narrative, complex or groundbreaking PvE questing, or highly unique monster design may be disappointed, but those seeking a mechanically rich, visually striking MMO will find themselves at home.
    Read full review
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