Black Desert: Prestige Edition by developer and publisher Pearl
Abyss—Microsoft Xbox One Review written by Nick
with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Black Desert: Prestige Edition is a convenient new package for an MMO
that has been out for a while on the Xbox One for some time, the
question is – does the core game still hold up after a year and a
half? Thankfully the answer is yes, this action-RPG is still quite
enjoyable, even if there might not be enough here to convince
previous players to come back and give the game a go. Newcomers to
this title who enjoy the genre
I actually played Black Desert on PC when it first came out a couple
of years ago, and found it generally enjoyable but I had a lot of
other games I was tackling at the time, and it just wasn’t quite
sticky enough to keep me coming back at o it at the time. I thought
that it looked really pretty, but beyond that I ran into a few
hiccups that I always assumed would get ironed out, but I didn’t
return to world as the life of a game reviewer can make it hard to
focus in on an MMO and give it the time you need to really sink your
teeth into it. That being said, I’ve been considering a return for
some time, and the Black Desert: Prestige Edition seemed like a great
excuse to go ahead and give this title another go.
The beginning is something of a chaotic one, as you are presented
with minimal backstory and sort of take on the tried and true RPG
trop of amnesiac that has to learn everything about the world, giving
new players an excuse to be clueless about their surroundings and ask
a bunch of questions to help with the world-building foundations
needed to make a vast game like this interesting enough to invest in.
There are numerous NPCs willing to have a conversation with your
character about… well, pretty much everything going on in the
world, but local and larger scale.
Even though it’s been a couple of years since I last played Black
Desert Online, I have to say I came away immediately impressed with
the visuals still. Every now and again I poke in on my old favorite,
World of Warcraft, and while WoW is like video game comfort food for
me right now, it’s long since moved past being an overly attractive
title. By contrast, Black Desert: Prestige Edition is gorgeously
detailed, both with characters and environments, and the game knows
it. There are numerous opportunities to just pause and look out over
the expansive, varied fantasy landscapes.
The part I was more curious about was how well a title like this
would translate to console / controller life. After all, many of
these action-RPG MMOs rely heavily on hotkey bindings and a mouse for
quick navigation. To its credit, Black Desert did a great job of
mapping things intelligently to radial menus and face buttons that
make it easy to find what you need and not have to click around
endlessly to get there. Admittedly, it took me a couple of minutes to
get the hang of moving around in the conversation boxes given how
little hand-holding there was in general right out of the gates, but
this is about the easiest I have ever seen inventory management
handled in an MMO and I certainly appreciated that.
Additionally, Black Desert does a great job keeping you on-task.
Quest targets are clearly labeled, you have a glowing guided option
to help you move from one target to the next and your quest
information is always readily available in the UI. These things kept
me moving with purpose through the game’s early stages as I allowed
myself to enjoy the lore and get more attached to the setting than I
did the first time I played the game on PC in the past.
The controller also suits the action-heavy nature of the combat
rather nicely. I went with a typical warrior (my usual go-to in MMOs
as I am learning my way around, given they tend to be a bit less
squishy than many other classes), and it all feels quite natural on
console. I was tapping and holding buttons to pull off various
combos, leaning into the triggers a bit to execute other moves and
found it a very natural way of stringing together attacks that
frankly work as well – if not better – than mapped hotkeys on a
keyboard. The one area that the controller does suffer a bit compared
to the point and click accuracy of a mouse is in selecting certain
things. If there are a couple of targets nearby, instead of just
mousing over the one you want to talk to / interact with, you need to
be a bit more careful in your x-axis placement. Ditto, I would have
loved a lock-on for combat, given the swivel-nature of the camera and
again how it can be a bit imprecise. I realize that is likely an
intentional design choice, but I think it’s a bit more of an issue
with a controller versus a mouse and keyboard.
The narrative is set against a backdrop of kingdom versus kingdom
politics, though I often found myself jumping off of the beaten path
to do just about everything but the core storyline. That’s just
sort of my MO on MMOs – find things to craft, play the market, do a
zillion side quests for just… fish. It’s funny because I don’t
fish in real life but I absolutely would be appalled I am sure, if
there was a way to figure out how much time I’ve spent fishing in
MMOs.
In terms of the overall presentation, I touched on the graphics
already – and they are gorgeous. This even presents itself as early
as in character creation, which has a surprising amount of detail
available. Character models look fantastic and I found myself sinking
more time than usual into character creation as a result. The music
is also appropriately majestic and the sound effects are all quite
appropriate. Probably the weakest link here is the voice acting,
which ranges from ‘decent’ to ‘hammy / awkward’ depending on
the interaction. Most of the more notable characters tend to sound a
bit better, which is good since they are the ones with content of
substance that you might be interacting more than a time or two. Many
of the one-off side-NPCs fare far worse.
Progression is solid, with the typical skill tree / point spends to
compliment experience / level gains. Equipment options become more
diverse and powerful as you progress as well. I actually found myself
sinking a decent amount of time into the non-adventure life of house
and shop ownership, as I did not particularly care for the Player vs
Player elements that become more prominent in the game’s upper
level ranges. The structure around it is fine, I just have a tendency
to get annoyed with PvP in MMOs and tend to avoid it more often than
not, and that holds true here for me as well. In terms of the PvE
side of things, it’s all been done before (kill a zillion of this
and fetch me a gaggle of those), but it all works fine. It helps that
the layered combat at least makes the fighting fun and helps to stave
off what would be otherwise painfully repetitious before too long.
This is where Black Desert: Prestige Edition falls into the same rut
most MMOs do – the world is meant to be something of a bland one
that anyone can imprint their own story on mentally. As a result,
quests tend to be redundant, the overarching narrative does little to
tickle the emotions and most of the world’s characters are there to
serve a purpose but seldom become memorable in any particular way. By
now though, this is what I think the majority of players expect. You
get less nuanced storytelling with an MMO because of the way the
world needs to interact with a large number of players, versus a
single player experience that can tell a nuanced, gripping narrative.
If you are a fan of the MMO world, and your expectations are set
accordingly, Black Desert: Prestige Edition will be rather enjoyable.
What does the Prestige Edition come with? Well, you get the core game
of course, but some extra pets (Snow Wolfdog and Black Leopard), some
gear for your mount as well as a mount, pearls and more that play
into the microtransaction portion of the game. It is worth noting
that you can buy the game and access everything it has in it (versus
some of the free to play MMOs out there that restrict access to some
parts of the game unless you purchase them), but there are plenty of
small items that can be bought that accelerate / enhance the
gameplay. This currency can be earned in-game or purchased for
additional money.
Black Desert: Prestige Edition is a gorgeous MMO – arguably the
prettiest one out there. The sweeping landscapes and detailed
character creation show off the game’s visuals wonderfully. The
primary narrative may be a bit underwhelming at times, but there is a
lot to do – even if most of it has been done in other MMOs in the
past. Still, the virtual crafting and fishing life is quite enjoyable
here, and character progression kept me engaged. MMOs on a console
can be a bit tricky at times, but the UI is handled quite well with a
controller and the action-oriented combat is well-served by the
controller interface. MMO fans should find plenty to enjoy here.
Score: 7.75 / 10
