Black Desert Online

Black Desert Online
Developer(s)	Pearl Abyss
Publisher(s)	Kakao Games
Director(s)	Kim Daeil
Artist(s)	Seo Yongsu
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	KOR: 2014 WW: 3 March 2016
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Black Desert Online (Korean: 검은사막) is a sandbox-oriented massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Korean video game developer Pearl Abyss.^[1][2] The game has been in development since 2010, and entered closed beta testing (CBT) in October 2013.^[3][4][5][6] Black Desert Online uses Pearl Abyss' own "Black Desert" engine specifically created to handle the fast rendering required for its seamless world and large-scale castle sieges.^[7][8] It was released in Korea in 2014, Japan and Russia in 2015, and North America and Europe in 2016. Black Desert Online uses a free-to-play model in Korea, Japan and Russia,^[1][9][10] while in Europe and North America the game uses a buy-to-play model.^[11]

Gameplay

The combat in Black Desert Online is action based, requiring manual aiming similar to those found in third-person shooters. Skills can be activated through use of combos. With limited healing skills players must rely on well timed dodging or blocking as well as the use of potions. Players can use the mouse and keyboard or gamepad for navigation and combat.

The game includes a number of features to assist with immersion and the sandbox aspect. These include:

• A parkour system, similar to that seen in Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed, allowing players to climb, explore and interact with buildings and obstacles.^[12]
• A dynamic, worldwide weather system which will include large scale events such as typhoons and will influence gameplay.^[13] Localized weather will include events such as temporary fog which players may exploit to launch surprise attacks on rival guild structures.^[14]
• A dynamic day/night cycle with a gradual progression of lighting effects. During the night some NPCs will become unavailable as they return home while the number and type of monsters that a player may encounter will increase. Different game content will be available depending upon whether it is night or day.^[15][16]
• Player housing will be instanced and will vary in size and location. Players will be able to furnish and equip their housing by purchasing furniture through NPCs or through crafting.^[17][18]
• An active combat system requiring precise manual aiming, dodging & comboing, unlike the tab-targeting system seen in older MMORPGs.
• Players will be able to engage in mounted combat.^[19][20] Mounts are acquired by taming in the wild and players are able to breed special mounts by mating certain types.^[21] Mounts require feeding and care, cannot be stored in the inventory, and may be killed.^[22]
• Extremely detailed customization of the character's body.^[23]
• Over 2.8 Million words currently in the game, subject to increase as more quests are created.^[24]

Plot

Black Desert Online takes place in a high fantasy setting and revolves around the conflict between two rival nations, the Republic of Calpheon and the Kingdom of Valencia.^[8]

Development

Pearl Abyss was founded in September 2010 by Kim Daeil, previously a developer with Hangame and NHN Gaming, and began development of Black Desert Online shortly after.^[7][25][26] The company did not publicise the project initially, and Kim has said: "We actually wanted to wait out on publicly announcing this game since we wanted to develop more things... We thought that we shouldn't release too much information on our game just yet."^[7] The first year of development involved concept design for the game and building a custom engine.^[3] Kim said: "Our company consists of a lot of veteran game programmers and developers so creating a new engine wasn't that hard. We needed a special engine just for Black Desert mainly because it is a seamless world and needed an engine that can render a lot of characters very fast and easy."^[7] Using their own engine rather than a proprietary engine such as the CryEngine or Unreal Engine also eased debugging and customization for the developers.^[3]

After agreeing a Japanese publishing deal with GameOn Japan on 8 September 2012 Pearl Abyss began releasing details of the game to the public.^[7][27] In November 2012 the game was demonstrated at G-Star, the Korean annual trade show for the computer and video games industry.^[28] Black Desert Online was also showcased in August 2013 at gamescom, held in Cologne, Germany, where Pearl Abyss revealed that they had been approached by "many" interested publishers in the North American and European markets but were waiting for the closed beta release before progressing deals.^[13][29]

A closed beta test (CBT) was initially scheduled for July 2013, but was pushed back to October 2013 while the developers refined the client.^[30][31][32] The CBT, IP-locked to allow Korean players only, commenced 17 October 2013, scheduled to run until 23 October 2013.^[33] The CBT was organised to test different features of the game each day, beginning with the quest and combat systems on days 1 and 2, progressing through the player housing system, player guilds, sieges, the trading system, NPC interactions and PvP on subsequent days.^[34]

A second CBT, also IP locked for Korean players only, was scheduled for a 3-week period commencing 22 April 2014.^[35][36] An open beta was launched on 17 December 2014.^[37] North America and Europe did not receive an Open Beta.^[24]

Closed alpha testing for both North America and Europe began on 27 October 2015 and ended on 1 November 2015. It was followed by a closed beta test (CBT1), beginning on 16 December 2015 and running until 22 December 2015. A second closed beta (CBT2) was opened on 18 February 2016 and ended on 22 February 2016. The game was fully released in both North America and Europe on 3 March 2016.^[38]

Post-launch development

The Mediah Expansion was released in the North American / European version on March 30, 2016.^[39]

The Musa and Maehwa classes were release for play on April 20, 2016^[40]

Mediah Part 2 was released on May 4, 2016.^[41]

The Valencia I Expansion was released in the North American / European version on March 30, 2016.^[42]

The Kunoichi and Ninja classes were released for play on July 20, 2016^[43]

All expansions and class additions have been free of charge as of July 20, 2016, with no plans of charging for additional future content stated.

Reception

Black Desert Online has received generally favorable reviews from critics, currently holding a score of 75 on Metacritic^[45] and 73% on GameRankings.^[44] In April 2016, Kakao (then Daum Games) announced that the game had achieved sales of 400,000 copies in its first month on the European and North American markets, and was showing an average of 100,000 concurrent users.^[48][49]

References

External links

• Official website