Black Desert: Prestige Edition
Pearl Abyss’ Black Desert was originally released back in 2015 for PC, and got a console launch last year - but November 6th saw the release of Black Desert: Prestige Edition, which comes in both a digital and physical release and is jam-packed with additional content for you to enjoy:
Exclusive Pet- Black Leopard x1.
Limited Edition Glorious Shudad Premium Set x1.
Value Pack (30 Days) x1.
[Event] Enhancement Help Kit II x1.
Advice of Valks (+40) x1.
Blessed Message Scroll (100 min.) x15.
Pearl Box - 2000 x1.
It begins in much of the same way as other games like it, with an extensive character creation that you’ll find yourself lost in for too long. There are twenty different classes of character to choose from, ranging from Warriors to Dark Knights - two of my favourite classes. You’ve got customisation options aplenty, with a variety of hairstyles, colours and all the facial tweaking you can dream of. I easily sank a good chunk of time into my character design, and that was with me picking a class and sticking with it - rather than doing all of the adjustments in each individual class.
In my early teens I played a lot of Silkroad Online, which was probably my first foray into the world of MMORPGs, and whilst I absolutely adored that game - and my beloved pet wolf, BabyPotato - it’s a genre that completely drains you of your time. Black Desert falls into that category 100%. Within minutes of having my character fully created and designed exactly to my liking, I knew I was already in too deep.
The world of Black Desert is absolutely gorgeous, with a humongous world to explore. I was excited to dive right in when I hit my first snag - the controls. The controls feel fine and were as responsive as required, but actually figuring out what to do took a little bit of time as the game gives you very little in terms of teaching you how to play. And when picking up a quest from characters, I sometimes felt like I was missing something as it wouldn’t really tell me where to go or what to do. Once I figured that out and felt a bit more in control, things started to pick up. And with a world as beautiful as this - and might I add, it looks glorious on Xbox One X and Xbox Series X, albeit moreso on the latter - spending time just wandering around whilst I got used to things wasn’t as bad as it could have been!
Enemy design is interesting, with plenty of enemies available for you to attack. Busier areas you’ll often find yourself fighting with other players over an enemy as there just seems to be so many people but luckily enemies respawn fairly quickly upon defeat. Some enemies feel like there is absolutely no challenge to them whatsoever as they will just wander aimlessly around you rather than attack, but other enemies provide a satisfying battle. You have plenty of weapons and abilities in your arsenal, and it’s a lot of fun seeing what each newly upgraded attack can do - and with an extensive skill tree that allows you to pick and choose where to spend points, this gives you autonomy over your character’s progression.
The overall layout of everything in Black Desert is very obviously geared towards a PC player, or someone playing with a mouse and keyboard. Getting to grips with everything the game entails - and believe me, there’s a lot - is one of the biggest issues with an otherwise fun game. Having excessively in-depth menus and options, with too many fiddly bits and bits you’re just not quite sure about so lets just not touch those and so on and so forth is just a bit off-putting for the average player.
If you’re an MMORPG fan, then by all means give Black Desert a go - I have been having a lot of fun, and expect that to continue as long as I can fudge my way through the menus. But if the thought of all these options scares you, then you might want to give it a miss. With prices ranging from £23.49-£78.49 (although slightly cheaper if you’re a Game Pass subscriber), and then additional costs for Pearls - the in-game currency - it can be an expensive game to get into, particularly if you always want the best cosmetic items. But if you’re happy to just lose some hours in a fantastical world such as this, then by all means you’ll have plenty to see here.
In the end, we decided to give Black Desert: Prestige Edition the Collecting Asylum rating of 6.5/10.
Have you played Black Desert yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Koch Media for the Black Desert: Prestige Edition Xbox review code!
