Black Desert Review

Classes

Don’t expect much in the way of classes and races. For all its combat positives, Black Desert returns to fantasy tropes far more than you might expect. Characters come in the form of humans, elves, and dwarves along with a handful of others. Meanwhile, the classes are the same as you’d expect to find in any common MMO.

Fortunately, there is a huge range of customization options. You can tweak every little detail until you get the exact look you want for your hero. This is something more games should be doing. It helps you to truly invest in the experience as the protagonist feels like your creation.

Console vs PC

Unfortunately, the console port lacks much of the content that has arrived in Black Desert since its launch on PC in 2016. Fewer classes, areas and add-ons are available in the console version of the game. These will likely make it to the Xbox One port eventually. But for now, players are missing out on a ton of great content that really expands the base game to a very different experience.

Black Desert also performs significantly worse on consoles than on PC. The frame rate struggles during many matches. And the game looks a bit blurry when not playing on Xbox One X at 4K.

Still, Black Desert still looks impressive, with gorgeous animations and environments. It’s easily one of the coolest MMOs you’ll find on Xbox One.

Final verdict

While there are some issues with Black Desert, that shouldn’t detract from what is arguably the best home console MMO. With its fluid combat and endless exploration, it often feels more like an action RPG than an MMO. Once the developers have added the extra content and fixed some of the problems, Black Desert will be a game everyone will want to try.