Korean MMO Black Desert Online is winding down development after four years, and developers Pearl Abyss have made good use of those four years.
This preview video above shows off character creation and combat, and to be frank, the former is more impressive. Beyond obvious elements like hair, skin color and the like, you can give characters exaggerated, but still realistic, facial expressions, and as this screenshot shows, you can even adjust underlying bone structure for the face! Other parts of the trailer show you can make similarly nuanced adjustments to total body morphology.
In terms of combat, the action is almost Tekkenlike in how unrealistically powerful the characters seem, but that only makes the game look fun to watch. There’s no nuance to the swords, axes, arrows, and magic spells, striking giant monsters down and unleashing grandiose particle effects. Some moves even show incredible range and power, which hint at some overpowering, but maybe that’s because we aren’t seeing the more powerful enemies yet.
The game is launching in Korea very soon, with predownloads available on December 10, early character creation available on December 12 to 15, and the online beta on December 17.
The game is free to play, with microtransactions facilitated by a Cash Shop system. Publisher Daum is planning a Western release as well, but no details are available on that end yet.
You can watch some more gameplay below.
