Black Desert has been great fun on the PS4 thus far. Many hours have been spent running around questing and fishing. Navigating the menus has taken some time to get used to, but it does not take away from the games fun. The controls have been smooth and easy to use. It has been easy to lose track of time while playing as everything especially crafting seems to take a good amount of time to do. Nevertheless, it has been hours well spent leveling and exploring the world.
Black Desert has launched this week on PS4, and what a first week it has been. While not my first time playing BDO, as I also played a Striker on PC, I was pretty excited to try it out on the console. As far as creating your character, there doesn’t seem to be a difference between PS4 and PC.There are 6 classes to choose from; Warrior, Ranger, Sorceress, Berserker, Wizard, and Witch. Not all the classes on the PC version are represented, but they will be eventually be added. If this will be anything like the Xbox launch, I expect more classes to arrive over the next few months. I decided to create a Wizard for my PS4 journey.
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I actually found it easier for me to create a character on the PS4 than when I do on PC. Now this is due to a hardware issue with my mouse as it tends to misclick a lot. Using the controller, I do not have to worry misclicks like I do with my mouse when I’m adjusting the face and body parts. It was very easy to rotate and press the corresponding buttons to adjust parts.
When it came to going into the Beauty screen after starting the game I ran into an issue. The Beauty screen allows one to change your character's appearance. When changing the eyes or any slider that involved the right stick it also rotates the camera. This made it very hard to view the changes I was trying to make to my character. I am hoping when future updates come this will be fixed.
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Once you’ve created your character and hop into the world, I noticed that Black Desert is just as beautiful as it is on PC. I was also relieved that moving my character felt responsive, not the sluggish controls sometimes felt on console. Though the character controls were fine, navigating menus took some time to get used to. On the console version there is a ring menu which is akin to the hotbar on PC. It is a way for you to quickly select and use items, menu tabs, and skills without having to navigate to the main menu.
In the beginning there is no need to really dive into the ring menu right away.You don’t have a lot of skills or items that you really need quick access to. When it came to trying to find out where the dye and processing menus were it took some time. Only after giving up looking for them I mistakenly came across them while editing the ring menu. Turns out that's where they were hidden all along. I don’t know why those would not be added to the main menu
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All the activities such as fishing, cooking, and all the craftings are still there. I’ve only experimented with fishing and cooking so far but, like all the disparate menus in Black Desert, it took some time to find the processing menu before I could get into it. Once found it is easy to remove and add items to the processing area and start cooking. To save other players some time, you can access the Processing menu by way of the ring menu. Think of the ring menu as the equivalent to a hotbar. You are able to socket different items, skills, and menus to it.
I have spent a lot of time in Velia because there are so many quests and I love it. Now you may not see all of these quests if it is your first time playing. Upon my first log in I noticed that I did not see a lot of the quests I saw on PC because by default the quest are turned off. In Black Desert you can choose which quests are shown. To change the options, you have to view your profile then press R1 until you get to quest settings. Then you can choose which quests you want NPC’s to provide by making sure they are checked. The one you may want up at all times is the Black Spirit quests as that is the main quests. I love being able to pick and choose which quest pop up when I want.
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After playing this for hours and experiencing a lot of what it has to offer, I find that Black Desert will be one of those games that I constantly have on my PS4. Why? Simply for the fact that so far it has been fun and enjoyable. I do look forward to seeing what happens with the menus when the updates hit. I also look forward to making my Striker which once again will become my main. Till that time happy gaming!
