Black Desert Mobile PC Port and Fresh Start Servers are LIVE

Seemingly out of nowhere, Black Desert Mobile released major updates to their mobile (standalone) version of Black Desert.  On March 31st, a PC port was created as well as accelerated progression fresh start servers similar to the seasonal fresh start servers in the PC version of Black Desert.  Alongside these updates, the graphics were also remastered to give the already beautiful MMORPG on mobile even better visuals and optimization.  Last night, we dove in live on stream for approximately 4 hours to check out the update and see how it felt playing.

First off, I would like to mention that I am not a mobile gamer by any means.  Although I initially played Black Desert Mobile when it first released, I played it on an emulator that had extremely poor performance.  When I heard that a PC port was available yesterday, this piqued my interest greatly because I do remember that the mobile version of BDO was very robust with a lot of systems that I enjoyed.  The PC port thus far has been flawless in its performance.  I don't think I witnessed any lag except maybe when a cut scene was loading in, and I did not experience any crashes at all.  Their (Pearl Abyss Developers) launch of this new phase of Black Desert Mobile seems to be going very well from all indicators that I can see.

If you have played Black Desert Online, their standalone PC game, then Black Desert Mobile is a very similar experience.  You start out by selecting an available class (of which there are many) and then are plunged into the tutorial and main story quest lines to learn the mechanics of the game and the general lore of the high fantasy environment.  These new servers have you start out by creating a seasonal fresh start character if you so choose and it is highly recommended, whether you are new or not, to create a new character to experience these servers.  Not only will you be leveling extremely fast, but you will also be receiving an enormous number of free items to help you fast track your leveling and gear progression experience immensely.

The speed of progression is so fast in fact, that I did feel a bit overwhelmed by all of the systems I was being introduced to and all of the items I was getting.  What I did to combat this overwhelm was focus mainly on the seasonal fresh start objectives that the game has.  The quest window gives you the option to click on different type of quests, including the seasonal quests which I made a priority, the main story quests that bring you through the region, and other side quests that you may be picking up from various NPCs, side story missions to unlock additional features and regions, or black spirit quests that your black spirit companion may have you engage in.

As a mobile game, the game does have a lot of auto combat options as well as auto questing options in it.  A lot of people get turned off by this and I understand completely.  You are by no means required to auto combat or auto quest if you do not want to however, and the manual controls of the game feel fluid enough for you to control your character at all times and manually click your skills during combat.  I personally chose to auto combat and auto quest because I found it relaxing to dictate to my character its path of progression while chatting with my live stream chat.  I also have come to the conclusion that while there is no PC first MMORPGs that I find enjoyable right now, I actually appreciated the fact that there was auto combat and auto questing because I am just burned out at the moment and need a low stress game to chill while I wait for the next big game to come out.

One of the pain-points I am running into currently is a lack of inventory space due to the immense amount of free stuff I am receiving on the seasonal fresh start server.  The game gives you a lot of upgrades as you play, including weight of inventory as well, but my problem currently is that I am constantly getting closer to the 300-inventory space maximum that I see the game has currently.  I have yet to go to a bank however, and I believe this will solve my problems once I figure out where to bank my excess inventory items.  Being that it is so soon in the game for me to have this problem, I anticipate that this may make me want to spend money to increase my inventory limits if there is an option in their cash shop to do so.  Another option would be to make an alternate character and see if there are ways to share inventory space across my account.

Seeing as there is constantly something to do in game and a bunch of notifications constantly flashing to collect some sort of achievement reward, I need to be vigilant in my personal direction I want to take things.  If I begin to feel as though everything I am doing is a chore, I can see myself losing interest fast in Black Desert Mobile.  However, if I find a rhythm to my progression that does not stress me out, this is a game I can see myself enjoying for quite some time to come.  I appreciate that the PC port and fresh start servers were released at the time they did, because I was really beginning to think that there would be nothing in the MMORPG genre to hold my attention.  We will see how things continue to unfold and I look forward to sharing more insights as I get them.

Until next time,

Blackboa