Recent reviews by HardWorkingLoner

PROS
+ unique look and mechanic
+ casual

CONS
- the introduction drags, and certain actions force you to replay it

NEUTRAL
° short (1 - 1,5h)

The first ever game that I bought for more than 40€, and I am happy with my purchese.

I will break my ususal PROS/CONS review formating, as there is way more to say here, so I will split it into sections with my personal rating in parentheses

PERFORMANCE (very good)
+ the performance very stable, no fps dips, and I had zero crashes or freezes
- the game is demanding, and certain graphical options tank the framerate (for considerable boost in looks) even on my hardware such as ray reconstruction, which removes alot of noise and forces lighting quality to max which looks fantastic, but the fps drop is very drastic. I recommend using CUSTOM screen resolutions like 3072x1728 for 4k, etc. google it.

GRAPHICS and THE WORLD (very good)
+ the graphics look stunning
+ the world looks stunning
+ equipment and main character models are stunning
+ combat animations look fantastic
+ alot of small details around teh world, from bells ringing at 12am, to church services (mass) that you can observe, to NPCs having actually interesting and helpfull comments and reactions to the players
- foliage colors are way too bright (way too colorfull) so I had to use Reshade to make it look normal
- the brightnes auto-correction is very strong, so at times you will get blinded by sunshine, and other times you will be in darkness where not even lantern helps with visibility, again Reshade addons improve this
- the wind is excesive, trees are moving way too much and it may cause alot of noise/flickering with some graphical settings, thankfully it can be reduced in the settings

CONTROLS (mostly negative)
- BDO has supperior mouse+keyboard controls
- bog standard console port limitations ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, with severely limited keybinding options, many skills simply dont work with combo keys (shift, ctrl, alt) or in combinations with other keys (they require 1 key input only)
- many actions can not be rebinded at all, and some keys cannot be used at all
- inconsistent "double click" actions

GAMEPLAY (very good)
+ The combat feels great
- Bossess CC you with every hit
+ The world feels lively with alot of NPCs, friendly and enemy ones.
- but once you liberate enemy locations, the whole region may start feel less lively, more empty without all the enemeis. Some locations like abandoned buildings, ruins, bandit hideouts (palces with no other uses than having enemies) should respawn over time to keep the world more alive
- The secondary characters need some love, as they feel quite stiff compared to Klif
- also there isnt that much equipment for the secondary characters compared to Klif, and special equipment is only for Kliff
+ Lifeskills are OK, sometimes they feel annoing as in you have to manually equip tools, and do minigames to get things done, and sometimes they feel great and relaxing, but you are always rewarded for this "work". If you dont like them, you can just grind mobs, get money and then just buy all you need.
+ The game is as difficult, as you make it be. You get plenty of time to explore, to prepare food, to do side quests, to grind, etc. If you get stuck on boss, jsut go do something else and return when you aere stronger.

STORY (positive)
People call it Black Desert Offline, and it is exactly that. The story has alot of holes in that sometimes it feels rushed where there could be missions inbetween explaining and planning etc, and sometimes it is the other way, it drags and could be made faster. But overall it is not bad. If you read and explore, the main story provides alot of lore and background to the world, with the "story" being maybe in third or fourth place in priorities, between combat, teaching the player new things, and providing greater lore that may seem unneeded for the story itself.
+ Faction quests feel great
- Some side quests are repeating

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT (mixed)
- Inventory limit is the worst part of BDO that could be brought here.
- Unique/Legendary items are not marked as such in any wat, so it is perfectly possible to throw them out/sell them and lose them, they need some colored background.
+ the UI is quite good and readable
+ Grouping items based on categories works great
+ Once you get max inventory space it feels way better
- Pets need a loot filter

SOUND (overwhelmingly possitive)
+ background music and enviromental sounds are not overbearing and sound great
+ combat sounds sound great
+ NPC talking and writing is great
- playable characters are practically silent at all times

It is very early in development, but what is there is alot of fun

PROS
+ alot of potential
+ great gameplay
+ unique seting and look
+ purely offline PvE

CONS
- poor enviromental sounds/music (horror sounds that dont fit the game that have a tendency to abprupty start/end based on your location)
- alot of missing content (its quite early in EA)
- while the graphics look nicely unique, it lacks in fidelity

PROS
+ Amazing look and graphics
+ Great sound and atmosphere
+ Great gameplay

CONS
- No clothing equipment/socmetics
- cooldown on melee attack feels weird (instead of nerfing damage to nothing, melee should have special effects that get disabled while on CD)

NEUTRAL
° there arent many maps, but they are infinitely replayable and there are "Torments" to alter each run
° there arent many weapons, there is a weapon for each playstyle, but bigger variety would be welcome
° there isnt mcch story, cold be more story/lore focused

For the price it is worth it.
It has alot of potential to be expanded and get way more content, but sadly something (mainly the state it released in) makes me feel that the devs will not take advantage of it. Even then what is here is good.

PROS
+ looks nice
+ feels nice
+ the little lore there is is actually good

CONS
- NPC only offer fetch quests and litle bit of lore, nothing else
- there is clearly alot of cut content missing, hope we will get some back but..
- you are doing the same things over and over, there is no new content/mechanics introduced during the game. You will be doing the same things in the 1st and 20th hour, just with slightly more combat

NEUTRAL
°the game is very sandboxy, the only story or lore you may get is from couple of NPCs, but that is about it right now
° the game released very unbalanced and buggy, but devs quickly started patching so birthing pains

The best comparison would be Fort Solis. It has prety good story, lore, and overall writing. Sadly that is the only good thing.
If you dont care about achievements, go ahead, the story is good and worth it, but anything beyond one completly blind playthrough with open mind for the slugishness of the game is a no go.

PROS
+ exploration and choices
+ interesting lore and setting
+ good story and writing

CONS
- it would be ok if it was just story-focussed slow burner, but this game is a slog, everything is painfully slow, way too many unskippable (repeatable) voicelines and scenes like feeding, that just drain your time and patience for no gameplay reason
- it is missing basic features like save and load, in combination with chapter select being bugged and practically unusable, if you dont want to slog yourself through the game multiple times, the developer console is the only acceptable way to replay reliably parts of the game and to save/load for achievements
- bugs
- character animations, lipsync, and generarly faces all look laughably horrible
- individual (voice) lines have fluctuating intonation, which makes them sound disjointed and strange

PROS
+ nice naration
+ nice aesthetic
+ good gameplay
+ simple controlls

CONS
- age is starting to show of (graphically)
- the story takes weird turn in Act 4

NEUTRAL
° short (2h)

PROS
+ Great story and lore
+ Great sound and music
+ Great cinematics and visuals
+ good gameplay

CONS
- keybindings are absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
- queueing of inputs
- anything timed is BS

For single play experience, it is good. For replayability and getting achievements, it sucks.

PROS
+ interesting premise
+ good story and writing
+ nice graphic and sound

CONS
- no character(s) voice
- many decisions have minor or no consequences
- the "gameplay" is too slow
- achievements requiring replaying the game over and over, with the slogfest speed of gameplay save scumming is the only reasonable option

This game is more frustrating than it is fun.

PROS
+ ok graphic
+ ok sound and music
+ boss mechanics are interesting and sometimes even fun

CONS
- gameplay feels shallow
- "combos" feel random
- "minigames" feel awful
- uninteresting, unserious story
- 95% of my deaths are from environmental insta-kills, the rest were bossess