Black Desert, An Open World Sandbox MMO, Sounds Almost Too Good to be True

Korea, renowned for its over the top MMOs and nationwide obsession with online gaming, is bringing us another massively multiplayer gem, and it looks like a jaw-dropper.

The brainchild of developer Pearl Abyss, Black Desert is an open world MMORPG set in a world of diverse biomes and unpredictable weather. Weather and the seasons are critical in Black Desert, because various extreme conditions can have negative effects on the unprepared, crippling stats or imposing status ailments on players.

But the real eye-catching features are the massive sieges with upwards of 800 player participants, the detailed resource gathering systems, non-instanced player housing, and snappy, responsive combat. As an added bonus, it looks absolutely gorgeous, particularly the beautifully rendered character models.

Players will be able to personally comb the wilderness near their homes for resources like food and crafting materials, or hire NPCs to do the grunt work for them. The resources can then be returned by transport to wherever the player likes, typically to the site of their own privately owned warehouses. Completing quests will award research points that players can spend to improve the efficiency of farms and mines and decrease the amount of time it takes to ship goods back to town.

Another cool system involves player mounts, which level alongside their masters and can be equipped with their own armor and skills. Mounts will be absolutely essential in Black Desert’s sprawling world, as there’s no mechanic for instantaneous travel.

The good news is that versions of Black Desert have been announced both for PC and the next generation of consoles. The bad news is that while it launches in Korea this year, it’s not due to arrive on US shores until 2015.