Blade & Soul vs Black Desert Online

I played Blade and Soul for awhile. PVE sub 40 is pretty simple stuff, yet the cutscenes (amazing)and voiceovers are a nice addition. Not to mention dragon pulse (like your flight paths in other games) is amazing. i could sit around and dragon pulse all day. Combat is so fun, you tend to forget your even leveling. World pvp is a great addition, you see it EVERYWHERE. i was surprised, thinking people wouldn't equip their outfit to pvp, but yup tons.

PVE after lvl 40 ramps up in difficulty and the dungeons are alot more fun. Nothing ground breaking, but at least the fun factor is there, and the mechanics make things intersting.

The game is not pay 2 win at all, the f2p element in NA has been designed really well. Sub accounts are worth it if your a casual gamer so you can get extra Blade And Soul gold etc.. faster from questing so you can upgrade hongmoon equipment faster ( you pretty much lvl your gear you get early on instead of grind for new equipment all the time). Combat is responsive, very time sensitive and critical on when your using abilities (especially in PVP). Its the most instense combat i've seen to date. Some moves are over the top, but it comes with the territory of japanese style gaming and its been implemented extremly well. If you have a crappy ping though, this game might be rough for you competitively.

Game seems designed on a 1v1 to 3v3 arena style. Its wonderful. It does take alot of work and training your mind to initiate and react to foes abilities precisely to become really effective against better PVPers, very skill based, alittle ping based. World PvP is a bit more forgiving and is loads of fun. Graphically this game looks great, not ground breaking 2016 great, but its still one gorgeous game, the graphics shouldnt dissapoint anyone. Game is optimzed very well and FPS stays above 60 at 4k on my rig.

BDO Graphically its superior. it looks amazing. Nothing i dislike about the graphics best mmo to date graphic wise. FPS wise meh, its still got along way of optimizing to go. i7 4770k @ 4.8ghz with 2 gtx 970s in sli and fully maxed full screen getting 15-30 fps. taking high mode of, i sit around 40-45 which is sufficient, and you can hardly notice the different. In perenthesis it says they are experimental effects thats super taxing and can cause crashes.

PVE: one of the worse PVE experiences i've had in decades. AI is stupid, Mobs have no health, it seems i never take damage. i can round up a ton of mobs and aoe them to death in no time. The animations are great though, and when you hit something, you actually can feel it. they did really good on that part. the combat feels super button mashy. No real skill involved, theres not much in the way of blocking/dodging. just a generic block for some classes and a roll. You can spam heal pots every 5 seconds (lame), makes for some drawn out fights of who has hte most pots. P2W is kinda there with ability to buy pots and out pot the other person. Other than that though P2W isnt there.

PVP is somewhat fun, but there isnt alot of skill involved if you can point at someone with your cursor and button mash, and occasional block/dodge. I have afeeling with 100+ people on screen on keep take overs its going to be murder to fps but we shall see. Theres just not that much to do in the game. world does feel realistic and alive, towns are bustling, gorgeous scenary, fishing, trade skills etc... That will get old after a few months easy though and all you'll have to do is grind PVE mobs rounding 10 up at a time and AoEing 24/7. then the one day a week the keep comes open for a few hrs you raid it, then you go back to PvE grinding.... Cmon now wheres the fun other than the random PvP encounter and castle sieges?

This game does have extreme potential, but it needs tons more content, alot harder PvE, way better AI. Btw there is no dungeons in this game, and its all non instance. the non instancing is nice, and hte player housing is stellar.

Theres definetly pluses to both, but after playing both, i cant seem to log back into BDO and want to play. I'll be playing a few more days during this beta though, to see if i can get the game to change my mind a bit. Maybe i'll jump in in the last beta that comes around and hope alot more has been implemented/fixed.