Black Desert Online Free-to-Play this Weekend

If you’ve heard of Black Desert Online, it’s likely only because of its amazing character customization tools - a system so robust and popular that the developer even released a standalone version of it temporarily so would-be artists and character creation fanatics could play with it at their leisure. But beyond that, it has the distinction of being a Korean MMORPG that’s actually had some staying power, being offered for a fairly reasonable 20 bucks on Steam and keeping a moderate, if not wildly successful, player base returning to the game over the years.

Well, Developer Pearl Abyss isn’t satisfied with being only KIND of successful, and to draw more users, they’ve decided to have a free weekend for the game, where you can give it a download and a play at no cost to yourself until this Sunday, or January 28. And if you happen to like it enough, from now until January 29, you’ll be able to buy it at half-off, so you can continue your adventure.

Outside the character creation, apparently the other thing Black Desert Online is known for is a relatively open style of play - rather than following a series of tangentially related quests through a loose story, as you might in most other RPGs, Black Desert Online allows you to focus on economy rather than combat and exploration, giving you the choice to build a business empire, or just play the markets and run something like a store. You can even hire workers to run these stores for you.

Sound like your cup of tea? I’ll admit I’m intrigued, but unfortunately, this free weekend is competing with Monster Hunter World, and I’ve been itching to give that a play—despite the bad news we’ve recently got regarding the online play.

I don’t need friends anyway. I have a cat in a jumpsuit.