Closed Beta Date: 16th December 2015

Black Desert Online is a Korean MMO which is currently being localised for Western audiences and is in the closed beta stage of its development. Although the developers have not announced a payment model, it will likely stick to the Korean pay model, of the game being free to play but having an in-game cash shop so you can purchase items with real money.

The game currently offers 6 different classes which are gender locked: Warrior, Ranger, Sorceress, Berserker, Wizard and Tamer. There will also be 6 other classes available to play after the games launch. Character customization is one of the most advanced yet, allowing you to alter any aspect of your character. Some of the features include changing the shape of your hair and adding highlights, to a face building mechanic which you can drag, move, push and pull any part of the face for precise control over your appearance. Adding make up and tattoos is also possible, as well as changing your eye type to dozens of different styles like hearts, stars, diamonds or none at all for the blind Kung Fu master look.

Gameplay is focused on action combat system, similar to TERA and Guild Wars 2. Players rely on agility and moving around during combat to dodge enemies, while attacking and using skills. The basic left and right click skills are smooth and well stylised to give you a great looking combat experience that is also fun.

Other features include the usual such as crafting, collecting resources and trading, but the mount system is a little different. First you need to tame animals such as wild horses to use as mounts so that you can explore areas faster than you would by foot. In-game player housing allows you to have your own maids, pets and extravagant furniture. Housing is also broken down by different uses such as a warehouse, forging workshops for jewellery or tools and a normal house. Gamers who enjoy player housing, will like Black Desert Online’s system which seems more fleshed out than others through a building system similar to The Sims.

Freedom to explore is quite impressive using a climbing mechanic that allows you to tackle quests by taking different routes. Climb a castle instead of going through the front door or up a mountain to get to a new area more quickly. While exploring you can also destroy parts of the environment such as long grass, trees, rocks and more. Use the same destructibility against another players by attacking their camps or killing their mounts. Be careful however, other players will be able to do the same as you.

Black Desert Online is a visually stunning giant open world, with in depth character customisation and fast, fluid combat. Quests are fully voiced with cut scenes that give them a closer feeling of a single player game in an MMO world. Player housing is seems more advanced thank the standard, with the ability to turn almost any building in the world into your own house. Guilds can also ‘own’ towns and cities and make changes to them such as displaying their guild crests.

Black Desert Online is currently in closed beta which you can gain access to by purchasing a pre-order package.

Closed Beta Date: TBC

EverQuest Next was announced back in 2009 with more information becoming available in 2010, and since then information has been drip fed to players. EverQuest Next is not a direct sequel to the original EverQuest series, but a reimaging of the original set in a parallel version of Norrath.

Not much information has been made public but the theme has been focused on mixing up the standard MMO formula and giving players more freedom. One such feature allows players to make decisions which can permanently alter the world, through their choices or the choice of not acting, through a Rallying Call. These are world events which allow players to decide for example, to save a village or leave the Orcs to destroy it. You can also go one step further and support the Orcs’ efforts and help destroy the village. The outcome then becomes permanent in the world, unless another Rallying Call is made to change it.

Another key part of the game is the destructibility, that nearly everything in the world can be destroyed. For example, you could blow a hole in the ground, which could lead to a cave for you and your party to explore. Building and other objects in the world can also be destroyed by players and monsters, making buildings no longer a safe zone to hide when a battle gets too tough.

Procedurally-generated quests can come from monsters’ unique behaviours which are influenced by Rallying Calls and other actions such as players not being active in a certain area. An example of this would be Orcs that have set up camp along a trade route which players can choose to tackle or leave. Each server will act as a separate world making all choices made by players unique compared to all the other servers. Cities and buildings in one server might not exist or could be destroyed in another.

Classes in EverQuest Next have not been fully revealed but it has been said that classes are streamlined and made to be mixed. From their website they quote “Want to be a teleporting rogue or a backstabbing barbarian? The choice is yours!” indicating that you can fuse class talents together, to create unique hybrid classes rather than sticking to traditional MMORPG archetypes.

With no official release date yet, it is speculated that EverQuest Next will come out in 2016, especially since as Daybreak have shifted some of its internal development team to work more heavily on Next. If you still cannot wait, Daybreak’s other MMO, Landmark should give you some relief as it is currently in closed beta.

Closed Beta Date: 18th December 2015

Blade & Soul is a Korean MMORPG that is in the final stages of localization for Western audiences. The core combat is heavily inspired by various world martial arts, with players chaining basic attacks into long combos for massive damage. Combat is meant to be fluid and not traditional, there is no locking onto enemies and no class focuses on healing or just support, which is certainly an effective way in trying to break away from the usual MMO class triangle of Tank, DPS and Healer.

Going along with this focus on martial arts and fluid movement, Blade & Soul sees you wall running, flipping through the air and gliding gracefully through the sky, as if you were a wire fighter in an old school Kung Fu movie.

Players will be able to choose from 4 different playable races: the Gon, Yun, Lyn and Jin. 2 factions which are The Cerulean Order or The Crimson Legion and 7 different classes, with one additional class coming after launch. Each race has 3 different classes to choose from, some are race specific while others overlapping across multiple races. Classes are not gender locked apart from a single race, the Yun, which is narrative driven and not just because.

Combat is a mix of action based combat you might find in other MMOs like TERA or Vindictus, and a fighting game like Street Fighter. This is down to the combo mechanic which allows you to chain attacks together for different effects. Watch your back, your timings and enemy animations so you can combine your attacks together to form long attack chains. Doing so means you decide how you want link each attack for various effects, for instance gaining health or doing more damage. Situational combos allow more varied gameplay, retaliate from an enemy if you have been knocked down, or close in the distance between you and them.

Blade & Soul’s gear does not concentrate on armour like other MMOs. Instead the game has a ‘ to make the shield. The more parts of the set you obtain, the better the bonuses. Complete sets might be hard to find but each piece you find marks where you found it, allowing you to have a better idea where you might get the remaining missing pieces. Characters can have two Soul Shields ready at any time allowing you to spec characters out for different situations, PvE and PvP being the most obvious. Finally, you can gain additional bonuses through equipping trinkets such as earrings and bracelets or reinforcing Souls Shield pieces which can be done by using pieces you no longer need from another class. Each will have different stats boosts which you can mix and match with your other items for the desired build.

With the last closed beta finished and with the January 19^th release date fast approaching, those looking for a new MMO to sink their teeth into, will not have to wait much longer.

Closed Beta: Early 2016

Lost Ark was first announced back in 2014 after being in development for 3 years using the Unreal 3 engine. Much like other MMOs mentioned in this article, it revolves around an action but the combat system is more inspired from Diablo, rather than the traditionally static combat of older MMORPGs.

When looking more closely at the actual combat, Lost Ark is split into both open world environments and instanced dungeon raids similar to Vindictus. Skills work off of a tripod based system where they can be combined in different ways to create alternate attacks from the same base skills. First you select the attack element affinity such as fire or ice, then you can modify that attack type such as a direct hit or ground attack. Finally, you then choose to improve the range of the attack or its area of affect. Currently there are 7 different classes to choose in the alpha with a total of 18 planned for launch. This allows players and co-op parties to work out what configuration of teams of different classes work best, to take down each of the raid bosses.

Lost Ark features two different levels for your character, battle level and life level. The battle level is all your skills related to combat. While the Life level are skills which are related to different professions such as mining, fishing, logging, archaeology and more. Each of the professions can be upgraded to acquire different skills to make things easier or add new abilities. For example, upgrading archaeology allows you and a pet to find hidden treasure by digging it up. By upgrading logging, you and some friends can help chop down larger trees that you could not harvest by yourself.

You can even become a sea captain in order to travel the world. From there you can explore the seas, capture fish or mine for treasure. Exploring also means creating new trade routes through the tougher seas such as arctic ice, fighting ghost ships and finding unexplored islands. If you are the first one to reach the island, the swag can be yours for the taking. Should you capture an island, Lost Ark’s housing system means you can turn it into your own private island, complete with your own buildings and fortifications.

If you like The Witcher 3’s Gwent, you might also like the mini games which feature in Lost Ark. Head into a tavern and challenge another player to a monster trading card game, using cards you find while exploring or ask them for a friendly drinking contest to see who can drink the fastest. If you prefer more action based activities, players can head over to the Coliseum for 1v1 or 3v3 player vs player matches, to gain glory and gold.

Currently the beta is only available for Korea, sometime in 2016. The developers plan to move into the West after the Korean release but no release date has been confirmed. Lost Ark may not be out in 2016 for the West but still gets a special mention. The game brings new levels of exploration to MMOs with combat you can redefine through skills you create. With a whopping 18 different classes and further customisation, players should be able to break the standard archetypes other MMOs stick to. Overall, Lost Ark seems to offer a lot of what long time MMO players have been looking for. The worry is when it will be released and if it will be as the developers describe and show in this early stage of development.

So there you have it, those are our picks of MMOs to look out for in 2016 and why we are excited for them. If you have an MMO which you believe should be in our top MMO article then comment your pick and why you believe it.