I came across this pretty in-depth review. Maybe it’ll help some people still on the fence with their decision.
Fresh account made 2 hrs ago just to post this review 
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read before you buy, burn after reading?
jokes aside though, it’s a good and fair review 
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“In the character creation, you have many options on how to personalize your character.”
I saw this…laughed… and closed the page.
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There are pay to win mechanics in the game.
I’ve never thought boundless is P2W, where does this notion come from?
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A balanced review…not very in depth but a good shake at an overall picture.
Agreed with a a few of the cons, escpicially the gnarly rendering of distant objects
I actually read through it with a smile, he got other points right.
And that part is true if it comes to colors available 
Lets be real here.
Theres few preset models to choose from
No sliders to actually be unique
No “other races” that has been shown on dev blog.
If he wouldve said “many colour options” that wouldve been ok,but he didnt.
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I would say this review is pretty good. I think it could have been more in depth but generally pretty spot on. Character customization is actually pretty good compared to many games. If you count in tattoos and the upcoming patch with us being allowed up tp 3 cosmetics, I’d day there is plenty of customization.
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Every time I see someone say “there is pay 2 win” or “boundless is pay2win” I feel like I’m going to have a stroke. It shows a core misunderstanding of the game at best and downright deception at worst.
This is as someone who 100% has no issue with swiping a credit card to buy in game garbage. I swear I’m recovering! I have not bought a single cubit; and why? I have had no reason to! The game throws them at you! You practically stumble over the things in the dark.
I digress, let’s get back to the point at hand: Pay2Win. Let’s assume I bought the game, and immediately started swiping my credit card. How on gods green earth do you expect to do anything with 6000 plots at level 2? You still need to have the raw materials to build something people want to visit to get you footfall. You don’t have money for portals. It’s ludicrous!
So maybe the argument is the rich get richer? You are level 50, multiple skill pages, alts, all the resources a good stockpile desires. Three roadblocks appear to the P2w argument:
- You likely could already have hundreds if not thousands of plots via alts and cubits from post 50 leveling through natural development.
- You are already so resource rich, anything you build doesn’t make you any richer appreciably
- A large swath of claimed territory that goes undeveloped by you doesn’t appreciably make a planet less resource plentiful.
In short: it’s super preposterous to call boundless pay to win. Play black desert online for an incredible example of pay to win.
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There is still “P2W” elements to the game. For example, certain backers can craft extra items cause they backed more money in early stages. Those who join now will have to buy them for coins from those who spent more irl cash early.
But I agree, p2w is a pretty bad word anyway for a game like this - you can’t “win”. However, two guilds competing for huge areas can benefit a lot from buying cubits and plot before the other guild can farm and plot their area.
But in general, as the review said, anything you can buy can also be gotten elseway.
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Well really there’s nothing forcing player to buy them at all. And with the wayfarers totems there’s people who will craft them for free if you give them the mats to do it. And I’m sure if someone asked with the gold fist people would do that too.
Edit: just saw someone ask for the iron fists and has a player that’ll do it for free since the mats are being provided. Looks like I was right.
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I have to disagree with you. I bought the game some 5 years ago in 2014 during the closed beta. The only item i can craft other than new players is the explorer (iron) fist. This item is nice but only for the mid-game. All slingbows from titanium upwards (plus the related epic talents, augmentations or forge-boons that fist weapons have none or only few) outshine the fist by worlds.
So this one item is not nearly enough to term the game “p2w”. The wayfarer-totem some people got, even less as it is not really good for anything.
The only thing that distinguishes the “old” players would be the 10% more plots buff we get every time we buy plots. And that is it basically.
I returned one month before the release in september and have now 2 characters with level 50. Both have about 450~500 plots. So i dont really have that big an advantage to others i believe 
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Before anyone gets angry at me, I am just saying that the dude who made the report is not wrong in saying that it has p2w elements to it.
Nothing is forcing you to do anything, but if you want those items, you have to buy it from someone else, free or not. It’s a “competitive advantage” certain people have.
This is part of the deluxe pack, so everyone can buy it.
But either way, like I said, p2w is a bad word for it for this game, as p2w elements are, like both of you said, very small.
However, being able to buy Cubits and buy plots actually affects the entire market. Think of it this way:
The person who buys 100 euros or dollars worth of plots does not have to do anything in game for it. Naturally, there are people who farm everything themselves and this wouldn’t affect market at all anyway. Then there are those that would have bought pies, hammers, atlases, rock for masscraft etc etc if they could not buy cubits. This, when many people do it, actually makes a difference.
Cosmetics is kinda the same, as people would have to grind cubits for those as well, but in a much smaller scale.
Anyway, I don’t see this game as p2w. I have 4500+ plots, which of none are bought but when I get my next salary I will most likely buy a batch of plots to support the game.
After my definition, this game is P2W. You might have a different definition.
I love to build, which needs a lot of plots, which you can buy with real currency. If real world currency has an effect, that fits my definition of P2W.
On the other side, the game makes it very easy to play and progress without real currency and plots can be very easily farmed. It has absolutely none of this F2P cash shop annoyances. Which is why I’m fine with this game.
I did buy some at the beginning, not a lot, but I wanted to make sure I had the plots for expansion, not have to worry about someone moving in and losing what I wanted. I had nothing in materials at that time to build, wasn’t even at level 10 yet, but $20 bucks, we did without ordering one pizza for a week, no big deal. Have read lots of posts of players not being able to get the plots and then someone moves in and they can’t expand.
To each there own, I don’t think it should have been listed as play2win, but at least he stated you didn’t need to, it wasn’t necessary to buy anything. I am thinking of registering just to make that clear.
Because there is a cash shop. That’s literally all it takes for some.
You literally have to pay money for auto loot in black desert online.
Think about that.
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As far as I know, you don’t even have to have the mats, they are totally free. I use them sometimes when I am gathering, saves wearing out my iron tools, which I still use on low level planets even though I can make titanium tools.
I know several players who use them to smack the critters they kill to also save on their tools, especially when they are leveling up a alt to save wear and tear on their tools.
I can see the points of calling it a play2win, but I think he could have explained more about how it works, the phrase has a negative connotation to many who have been ripped off by such games that require you to actually do that to be able to play and have anything good.
I personally don’t see how buying cubits to get plots or even the decorations if you don’t have enough of your own. It doesn’t affect a player if I buy enough plots to place 1000 of them, it doesn’t stop a player from building unless they want to build in that area and the planets are large enough that you can find a good spot just about anywhere. I actually built on water but have plotted land around me to keep someone from moving in close.
Am going to reserve several plots close to my base so I can use the resources there and also allow others but don’t want someone to move close to me, I may or may not put down a farm on some of those plots, depending if I need the extra space.
I don’t see how it can affect being able to buy pies, hammers and such; I can’t use cubits to buy them, I have to use game currency, coins that I earn in game or trade. My buying plots with real life money doesn’t affect my ability to buy the items I need for making my tools, forging, cooking and even some building ingredients or trade for anything I need.
Cosmetics are the same, if you want them that bad and can afford to buy them that is a chose, instant gratification is a personal choice, not something that is forced on a player.
That is just my opinion, you have the right to disagree, I 'm just explaining how I see it different than you do.
Oh i know, I’m just saying the mere presence of a cash shop is enough for someone, like OP, to complain. P2W