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Black Prophecy Previews: Quick Preview
MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller had the chance to take a look at the upcoming space-themed MMO Black Prophecy. Garrett found a game with some epic space combat and some new features set to expand the space MMO genre. Read on for a quick look at Black Prophecy.
By Garrett Fuller on July 09, 2010
This past month we got a sneak peak at Black Prophecy which is in Closed Beta over in Europe. The game has some epic space combat, wrapped in an MMO with some great customization for all. Black Prophecy looks to bring some new features to the sci-fi MMO genre which should give players a new place to test their flight skills and blast each other into star dust.
The character creation for Black Prophecy has a vast amount of options. You can give your character tattoos, some gadgets, and even adjust their age. MMOs seem to be offering more and more character customization for players at the beginning of the game. We found the options unique and fun with Black Prophecy and it definitely gives players a canvas to create their awesome pilots.
The other area where customization really comes into play is with your ships. In the beginning of the game there is a nine mission prolog that you have to play through, this will give you your back story as well as get you started for your career in the violent galaxy. If you choose to do all of the missions in the prologue it takes about six to eight hours to play through. You can choose which faction you want to fly for, the Tyi are the cyber race and the Genides are super human. Both factions offer great story lines and background for players to explore.
Players can use skills points on a variety of sets that directly impact their ships. Whether it is weapons, engines, shields etc. you can work on these skills to become a better pilot. There is also a tactics and maneuvers area. Overall the skills system in Black Prophecy fits the game perfectly. It is not too complex, but still offers plenty of options for players. There are fifty levels in the game for maximum.
The way that ships are built is through modules. The modules include the ship systems, cockpit, wings, engine etc. Every module has an impact on the appearance of the ship. Each module also has its own weight and can directly impact the agility of the ship. The ship building sequence we got to see was awesome, it was smooth and easy to create something customizable to fly around in. The different options also allow you to build ships that are agile fighters compared to something heavier like space tanks. This is one of the greatest features of Black Prophecy and gives players a ton of options. Players can also choose from three optional views when flying their ships. They can go third person, first person, or also have a cockpit view of the game. All three looked great and allow players the view they prefer.
Players can run missions in Black Prophecy in a solo, group, or clan format. Clans are similar to guilds. The areas that are open to PvP also have a large PvE presence so players are not only fighting each other they are also fighting NPCs throughout the zone. Not only will the Genides and Tyis be impacted in these combats, but there are other alien groups as well to battle it out with. It also seems like the space MMOs have the most vicious PvP combat. Black Prophecy looks to add to this tradition.
It is clear when flying around in the game that range and aim is critical to you doing well in combat. The combat is very much like a dogfight style and kept us on the edge of our seats while playing. With loads of customization and solid space combat, Black Prophecy was a fun game to take a look at. Right now as beta testing continues in Europe, we can only hope to get the game over to U.S. audiences to try it out.
My only question is does the ship makeup have to be different to run missions as opposed to PVP. I hate the fact that Eve is about griefing in general because a mission ship can not fight a pvp ship.
eve = screensaver with interactve combat
black prophecy = dynamic and active combat
well, there just must be a ship setup who can master both: pvp and pve. i think all weapons and other ship upgrades are made for both gametypes.
sounds very intresting so far, cant wait to get into some hardcore dodge fight pvp battles.
Still curious on how PvE will exist in all this in terms of cooperative play.
Interesting.
I wonder if you can be viable with a new character in a great ship... or if you have to level up in order to obtain the better ships only. Cool looking game.
Wow, another game very similar to Jumpgate Evolution coming out! I can't wait to see how they stack up against each other!
With many people burned out on WoW and not too crazy about the other fantasy MMOs out there, I think a space MMO that doesn't have the painful learning curve of Eve would be a welcome addition.
The only frustration is that neither JGE nor Black Prophecy seem to be coming out soon enough for me.
Some more details might be nice or even useful. While the game looks like it might be interesting, isn't it just a very shallow free-download space fighter sim? Isn't the dev company tiny and a relative unknown? What sort of things will be offered in their item shop or whatever they are using to pay for this thing? For a game that is this far along, I don't seem to be able to easily find out a whole lot of the things I'd want to know before I got too hyped up over it.
Hoping the game involves a merchant system and moving goods across different planets across pvp zones. SOmething close to PotBS's eco system would be great.
Looking forward to see an hear more about this game.Some of the style reminds me of Babylon 5 in a way.
Your serious? Reakktor Media is making it and they produced Neocron. Now partnering up with gamigo I can not answer whether that will be a sound idea. It could, it could not, depending on the item shop. I know that Neocron2 has been limping along for a long time, and myself quit playing it after that 2.1 or whatever was relaunched and my droner was no longer much fun.
Now that is a class that needs to be introduced.
Does this game have territory control?
As I recall, it does, but only in the same way Global Agenda does. Which is to say that nearly everything is instanced, so territory control takes place as a match in an instanced arena to determine who gets the bonuses from the territory.
Black Prophesy looks pretty cool. Too bad it's a free to play game. Free to play almost always means the game will be hobbled in some way to ensure the cash shop sells stuff. I wish they had gone pay to play on this one.
I just wished these space sim MMOs would put less emphasize on PvP in their endgame content.
That's not really a gamemode I enjoy all too much.
I was so psyched for this game until they announced it was F2P.
This will determine the outcome of the game. EvE is an amazing game with boring combat. There are many out there who simply want EvE 0.0 with spaceship control. Huge epic pvp that has a purpose (claming your own land) not endless wow instance farming or fighting for a 5% stat buff.
If this turns out to be a fake MMO where pvp is 10v10 and all instancedit will fail as fast as STO did. Simple as that.
The whole point of an MMORPG is to be part of a large world. Not a counter strike server (or in this case space counter strike) with global chat. That is NOT an MMO.
Another way this game will fall flat even faster is if it has wow style pvp where the only incentive for pvp is gear. People will become bored with this immediately.
Territory control + minimal instances/ instances with large amounts of people ftw.
Eve is tactical focused spreadsheet game. I started to play Eve in early 2005. I liked the game to certain extend. I don't know if you guys remeber a dogfight space shooting game call Alligeance. I LOVED that game! Much more action and much more fun compare to Eve. I also enjoyed Earth and Beyond a lot. When I read about Jump gate Evolution I thought my dream is coming true but it turned out the game looks never is going see the sun light. Black Prophecy is in beta? Let's hope it wouldn't turn into another Jump Gate. hehe We need more action in space than Eve could provide for sure!
As an internet spaceship veteran I am keeping my eye on this game I play and still love EVE but in some ways EVE is getting me down because lag is still not fixed and with the various game changes pvp is becoming almost "tank and gank" with things like electronic warfare taking a backseat and mobility warfare has gone, no more nanoships and things like sniping HACs are less useful and its all about remote repairing and logistic ships (healers basically for people who dont play EVE) and the current FOTM afterburning cruisers.
And anyone who has ever been in a cap ship fight will understand the utter boringness of a static fight where you barely move and just activate modules and the side with the most numbers or best remote repairing wins, yes it is a little more complicated and involves the skill of your FC and quality of any intel and some other variables but at its core its still tank vs gank.
Territorial warfare is a laggy blobfest, low sec is becoming as bad with a growing reliance on capitol ships and factional warfare is full of broken mechanics but it is kinda fun still. I doubt any game like this will have an economy or manufacturing system as complex as EVE does but if it can substitute that depth with some raw excitement it could be good.
Black prophecy seems to have distilled some of the essence from games like freelancer but with some aspects from EVE and the original jumpgate and maybe, maybe it will become a great alternative to EVE. Some people don't seem to like the F2P idea but I will keep an open mind and see how that works out, after all paying for a few in game items isn't so bad when you don't need to pay for a sub.
I am not a ship, I am a free man! I have never been able to get my head round the idea of a ship being your avatar, so for me I can't view it as a MMO. But the combat looks good and thats what this game is about.
From what the OP has written about, this looks like another "shooter" only in space. How many "shooter" games to we have to have that call themselves MMO's?
From everything I read this looks to be a little more PvP focused than JGE. I like PvP but at most I want it to have a 50% share of the gameplay in all levels and styles.
PvE missions in PvP areas doesn't appeal to me at all. I would rather just forgo the PvE and concentrate on PvP instead of getting ganked while trying to PvE. If its the only way to decently progress at that stage and theres no pure PvE option i'll be done with it entirely. Same reason I stopped playing Aion at 23.
Looks good but i think i'll still wait for Tachyon: The fringe 2...that will probably never get made.
Yes, I'm serious...Neowhat?
Never saw it on a store shelf...never knew anyone who played it nor have any of my friends (real world or online) talked about playing it...heck never even saw a review of it that I can recall..so yeah, making a game I never heard of doesn't get them any points from me.
Same. Unless they went to GW or GA model of payment, otherwise F2P with cash shop = fails
Black Prophecy = APB in space.
This game looks so cool, but F2P + PvP = Epic Fail :(
Yet i have to see a game which managed to success in this model.
yeah because most games make awesome items that out beat the rest. (or like comment above) u loose it. then gotta buy more.
I am actually the opposite. I've never seen the point in having a personal character that does nothing. This is spaceship based game, I want to know what the heck is my avatar doing to make it worth having one period. Seriously, why do I have to dock, get out of my ship, walk up to a station to get a new mission or buy something? IF (and I stress the IF) that is ALL my Avatar does, it has no point, why waste effort on it?
That's one thing I enjoyed about EVE is that they didn't waste time on Avatar crap. There was another Space game from Westwood Studios that came out around the same time as EVE that had Avatars. They were nothing but a waste of time because they merely let you walk around a pointless interior space to get missions and buy stuff. I can't even remember the name of that game, though I will admit having avatars didn't kill that game it had lots of things wrong with it. :p
Avatars are a minor annoyance though so if the developer wants to throw them in so be it, if the space combat lives up to the hype I'll be interested in seeing more. And it's Free to Play so I can actually play it. (I'm not cheap, I just don't have lots of time.)
Will be playing this game for sure - probably with some friends who don't care for MMO's but love flight combat. Since it'll be free to play I think this game is gonna be massive.
@gozerTC:
AutoAssault was like that -- they obviously slapped on a human avatar just to appease people who didn't want to be just a car -- it was totally annoying to have to walk around a city instead of driving. Services, etc could have been drive-thru with a menu popup or like Eve, a separate UI.
@Scot: What about you being a ship makes a game not "massive" or "multiplayer" or "online"?
Also, I never could figure out why if you were interested in a game, the announcement of it being F2P changes that. For any new title, F2P B2P P2P or whatever, the chances are overwhelming that it's going to suck sweaty, sweaty ass for any number of reasons. P2P doesn't guarantee a good game any more than F2P guarantees a bad one. Why not let it actually piss you off before you waste your time being pissed off at it?
I just ignore people with such a narrow prejudiced mindset..
They typically fall into 3 groups:
Thier view is based upon 2nd or 3rd hand information, never having actually tried a F2P game themselves.
Thier view is based upon 1 attempt at playing a F2P game, for a limited (less than 1 month) period of time.
Thier view is based upon several tries of different F2P games, playing at least 1 to 'endgame content' or for more than 6 months.
You'll find most F2P haters belong to the 1st group, which is why thier opinion is not worth listening to.
The last group are like Honest Politicians .... they are so rare as to be almost non-existant.
Yes Auto Assault is a more current example. It seems any Vehicle based games seem to tack on Avatars for no good reason. :\
I agree with the Anti-F2P bias. It makes even less sense than me saying "Oh it's subscription based, instant fail!" Because with F2P at launch I can try the thing out and see if I like it or not. With standard sub games that's a no go for a few months after launch, give or take.
Perhaps, like me, they are capable of some actual thinking and know that not all games are for them? Different people like and want different things from a game and no game will "work" for everyone...that much should be obvious.
Repeated experience has shown that F2P games don't deliver on a couple of key areas that I care about...so, yes a game announcing it is F2P does significantly lessen my interest...not because I "hate" F2P nor any of the other trite answers the F2P fanbois trot out, but because informed experience tells me that I probably won't like the game. Exactly the same as I don't like many console-based or browser games....personal preference not misinformation, lack of knowledge or blind bigotry.
Could BP still fit my ideas of a "good game"? Maybe...they aren't saying or showing enough for me to say right now...which given how far along it is has to be considered a "bad" sign. I'm hard pressed to remember the last time that pre-launch secrecy equalled a surprisingly good launch and game.
Gawd help me, Rodentofdoom believes we have to play a F2P MMO for over six months before we can have a negative opinion about F2P?
Book me in to the clinic now as I will need 6+ months of therapy after doing that. :D
Although i'm very optomistic about this game, it still leaves me with many questions that keep me from taking a seat on the official hype wagon.
I've learned my lesson about judging a game based soley on its screenshots alone. Yes, that is some nice space debris floating around, and yes, the lighting and detail looks amazing, but.. i'd like a little more than just eyecandy.
Will there be a crafting system? Mining? Is the entire world instanced like D&D online? When I feel like taking a break from combat, will I be able to find delivery missions to fill my virtual wallet with credits? What about trade?
I suppose we'll find out more the closer we get to the american launch date.
"and even adjust their age"
OMG REALLY ???
how can I take anything you say seriously after this? Srsl. Game reviewers recenly seem to be so incompetant, so disconected that its any wonder people listen to them at all.
Add me to the list of people who were intrigued by the game until they heard about it being F2P.
And yes, it's okay to be opposed to F2P without playing them. The very foundation of F2P games with cash shops is that the core game has to be gimped in some way to encourage people to buy crap from the cash shop. The developers have to make their game less fun in order to make money...that's just crazy. I'd much rather play a game where the developers make their money by running a fun game that encourages me to continue a subscription.
This.
Funny that you call people like me, who dont like F2P model narrow minded ...
The question, why do you actually call it F2P? At the end almost every has bought something from the item shop and in most cases its mostly more then just subscription.
For me i made my experience, till i get to the point its aint worth to spend 200+ dollars for a game just to be able to keep up with others ... At least i learned through my experience.
Yep on some F2P i spent so much money i could play P2P game for 10 years ;-)
... looking increasingly like this will be an EPIC game... if only it didnt have the FAIL added to that epic bit.. F2P, never is.. pay to win.. is what it should be called. More and more these days, we seem to get so much hype over games that invariably turn out to be mediocre at best. Black prophecy... Bleak prophecy more like... you can be sure if there was a decent game in there somwhere.. it would have been P2P..
Well since jumpgate 2 is pretty much going to be one of those too little too late games this is looking pretty damn nice. Im looking for a game that give me the feel of Freelancers Online play and the true to life physics in space :D i love drifting sideways while aiming, fireing and having to adjust my flight angle with a quick burst of the thrusters.
A game doesn't need to be F2P to be underfunded. Look at Jumpgate:TRI, the predecessor to Jumpgate Evolution. It's been out forever and looks like the same game it was in 2001.
Does have both PvP and merchant gameplay, though. And I read somewhere that the devs are trying to wake it up again. Probably because JGE is taking forever.
I agree with the majority why the bleep is MMORPG hyping a game doomed to failure. I was psyched about this game till I heard it went f2p.
I just creamed my pants at the thought of Tachyon 2........gg
Haha... nicely put. At any rate, this game is looking more and more interesting. I wonder when it will make it over to North America?