PVP:Yes | Distribution:Download | Retail Price:n/a | Pay Type:Free | Monthly Fee:n/a
Desktop Client | System Req:
Black Prophecy General Article: Blasting Through Space the Right Way
Black Prophecy has brought joy to sci-fi MMO players all around the world. Is it as good as it looks? In a new 'first look' preview, MMORPG.com's Alex Frieden takes a look at Black Prophecy and gives our readers a quick and dirty look at the game overall. Check it out and then leave us your impressions in the comments.
By Alex Frieden on November 01, 2011
A while ago I asked my friend why he played WoW. He simply responded with “efficiency”. What he meant by this statement was that he is a struggling graduate student with very little cash. The fifteen bucks a month gets you almost unlimited entertainment. I spent 15 bucks going to the movies last weekend for only two hours of entertainment. However, in the last few years (and especially recently) we have seen an explosion of the free to play model for MMORPG games.
Most of these games are the same tried but true formula. They are usually fantasy RPG styled with the same click and spam your abilities grinding game play that we all have come to have a bittersweet relationship with. If you’re anything like me, you have grown tired of it. That’s why when I heard about Black Prophecy while reading on my phone I kissed my Smartphone and the person standing next to me. After fighting off some girlfriend agro and after waiting a number of months for its arrival, I am excited to report my findings.
)
Black Prophecy brings what a lot of gamers have been excited for: A space combat MMORPG. Like a lot of the online community, I too delved into EVE Online. It is a beautiful game with a complex economy and awesome combat. However, as the elitists out there will gladly tell you, it lacks full controls. I am not saying that you can’t do anything in Eve, but I cannot move around as if it is in a FPS. With the arrival of Black Prophecy, we can rejoice!
The Good
Black Prophecy has a realistic and somewhat dark look (duh! its space). As far as game music goes, it does very well. Granted most of the time Pandora gets turned on and we turn off the game music gets repetitive. You won’t want to do that for Black Prophecy; the stunning voice acting is essential. We get a good array of young and old aged characters from your young and by the book commander to the senator that needs to ask you a “favor”. We also get great voice triggers from your teammates and enemies. If you are into the “in your face” action with having to deal with all the voices and chatting, (much in the same way Mass Effect fights are) then you will enjoy the voice acting.
Character creation is extremely detailed. You get more control over your appearance than most games out there. From the size of your ears to what type of scars you have and where you have them, this game breaks it down to each pore.
)
Combat. Combat is one of those things that create a great divide among players. Personally, I love new and innovative combat systems. For those of you who remember Age of Conan and its vector based combat system, I loved it. It was a little tough to use, but a lot of fun and a great new development for gaming. The point here is that a 3D skill shot combat system is exactly what the competitive community is looking for. While these three dimensions give great control, it still lacks that extra something. Luckily, the folks over at Reakktor agree with me here.
While in combat, there is a combat only resource called adrenaline. You can then spend skill points in tactics to get new and innovative maneuvers to “ace” your opposition. These tactical abilities use up adrenaline thus adding a new dimension to game play.
The game is divided in a major way between two factions: The Genides and the Tyi. Once you make this decision, some things change for you. The ship you fly is one. However one non-aesthetic change is what abilities you have access to.
)
The Bad
Black Prophecy is a game full of potential for the futuristic pilot in all of us. However it has a lot of room for growth. Reakktor has done some amazingly original things with Black Prophecy and I hope they continue. But it’s not perfect.
Open world design. The idea seems pretty standard and most of you are out there saying “so what?” Well, turns out Black Prophecy does not have an open world design. It is an instanced based game and lacks a lot of the advantages that come with making it an open and seamless world. The geography of the game therefore loses meaning to players that just have to warp to a certain place.
The game has fantastic graphics. It is honestly one of the strongest parts of the game. Before all three readers go straight to the comment section and ask “Why is this in the bad section then?” let me explain. The graphics in Black Prophecy are so good that your computer may not be very happy with you. For all those out there with a decent gaming setups, fear not. However, if your gear is older than five years or so, you might want to hit up Newegg.
)
)
Conclusion
All in all, you definitely need to check out this game. It deviates from the white noise of hack and slash fantasy games out there. You can expect to see a lot of great stuff from a game and a studio that is breaking boundaries. Black Prophecy is a blast. It’s making tons of content additions (two expansions have already been released and for free) and we can expect to see a lot of great changes in the future. Check back later for our full review. Just remember, do a barrel roll kid!
I love games like this. Ever since Freelancer, I was hooked on space combat. I played a bit of BP in beta and was trying to get into it, but it didn't feel as easy to get into like Freelancer was. But I have high hopes for this game, this genre is definitely not as overdone as the fantasy genre is. Here's hoping this game flourishes.
Ya the game is definitely a bit slower moving out of the game. Make sure you make it past the prologue before giving it a fair shake. I definitely agree, the freelancer style game is fantastic. This game has started to see some real PVP potential in it within the factions! I would definitely like for this game to recieve a competitive scene! Heres to hoping!
Well I love space games, but did not like this game much at all. I found the game to be somewhat repetitive and boring. Just my opinion, but I did not see much content to keep people playing. And again with just two factions, your pvp experience is going to be very one sided.
There are some decent changes and additional content coming, I will take a wait and see approach on this game, just would not recommend it as it exists today.
I've been wanting to play a game like this one for ages... And I am still waiting.
The game can't be play from my region = (
Does the games till only have one ship?
Currently in the game you start out as your sapien ship then once you pick Tyi or Genide you move to your new ship. Sadly there is still no new ship besides these ships and I don't believe there is any plans to implement new ones.
Honestly, the game, to me, just felt dead. I wanted something more akin to an attempt at simulating a living universe even if you couldnt really participate in the economy. Maybe ore haulers and trade ships going from station to station, just to improve the atmosphere, maybe give to give some pvp objectives too, but sadly this really wouldnt work in an instaced area type of game.
The leveling system, too, just felt shoehorned in. It feels really out of place, especially since it strongly encourages you to stick with one weapon type and just pump that skill.
The game looks beautiful though, playes well, and its a great framework, but content wise and presentation wise, needs alot of work.
In short I wanted more Freelancer in the game.
I understand that the content is lacking, but what do you mean it needs work in presentation?
Having played anything space-related since Elite on the C64 or StarTrek on the Amiga, followed by WingCommander, Freelancer, X-series, all the StarWars-stuff and then SWG and STO and ofcourse EvE Online, I was rather disappointed by BlackProphecy.
BlackProphecy could've been good, but it just doesn't feel really good. The controls are nothing compared to old games like Freelancer or even X-Wing vs TieFighter, they feel very clunky and not really responsive and it's not about my rig being too old or anything like this (i5-760, GTX460, 8GB, SSD).
The space feels very small and the heavily instanced universe is pretty but boring. The missions are not too bad, but they get old pretty fast and there's nothing to besides these. No exploration, no group-content, no nothing.
I'm still waiting for a developer to simply take a game like X or Freelancer and add the typical MMO-elements ontop of that. That'd be a success without too much efforts.
Accepting the sort of game it is, it still failed on a few levels, for me.
One, I just didn't like the style of combat. I feel that in any vehicular shooter, the emphasis should be on movement, and aiming via movement, rather than point and click shooting, ala pedestrian shooters. I'd need it to feel more like aerial dogfighting, and less mousing around to click on targets.
Two, the gameworld just felt tiny to me. I got past the prologue, and it was just like, wtf, this is it? I guess the content is level-gated, but still.. didn't get the impression that a whole lot more would ever open up. There was no universe to explore at all. No where to go, really, aside from back and forth to the same little mission areas over and over.
Plus, it doesn't even have any real equipment variety. No new ships to work for, or different types of ships to choose from, and differences in types of loadouts were marginal. A few stat points different here or there, but nothing with any real impact on gameplay, so it was all pretty much the same.
I've been checking back every few weeks and it's definitely been shaping up. It was a little barebones at first but all the new PvP features are cool, and they keep living up to their promises for expanded content, with even more on the way. May have to check back again now!
Seems like a good game. A friend of mine that plays it says its f2p elements are pretty fair.
I wanted to try it but I found out it was region locked for me (I live in South America). A real pity.
another typical proganda review that is why this site garners so little respect amongst gamers and the forums are littlre more than a place for children to scream