Black Prophecy Preview

One Big Space Adventure

For all you space adventurers out there who wish you could get more adventure and action out of your space simulator experiences will be in for a rude awakening with Reakktor Media and Gamigo’s amazing, triple-A MMO space title, Black Prophecy. The game features two warring factions going head-to-head, the Genide and the Tyi, and players are placed right in the middle of the war as a horrific new force emerges that creates chaos on a galactic scale. Find out how the game plays out, what the flight controls are like and how much variety the missions offer up in this hands-on Black Prophecy preview.

One Epic Tutorial

I’ve played many games where players are walked through each phase of the game with newb tutorials and introductions explaining how to use the controls and play the game, but never have I played a game where the tutorial was as vast, important and unique as the one in Black Prophecy.

You may have read how Fallen Earth has one of the very best playable intro sequences out of any recent MMO, with the first 10 minutes being as intense as the final 10 minutes of the original Halo: Combat Evolved.

Well, Black Prophecy takes that concept and then expands on it by 10 fold, with a tutorial sequence that’s about as long as a full length, big budget game.

Players will learn about the species inhabiting the universe of Black Prophecy as well as the lore behind the game with intense, story-driven missions that also explain how the game works and what will be in store for players later on. Not to give too much away, but the first five minutes of the tutorial and the final 30 minutes of the tutorial will leave your palms sweaty and your heart racing. Astoundingly epic is about the best way to describe the early goings of Black Prophecy, and the game just gets better from there.

Flight Controls And Evasive Maneuvering

Black Prophecy can be played with either a mouse and keyboard combination, a flight stick or a controller. A flight stick would probably be the best option for playing the game considering that there are plenty of intense moments where players will have to fly in between floating debris, asteroid fields and even the outer exterior of battle ships. Nevertheless, regardless of the control scheme the game has been optimized enough for newbie space sim gamers to easily get the hang of the game whether it’s a mouse, keyboard or gamepad that’s being used.

One of the unique features of Black Prophecy, however, is that given that it’s an MMO with RPG qualities, much of the combat, flight, speed and maneuverability of the ships are based on the parts they’re equipped with. Meaning, depending on the combination of parts that a player will put on their ship will determine and dictate how fast the ship flies, how much damage it can do, how much boost it gets when initiating quick turns and how well it can turn. Space simulator gearheads will get a real kick out of how much can be altered, advanced, upgraded and changed on the ships in Black Prophecy.

Scavenging, Collecting And Escorting

For those of you out there wondering how much fighting, trading, scavenging and looting goes on in Black Prophecy, I can proudly say that the game offers up a nice cache of mixed gameplay opportunities with a variety of mission types.

Players don’t just have standard-fare “farm 10 of these bad guy” missions, even though they are present. Some of the tasks include transferring cargo across various sectors and overseeing their safety. Other missions involve taking out carriers, doing group runs and dogfighting, as well as protection and guardian missions where players have to ensure the safety of other players or NPCs. The game is quite versatile as it stands and the possibilities of its growth seem endless.

For players out there who aren’t keen on just doing one mission after another and progressing in the traditional way, there is the possibility of scavenging ship wrecks and gathering parts and equipment to either resell or outfit your own ship with the parts.

Plasma Beams, Flamethrowers and Lasers…Oh My

For those of you out there worried about the weapon selection and variety in Black Prophecy, take note that the game has no shortage of weapon diversity. Whether you’re a fan of Star Trek’s proton torpedos or Star Wars ion cannons, Black Prophecy has a very generous cache of weapons that include (but aren’t limited to) single, twin and quad lasers, plasma beams, flamethrowers, grenade launchers, heat seeking missiles, lightning cannons, gauss weapons, machine guns, chain guns, homing missiles, gravity guns and more. Any aficionado of space-age weaponry will be duly impressed with what Black Prophecy has to offer and having these weapons available in PvP and PvE makes them that much more entertaining to use.

Open Beta And Beyond

The game’s open beta launch will mark a milestone in the history of free-to-play games, with Black Prophecy being one of the first ever triple-A quality space simulators making waves in the industry and aiming to compete with EVE Online. The thing is, Black Prophecy has a very, very strong chance of overthrowing CCP’s long-running space-opera if it hones in on keeping quality content pouring in and manages to incorporate some good end-game content. Stay tuned in for a full review of the game when it launches.

For more info on Black Prophecy be sure to visit the Official Website. For more online action games similar to this be sure to check out Bright Hub’s MMO Action Game Directory.