Elves, orcs, dragons and magic, the MMO genre is saturated with fantasy games that offer similar atmospheres with slightly different storylines. So when I went looking for a new MMO game, I turned to the sci-fi genre and Black Prophecy which caught my eye years ago. Now that it finally launched in North America and included its first major content update, which was released on EU and NA servers at the same time, I was pretty confident the game would have a certain level of polish having been released in the EU 4 months before. It turns out I was wrong.
I really wanted to like Black Prophecy, I really did, but my hopes of finding a worthy sci-fi space flight sim were crushed as I learned Black Prophecy was nothing but a grindfest.
The game has two major issues to overcome if it’s going to make it. The first are its instanced missions and the second is the lack of player driven content. Up to this point my pilot is level 15, which translates to about 40+ hrs of game time, but I’ve already completely run out of things to do.
Continue below for the full Black Prophecy review.
How? Well at around level 11 and 12, I noticed that the five hub stations I had access to were giving out less and less Jobs; which are story-line and free sector missions. I’ll get to those later. By level 14 I had only gained about 20% of the XP needed to level up when I ran out of Jobs, so I had to turn to Mission Terminals to gain XP. Mission Terminal are inside hub stations and they give out PvP, group and solo instanced missions, which I was hoping to avoid since I not a fan of instanced missions. Why play a MMO if all the missions are instanced, right? I want a persistent world.
However that’s not the only problem with missions from the terminal. There’s about 50 (just a guess) unique missions that I’ve seen so far in the terminals, but those 50 missions are listed multiple times depending what level you’re at. So one mission could be listed at level 5, then at 8, 10, 11, 16, its basically the same mission, just a little harder to keep up with your new weapons and items. Basically as you progress you end up playing through the same missions you already completed at a lower level. It doesn’t even feel different because at the higher, “harder” level you also have better weapons and parts, so it actually feels exactly the same.
When I started out with Mission Terminals, I tried doing each one once, but the game doesn’t keep track of it for you, so at later levels I forgot which ones I did and ended up replaying some of the same ones. Eventually I just said fuck it and found the shortest mission I could to repeat over and over as there was no other source to gain XP from.
Terminal missions also offer group and PvP missions, however every time I looked for PvP missions they were always empty so I never did any. I even tired putting myself into the PvP queue while running other missions, however I never received a notification a PvP match was ready.
When I received my first invite to join a group to run some missions I was excited, until we repeated the same mission about 15 times in a row. It seems they had the same idea I had about finding the shortest mission possible and just repeating it over and over for XP.
Going back to Job missions, they’re received from hub station NPCs and are basically split into two types, storyline instanced missions and missions that take you to free sectors. So again you’re put into an instance for any story-line driven content, but I’m ok with those being instanced. The only type of mission available that doesn’t put you into a closed instance are the free sector missions. Those missions range from kill X of these guys to rendezvous missions where you have to scan an item or find someone to go kill x players of the opposing factions (PvP).
Free sectors are areas in the game where players from both factions have to go to completely Jobs, which leads to PvP combat, but they messed that up too. PvP is basically pointless as there is no incentive to attack anyone other than wanting to. You get no XP from player kills, you can’t loot them and there is basically no penalty for death other then a minor penalty buff.
Each free sector is basically a closed off circle which can take a player 2-3 mins to fly completely cross. So if you die you start off at the edge which basically puts you, in a worst case scenario, 3 mins away from the mission you were trying to complete. So dying is meaningless as you barely even lose any time. As long as the other guy isn’t a total dick, he’ll leave you alone after a kill or two because there’s no incentive for him to keep killing you.
The last type of content in Black Prophecy is their Clan Wars PvP system, which isn’t available yet. Once you have enough members (10) you can buy a Clan Station (my clan’s is shown below) which provides your clan with it’s own items dealer, Clan missions to gain resources and XP, a construction hangar, and most importantly you can go to war against other clans, minus the actual going to war part as that has not yet been implemented.
When I finally hit level 15 only one new job became available, which meant I would be doing nothing but missions from the terminal to level up and that is when I logged off and started this review.
So basically once you run out of Jobs and you will, you’ll have nothing to do but instanced group or solo missions. Oh and did I mention the game is buggy, extremely laggy and their’s no auction house. The XP system also basically pushes you head first into buying items from the item shop if you want to get any sort of significant XP gains.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I put 40+ hrs into a MMORPG and only got to level 15. Black Prophecy takes the route of penalizing players who actually play the game. The longer you’re online the less XP you get, basically trying to force you to buy XP items from the item store.
Black Prophecy is not a game that should have been released today, let alone 4 months ago. There’s a huge lack of content, no clan wars, no auction house, no player driven content, the only thing it does have is a ton of instanced missions. It feels more like a single player game that’s played online.
For now my days in Black Prophecy are over, but I’ll return once Clan Wars are introduced and I’ll write up a follow up review to let you know if it’s enough to save it. I some how doubt it.
Pretty funny you didn’t get how this game is played. You are basically comparing COD:Modern Warfare to Final Fantasy.
First of all this is a shooter. What you call grinding is what people that player shooters call “playing the game” If you are looking for depth in a shooter you might want to try and rethink how you play games.
This game is about killing,pretty straight forward. The reason the penalty for death is just a stackable 15% hit to your stats is because they want you back in the battle,back to killing.
Next time you review a shooter you might want to mention it’s a shooter. Now go back to your Final Fantasy based game and read your 1000 pages of text so you can be happy.
P.S. dude really,40 hours to get to 15? Yah,you should have givin this game up.
August 9th, 2011 at 10:55 amQuote
Ok so you’re comparing BP to COD? You realize COD isn’t a MMO title. Telling players to go grind away on instanced missions is not what a MMO is about. If you want to do that, that’s more than fine, but then don’t call your game a MMO.
And for the 40 hrs thing, why don’t you post a screenshot of your pilots stats page and we’ll see how many hrs it took you to get to whatever level your on. I bet its about the same.
August 9th, 2011 at 11:12 amQuote
This isn’t WOW Mike. This is a shooter,it’s that simple.
August 9th, 2011 at 11:27 amQuote
He is right about the horrible pvp content. And this game randomly “Lost my profile” and so I never came back. Keeping track of quests is a developer fail. This review is correct. The two fan boy carebares above this post are morons. The aither never said it is like COD. He is correctly describing MMO elemnts every mmo/chooter has, ecept this one. The game failed hard on content, and after beta, the forced crap physics to get you in the cash shop. I certainly smell a suht down soon. This is not the first review with the same complaints.
August 9th, 2011 at 11:35 amQuote
@gary. One of the reasons I decided to try out BP, however I don’t see how that’s a defense to not having any player driven content 5 months after launch? This IS a MMO title, so that’s not a valid excuse. That’s like COD advertising their game as a MMOFPS even though everything is on an instanced server. You’re going to have some upset MMO gamers asking why there’s little to no MMO features in a game touting itself as a MMORPG.
August 9th, 2011 at 11:47 amQuote
First of all, what MMO have you ever played in your life that was not a grind fest? It doesn’t matter if you’re doing the same missions repeatedly in BP or farming NPCs for XP in any other game (which, you can do in BP if you didn’t already know). It’s the same concept of doing the same thing repeatedly for XP, which is what grinding is.
Secondly, the terminal missions are there for the very reason that they give you the option to run missions without having the chance that someone higher level than you is going to start farming you for kills. Not to mention that group missions give you more XP than solo missions do, and drop grinding someone will give even more XP than a regular group mission. Had you actually done some research instead of giving up so easily, you would have found out that Jump Into Battles are the best missions for XP as well as for drop grinding. Don’t know what Drop Grinding is? Log into BP and ask someone. I’m sure they’ll be happy to tell you. I can get to lvl 15 (and beyond) in a fraction of the time doing nothing but drop grinding. Apparently another thing you failed to understand about BP is that the game promotes teamwork by doing this.
Third point, that debuff you mentioned of 15%? Try fighting with 4 of those, because they do stack. I guarantee you won’t get far. As for the other person killing you repeatedly, they do have a reason to do that. If they farm you for kills, they are trying to force you to leave. They do this to deny enemy players access to a valuable area, whether it be the farming zones in Huss or the open sectors in Tulima. If you can’t gain access to these areas, you can’t get the resources, materials, blueprints, mods, and other goodies as quickly or efficiently as the other person can. This means that their ship gets upgrades faster than your ship, keeping them several steps ahead of you.
As for the game being buggy and laggy as hell, that’s the only thing you’ve said in your review that is actually accurate. The game needs a lot more testing, and should have been released later than it was. As for the concentration mechanic, you can utilize the 160 conc points to their fullest with…wait for it…drop grinding.
And by the way, clans can fight each other. The fact that you actually got the 200,000C to buy a clan station and you don’t know that destroys the credibility of this review. I’m part of a clan on the US server called OMEGA Squadron (Gen) and we have done numerous clan battles with clans on the opposing faction (Tyi). The rewards for those missions are resources, and station upgrades.
August 9th, 2011 at 12:12 pmQuote
@Keyser Were those clan battles part of the PvP Missions you get from terminals, because as far as I know real call battles haven’t been implemented. Setting up a match in the PvP terminal between two clans does not make a Clan War.
No I didn’t do any Drop griding because I have no clue what that is and after a Google search that resulted in 0 hits, it seems no one else knows what it is either.
The fact you don’t mind playing the same mission 100 in a row is great for you, but I’ll pass. While every MMO does have a certain level of grinding, I tend to stay away from the one’s that only have grinding.
August 9th, 2011 at 12:42 pmQuote
I also do not play MMO games to find out the quicks way to level my character, as I tend not to research things outside the game until I get to the level cap or if I can’t figure something out.
I level naturally by completing the quests and missions that game has to offer, so if there’s some trick where you can level faster, Im not necessarily going to know about it, which shouldn’t be held against someone reviewing a game.
August 9th, 2011 at 12:50 pmQuote
You’re right, a terminal mission doesn’t make a clan war. That’s where the players come in. If two clans on either side of the faction fence have issues with each other, then the clans can declare war on each other and members of each clan are KoS. It’s that simple. It doesn’t need a fancy system to work, it only needs conflict and hostility (or even some friendly role play…oh wait…this isn’t an RPG).
Because you did a search in Google for a term that is used in (as far as I know) a single game which is targeted at a portion of the MMO audience, I am going to assume that you no longer have the game installed on your system. Drop Grinding is when two or more people team up, do any terminal mission (most commonly Jump Into Battles) and all but one player leaves before the mission is over. The remaining player gets the XP that the other players would have gotten in addition to their own. Repeat until you have reached the desired level. That’s drop grinding, and it’s a hell of a lot faster than doing solo or any other type of mission in the game. If one player is being dropped, they can reach lvl 15+ within a couple of hours easily without using any premium items.
And BP does not have only grinding. It’s a space combat sim, and the key word in that title is “combat.” It’s a PvP oriented game, which is most likely one of the reasons that they implemented the Concentration system. Once you’re out of concentration, or “conc” grinding for levels becomes nearly impossible. So what is left to do? Go look for someone on the opposite faction and ruin their day. Hopefully they will call in backup, and then you call in backup, and before you know it, you’re in a skirmish that can even escalate to a full scale sector wide furball. However at this stage of the game, the sector wide furball option is usually only available if members from two clans who are at war spot each other and each calls in reinforcements.
August 9th, 2011 at 1:02 pmQuote
Hi Mike,
I think you make some good points, but you aren’t telling the whole story. Maybe I am naive, but I would have thought you, as a reviewer for a site like MMOCrunch, would put a little more effort into this review… even if it still results in a poor score from you.
Black Prophecy’s creators went through every developer’s nightmare with this game. Their publisher went bankrupt after much work had already been spent in the development of this game. Instead of throwing in the towel, they kept at it.
Gamigo came along and has given a future for this game. However, they needed to get the game released as soon as possible. That’s just the unfortunate reality of the business side of this story. They have a lot of catching up to do and they know it.
This is why, for instance, there are not enough job missions to gain the levels required to progress to the next area. Hence, repeating station terminal missions. It’s also the reason for most of the other concerns you raise.
You say, “There’s a huge lack of content, no clan wars, no auction house, no player driven content, the only thing it does have is a ton of instanced missions. It feels more like a single player game that’s played online.” However, you fail to mention that these issues have been recognized by Gamigo and officially stated to be in development and coming soon.
Here’s a link to one interview with one of the co-CEOs of Gamigo that addresses many of your concerns (it’s stickied in the News & Announcements section of Black Prophecy’s official forums): http://www.ign.com/blogs/blackprophecyblogger/2011/07/13/patrick-streppel-launch-interview
Another thing… where do you talk about the game-play? I don’t see anything that says whether you actually liked the way the ships are controlled, the weapons, the graphics, or any of the things that gamers tend to be interested in most.
You don’t have to like the game, and I am not upset because you gave it a bad review. Different strokes, as they say. Like I said at the beginning of this post, you make some good points. However, I feel you have done yourself an injustice by not giving a more complete view of the game. As it is, this review feels more like a soapbox rant.
August 9th, 2011 at 1:23 pmQuote
Well drop grinding seems more of an exploit then a legit gameplay mechanic, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that eventually gets patched up so it no longer works.
PvP and space combat is the main reason why I got into BP, but ruining someone else day isn’t enough incentive for me. If there was at least looting that would give me some positive incentive to kill other players.
What I’d love to see BP do is add faction stations to free sectors that can be attacked and controlled by a faction. This way there’s huge incentive for players to go into free sectors and attack other players. The faction that controls the station would basically control that entire free sector which would deny the opposing faction that space. This is the type of player driven content that BP needs imo.
August 9th, 2011 at 1:29 pmQuote
@Keyser, what you are describing is called an exploit… and if exploits like that have been allowed to persist, especially in a PvP game, it goes to show the amount of support the game will receive. Up until your comment I was still considering taking a look at it, but with exploits being touted as features by the playerbase, it tells me I will be dealing with cheating, other exploits, and general poor sportsmanship and I will take my time elsewhere.
August 9th, 2011 at 1:37 pmQuote
Mike,
About your wish for faction controlled areas…
Patrick Streppel has spoken on this issue as well, “We will unveil more details about this in due time, but just imagine a great war with battles being fought all along the frontlines and “control” of known and new sectors continually switching hands, giving each side massive benefits.”
Please give due consideration of the interview I have linked for you in my above post.
August 9th, 2011 at 2:33 pmQuote
@Piggy I read the interview and took it into consideration, however the burden should not be put on the player. The game has been live for 5 months now, which is no small span of time, so I don’t believe that can be used as an excuse.
I’m eagerly awaiting for more updates to BP and hope that they can turn it around. Only time will tell.
August 9th, 2011 at 5:08 pmQuote
Let’s take a look at the word “exploit”
“to make use of meanly or unfairly for ones own advantage.”
Drop Grinding is not an exploit, nor can it be defined as one. It does not give anyone an unfair advantage, because an unfair advantage would mean that not everyone has access to this mechanic. However, it is easily accessible to all players, and cannot be ruled to give anyone an unfair advantage, nor can it be used in spite of anyone. If you don’t like the only available and legitimate route to faster leveling that does not involve buying premium items, then be my guest and quit the game. That’s one less person whining on the forums that everyone has to deal with.
And Nemo, if you are worried about other players cheating, using exploits, and poor sportsmanship then you are better off not playing any MP games at all, because those factors come into play in every MP game where there are other people. To shorten that a bit, you’re being very unrealistic in your expectations of what other players do in a competitive environment. If you keep those expectations where they are now, you’ll always be disappointed with the playerbase of practically every MP game you ever play. I had the same expectations and learned this lesson the hard way.
In short, Mike, you have been presented with a legitimate way to make grinding less painful, and one of your very first and bigger complaints about the game was the amount of grinding to get through the levels. If you don’t want to accept the advice and help of someone who has been playing longer than you and actually knows what they are talking about, then that’s your problem.
This conversation is over.
August 9th, 2011 at 6:39 pmQuote
Keyser your definition of exploit is wrong. Just because its open to everyone and easy to do doesn’t mean it’s not an exploit.
Drop grinding is not a game mechanic the developers planned for players to use to gain XP and Im sure if you ask them they will tell you it’s an exploit.
August 9th, 2011 at 10:28 pmQuote
So you think missions are the only way to level?
You never bothered trying to simply kill npcs in open sectors to gain experience?
Not forgeting this is an MMO Shooter, not an MMO missionrunner.
I can see you have followed BP for awhile by the answers to others comments, shame you left all those parts and reasons out of your review.
I would also not believe KK thinks “drop grinding” is an exploit, they have dynamic spawns, if they didnt like people doing it then they would make sure things didnt spawn near you at all.
August 10th, 2011 at 2:54 amKK are a very fair company, if you had any knowledge of how they work you would know this.
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scrap my last comment on drop grinding, i didnt read EVERYTHING and got the terminology wrong, KK dont like it, im sure it will be fixed, but im sure they have better things to work on right now.
August 10th, 2011 at 3:00 amQuote
Thanks for the review mike. I just recently started this game, and was wondering where it was going to take me. I play MMO’s for end game content. And by what you are saying this game has none. The combat is pretty cool so far, im liking the real time action, unlike eve(im not a eve player! played it for like 1month and said Forget this, way to slow of gameplay)But like you said, ill stop playing for now, and check back in say 6months and see if the content has changed for the better, or atleast a good amount. if a year goes by and they still twiddling their thumbs, they just trying to salvage w/e cash they can from the game, before it goes down in flames, like it almost did.
@keyser
you prob hack in FPS games, and say its not hack because its available to the public, and easy to use.
Drop grinding or w/e is a clear exploit of game mechanics, It is not what the dev’s intended, and if it is. This game is already ruined then.
August 10th, 2011 at 5:33 amQuote
Big fan of BP and what they’re doing. You have some fair points, but I really don’t believe you “got” the game at all. Also, 40 hours to 15 is insane – did you ever party and do team missions? You can get from 9 to 15 in 3 hours doing it sloppily, and 1 hour doing it in a good rhythm and with an XP booster or two. Also, clan / faction pvp is coming next update.
August 10th, 2011 at 10:52 amQuote
In my opinion if drop grinding is not considered an exploit, it should be. This does reveal a problem with the levelling system and obviously needs to be nerfed.
I hate leveling in all MMOs and have found that it acts like a useless time sink and Black Prophecy is no different.
I did like the story part of the prologue and some of the story missions from the stations to go to some of the open free missions, but overall i think the levelling is far too slow. I’ve played for only a hours of game time (not yet days) and don’t expect to be max level, but I should be further along than only level 11.
The talent system is ok and I like that you have options for weapons that are almost balanced (with the exception of op explosives), but everyone is adopting nearly the same stratagy with no shields, single weapon type ect.
I’m not a reviewer by any stretch, but overall i think it’s a good start with lots of room for refinement in the future and since it is free to play, I’m not out any money to play casually while the game does get refined or shuts down.
August 16th, 2011 at 3:44 pmQuote