Black Prophecy beta review

  Game was very low on my radar as I heard that it was heavily instanced (big no-no for me unless its straight up FPS) . But with Jumpgate: Evolution dead that seems only thing for space sims. Plus World Of tanks is basically same thing (lobby based instance action game) and it was very fun, so I registered for beta and got my invite.

I installed it a couple of weeks ago but only played this weekend . Ended up "nolifing"  - was pretty damn addictive .Sunk about  15 hours in it or so .


So first impressions:

• Old school space sim . Fly your fighter , blow stuff up
• Production values are high (graphics, sound ,cutscenes)
• Multiplayer part is  laggy it times
• Damn its fun!

It is heavily instanced and it does lag pretty bad with more than few players in system. But the feel is of a quality single player  space sim. And it does feel good. Controls are  responsive and flying feels fluid.  Combat is very dynamic (good freespace/privateer/tie-fighter feel)

Story so far is great and missions are well made. They must run out of content at some point but so far it held well. Multiplayer part lacks many basics ,(such as proper chat ,auction system ,etc) , but its workable  You can fly co-op missions(preferable way for leveling  , there are open pvp sectors

Points for min-maxers  (hard learned after re-rolling my 3d char:

• There is no respec so you can screw up really easily. Only solution is reroll (but you can create new lvl 6 char if you completed prologue at least once)
• Most effective spec is sink all points in ship/one  weapon type,rest spending in hull. Ignore shields completely, only spend 5 points max in engines and only spend 1 point in tactics for each 10 lvls .
• Particle beams rape face. 
• Lvl5 engine BP   worth a  fortune. I sold mine to vendor like a moron :(
• Levels mean a lot and the power curves are insane ( on my lvl 14 I can blow up ppl  of lvl 8 or same lvl in suboptimal specs in 3 seconds flat)
• But it still skill based sim - smart flying can win vs superior opponents) 
• Best way to lvl 8-16 is run  "jump into battle" mission with 2 ppl .~1.6k xp per run

Overall great fun game. Recommend to anyone who likes space sims to play at  least 15 lvls. you wont be disappointed - it is a quality space sim game FOR FREE . At least firsts 18 levels- just play it as such.

I am not sure how the Multiplayer/Cash shop part pans out long term ,as of now apparently there is really nothing to do yet at cap.  But there are player stations in game already , so it might turn out pretty good (though I wouldn't hold too much hope for that yet - there needs to be a lot more clan content and economy/crafting for that to work )