Black Prophecy is an upcoming Sci-Fi MMORPG, designed in a universe created by an award-winning novelist. Here's what we know so far about this ambitious game, just prior to its closed beta launch.

A couple weeks ago I stumbled upon the recent "Community Q&A" released by the development team of Black Prophecy, an upcoming sci-fi MMORPG. The Q&A was an interesting read, although it didn't prove to be a spectacularly informative piece for MMO fans who haven't been following the game's continued development. Since I fell into that category as well, the Q&A piqued my interest more than anything else. After all, there's not a whole lot to choose from in the mainstream market right now if you're a sci-fi fan and you don't play EVE Online. Sure, we have titles like 2029 Online, Exteel and PlanetSide—along with a few others—that have been generally well-received as niche releases over the years.

But there are thousands of players who feel that they haven't been able to really sink their teeth into a sci-fi MMO since Anarchy Online (or maybe Tabula Rasa, if you strayed down that path). Today, there's more hope for the future of sci-fi MMOs than there ever was; games like Earthrise are just over the horizon and some really big IPs are in development, like Star Trek Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic. But aside from the "classics," we're still waiting to see which of the new sci-fi IPs will offer the most enjoyable MMO experience.

Black Prophecy is an upcoming sci-fi MMO that we haven't devoted a huge amount of pre-release coverage to yet. The game has been in development by Reakktor Media GmbH since 2006, based on a darkly-painted universe created by Michael Marrak (an award-winning sci-fi and horror novelist). The more I learned about this upcoming MMO, the more I became intrigued by its premise and design. Since the beta-testing phase hasn't launched yet (it's due to start any day now), this is an ideal time to get an in-depth look at what kind of game will be entering the fray.

Black Prophecy is an action-centric, 3D-modeled MMO that's being built using the Gamebryo engine. That, in and of itself, might come as exciting news if you're familiar with some of the other games built with the engine (Fallout 3, Oblivion, Warhammer Online). An engine itself doesn't necessarily guarantee that a game will look great, but at the very least, a great engine opens up a lot more potential than a crappy one. And from what I've seen of the screenshots and gameplay videos released so far, Black Prophecy looks like it would choke my GPU at max resolutions. In other words, it looks slick as hell.

The developers have touted the fact that every space fighter model will be made up of 20,000 polygons, and the environments you'll be flying through won't be limited to the usual black space with pinhole stars. The game showcases an impressive and unique visual style by using a rich set of special effects that highlight gorgeous detail of interstellar phenomena like asteroid belts, nebulae, planet rings and gas clouds. The graphics actually resemble something you'd expect from a standalone PC game, rather than an MMO. That said, there's a reason many MMO developers choose not to push their graphics to the limits; most people would rather play at respectable frames per second than have to deal with GPU bottlenecks. We'll have to bookmark that thought for now and hope it has been optimized well enough to actually play at release.

One of the big selling points Reakktor Media has been pushing is that Black Prophecy won't be an RTS or space-simulation game. In fact, the second question in their FAQ could be read to infer that EVE Online's economy-centric and time-consuming gameplay has soured the taste of sci-fi MMOs for action junkies. It asks, "Black Prophecy anything like Eve Online" In a ridiculously overt and long-winded answer, the developers say the only thing the two games have in common is that they both take place in space. They describe the game as a "Massively Multiplayer Online Space Shooter with role-play elements," and say they designed it so that you can have "quick and easy game fun without the necessity to develop your character over months."

It's actually pretty funny, unless perhaps you're a die-hard EVE Online player. I don't think Mythic Entertainment launched such a blatantly-obvious marketing campaign to catch another game's subscriber runoff when they released Warhammer Online last year. Actually, let's just pretend I didn't even mention that last game. We don't want to jinx Black Prophecy before it even gets out of the gate.

We all know that it takes more than just a few snazzy trailers and pre-release hype to make a good MMO. More important to many gamers are innovative gameplay, new and unique elements to the genre, and sometimes even a compelling story. Interestingly, Reakktor hasn't released much info on the story behind the new IP yet. There's a timeline on its website that lends itself to speculation, but the company remains pretty tight-lipped about the details until the beta launch.

We do know that the story and the universe it unfolds in were created by Michael Marrak, a German sci-fi author whose work—albeit award-winning—is a bit obscure here in the US. From what we've been able to glean over the last couple years of development, Black Prophecy takes place in the 26th century and predicts a Nietzsche-like story of humanity's conflict with itself, split among opposing factions. In the future, two "super-human" species emerged; the cybernetically-enhanced "Tyi" and the genetically-enhanced "Genides." The "regular" humans are regarded by these two dominant factions as a lower-class species, called "Sapiens." Black Prophecy begins shortly after a hostile alien race, discovered by the expanding factions, ends up threatening to destroy them all.

You'll be able to play as one of the two dominant human species, tasked with defending your race from the alien threat (as well as the threat of your opposing faction, and perhaps the Sapiens as well). It seems like the story ultimately aims to re-unite humanity under the looming possibility of their collective extinction. So far, it seems like a really unique and existential story angle that would make a great foundation for any MMO. Whether or not the developers are able to successfully weave that story into the gameplay remains to be seen. But similar to the game's lore, Reakktor hasn't given away all the details of the gameplay yet, either. Here's what we know so far:

Black Prophecy is supposed be designed to offer as much action as possible, while culling many of the things players find tedious and slow-paced, like long travel or time-based skill progression. The game features PvE content with NPCs and "Missions" (quests) spanning the galaxy. Beyond their class abilities and skills, players build their own ships for travel and combat. They'll be able to learn a variety of flight maneuvers that can be executed in combat. Reakktor says ships are bought and sold in parts (or "modules") to facilitate customization, so players can design the look of their ship as well as its functions, like weapons and other abilities. Guilds are represented in the game as "clans," each of which can build its own clan station (designed in modules, just like ships). PvP combat is expected to play a large role in the game too, and you can fight other clans for their resources. All of this takes place in a persistent "universe" (or galaxy) where battles of up to 300 players at once are constantly changing the power structure and control dynamics of the game world.

And until the beta launch, that's about the extent of game info that has been released. The first "Community Q&A" released a couple weeks ago on the forums doesn't give much new information about gameplay. It's mostly developer commentary on the reasoning behind certain design elements (like the fact that they had to put a "station walking" mechanic on the backburner for now). It offers more insight to fans that have been following the game's progression for awhile, as opposed to newcomers.

It seems like being so tight-lipped about your MMO this close to beta launch could be a risky move, especially in a market that's getting pretty close to over-saturation. Reakktor hasn't even announced whether the game will use a subscription or micro-transaction model yet. But then again, some developers have found success in keeping the community on its toes, using the "curiosity factor" to attract higher numbers from the start. There's still no confirmation on when Black Prophecy will enter its closed beta, but you can register at the game's official website to apply for a spot when it begins.