The upcoming Space MMO Black Prophecy, from Gamigo, looks to be a potential contender for some of those diehard EVE Online fans. There are some major differences between the two, aside from the fact that EVE has been around forever as is subscription-based.

First off, there is a very robust character creator that allows for customization of just about everything including race, age, body, gravity, hair, etc. Nearly everything you can think of is customizable. On top of that they also have a wide variety of accessories that you can add on including piercings, earrings, cigarettes, tattoes, helmets, hats, etc.

At present you don’t really see your character on screen all that much, but it looks like it’s in place for future expansions that will allow you a first or third-person running about mode in space stations and on larger ships. Right now the Space Stations and larger ships are sort of massive menu systems where you can buy/sell, get missions etc. In the future they’ll probably be fully explorable 3D environments.

The game does take a more traditional, yet highly interective, route to get you into the full game. You start off in a tutorial which is termed the prologue which is 9 missions or roughly 6-8 hours with lots of cut scenes to set up the story and get you involved in the game. All of the cut scenes are in engine, no pre-rendering and reminded me of some massive EVE trailers.

They’re going quite far in regard to production as well. All text in the game will be voiced (within reason one would imagine). The game looks to feature an epic soundtrack that reminded me almost instantly of scores like Battlestar Galactica (the recent series) and Star Wars. In fact they’re using situational music so the music will change based on what’s happening to you every so often.

The game itself opens with that same epic feel as factional warfare breaks out via a Pirate attack on colony ships that results in a massive battle. In the first mission you have to man turrets and shoot down enemies and torpedoes. Weapons have range and can overheat from too much firing. Luckily, a turret smartly has four cannons that alternate and shoot when cool. There was no time during the demo where one might be helpless as all the cannons had overheated.

After the initial prologue you then choose a faction, the Genide (focused on genetics) or the Tyi (focused on technology). They are the only two playable factions in the game at present. Even during the prologue and early missions it seemed that there will be a vast array of ship types that you will see and engage with. From behemoth colonist ships to dreadnoughts, battleships and single seat fighters.