What happens when genres mix? How about a Fantasy-Battle Royale game with MOBA-like mechanics and MMO roots? Unless you’re a fan of Black Desert Online, then your gamer life can be enlightened by Shadow Arena, a soon to be released title from Black Desert Online developer, Pearl Abyss.
Set in the world and engine of Black Desert Online, players of Shadow Arena fight to the death in a 40-player battle royale as 1 of 9 select heroes. Drawing from its MOBA influences, along the way you will fight NPC minions and bosses for randomized loot and experience points. The beta, which was hosted from Feb. 27 to Mar. 8th, only allowed solo play, but team play is also promised in the full release set for the first half of 2020 for PC, and for the consoles after.
Graphics – Fidelity’s Downfall
Right out of the gate; blaring in your face in the dead of night; too loud to even hear your own thoughts comes the over-the-top graphic flair. Gorgeous? Yes. But probably too much? Definitely.
Step 1 in becoming good at Shadow Arena, as demanded by its luscious graphics, is turning your graphic settings as low as possible. It’s much easier to decipher each hero’s 4 different moves once the world is fixed from a turned up psychedelic rampage to a more feasible psychedelic stroll.
But once the rough edges are ironed out, Shadow Arena runs extremely well, as it comes from Black Desert Online’s more than solid engine. I experienced no bugs, the physics felt satisfying, and beautiful style of Black Desert Online really shone through as one of the strong points of the whole experience.
Gameplay – The Grind
As good as it looks on the outside–a fantasy-BR with MOBA customization run on BDO’s fantastic engine–the actual meat and potatoes of the game just didn’t hit the mark.
The main chunk of gameplay revolves around grinding NPC mobs that pose no threat and serve only as XP and item gateways. Considering the size of the map, the smaller player base of 40, and the emphasis on farming the number of times I had the adrenaline of facing another player compared to mindlessly attacking non-threats was heavily in favor of the less exciting gameplay.
Put bluntly, Shadow Arena sadly suffers from all the worst aspects of each of the genre’s it primarily pulls from. It suffers from character balancing issues. It suffers from grinding loot and experience. It suffers from a lack of external play motivators. It suffers from restraining the combat system of an already fleshed out game.
Conclusion
I can’t imagine Shadow Arena being released as anything other than free-to-play unless they add in a bunch of unforeseen features. I can’t say I’m entirely impressed by anything other than BDO’s engine–I was exhausted after just a few rounds of play every session and found the gameplay lacking anything more compelling than what can be found in Paragon or Battlerite. In the end, I was left more interested in Black Desert Online than in Shadow Arena, but that’s not to say there isn’t any potential there. With some diligent improvement, Shadow Arena might just be crazy enough to work.
Check Out the Shadow Arena Steam Beta Trailer:
Shadow Arena will be released in the first half of 2020 for PC via Steam first (you can wishlist the game right now) and console later.
For more information about Pearl Abyss, visit the official website, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Discord.
Recent Michigan State University grad and current Game Studies researcher who plays fantasy RPG's to escape, Smash to compete, and Stardew to chill. Also have a +1 to rage/toxicity resistance due to the many hours sunk into WoW, R6, and LoL.
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