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Black Beacon Review: A Sci-Fi Myth Odyssey with Lightning-Fast Combat

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Review of Black Beacon – A Mythological Sci-Fi Action Role-Playing Game

Black Beacon is a captivating blend of mythology, sci-fi, and action role-playing games, developed by Glohow Holdings Pte. Ltd and Mingzhou Network Technology. This game takes you to a grim and tumultuous world on the verge of collapse. In this review, I will be sharing my personal insights about the game and offering an unbiased rating.

Black Beacon is a unique mix of mythology, sci-fi, and action RPGs set in a dark and chaotic world. This review shares my thoughts on the game and gives it an honest rating.

In this critique, I tested the game titled “Black Beacon” on a relatively affordable device, specifically the Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro. Despite its low-end status, the game ran smoothly even when I adjusted the graphics to medium settings. Over a span of approximately 25 hours, I immersed myself in the game, optimizing and persistently playing to enhance my character levels and collect limited ones. With my comprehensive exploration of the game’s functionalities, I aim to deliver a detailed and well-informed review based on my experience.

Stylish combat on the surface, but stumbles in the rhythm of its fight

Black Beacon boasts some incredibly innovative battle concepts, yet it currently needs refinement. Engaging in combat is swift and intuitive, offering real-time dodges, parries, and powerful ultimates. What’s more, you can seamlessly switch characters during a fight without disrupting the rhythm, making for an exhilarating experience when executed successfully.

Abilities that enable you to bypass cool-down periods add an interesting tactical aspect, not to mention making you feel like a commander guiding a team rather than mindlessly attacking. However, the gameplay can become monotonous quickly as characters often resort to spamming skills until they turn yellow, then switching and repeating the process.

Using abilities to skip cool-down times gives the game more strategy, and it feels like commanding a team instead of just attacking aimlessly. But the gameplay can get boring because characters usually keep using their skills over and over again until they’re ready to be used again.

As a devoted fan, I’ve found that the absence of time-slow dodge, with exceptions only in certain chapters, makes dodging feel somewhat awkward and unrefined. The inconsistency in dodge cancels is quite noticeable, as it sometimes functions effectively, but other times it fails to respond, especially during more challenging content. It’s possible that my mid-tier phone’s quality might be the culprit, as the home button occasionally refuses to work when I need it the most in critical situations.

In essence, strategic assaults theoretically negate certain enemy abilities (indicated by yellow circles), yet in reality, the timeframe is excessively narrow and inconsistent. Ultimate moves seem potent, halting the game timer as well, but the unavoidable cutscenes are frequent and prolonged, particularly irritating with characters such as Li Chi who overload the screen with animations, even during non-ultimate actions. The battle system requires significant refinement to reach its full potential.

Myth, mystery, yet a meaningful story, if you’re patient enough to read between the lines

Surprisingly, it was Black Beacon’s story that caught me off guard. You’re not just any ordinary chosen hero; you hold the position of commander for the Tower of Babel, safeguarding lost relics and ancient wisdom. The narrative delves deeply into mythology and philosophy, with the Library of Babel serving as a significant focal point.

The stories you encounter range from enigmatic encounters with strangers to delving into vast libraries of knowledge, all of which keep you captivated. Unlike typical missions where it’s just a matter of “enter battlefield, defeat enemies, leave“, these have diverse elements such as paths to traverse and puzzles to solve. Additionally, there are no bothersome three-star requirements pushing you to hurry. If you happen to die during your exploration, you can easily revive at a minimal cost, making the journey all the more enjoyable.

The tempo in this game might be fast-paced if all you’re after is destroying things, but for those who appreciate intricate world development, it certainly delivers significantly. Characters are undeniably one of the standout aspects of Black Beacon. They aren’t merely aesthetically pleasing models; they possess genuine emotional depth.

Similar to the Tasny twins, Ninsar and Enki, their connection is evident through their conversations and actions. The voice acting (particularly in English) is surprisingly well-done, and the animated cutscenes really breathe life into the world. What stood out to me was my curiosity about the characters, something not commonly found in mobile games, which I was eager to explore further about the cast.

Black Beacon shines in dynamic graphics, although it lacks in performance

From a visual standpoint,, the game appears stunning, though its technical difficulties occasionally detract from that impression. The isometric perspective lends an air of style, yet at times it can be less useful due to opaque objects blocking the view without any transparency options, making certain boss battles more challenging than they need to be.

The music in this game blends well with the overall ambiance, never overpowering or distracting. Some tracks really add to the intensity during boss battles. However, the performance leaves much to be desired. Framerate drops frequently, menus take an eternity to load, and it randomly crashes – making it almost unplayable at times, even when set on low graphics. My Redmi Note usually handles mobile games smoothly, but Black Beacon seems to strain its capabilities excessively. To top it off, the battery drains quickly as well.

UI that’s as sleek as it is sluggish

The controls could use some improvement. Apart from the peculiar quirks, the user interface is cumbersome and slow. Everything seems to require a loading screen – even navigating menus feels laborious. Additionally, the game areas are divided into minuscule micro-instances, resulting in frequent loading screens every few steps.

As a gamer, I’ve found myself in a situation where I can’t redeem any in-game codes directly within the game. Instead, it kicks me out to a web browser to enter my coupons. It’s all good and dandy when you start with a randomly generated name, but the profanity filter can sometimes block random number combinations, leading to an invalid starting name for your character.

Generous rates and forgiving F2P freedom

Let’s discuss the gacha system and whether it caters to free-to-play players. The soft pity is triggered after 40 pulls, while the hard pity comes into play at 70. This means that on limited banners, you have a more favorable 70/30 chance of getting a character. There’s no annoying 50/50 coin flip system here. Additionally, when you first start playing, the game is quite generous.

From the get-go, you can accumulate more than 30 regular rolls and over 20 special ones simply by starting and re-rolling. Plus, after making 30 pulls on the Standard Banner, you’ll receive a free 5-Star unit selector. To make things even better, many of the 4-Star characters are powerful enough to compete with the 5-Star ones.

Regarding the weapons, it seems like a slap in the face for free-to-play players that 5-Star weapons come with passive abilities, while 4-Star weapons do not. This setup can be quite absurd as it pushes players to gamble for 5-Star weapons if they want to optimally build their characters. The gear system in Black Beacon, known as Ancient Marks, is one of the more thoughtfully designed aspects of the game.

Although there’s a degree of randomness (RNG), the process is significantly less tedious compared to the conventional gacha grinding. When you obtain an Ancient Mark, it comes with one randomly assigned attribute. To enhance it, you merge identical copies of the Mark into it, and in doing so, the attributes from the duplicates are also incorporated into the original artifact.

One advantage here is that there aren’t any set stat value ranges. This means that if your Mark offers, for example, a +8% Attack bonus, it will always remain +8%, eliminating the need to roll for a higher or lower percentage later on. Additionally, if you ever find yourself not needing a fully upgraded Mark, dismantling it returns all the original components used for the upgrades. This way, you don’t have to worry about losing any progress, which is quite liberating.

Starting off, learning how to outfit Ancient Marks may seem somewhat intricate initially. Unlike typical equipment slots (such as helmets and boots), each character uses a grid-shaped board for their gear. The marks themselves come in various shapes, similar to puzzle pieces, and need to be placed correctly onto the board. Initially, it might feel daunting, but with practice or by following some community guides, it eventually becomes quite intuitive.

Final Verdict

To summarize, the Black Beacon review finds that while the game is innovative and imaginative, it falls short in its implementation. The setting and narrative are intriguing, and the characters display a genuine emotional depth.

From a visual standpoint, it’s quite stunning, and the mechanism for using items is remarkably user-friendly for a gacha game. However, these positive aspects are frequently overshadowed by combat that feels awkward, performance issues that haven’t been fully addressed, and a user interface that seems to be working against the player.

After putting in 15 hours, I can express that the game aspires to be extraordinary, but currently, it’s got some rough spots. The dodge system, recurring battle pattern, and abundance of cutscenes are negatively impacting the flow, while frequent crashes and lag make even the most enjoyable parts of the game annoying to play.

If you’re drawn to tales steeped in mythology, appreciate stylish character aesthetics, and are willing to tolerate minor issues common in newly released gacha games, there’s much to enjoy here. However, be aware that this game offers a blend of brilliant concepts and noticeable technical shortcomings.

Black Beacon Review by GamingonPhone

Gameplay Mechanics – 7
Storyline – 8.5
Graphics and Music – 7.5
Controls and UI – 6.5
Free-to-play Elements – 8

7.5

Average

In terms of unique style, rich backstory, and abundant gacha gameplay mechanics, Black Beacon distinguishes itself as one of the more daring mobile role-playing games. If you appreciate tales steeped in mythology, intriguing equipment designs, and are willing to overlook some technical issues, it’s definitely worth monitoring.

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2025-05-10 09:59

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