The game might be dead but I’m having fun?
I’ve been enjoying myself somewhat with Shadow Arena, the plucky little battle royale game with virtually no North American audience. It makes it obvious why the game has struggled to get off the ground despite being free to play and tied to a very popular MMO. Of course I’m talking about Black Desert Online.
But Shadow Arena does not have much of an audience period, let alone anyone playing in North America. I know this because I can’t remember the last 30 player match where I found more than one other human in the game. Everyone else is clearly a bot given nobody responds to my comments in chat and the fact that they all act alike. It’s not very convincing.
It does highlight Shadow Arena’s biggest problem; the game is not very newbie friendly. This is easily reinforced in how most of my kills are by way of crippling stunlocks on my opponents, preventing them from reacting let alone attacking or having a chance to escape.
When you’re on the delivering end it isn’t very satisfying because there isn’t much of a feel of challenge. Being on the receiving end just highlights how unfair the system is, allowing the person who gets the first decent shot better odds at striking you down with little chance to recover.
And I did get into a match with another person today, and that match ended with both of us being the last two remaining survivors because of course it did. It ultimately ended up with me as a tank character just chasing them around the tiny play area until I beat them into the dust. There was no way they would be able to fight back properly.
It’s disappointing that Shadow Arena hasn’t quite taken off, but I understand why.
MMO Fallout 