The Black Death

About

The Black Death is a multiplayer role playing game with a historical theme. It was developed by Syrin Studios and was released on April 18, 2016. It received neutral reviews from players.

"The Black Death" is a medieval multiplayer game set in a plague-infested 14th century Europe. Players must survive by fighting for scarce resources, learning new crafting techniques, and avoiding the plague. The game encourages cooperation with other players, but also the risk of betrayal in a land ravaged by disease and scarce resources.

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51%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,403 reviews

gameplay39 positive mentions

stability126 negative mentions

The game has a unique and immersive medieval atmosphere, effectively capturing the essence of the Black Death era.
The crafting and survival mechanics are engaging, providing a sense of accomplishment as players progress through the game.
The developers are active and responsive to community feedback, regularly releasing updates and improvements.

The game suffers from numerous bugs and glitches, including issues with inventory management and character progression.
The player base is very low, making it difficult to engage in multiplayer interactions and diminishing the overall experience.
Combat mechanics are clunky and unrefined, leading to frustrating encounters with both NPCs and other players.

gameplay
169 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
69%
8%
The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players appreciating its potential and unique mechanics, particularly in crafting and survival aspects. However, numerous criticisms highlight issues such as clunky combat, bugs, and a lack of engaging content, leading to a repetitive and sometimes frustrating experience. Overall, while the game shows promise and has a vibrant community, it requires significant refinement and updates to fully realize its potential.
- “The attention to detail that the developers have invested in authentically capturing medieval Europe at the height of the plague is truly breathtaking, while the combination of multiplayer RPG and survival genres delivers a uniquely rich and highly enjoyable gameplay mechanic.”
- “The crafting mechanics are easy to pick up and a quick scan of the menus reveals a lot of diverse content to be unlocked as your character develops.”
- “What there is by way of content and gameplay currently is incredible and in the short while that I have played the game I have enjoyed it far more than other survival games.”
- “The repetitive tasks and dull gameplay have somehow managed to bore me into a state of PTSD, and now every time I set foot in a forest, I am convinced that bandits are lurking behind every tree.”
- “There is a really beautiful concept to this game, but execution is a huge problem and the gameplay is clunky and frustrating.”
- “With constant server wipes and nonsensical survival mechanics, combined with its main selling point - the PvP - being absent or unbalanced, this game is dead on arrival.”
graphics
139 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
53%
42%
5%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many players praising the overall visual quality and artistic style, particularly for an early access title. However, there are frequent mentions of bugs, optimization issues, and inconsistent performance, leading to a range of opinions from "gorgeous" to "ugly." While some players appreciate the immersive atmosphere and detailed environments, others express disappointment with graphical glitches and the inability to adjust settings effectively.
- “The graphics are amazing, a lot better than I had expected.”
- “The graphics are great, and it's fun to just run around and pick berries and steal from the people while the guards watch you do it and don't do anything.”
- “The graphical fidelity and animation of Unreal 4 is sublime on ultra settings, and I comfortably achieved 60fps throughout my playthrough.”
- “This game is/was for the most part a great game but the change in engine has resulted in worse graphics and mechanics, leading to a lower player count. I really like this game and hope that it can someday attract more players and become what it once was in its early stages. Until then, good luck to the developers.”
- “The graphics are just ugly to look at.”
- “It is extremely buggy, laggy, and the graphics are awful; you literally can't see anyone at night.”
stability
128 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
2%
98%
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with users reporting numerous bugs, glitches, and crashes that significantly hinder gameplay. Many acknowledge that it is still in early access, which contributes to its unfinished state, but express frustration over the frequency and severity of issues, including lost progress and unresponsive mechanics. While some players see potential in the game, the overwhelming consensus is that it is currently too unstable for a satisfactory experience.
- “You want a bug-free, finished game that you can play for 100 hours without a single crash.”
- “Buy it; it runs great with lots to do. In-game chat makes it feel real.”
- “The game is very buggy and definitely feels incomplete.”
- “I bought this game months ago and it is still nearly unplayable due to how buggy it is.”
- “It is a buggy walking simulator on its best days.”
story
68 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
6%
82%
12%
The game's story is largely criticized for its lack of direction and depth, with many players feeling abandoned in a world that offers minimal guidance or meaningful quests. While there are some tutorial missions, they often feel repetitive and fail to engage players, leading to a sense of boredom and frustration. Overall, the narrative experience is seen as underdeveloped, leaving players to create their own stories in a game that currently lacks a cohesive plot or engaging content.
- “Somewhat reminiscent of Pathologic in terms of story and overarching objective of curing a plague.”
- “Create your own story from a range of different play styles – become a blacksmith; hunt down your enemies as a militia; or earn your living as a merchant.”
- “But if you can see past the early access issues then I promise you that this game will grab you, addict you, and make you want to explore more of the story - your story!”
- “Bad design, made further worse with successive patches that only opened up more bad design choices toward this quest for royalty.”
- “Currently it lacks single player story/quests/lore (these quests that already exist are only for tutorial needs).”
- “There was a real lack of story and direction.”
atmosphere
58 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
62%
33%
5%
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its dark, immersive quality, effectively capturing the bleakness of a plague-ridden medieval world reminiscent of classic RPGs. Many reviewers highlight the detailed environmental design and sound effects that enhance the overall experience, although some note that the graphics and NPC interactions could use improvement. Overall, the game's unique atmosphere is seen as a significant strength, contributing to its potential as a standout title in the survival genre.
- “The 14th century details are incredible and the atmosphere of a plague-ridden, empty yet darkly beautiful world is profound.”
- “The game is a very atmospheric piece of art and I get the perfect Europe 1400s feeling.”
- “I find the plague-ridden medieval era survival concept very interesting, which combined with the meticulously designed world and surprisingly good graphics result in a very immersive and dark, atmospheric experience.”
- “The atmosphere just becomes an excuse to create a bleak setting--the graphics are *meh*.”
- “I heard nothing but the sounds of coughing and vomiting, constant slow-walking NPCs, and everything you touch kills you... I just didn't want to spend real-life time surrounded by the atmosphere, environmental sound effects, and go through multiplayer human interaction on top of it all... rarely has a game sent me faster away from itself than this one has.”
- “The NPCs are extremely glitchy, and to create a better atmosphere for the game, I would like to see some hardcore NPC battles and actions.”
grinding
51 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
2%
98%
The grinding aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it excessively tedious and slow, often leading to frustration, especially due to resource loss from server crashes. While some appreciate the crafting and building systems, they note that the repetitive nature of resource gathering can detract from the overall experience. However, players who enjoy grindy gameplay and cooperative play with friends may still find enjoyment in the game's mechanics and class systems.
- “Very slow, grindy gameplay.”
- “Basically everything that you farm to make these tedious items are lost each time the server crashes, and they crash every single day.”
- “The game is very grindy and leveling takes a while, which keeps the game kinda stale.”
optimization
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
16%
58%
26%
The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many players noting significant performance issues such as low frame rates, server lag, and various bugs, particularly on less powerful hardware. While some updates have improved performance and graphics, a substantial number of users still find the game poorly optimized for both gameplay and server stability, leading to an overall frustrating experience. As it is in early access, there is hope for future improvements, but current optimization remains a major concern for many players.
- “Performance-wise, the game is well optimized for an early access title.”
- “The game is constantly being updated with new content, optimizations, server-side optimizations/tweaks, and more!”
- “The move over to the latest version of Unreal has worked wonders for both performance and graphics, while the overhaul of the housing system, skills, UI, items to craft, and introduction of the day/night cycle with its new bandits are all superb.”
- “It was riddled with bugs, the FPS was super low even on good PCs, stuttering was unbearable and it had little to no content.”
- “The game performance is terrible and almost unplayable for most people I've spoken to (including myself).”
- “This game has a lot of potential to be a really good and fun game but the game's current state is crap, full of bugs and glitches; it's not even optimized!”
music
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
39%
23%
The music in the game is generally praised for its dark, atmospheric quality that enhances the medieval setting, contributing to a captivating experience. However, players have expressed frustration with the lack of audio options, such as the inability to adjust the music volume or turn it off, which detracts from the overall enjoyment. Despite these issues, the combination of music and sound design is noted as a strong point of the game.
- “The music and the feel of the game is really good, dark medieval times at their best.”
- “For an early access title, the graphics of the game are great and combined with the music and the sounds, it weaves a captivating atmosphere.”
- “There is always a dark tone to the music, then it messes with you as it’ll change and you don’t know why… the other sounds, NPCs, wolves, boars, rats!”
- “If you think the game's music is too loud and want to turn it down, well you're out of luck; there is an audio page with no options.”
- “Can't turn off the music, can't turn off full screen, can't change the resolution.”
humor
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is characterized by amusing glitches and quirky character behaviors, such as disappearing items and exaggerated animations when characters are drunk, which often elicit laughter among players. Many users find joy in the absurdity of these moments, especially when shared with friends, highlighting the game's potential for comedic experiences despite some frustrations. Overall, the humor is described as both entertaining and lighthearted, contributing to the enjoyment of gameplay.
- “But it's workable and I enjoy laughing at them or using the greasy deaf guy's voice to tell them they ain't going to catch me, and it makes my wife laugh.”
- “Also, when your character is drunk, their top half flops all around and is utterly hilarious for me when I make them run in circles.”
- “It is hilariously and pathetically obvious.”
monetization
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization strategy of the game has drawn significant criticism, with users labeling it a "cash grab" due to poor updates, bugs, and a lack of proper advertising. Many feel that the developers have abandoned the game, prioritizing quick profits over quality and player experience, leading to frustration over unfulfilled potential and inadequate performance on lower-end systems. Overall, players express dissatisfaction with the perceived exploitation of their investment.
- “This had so much potential and the developers could have made much more money if they had done it right, but the quick cash grab seems to be the chosen path these days.”
- “Is to rent a server from places... sounds like a cash grab to me.”
- “This is just a cash grab.”
replayability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The game's replayability is hindered by a lack of content and player engagement, with users noting that it becomes stale after around 40 hours of gameplay. While the combat offers excitement and the visuals are appealing, the absence of more players and diverse activities outside of towns limits long-term enjoyment. Players express a desire for more updates and features to enhance replayability, such as additional NPCs and improved loot systems.
- “Real potential as a game, grindy but tense; combat, although sluggish, has an element of excitement seeing as most things can kill you in the right situation. I enjoyed the 12 hours I have in it but getting bored now and needs players. I do recommend it as it is fun and needs support.”
- “The game is now a little more playable.”
- “The game gets stale once you have experienced everything (maybe 40 hours of gameplay); they have yet to make it so you can enjoy the game's PvP, crafting, and building features day after day, simply because there haven't been enough updates to keep that replayability.”
emotional
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
- “It looks like it's going to be a great game. If you want to take part in bringing this game to life, it's for you. But if you want to cry about all the bugs and problems, don't buy it. Wait a while; it's going to continue to get better, but for now, they need people who are willing to help find the problems.”
- “It kinda made me feel disappointed about walking (or rather running) through the forest - which actually looks very nice. There's a new forest between Freeman's Port and Raven's Reach - as I never got the chance to really appreciate the beauty of it as I was constantly being chased by wolves.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users express frustration with the character development, noting that significant time invested in developing characters can be quickly undone or rendered irrelevant, leading to a sense of wasted effort.
- “Hours of character development will go by in an instant.”
- “The character arcs feel rushed and lack depth.”
- “I was disappointed by the lack of meaningful choices that affect character growth.”