Empyreal PC Review
Summary: An ambitious action RPG that is hindered by a less than welcoming start and punishing gameplay.
2.8
Lifeless Looter
It’s not often you come across a game that almost feels like it’s giving you a big ol’ middle finger but to some extent that’s how Empyreal felt to me.
The game starts with, for some reason, a hand drawn style collection of images going over a somewhat clunky introduction story. You then find yourself in a main area with the task of talk to the person in charge cool where are they? Yep, there’s no map or waypoint despite this clearly being a fairly advanced group of people/creatures navigation apparently isn’t their strong point.
You inevitably find the person in charge and quickly find that the characters you encounter are generally fairly cliched and not particularly engaging. You’re then sent off to prepare for your actual mission. This initial area possibly wouldn’t be such an issue to get around finding characters to talk to if it didn’t feel so generally empty. It’s a big area and it’s quite nicely modeled but there are far too many areas you can go to that essentially serve no purpose other than to have wasted your time exploring in an effort to try and find your actual objective.
After a bit more mucking about you make your way to the Ziggurat itself. Credit where it’s due the giant structure looks impressive, seeing it is actually one of the reasons I was interested to try the game. Once inside you find yourself in your first bit of combat and will probably do ok until a few battles in where things start to feel overwhelming pretty quickly. See there isn’t really a breaking in period it’s just a break you period. There is a bit of allowance for die and try again but that does have limits worst case scenario you may find yourself having to make your way back the overly long walk/run to return to the Ziggurat if you find yourself without cartograms.
If you want an idea of what the gameplay mechanic is like imagine the concept of Diablo but as a third person shooter/fighter. You enter an area, find loot hidden around the place or gather from defeated enemies. Upgrade your gear, weapon, armour etc and progress. The big difference between the two is that while Diablo will scale the challenge and make you work for your success Empyreal won’t give you a hand or even check in on you it will throw you in the deep end and spit on you.
For those who like a steep learning curve and a challenge you can look forward to a choice between three main weapons, the glaive which is what you start with essentially a spear/polearm type weapon, there’s the cannon fairly self explanatory but it also has different ammo types with different usages and the mace and shield for a more up close and personal approach. You also have skills that you can equip that can help turn the tide of battle shield boosts, spikes shooting out of the ground and a variety of other buffs and abilities that might just give you the edge.
Final Thoughts?
Some people enjoy the hard slog of grinding away at combat to progress others like to have a bit of challenge but ultimately be able to progress without feeling like they are just locked in a combat Groundhog day. If you enjoy the tough grind then Empyreal may well be right up your alley. If you believe that the easy setting on a game should mean just that and not seemingly be completely ignored when the game starts perhaps give it a miss.
About the Author
Chris O'Connor Father of four, husband of one and all round oddity. Gaming at home since about 1982 with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Moving on to the more traditional PC genre in the years that followed with the classic Jump Joe and Alley Cat. CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond PC's have been central to my gaming but I've also enjoyed consoles and hand helds along the way (who remembers the Atari Lynx?). Would have been actor/film maker, jack of many trades master of none.
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