A Frustrating Journey
I am all about an underdog and developer Silent Games Studios is exactly that with their new game release, Empyreal. I had seen a few videos on Empyreal and the first thought that came to mind was ‘Too Human’. Yea I am aware that it is quite the divisive game but I enjoyed it and was looking forward to experiencing more. But the combat and the way characters moved in the world of Empyreal is what gave me that initial impression. And I was right; it is very much like Too Human right down to the jank.
Empyreal is set on an unnamed planet where a structure known simply as the Monolith has been discovered. The expedition quickly realized that the Monolith is actually a living thing filled with automatons and more importantly…loot. So, enter the players character, a gifted mercenary who has shown up to save the day and explore this Monolith and figure out what it truly is. Not going to lie, this story isn’t setting the narrative world on fire, its not bad but it doesn’t do anything remarkable. This even lends itself to the host of characters that players are introduced too. First off there isn’t any sort of onscreen indicator, so the first impression is having to find a character that you haven’t met and have no idea where they are in this giant base. Sure.
MSRP: $29.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $29.99
From the grumpy base commander to the annoyed researcher all of the NPC’s around the base feel they are just there for set dressing. Sure, they each have some sort of use, as there is a workshop where characters can identify their pilfered loot (more on that later) and upgrade weapons and armor but the interactions with all of the NPC’s feel very wooden and stiff. It doesn’t help that the graphics aren’t really anything to write home about, honestly, they feel like a step up from Too Human but It becomes apparent very quickly that the developers were investing their time and efforts into the gameplay side of things and not into graphics and characters.
So, what will players actually do in Empyreal? Well at its core it’s an action RPG that sees players delve into the heart of the Monolith to explore its intricate locations and return with varying rarities of loot in order to power up and do it again. One of the coolest things about Empyreal is that each of the levels are hand designed, the developers wanted to make shortcuts and hidden areas so each level for players to explore. But while the actual levels are hand designed everything else during each run is randomized, as far as enemy types and loot that will be available. Players will access the Monolith by using Cartograms, these devices determine the level, biome, loot table and more of what players will experience. On paper this is neat, but since things are always different it will wreak havoc with players trying to track down specific loot. As intricate as each of the levels are, I wish they were more visually appealing but that is really a common theme throughout the game.
Combat in Empyreal offers players a choice of how they want to play with three weapons to choose from; Mace & Shield, Glaive and a Cannon for those who prefer to fight from range. Each of the weapons have unlockable albitites that players can use and thankfully they are all on a cooldown mechanic, no mana points needed to use special attacks. There is also a parry system which isn’t anything new at all but it does help the flow of melee combat. But for some odd reason there is no lock-on mechanic, which leads to issues when you need to target specific enemies first and players will have to make sure their cameras are pointing the right direction. Then there is the overall movement and extremely stiff animations that make the game feel very clunky and frustrating to play. The potential in these systems can surely be seen, with a bigger budget and more polish this could have been something great; but as it stands it becomes really frustrating as players will be fighting the controls just as much as the giant robot enemies.
I think the team at Silent Games is on to something with Empyreal. As I said the combat has some glimmers of greatness, it just needs to be refined a bit more. I love the fact they hand-designed the levels, but the overall graphics might have suffered as the game certainly is nothing to write home about in that area. But even with all that and the mostly forgettable story, Empyreal does have a solid loot system and some decent customization options which is nice but mileage will vary from gamer to gamer due to the frustrating and sometimes clunky combat.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
