The game is made up of moments and is a clear section that will keep itself in our minds much after we put them down. Empyreal includes one of the most powerful within opening hours, and I was immediately intrigued to investigate further.
Action RPG is the debut title of a 12-person team silent game based in the UK. This is the fact that the longer you spend in the game, the more impressive it becomes. With releases on Xbox, PlayStation and PC, Empyreal has recorded cement as a powerful indie title from the opening.
After a short intro, we fall into an incredibly robust character creator, and soon followed by a background selector, filling in some of the past of the mercenary hero. With the initial skill and weapon selected, you are encouraged to approach the Monolith, a towering structure that is generated in the expedition’s hub and marks the cover of the game.
After finishing my first playthrough that clocked in in about 18 hours, I felt like I had cut off the Empurill, but with the first release I can confidently say that silent games know their priorities and talent.
Walk with us to discuss what makes up the world and system of Empireal, and whether it is the perfect action RPG you’ve been hunting for.
An attractive world that sounds just like it looks
Back at that moment, we had been talking before. After a short walk through the hub, introducing himself to the expedition team that requested arrival, the player points to the monolith. As you cross the bridge to the tower base, a low ham overtakes the music, eventually making it completely own.
We humans are small compared to the large scale of the universe. Themes are frequently used by Empyreal.
The ham quickly transforms into a drone, and grows larger and larger as you get closer to the monolith. The moment you get out of the entrance, the drone grows into a deafening boom. The presence of the tower is almost too big for your weak human mind to handle. Then, as if the sound is cresking, you suddenly cut off as you reach the door.
This moment lasts in my mind as its strongest tone setter, even after my time in the game. Opening in 2001: It reminds me of the opening of A Space Odyssey, or the moment of fate allowed near several strange entities that players fill the stars. We humans are small compared to the large scale of the universe. Themes are frequently used by Empyreal.
Besides setting the tone of the story, this first walk is the perfect opener for just how strong the Empyreal soundscape is. The alien space is clearly heard while maintaining a visual and perfect blend. Each world of Empyreal is quadrants as the game calls, and can be played to feel that it is a feat that has only been dampened by the lack of truly unique enemies in the first three.
On enemy topics, most of them suit the entire art style, but appear as a sparkling automata that quickly falls into a routine. I’ve seen this style of robot guardian, but the unity with the rest of the Empireal’s realistic futurist prevents them from feeling out of place.
Up to the fourth quadrant of the game, some seriously unique enemies were introduced, and began to ask questions to the story just by design. Empyreal has lots of powerful enemy designs, but it takes time to get there.
Gameplay and Gear
Empyreal’s gameplay is built around the game’s quadrant system. Throughout the story, NPCs are able to explore the players four major quadrants, with Endgame coming in fifth.
These quadrants act as levels in the game. Levels revolve around fighting your path towards the boss of the quadrant from room to room, with chests dropping gear regularly and playing alternative mixes of the quadrant. Clear the main quadrants and increase gear levels with randomly mixed variations, and you’ll receive NPCs for others to continue your story.
Enemies will come into the group and quickly overwhelm the players and skillfully use the various abilities and defensive options offered by your weapon class.
Thanks to the abundant random drops and the ability to search for a specific booty pool from the boss in quadrant reruns, your early inventory will be a satisfying revolving door that you will find in Diablo or Borderlands, as you will find in Diablo or Borderlands before landing on the equipment you decide to.
Min Maxar’s Dream
Empyreal put a large mechanical focus on character builds, offering three weapon types with dozens of optional skills within it. Each weapon boasts a unique play style. The glacier focuses on rapid movements with fast hits and deflections and warp strikes. Mace gets dived in with shields and stun enemies, and Cannon turns the game into a third-person shooter, switching between expanded types based on battle status.
As you can hear, each of these weapons works very differently, but everything comes from a drop of refined weapons when the player returns to the blacksmith in the hub. Alongside the weapon, the enemy drops certain stat boosts, allowing them to change or lock the secondary stats of the weapon.
All gears with randomly selected secondary stats spawn, but by using orbs dropped by enemies, players can easily shift high-level drops to enable the specific build they want to go to.
Between raw damage, various elemental effects, and crowd control, Empireal allows and encourages players to experiment before they find a playstyle that works best. Once you know what you want, it will run slightly a quadrant variant that also falls from the enemy to convert your gear exactly into what you need.
Ask big questions beyond our grasp
In terms of content and construction, the Empireal is big game. It’s the premier title for an indie studio, but Empyreal hopes they will consider big questions like the space location, what we’re trying to do.
This extends to the mechanic itself. The game is completely single-player, but boasts many “asynchronous multiplayer features” that allow players to interact roughly with each other. There is a colour of a fallen player who can provide respawn throughout the climb. This is a feature that appears to offer nothing to the player in return.
The game boasts a engaging combat loop and a clear creative passion that makes good art, but you’ll stumble between those big moments.
Similarly, after the boss battle, you can open a portal that can provide gear. If so, you will lose gear when it is sent to another player and get a massive stat boost along the way for your good deeds and cooperation.
These selfless options in other single-player settings were a heartfelt reminder of Nier: Automata. Even if you never know who you have helped, providing help for itself is a small moment that reminds us that making us human.
The game boasts a engaging combat loop and a clear creative passion that makes good art, but you’ll stumble between those big moments.
As for the structure of the game, it is still clearly the studio’s first venture. The frame rate of choppy animations and stud sounds occurs too often to ignore. Each character works well and offers an incredibly fluid world building, while the static merchant can tell the story.
Some character quests include moments when they move from their posts. And while the challenging early duel with the expedition quartermaster is a welcome surprise, most of your time spent with the cast is at designated stations that expand what you accomplished within the monolith.
Close Thoughts:
Empireal is a robust action RPG with soft, illicit elements that you can count its weight, but still suffers from some notable Janks. The game still works well and offers a lot of playability, including a secret ending that can only be accessed in the new game Plus Run. After all, Empireal is a solid first show with silent games, a team that clearly knows what they want to make. If you live in a game where you can maximize your playstyle strengths while minimizing your weaknesses, empyreal is for you. You will be able to see a second climb in the near future. I hope I catch some of the things I have left behind.
