Empyreal is a single-player action-RPG that looks and feels for all the world like it was originally designed to be an MMO. From the sprawling hub where everything is spaced too far apart to be convenient for a single character, to the Wayfinder-style gameplay loop of jumping into themed dungeons for loot, a lot of Empyreal’s systems seem to exist in service of themselves.
Little time is spent really giving anything context. You’re a mercenary who works for the Company, and you’ve been sent to help explore the mysterious monolith known as the Ziggurat at the behest of Morys Lovell, a man sworn as a child to uncover the secrets of the strange construct. The set up is an unengaging hodgepodge of character names and proper nouns, with lofty writing that feels a little clumsy, but suffice to say you’re a fairly generic badass with a choice of three classes: spear, cannon, and mace and shield. The world is a mesh of Sci-fi and Fantasy, in that there’s clearly magic and martial arts and a “Crown” to worry about, but everything has LEDs on it. Without being overly dismissive of what is a fairly ambitious indie debut, Empyreal just feels like it’s going through the motions at every turn.
Once you arrive at the Ziggurat you waste no time introducing yourself to the staff. There’s a vendor who looks like a barman, a smith who works to create weapons and gear, an old pissed-off former warrior who seems to exist just to snark at you, and a researcher who can open portals into the monolith whose presence is largely there to save you walking over the ridiculously long bridge to get in every time. They don’t feel like a group that really meshes, or even needs to be there in some cases, partly because they’re so spread out in the hub area. You’ll meet other NPCs in the monolith, in some cases just kind of hanging around, and some of them will set up shop in the hub to offer you other services.
Empyreal is a combat-focused game. Once you’ve selected a starting class you can change it at any time by switching weapons, and augment your build with different special abilities and equippable consumables that add elemental or other buffs to your weaponry. Other items like grenades or curatives can be found in various containers, which open with a satisfying fountain of coloured lights when you open them, which makes exploration feel rewarding for those with an affinity for looters.
Combat has potential but never quite manages to click. While your attacks have some weight and heft to them, the lack of a lock-in command makes it feel loose and imprecise. With Deflect and Dodge assigned to the same button I was often somersaulting all over the place in clunky slow-motion, and didn’t often feel fully in control. Special attacks on cooldowns do things like pull enemies closer, or restore your shields, but they lack the necessary sense of grandeur. Some have your character reciting spells, which feels weirdly out of place in the setting.
It highlights Empyreal’s biggest issue, which is a lack of real identity. Environments are presented with sweeping shots of vast skyboxes and decayed ruins, but the stages themselves are largely devoid of life or personality. There’s little visual storytelling and all that moves are the nondescript enemies, the majority of which are pretty uninspired in their design. The hub feels too big and empty, and the NPCs might well have stories to tell but don’t seem in the mood to tell them. Even the gear system feels confusing, with the same items having different stat loadouts which makes it hard to compare and determine which is better. When most of the game is built on dungeon-diving for loot, the pedestrian designs and clumsy interfaces become a chore.
Empyreal isn’t a bad game, it’s just not very exciting. Its gameplay loop is dull and the world is unoriginal, which sadly adds up to a bit of a mediocre adventure. It’s fun in short bursts, but offers little to stand out or really pull you into its story and universe.
