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No lost civilization is complete without deadly, mysterious, and logic-defying tombs; nor without a hoard of increasingly high level loot to nab as you make your way through it. Empyreal has all this and more. An action RPG with a Steam Next Fest demo I've been playing, it combines together elements from some of my favorite games to create something that manages to find its own fresh directions among them.
Coming from developer Silent Games (and published by Secret Mode), Empyreal is an action RPG designed with knowledge of the greats in mind. Not quite a soulslike, there are nevertheless elements of the poking and dodging in combat that definitely remind me of the cadence of battles there, but with the speed dialed way up, assisted by plenty of flashy powers on cool downs. Meanwhile, the repeating-yet-different structure of the levels within the monolith draw to mind the journeys to new lands in Remnant 2, yet with a much more bite-sized approach than the long diversions on offer there.
For the 'gram
That's because the Monolith you're setting out to explore isn't your usual tower. Instead, you'll have to find and plug in 'Cartograms' to unlock new chunks to explore. These re-combine themes and rooms into new shapes, telling you clearly before you set out what enemies you can expect to come across and what unique loot you can expect to find. They're pleasingly snappy too, with all the expeditions in my Steam Next Fest hands-on taking around 15 minutes to clear, and likely a bit longer if you're really cruising for loot – some of which is quite deviously hidden in nooks and crannies.
How tough a challenge you take on is also up to you. Naturally, tackling harder Cartograms will yield better loot. I like how clear Empyreal is with giving you data – you won't need to have a tab open with a wiki while you play here. I also think it's really smart how it alters the ratings for each Cartograms based on your loadout, beyond even just gear level. Some elemental equipment will have a tougher time with some match-ups, which is represented in the ratings it supplies you before selection. Setting out to explore a map for the first time you won't quite know what's next, but you're not completely in the dark either, which feels refreshing.
Likewise, in combat against legions of enemies, you have plenty of information to work with. While at times, if you're in a tough level, you're getting to be taking a lot of damage, Empyreal goes the opposite way of something like a soulslike where it's purely about reading enemy wind-ups and figuring out what they'll do next and just straight up tells you. The attack name appears on screen, as well as the time it'll take the enemy to use it. Where the attack will land is also clearly marked. Data, data, data.
This works well for the Final Fantasy 14 sicko in me, as I begin to find a rhythm not dissimilar to cruising through dungeons in that MMO, cutting through enemy mobs and dealing with boss movesets, albeit here completely solo. Having so much information readily available may be divisive for some, but to me it's appreciated in a game that, so far, seems built around hoovering up a lot of gear by playing a lot of levels. There's only so much you can expect my rapidly hardening brain to intake.
Combat itself takes me a little bit of time to get the hang of, as Empyreal has a fairly unique cadence. Some enemies can hit pretty hard and can be well dealt with using a series of basic pokes with the a bumper button (like in Elden Ring or something like that), but at the same time a well-timed dodge can completely negate damage and also send you flying across the room at high speeds. You're also encouraged to use your skills with wild abandon, which change depending on your loadout. Ranging from parries to absorbing health and big ultimate attacks, they can help in a pinch.
This early in the game (though the demo allows you to taste both early and endgame gear), I'm still getting used to the combat flow. Some situations where using a parry skill still ends up with taking big damage can be a bit tricky to figure out. But, across both a glaive build and a big cannon I manage to find a groove where I'm having fun running through either sequences of rooms or some much larger spaces – each biome seems to be quite different so far.
Melee is where I'm more comfortable – it sort of plays how you might expect – but the cannon can dish out some pleasing damage. Even if I currently find the reloading and aiming process a bit clunkier and complex to handle, I've gotten more into it than I expected. A little closer to something like Monster Hunter Wilds than the third-person shooter you might expect, an active-reload system is used to also change ammo on-the-fly, and skills are even more necessary than ever to supplement the damage of your basic bullets. Unleashing a barrage of elemental shells and a massive honking laser with the high-tier gear the demo gives me is pretty cool when I can get it to all work together.
This isn't usually a genre I gravitate towards, often because of the time commitment, but so far I really like how bite-sized Empyreal is, urging me to come back for just one more Cartogram. Only able to explore a handful of biomes in my demo time, there's plenty more to see. I look forward to seeing how it fares in the long-run across the full game, and going for another sesh with the 'gram.
Empyreal is "coming soon" to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
I've also been enjoying playing The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy: Dying becomes a skill in this JRPG from the Danganronpa devs, and its Steam Next Fest demo is already Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam
