A new indie Soulslike is no mere imitation, as Empyreal offers a clever mixture of guns, melee combat, and a very unusual role-playing system.
Genres can be a slippery thing. Given how many years it takes to make modern
video games
, summing them up in a couple of words ought to be harder, but in most cases you can tell a driving game from a first person shooter within seconds. Deciding whether something’s an action role-player or an action adventure can take a little longer but, at least in previous generations, most games were fairly clear cut.
Empyreal is at heart an action role-player but with a number of very specific influences. It has fast-paced battles yielding loot, which you use to increase your power, as well as a strong
Soulslike
influence in its complex architectural level design and the occasional boss that can be a nasty surprise. It’s also got a few
roguelite
hallmarks, getting you to repeat levels over and over again with differing configurations of loot and enemies.
The game’s plot involves you as part of a skeleton crew visiting a desolate alien world, where a vast black monolith has been discovered. Soldiers sent inside never return and the odd person that manages to escape is so traumatised by the experience they refuse to talk about it. When you arrive on the scene nobody knows what’s going on. What’s the monolith for? And why is there absolutely no sign of the civilisation that built it?
Entering via a massive circular portal, your first trip into the towering structure reveals dilapidated brick ruins populated by groups of armed robots who immediately attack you. When you fight your way through them all and get to the exit, you find out from fellow expedition members that what you’ve seen is just a small taster. The monolith is actually immensely bigger on the inside than even its colossal exterior would imply.
Divided into four quadrants, your job is to explore each, attempting to get an idea of its layout and above all its purpose. Rumours around the camp suggest it could be an elaborately designed prison for a murderous entity, and that exploring it is a very bad idea. Naturally you’re unmoved by that sort of gossip, continuing the process of uncovering the monolith’s labyrinthine interior.
Your starter weapon is decided by the background you choose for your character during customisation. On subsequent forays through the portal, you can choose to be equipped with the nimble, bladed glaive; the heavy mace and shield; or a portable cannon. The latter, in particular, proves highly unusual in its mechanics.
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