In a gaming landscape flooded with roguelikes, looter-shooters, and open-world sprawl, Empyreal boldly steps into the fray with a fresh sci-fi aesthetic and an ambition to blend deep philosophy with slick, skill-based combat. Developed by Silent Games, Empyreal invites players into a crumbling megastructure built by a forgotten civilisation, all in the name of loot, lore, and legacy. It’s an alluring package on paper, but does it live up to its potential?
What is Empyreal
At its narrative core, Empyreal explores humanity’s fractured place in a decaying galaxy. You play as a mercenary explorer hired to delve into the Monolith—a vast, vertical world filled with traps, secrets, and deadly automatons. There’s a thread of philosophical introspection woven through the game’s sparse dialogue and cryptic lore entries. Themes of duality, identity, and evolution bubble to the surface, but they rarely command the spotlight. It’s clear the developers had higher narrative aspirations, but much of the storytelling feels fragmented, almost too eager to remain mysterious rather than meaningful.
That said, the setting is atmospheric. The Monolith is stunning: impossibly tall chambers, alien flora clinging to steel, and glimmers of ancient technology pulsing in the shadows. It’s a place that feels lived-in and lost, creating a constant sense of melancholic wonder.
A swing, and a miss
Empyreal’s combat has opened up with a lot of promise, but ultimately falls short due to overwhelming enemies and a lack of flourish. The game offers three weapon archetypes: the precise and versatile Glaive, the slow but tanky Mace & Shield combo, and the explosive Cannon. Each weapon class brings unique abilities that reward timing and positioning. Perfect timing on dodges and blocks will leave the enemies stunned and vulnerable, which gives the player time to deal big amounts of damage. Although in theory this combat system is a tried and tested one, Empyreal simply doesn’t deliver. The game doesn’t offer a lock-on feature, which makes keeping track of enemies difficult with their sporadic movements. The amount of ranged enemies combined with a lack of clear visuals to suggest they’re shooting from off-screen creates frustrating moments of the player getting stun-locked by a dozen off-screen projectiles. On top of the frustrating parts, the animations leave a lot of room for improvement.
Players can unlock and equip a wide array of abilities tied to their chosen weapon style—some focus on raw damage, others on healing or crowd control. Building diversity is a genuine strength. A well thought-out arsenal of abilities does create some powerful combos, leaving the player satisfied of a perfectly executed combat encounter. But in my opinion, it does not outweigh the flaws mentioned before.
Gameplay loop that lands
One of Empyreal’s defining features is the Cartogram system. These mysterious items act as keys to different areas within the Monolith and determine enemy types, modifiers, and loot quality. Each Cartogram has procedurally generated attributes, injecting a roguelike flavour into the otherwise structured experience.
It’s a clever idea—one that provides replay value and encourages a degree of strategy before every run. But it can also feel inconsistent. Some Cartograms lead to satisfying, rewarding encounters; others result in poorly balanced death traps that feel unfair rather than challenging. There’s fun to be had in mastering these randomised layers, and for the most part, I enjoyed the gameplay loop of farming new gear and exploring new cartograms.
Setting and aesthetics
Visually, Empyreal is striking. The particle effects, dynamic lighting, and eerie soundscapes craft a cohesive, moody world. However, technical hiccups—including occasional frame dips, clunky enemy hitboxes, and some UI clumsiness—pull you out of the experience. These aren’t deal-breakers, but they suggest the polish isn’t quite up to the standard set by the game’s visual ambition.
Empyreal is a game of brilliant ideas and passionate design, executed with varying levels of success. Its combat is familiar but lacklustre, its setting memorable, yet the animations and detail fall short, and its systems—like the Cartogram and Aether Touched mechanics—boldly experiment with formula. Yet the game sometimes gets in its way with uneven difficulty, fragmented storytelling, and a layer of complexity that doesn’t always pay off.
If you’re a fan of action RPGs with a taste for mystery and don’t mind a bit of roughness around the edges, Empyreal might just be worth exploring. But for players expecting a polished, emotionally resonant journey with rogue-lite and looter mechanics, I would suggest looking elsewhere.
