This looter slasher mashes up Remnant 2 with shades of Final Fantasy 14 and lashings of special moves, all in an action-packed Steam Next Fest demo
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.
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
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