Posted in: Games, Review, Video Games | Tagged: Coin Operated Games, Empyre: Lords Of The Sea Gates, game review, indie dev, indiedev, Work Shift Play Inc.

How To Screw Up A Tactical RPG: We Review Empyre: Lords Of The Sea Gates

Empyre: Lords Of The Sea Gates was an interesting little RPG title to make its way into my Steam collection. The game is set in the early 1900's in New York City in an alternate timeline where the sea has risen and buried most of Manhattan underwater, with what survivors remain living in the highrise towers that still dwell above the water. The story shows that fresh water has been cut off to the city, leaving you and whatever support you can get to correct that issue and defeat anyone who stands in your way. You'll have to deal with the police, mobsters, territorial factions, and your usual smattering of crazy people to get where you need to go.

The game plays like a tactical RPG, but with a few changed mechanics to make the ordeal feel a little less predictable. First, the board is laid out like old buildings would be with walls and obstacles, so no grand open area to play chess on. You're given a lot more liberty with movement and actions, but it takes a long time to plan out where to go and who to take out. The game's story moves along in the battles, but unlike other tactical titles of the same ilk, there's no real branching off for other adventures or side quests. Your goal is pretty simple and straight-forward, which can be daunting at times if you want variety.

Unfortunately, it doesn't get much better from here as the game is bogged down with the most haphazard set of mechanics I've seen for an RPG to make what should be simple combat seem like a chore. Your characters have no semblance of an AI to speak of, so they don't block or dodge attacks, nor do they think to heal themselves or help each other out. Basically, if your control over someone lasts until you select what they do, and anything that happens to them after is out of your hands to the point where you might as well have sent them in on a suicide run.

Part of that is also due to the fact that the game tells you a lot of what you can do, but you can't do any of it. You have a set of tips in your menus that can tell you how to pull off certain attacks and abilities, but when you go to find them, they're not there. It feels like I'm playing a beta test at times as it seems like the game has great ambitions of what it would like to be, but fails to execute them in any meaningful manner or even make them available for me to try them out. At least if they were here I could try them and fail and accept that maybe I'm not doing something right.

Empyre: Lords Of The Sea Gates is a decent idea with poor execution. This honestly feels like a title rushed into production with little testing and even less thought put into it beyond the main plot. I would say if you're going to get this, it's probably, at best, a beginner's guide to tactical RPGs before they get one that actually works right. After that, it's a waste of time and money. The few things it does get right don't make up for what it gets horribly wrong.

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