REVIEW – Coin Operated Games has attempted for the third time to bring a playable old-school RPG to the table with the third instalment of the Empyre trilogy. Let’s see how Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earth plays!

According to their own admission, the international development team of Coin Operated Games, based in New Hampshire, was recruited from former members of Crytek, Codemasters, Creative Assembly, Stormregion and Digital Reality and set out to build an entirely own, unique “neo-Victorian” universe. Their three games so far, i.e. the Empyre trilogy, are all in this alternative, strongly steam and dieselpunk, 19-20. takes place in a world set at the turn of the century, which seems to have been inspired by the works of Jules Verne. 2017’s Empyre: Lords of the Sea Gates took players to a flooded New York, while the 2022 sequel, Empyre: Dukes of the Far Frontier, revealed the retro-futuristic machine-dominated city of Monument Valley, Colorado, solving all kinds of mysteries and overcoming our opponents. Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earth, released exclusively for PC on March 12, invites you to travel back in time, even earlier than the Deluge presented in the first game, placing the plot in 1899. Our protagonist suffers from amnesia at the beginning of the story. Following the mysterious thief and swindler, Elias, we end up in Shanghai, where the dark and mystical, esoteric world of the East is revealed to us…

Journey to the Centre of the Deep Earth

The greatest virtue of Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earth, as with its two predecessors, is the creation of the atmosphere. During our wanderings in the Far East, we can discover many atmospheric, beautifully modelled locations, starting with rain-soaked villages and forests. The rendering of iridescent, almost psychedelic caves and underground areas is particularly remarkable. Without venturing into spoiler territory, we can say that the world-building draws heavily from Chinese culture. As we move forward in the story, martial arts and traditional Chinese medicine play an important role.

Basically, conversation, that is, investigation and solving puzzles, dominates the gameplay, mixed with some fighting, chasing, and action. The developers clearly put a lot of effort into arousing nostalgia for old-school 90s PC RPGs that used an isometric view. Both the display and the gameplay are reminiscent of classics such as the first two Fallout or Planescape: Torment, combined with some elements of Mafia Wars, especially in terms of action.

The problems start where the developers of Empyre managed to complicate the already outdated and antiquated system. The control is difficult, the design of the menus starting from character generation is harsh and overcrowded. For a game where you spend most of your time reading, it’s incredibly confusing that the characters’ dialogue panels appear on the left and right sides of the screen, so our eyes must constantly jump back and forth to follow the action. Of course, there is no sound or synchronization. It would be a gesture to be appreciated that the characters often speak in their (non-English) mother tongue. However, the time spent on interpreting makes the already not-very fast-paced story even more boring.

The Adventures of a Chinaman in China

However, where we can talk about a real step forward compared to the two previous parts is the combat system. Of course, the combat will be familiar to veteran players of the Empyre series, but new twists have been added to the hybrid real-time/turn-based combat system. Players can enter “Planning Mode”. Here, they can choose actions for each character on their team while the fight is paused. When entering “Action Mode”, all characters act simultaneously. This gives players complete control over their party while delivering clean combat, like in previous episodes.

This system, similar to the one seen in Knights of the Old Republic, really helps a lot, although the battles are still quite chaotic. You can see that the developers focused on other aspects of the game. Nevertheless, at least some progress can be felt in this area.

Unfortunately, this is precisely what cannot be said about other areas of the game. Although the graphics are atmospheric, they cannot be called beautiful. In addition, it is very repetitive. We could probably count on two hands how many character and building models were used throughout the game. The playing field is mostly static and empty. Everything possible, from the user interface to the character portraits, was reused from the previous games. We can barely talk about sound and music. Most of the game is also very quiet – the sound effects of the fights, however, are heart-wrenchingly loud at times.

A Drama in the Air – but even more so on the screen

It’s sad to write about Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earth because this game had a lot of potential, just like the previous two parts of the trilogy. The story is interesting, the atmosphere is captivating, and one or another location is particularly spectacular. However, the game ultimately bleeds from so many wounds due to its clunky, outdated gameplay, interface, and audio-visual experience that it’s hard to recommend it to anyone beyond die-hard fans of the previous two Empyre games. If you’re really into the style of the old Black Isle and BioWare RPGs and don’t mind getting a significantly weaker game for your money, you might want to try Earls of the Deep Earth (when it’s on sale on Steam…)

-ROD-

Publisher: Work Shift Play Inc.

Developer: Coin Operated Games

Style: RPG

Release date: 12 March 2024