EMPYRE: Lords of the Sea Gates

Written by Dave Gamble on 9/19/2017 for PC  

In just looking at the title, I had no idea what to expect from a game called EMPYRE: Lords of the Sea Gates. I generally like to let the game teach me what it’s about, but a quick Google search revealed the existence of a 56-second trailer on YouTube. Figuring that there couldn’t be much in the way of spoilers (and I say this as a guy that steadfastly refuses to watch the previews for next week’s Game of Thrones) in such a short vid, I gave it a click. The first five seconds were enough: the same spoingy bass of the Seinfeld background music combined with a Steampunk rendering of 1911 New York City was more than enough to convince me that I had to take a look at this game.

The developer, Coin Operated Games, describes it as “a top-down isometric RPG that takes place in a Neo-Victorian New York circa 1911, in which the entire city is flooded by rising oceans and the citizens must learn to live in a new reality where there is water everywhere, but none of it possible to drink.” Ah, so it’s Waterworld writ small. Good enough for me!

They go on to say that “the game’s authenticity reflects scenes from New York during the 1900s, while tying the storyline to current day themes such as global warming and the rising of the oceans,” but as I put forth a heroic effort in not allowing contemporaneous politically charged issues to pollute my recreational activities, I tend to simply roll my eyes at that kind of thing. In general I just put my faith in the game being good enough that any political message is easy to ignore.

The first step was to go through the tutorial. That was the second step, too. I had to go through the full tutorial again after finding myself struggling with even the simplest UI elements. This was no fault of the tutorial itself; rather, the fault was with me getting ahead of the pace. Once I realized that I was getting ahead of things and used a more sedate pace, I was able to get a fuller understanding of the model being used.

For your edification, I will describe the gameplay fundamentals as “turn-based until it isn’t.” That sounds a little odd, or at least it feels that way to me, but it actually works quite well. The turn-based-until-it-isn't mode is used in combat scenarios wherein it allows for a more tactical approach in that every member of your team can be directed individually. This kind of turn-based mode is different from the more traditional “plan it all out, hit the ‘go’ button, then scream in anguish as your opponents moot your carefully laid plans by doing something unexpected.” In EMPYRE’s turn-based world, you can pause the action and change your player’s actions in response to the immediate situation, whatever it may be. That saved my bacon on numerous occasions.

Also sheltering under the turn-based-until-it-isn’t umbrella are the many periods during which you aren’t in combat but have long distances to cross. With a team of up to six characters, moving each of them individually would be extraordinarily burdensome. In travel mode, the team travels as a bunch, although individual members would sometimes abstain from entering rooms or meeting people for personal reasons. It never seemed to make any difference one way or the other when that happened, but the reasons given by the team member did tend to support the storyline.

As a quick aside, it’s worth mentioning that certain characters refusing to meet with various NPCs was often necessary because many of the names (and locations, for that matter) used in the game are historically accurate. It would hardly be believable to have Mary Todd Lincoln meeting John Wilkes Booth for tea on April 15, 1865, right? It’s like that. It points to a great deal of research having been performed by the authors of EMPYRE while writing the game. I appreciate the effort.

After (twice) completing the tutorial, it was time to embark on the adventure. Before hitting the road (or, uh, water?) I was tasked with finding my sister in order to say goodbye. This simple task foreshadowed a lot of room-to-room hunting. The isometric view (which, if you aren’t aware, means “looking from the top down, but at an angle”) provides a relatively tight roof-less view of the floor plan of whichever building you may be inhabiting, but any persons in any of the rooms are not displayed until you enter the room they’re in. This makes perfect sense, of course, but the process of hunting down a specific person can be a real grind. At least until you realize that the little map in the upper right-hand corner displays your quarry as a blue dot. Things got a bit easier after figuring that out. Where were you on that one, tutorial?

Prior to departing on our quest, I passed by a vending machine. My experience with these machines as I made my way through the game was that they weren’t especially well stocked, but this particular one was chock full of healing potions. Buying up the entire stock ended up being as good a decision as choosing to play in easy mode was.

With preparations and goodbyes accomplished, it was well and truly time to go out and experience Waterworld circa 1911. The game did a very good job of keeping me on track, even when accepting side quests. The RPG elements, to be honest, were pretty thin on the ground. I don’t remember ever having more than two, maybe three, choices on the occasions where I was asked to make a decision of some sort. Many were just asking if I would rather perform a side quest or pay a bribe. There were also occasions where I was to choose between making a thinly or thickly veiled threat to get an NPC to do my bidding. Some of the choices seemed to simply be asking if I wanted to trigger a combat or not. In general, I opted for "not." That didn't always work out, but as a strategy it served fairly well.

While I may not have been interested in combat, it was certainly interested in me. It is unavoidable. Fortunately, after losing a major fight while trying to utilize every member of my team, not all of whom are especially useful in a fight at any given time, I learned that I could do pretty well by just using the primary character that I has used to buy up all of the healing potions. This was where being able to pause the battle and change my tactics came in handy. It was not at all unusual for me to be close to death, pause the battle, edit my plan to include running away long enough to drink a healing potion and/or reload/change my weapon, and jump right back into the fray. My enemies never learned to use this tactic themselves. I'm cool with that!

Long-term planning around the strengths and weaknesses of team members was useless as the make-up of the team changed quite a lot. Characters came and went as we proceeded on our quest. Many of them simply were not up to the task of fighting. I was able to give them weapons that I had outgrown or had been replaced with more capable implements and combine two or three of the weaker players to fight one bad guy. If any of them reached the end of their strength and passed out, it was just a matter of waiting for them to recuperate before moving on. I could have just left them on the sidelines, but giving them moderate fighting experience allowed them to level up to a point where I could actually benefit from having them along. I took that too far once and everyone, including my main fighter, got knocked out—the penalty for that was no worse than restarting the combat. That relieved a great deal of the pressures incumbent in leadership. I’d have slept well at night, had time actually moved during the telling of the story.

There were some frustrating aspects to the gameplay that served as learning moments. For example, when you are about to enter a combat scenario that will require the use of stun grenades, it is critically important to ensure that the character that is carrying stun grenades doesn’t just have them in inventory but also that they are placed in one of the slots that can be accessed during a fight. Once the game shifts into combat mode, the character’s inventory screen is locked. It’s equally important to make sure that the character carrying the stun grenades has the specific “use grenades” skill. If not, those grenades are no more useful than cheap jewelry.

On the softer side, away from tactics and fighting and trying to find your way around the city, is the dialogue. It’s read only—there is no voice acting—but it is well and cleverly written. I wasn’t made to care about the plight of the thirsty, although there were plenty of reminders about it, but I wasn’t exactly tripping over dead or dying NPCs. There are a few bodies floating in the ocean, but those appeared to be victims of too much water, not too little. There never seemed to be any of the heavy-handed political messaging that I had feared would be omnipresent either.

All in all, I think Empyre does a very good job of providing RPG aspects like inventory management, experience gathering, team leadership, and turn-based combat in an easy-to-use and nearly transparent way. I never felt like I was being forced to micromanage every single aspect of every single thing. There is enough of a story to provide an adequate explanation for doing what needs to be done without becoming a slog to get through. The art is absolutely gorgeous and the references to real world, historically accurate buildings and places adds a degree of authenticity. Most importantly, though, it was fun.