When you have a dungeon with near infinite possibilities and it’s your only source of equipment, you go dungeon diving. Investigating the mysteries of a dungeon with infinite loot is tiring, but it’s your only way to strengthen yourself. It isn’t easy to constantly dive in the hopes that you get better equipment. But the future is punishing, and your expedition team is counting on you. If you don’t get stronger, everything comes to a standstill.

Empyreal has a story, but most of your time is spent dungeon diving through several variations of a dungeon. Finding new equipment and experimenting with different builds is enjoyable. Combat is fast-paced and makes you think quickly, just like a Souls-like game. Everything else doesn’t get nearly as much focus, and that drags the game down. Stay for the combat and cool equipment, but other than frequent boss rushes, there’s not much keeping you playing.

Empyreal starts when an expedition team wants to explore the Ziggurat, an ancient structure with futuristic automatons. Some squads have already entered the Ziggurat but were wiped out. You are called in as the last explorer the team can afford, and the burden of exploration falls on you. Assist the remaining leadership around the base as you fight powerful enemies and begin solving mysteries.

The Glaive and Mace & Shield were my most common weapons, switching between agility and defence as necessary. Each weapon has its own set of abilities, and I enjoyed testing them out. While the abilities don’t automatically make you better, they expand your options in the heat of battle. Shield restoration helped me recover in boss fights, while stuns let me finish off weaker enemies. While I wasn’t against the Cannon, I didn’t enjoy the long-range combat as it felt limited by the ammo types. Going with melee often seemed like the more reliable option.

Equipment is the other half, as you get better weapons and armour from your Ziggurat explorations. There are various rarities, types, and effects that your equipment can have, and you can mix and match to suit your playstyle or test out a new build. Empyreal gives you several loadout slots to save your favourite equipment, and I used them frequently. After seeing what enemies I would face, I switched loadouts seamlessly while occasionally switching out an item or two.

Consumable items have a big focus in Empyreal, with the variety helping you with various situations. The game makes a point not to leave without them, and you can easily replenish your supply. I often used shield restores and barriers to protect myself, but the occasional grenade made a difference. None of these items are game-breaking, but they significantly boost your chances of survival.

Dungeons are controlled by Cartograms that let you visit certain sections of the Ziggurat. They are dropped by regular enemies and bosses, letting you progress the story or farm for better equipment. Each Cartogram tells you the boss you will encounter, possible loot drops, and status ailments to watch out for. That lets you figure out which Cartogram is worth taking on and what you should prepare for.

Story Cartograms are given to you or require a little searching. The bulk of your time is spent in the optional Cartograms as described above. Most of my time was spent diving into dungeons to get the equipment I needed to progress. Thanks to the Cartogram difficulty indicator, I could tell if my equipment was good enough or if I needed better gear. This helped me make better decisions and reduce the likelihood that I would fail a mission.

However, Cartogram bosses are difficult and test your combat ability. You only get a certain number of retries per Cartogram, and you lose most of them against bosses. Each Cartogram has a different boss, and you can see who you will fight before you begin. But each boss is much harder than a regular opponent, often defeating you in a few hits. This makes you study their movements and ensure you know how to counter their attacks.

This also means you spend lots of time grinding away, occasionally failing as bosses overwhelm you. My biggest challenge was diving into several dungeons to get a better Glaive or finding a better cape. There was no shortage of Cartograms, but each dive felt like a gamble. Either I get what I need and continue the story, or keep going back. It’s fun to continually refine your skills, but it also considerably drags out the game length.

While I enjoyed taking my time to strengthen myself, it felt like the Cartograms were padding out the game’s length. You don’t need the best gear available, but rushing in with a hastily assembled kit is a recipe for failure. This often meant I was fighting in dungeons, analysing boss behaviours, and hoping for luck to roll in my favour before I continued. It often felt like I was playing a boss rush game rather than experiencing what Empyreal had to offer.

Sadly, Empyreal didn’t have much to enjoy outside of the Cartogram battles. The story is mostly a plot device to keep you going to harder difficulties. Characters aren’t unique enough to be memorable, and their quests aren’t engaging. Creating your own character at the start is nice, but only appeals to people big on customising. Even editing your equipment’s stats is more trouble than it is worth. The only reason to play is the combat and the loot system.

Empyreal is a single-player game, but you can get assistance from other players. Defeating a boss lets you throw equipment into the void in exchange for another item thrown in by another player. If you run out of Reset Charges, you can get a quick revival from another player. However, these features aren’t too different from other games and are too risky to rely on in practice.

The graphical demands are also immense, and if you barely fit the minimum specs, your system might struggle. It’s possible for frame rates to drop or for your character to get stuck in the environment, costing you valuable combat resources. There were several instances I fell through hills or spawned in unloaded textures, making combat harder than necessary. It’s not the end of the world, but you do need a powerful machine to fight successfully.

The main reason to stick around with Empyreal is the fun combat and gear farming. Each boss fight is a great challenge, and it’s worth persevering to see what’s next. But if you were hoping for a substantial story or something other than boss rushing, there’s not much here. You should also come prepared with a decent rig that can handle the game’s graphics, or you might struggle even as an expert.