EMPYRE: Lords of the Sea Gates Reviews

Interesting concept, poor execution. 2 hours in, I still dont understand the combat or stealth system. Complicated, clunky mechanics, with little to no instruction on how it works. Controls are difficult to remap, as you cannot overwrite, so have to reassign the skill youre moving before you can use the desired key. Interesting world, i've not seen too much story yet. (only 2 hours in)

Although I'm still only halfway through I like it. The story and the settings seems interesting, the soundtrack has a funky feel to it. I needed a couple fights to learn to use the combat system, but after a while I got used to pause and plan my moves. Overall it's a nice game.

The game has a really nice concept, the story is quite original. There are a lot of interesting places to explere even quite early on. The dialogs are great too.

Great setting, nice art and many good ideas, all buried under horrendously bad user interface that makes it borderline unplayable for me. Seriously, it was already done right by all isometric rpgs over 20 years ago, why can't you just copy their solutions instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.

Really neat concept and potential for a story. Really clunky to play. I waited for this to go on sale for a long time and it essentially never does. Wildly overpriced at $30.

Played the first 30 minutes. The setting looks stunning and the game runs very smooth. I was a bit wary of the game as there's nothing out there to watch gameplay wise other than a few trailers. Priced at $30, it's a bit of a gamble but one I'm glad I took. When I first saw the trailer, the movie Gangs of New York sprang to mind, whether this is in a similar vein only time will tell. I was a bit disappointed the dialogue isn't voice acted, for $30 I expected it to be but that doesn't detract from the game. I'm looking forward to continue playing the game, I've only encountered one "fight" but it seems to have a strategy to it. Check out the video below (no commentary) and see whether the game is for you. https://youtu.be/aAJb2eawGHw

Really enjoying this so far, it reminds me of the original Fallout games but with updated graphics and a Steampunk feel. The default keyboard layout was a bit off for me but after setting up my own keybindings I'm loving it. Pros Steampunk genre with some nice alt earth twists RPG storyline with choices Nice but simple graphics Good atmospheric soundeffects tactical battles Cons Would have liked to see voice acting for important characters Music seems out of place for the genre Default keybindings are confusing (But easy to adjust) Summary, A fun game to play, which I hope will captivate me as much as the original Fallout and Bouldersgate titles did. (I'll update this once I've progressed further into the game)

If you can read this, you know how to read. If you enjoy reading, you'll like this game. One of it's strong points is the dialog which is brimming with witty banter. Over time, the character's varied personalities really shine through and you feel like you know them. The dank, dark, gritty, dirty buildings of the city really fit the idea of a city soaked in ocean waves. It's how I imagined it would be living in such an environment. Also spare a moment to read a tooltip or two and you'll discover many hidden gems. Did you, for instance, know that Mohicans played a part in building New Yorks skyscrapers because they were fearless at dizzying heights and, sadly, willing to accept lower pay than other workers. Or that firemen once operated like gangs controlling parts of the city. When a building burned, the firemen gangs would fight over who got to do the looting. And then there's the voting. Don't get me started on how they used to conduct voting... There is a deep, rich game here to be discovered. To get the most out of it, you need to look a little closer at the details which are scattered everywhere. I wouldn't recommend this game to people who don't enjoy reading and exploring in their gaming. You have to be a lover of the written word to crack this egg wide open. But once you do, the reward is worthwhile. As for the gameplay, the combat system is interesting and quite unique. You can queue up commands to each of your party members then execute the commands simultaneously in real time. So you can plan and coordinate your party members actions and then unpause to watch it unfold. Personally, I like to plan my party's strategy but don't like how long it takes combat to resolve in turn based games. So this combination of planning and execution was a nice change for me. If felt fast and fluid while giving me control over my party members. All in all, a thumbs up.

I am very disapointed in this game. Obviously, the selling point of this game is the setting. Underwated alternated reality steam punk new york is a great idea. Unfortunately, the execution is lakeluster to say the least. The presentation is fine. It's comparable to wasteland 2 but with less originality and more repeating assets. The gameplay in general is very clunky. The whole game is very linear and lacks basic explanation for most things. Interaction with npcs is minimal and choice nonexistent really. The story is nothing to write home about. Going back to wasteland 2, it is very hard to play the simple, inelegant fighting system in this game after the superb fighting systems of wasteland 2 or the new divinity games. Steam will not refund the game because I had played more then two hours (because it just takes an hour or two to test drive a big RPG rightt, steam?) so I will probably finish it, but that feels like a chore at this point, especially with Divinity: original sin 2, Battlechaser: nightwar out, or middle earth: shadow of war around the corner. I really wanted to like this.

Borderline recommendation. The negative reviewers are not wrong - it is clunky and linear, the combat is unsatisfying, there is a lot hinted at but never realized. It's not just poorly documented but a lot of the skills you'll bother developing are never actually used. I suspect they planned a much bigger game and had to dramatically scale back. They aimed for Wasteland 2 and fell a bit short of Shadowrun. Having said that I wasn't actually bored and that's my line for recommending. I finish all games in order to provide a fair and detailed [url=https://oldgrizzledgamers.com/reviews/empyre-lords-sea-gates-pc-review-70/]review on my site[/url] and in this case I didn't have to force myself. The story is cliche but well written and brisk, you get new guns and characters throughout and constantly change maps. The combat improves to passable and some of the missions are interesting. It did enough to engage me and with the lovely setting that gets a pass.