EMPYRE: Dukes of the Far Frontier

[code]For other game reviews, please [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40640212/]follow us at What The Game?[/url][/code] Empyre: Dukes of the Far Frontier is going to appeal to a very specific person. That person is someone who loves Steampunk and Western mashups, along with Isometric RPG's that are very flawed. I wanted to like this game, but unfortunately, the dev made that impossible. Everything starts off promising, with a slick animated intro and professional-sounding narrator laying the breadcrumbs of a backstory for you. (Apparently there's floods and deadly plants destroying the US, so some people moved into the desert.) You're then dropped into a pretty in-depth character creation screen that's remarkably reminiscent of Fallout 1 or 2. You even have to pick a negative perk, which is an interesting option. Unfortunately, the game falls into that trap of forcing you to make decisions on character building without giving you enough information. I could easily see a bad build leading to problems and frustration for a lot of players. What I didn't see coming was how downright fugly this game is. It's BUDGET, in all caps. Animations are stilted and awkward, and th…

I would recommend it to fans of adventure RPG games. It has a similar feel to Fallout 1-2/Tactics, more modern but less polished though it has charm and intrigue. Other games you may also enjoy include Gamedec, Arcanum, Shadowrun Returns, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Temple of Elemental Evil. +Options for character creation and levelup +Steampunk atmosphere +Story, adventure elements +Responsive developer (thanks for black screen fix!) +Some key rebinding +Manual and autosaving +XCOM cover system -Dated visuals -Dialogue is not voiced, music does not always play -Male and female symbols are reversed in creation -Clunky -Party involvement is limited -Unclear/cannot split item stacks -Unclear goal/direction at times -Old objectives sometimes stay stuck on screen -Some awkward controls cannot be rebound

This game rocks! It's steampunk! It's a unique setting! I haven't played anything like this before. If you are into exploring something new and interesting, this game will scratch that itch. It's got a city built by robots for crying out loud. But if you only like your fireballs and goblins and dwarves stick with other games. I've read some of the other reviews here. There are some negative ones. I would talk about the issues that they had. But they're so nonsensical I don't even understand them. What does "combat is bad" mean? What "glitches" did you see. Instead I'll base this on my own impressions and not comment on what was said in other reviews. Combat: It's fast and loose. You can move freely, you can plan attacks and queue up actions. I like turn based games. I like to plan out my actions. This "queue action" system that they have in place let me plan out my moves in advance. I could plan out the following: Guy #1 ran to cover, threw a grenade, then ducked behind cover. Meanwhile. guy #2 stayed behind cover and gunned down an approaching melee enemy. Guy #3 laid down cover fire (while guy #1 was on the move). Story: It hits hard from the beginning. You run into unf…

I am really enjoying this game. The combat is really fun. It is fast and loose with lots of control. It's real time with pause. When the game is paused you can queue up a bunch of commands and then execute in real time. I saw some other comments about combat here. I think they may refer to the Hunter combat. It's a special combat where you are being hunted. Every time you are spotted by the enemy combat starts. You need to either escape or kill the enemy for combat to stop. It can get intense but in a good fun way. It also has only occurred in the first map. Not the later maps. The story is also pretty interesting. Not a real spoiler because it occurs in the first five minutes but you lose your city ticket right away. On top of that, a rumor quickly spreads that you are in possession of a set of valuable blueprints. So the first level becomes a pretty hostile place. You are, actually, being hunted. Hence the hunting combat. From there the story keeps moving at a pretty brisk pace. It kept me engaged and interested. The controls are pretty easy to manage. Right click to move/interact/attack etc. You can also use the keyboard including buttons to operate the camera. I've been pla…

Mind you I only played an hour of this game I sadly wasn't really able to enjoy it past that point in it's current state. Pros: - The character creator reminded me of a good table top - the customization of having good and bad traits, specialties, etc really added a lil something extra - The esthetic and voice acting were pretty well done and co-hesive Cons: - I ran into MULTIPLE glitches while playing - The game misgendered my character and had a lot of issues with scripting - The controls DO NOT feel right, instinctive, or ergonomic. It's like they spun wheel and was like this will be this button. (My chat had a joke with H for Hinteract) I think this game could be great if worked on but it kinda feels like I played the alpha test and that is not a good sign. I'm hoping patches come out and soon I can try again and focus more on the game which I think has so much potential to be great. I give it 2/6 traits.

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