LifeisXbox’s Empire of Ember preview | Your wizard master has been brutally murdered by a secret enemy and turned your city to ruins. Now you will have to take over his role, restore the magical kingdom and seek revenge on the murders. Does this sound like something you would like? Well, then Poleaxe Games LLC is working on a game that might be right up your alley! With their new work in progress called Empire of Ember, which was released in Early Access last March, they put the fate of the empire in your hands. Are you ready?
What does the game offer
Empire of Ember offers an intriguing story in which you are an apprentice of a wizard, but in a vicious attack on your city, he is brutally murdered. Now you have to take over the power, rebuild the once so blooming town and find the enemy who is responsible for this wrongdoing. What makes everything even more special is the fact that the game is fully voice acted. This aspect really made me focus on everything even more. The game is designed in animated 3D graphics and for what it’s worth, everything is quite detailed. Empire of Ember is topped off with a relaxing and calming sound that reminds of the Middle Ages.
The game has a couple of different playstyles. You can choose to become a swordsman, a ranger, or a wizard. There are also a couple of different difficulty levels. However, at this point, every difficulty level is the same so it doesn’t matter which one you pick. Personally, I found the wizard the most useful since it has some powerful spells and you will be able to keep your distance easily. The game also includes some kind of city builder aspect, so you can restore your city back to its original glory. So, if you look at it this way, everything sounds really nice. Doesn’t it?
All is not what it seems
Unfortunately, Empire of Ember isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. There are some serious big ass bugs that you will have to deal with. There are rendering problems, even at the lowest graphical setting. This really ruined the nice-looking graphics. Combat feels slow and hitboxes are way off. On top of that, the loading times are ridiculously long, and hit indicators show a completely different direction than where you are getting hit from. There are just too many problems at this point, making Empire of Ember unsuccessful right now.
In conclusion
Empire of Ember can be a fantastic game in the future if the developers are going to fix as many bugs as possible. It has a great story, and how they bring this story to you is maybe even more spectacular. Everything looks good and is mixed perfectly together. And I can definitely see this become a decent title, but once again the bugs réally ruin it. Empire of Ember currently costs 21 Euros and in the Early Access information on Steam, it says that the price will increase when the full game launches. At this moment, I think the game is way overpriced, however, if Poleaxe Games LLC manages to fix everything so the whole game runs smoothly on full release, it is a wise investment to buy it now.
