He criticizes issues like a stupid AI as well as poor controls and animations. Many bugs significantly detracted from the fun of the game. Many users agree that Empyrion should have stayed in Early Access for a while longer – it is not yet polished enough for a release title.
Expert Assessment: Promising, if you are willing to compromise
Reviews of Empyrion read as though it is a game that many players have been waiting for and are disappointed because they wanted more than it ultimately became. Empyrion may be too ambitious, at least for a 1.0 release at this time.
It seems that players are eager for a game like Empyrion, yet expect more than an indie studio can deliver. The game apparently strikes a nerve but fails to fully satisfy the need.
Potentially, Empyrion is a strong survival game, which with a bit more polish and effort from the developers can certainly become a success for the relevant group of players and impress critics. However, the developers will need to stay committed and not be discouraged by negative reviews.
Benedict Grothaus
Freelance author and survival expert at MeinMMO
The current lull in new releases is also affecting the survival sector, and Empyrion is certainly a welcome interim meal for many fans of the genre. However, those who prefer to wait for the game’s development can find in the meantime our list of the 23 best survival games of 2020.
On Steam, a new survival game called Empyrion: Galactic Survival has launched. It has already received strong ratings in Early Access and continues to show good reviews now after release. What makes the game so good?
What is Empyrion? A new survival game from the German indie developer Eleon Game Studios. The game concept is a kind of Minecraft in space, similar to Avorion from March 2020.
Empyrion focuses on exploration and a massive sandbox where you can unleash your creativity, as well as large spaceships and space battles. It also includes a crafting system, which modern survival games often feature. Core features include:
- free movement in space and exploration of planets in a randomly generated world
- spaceships and space stations
- fights against aliens and humans as well as hostile environments and plants on planets
- survival – ammunition, food, and oxygen are scarce and you must manage them well
- crafting, where you can combine different building parts and create equipment
- terraforming
- hunting and farming
- experience and a tech tree as a progress system
The colleagues at GameStar have already taken a closer look at Empyrion’s features with community manager Christoph Edelmann back in 2016.
Empyrion has been in development since 2015, and this is reflected in its not-so-modern graphics. As the new trailer shows, the indie game cannot visually compete with giants like Star Citizen, but seems to score points in terms of content:
Is there a multiplayer? Yes, Empyrion can be played either solo, in creative mode, or together with other players online in co-op. In multiplayer, you can trade with other players to get important resources more easily.
You can find Empyrion for PC on Steam, where it officially launched on August 5, 2020. It currently costs €17.99.
“Very positive” start on Steam
This is how well Empyrion is received: The ratings for Empyrion have been at 81% since the first testing phases and are thus “very positive” (17,806 reviews). The recent reviews, however, have flattened out to “mostly positive” at 74% (677 reviews, as of August 6).
According to steamcharts, an average of 3,246 players played Empyrion in the last 30 days, with 5,989 peak players concurrently. If you want to compare Empyrion with similar games, you can find our list of 7 space MMOs that you can play in 2020 and beyond.
This is what players praise: According to Steam user weisserhaijens, one of the biggest strengths of the game is the building of bases and controllable ships. This is one of the features that stands out positively in several reviews.
While the possibilities in multiplayer mode are somewhat limited, he believes that this is precisely right to promote teamwork. It would prevent servers from crashing during PvP battles, for example.
User P@r@dox!c states that Empyrion is a “jack of all trades”, meaning it can do a bit of everything but does nothing perfectly. Mechanics like crafting, survival, exploration, and building are strong but not outstanding. He still finds the game better than Star Citizen, EVE Online, or No Man’s Sky, precisely because it touches on so many areas at once.
Even here on MeinMMO, there are already some voices regarding Empyrion. Reader VoidX86 writes:
It is somewhat more complex, but the freedoms are enormous. Moreover, you don’t just start in space, but on a planet from an escape pod. You can also build large space stations. I can only recommend this game. I don’t know any other that offers so many freedoms.
This is what players criticize: That the game’s mechanics are not well-developed is the biggest point of criticism raised in negative reviews. User Undead Rufus writes in his detailed review:
Empyrion is clunky, buggy, amateurish, and frustrating […] Very few games do as much as Empyrion does, and on such a gigantic scale, but almost every game that comes to mind does what it does better than Empyrion.
He criticizes issues like a stupid AI as well as poor controls and animations. Many bugs significantly detracted from the fun of the game. Many users agree that Empyrion should have stayed in Early Access for a while longer – it is not yet polished enough for a release title.
Expert Assessment: Promising, if you are willing to compromise
Reviews of Empyrion read as though it is a game that many players have been waiting for and are disappointed because they wanted more than it ultimately became. Empyrion may be too ambitious, at least for a 1.0 release at this time.
It seems that players are eager for a game like Empyrion, yet expect more than an indie studio can deliver. The game apparently strikes a nerve but fails to fully satisfy the need.
Potentially, Empyrion is a strong survival game, which with a bit more polish and effort from the developers can certainly become a success for the relevant group of players and impress critics. However, the developers will need to stay committed and not be discouraged by negative reviews.
Benedict Grothaus
Freelance author and survival expert at MeinMMO
The current lull in new releases is also affecting the survival sector, and Empyrion is certainly a welcome interim meal for many fans of the genre. However, those who prefer to wait for the game’s development can find in the meantime our list of the 23 best survival games of 2020.
