Sometimes you see a video game out in the wild and you just know: that’s a game for me. That’s how it was with Break the Empire, a new Early Access action-roguelite that I discovered recently while researching for The Best New Roguelikes.
This macabre fantasy action RPG has just launched into Early Access on PC, and after it first caught my eye I was eager to give it a closer look. Happily, I didn’t have to wait too long…
So what is Break the Empire all about?
The title is as instructive as it is vague. The aim of the game is indeed to break the empire, but we’re doing so for reasons that we’re not going to worry about too much. There’s an empire. The empire is bad. We have to break it. Simple.
But how, I hear you ask? The answer to that question is: magic. And not the good kind either. There are three playable characters in the game at the time of writing, and each one posses a terrible power that you must harness and then use as creatively as possible.
As Cain the Cult Leader you can use your magic to turn your enemies into your disciples. Then, with your followers in tow, you can attack any and all villagers that you encounter who can’t be turned.
Bernie the Fire Imp is my personal favourite of the three and the most hands-on, too. When playing this character one must adopt more of a scorched earth approach, growing stronger from ash and then scorching your enemies with fiery attacks.
Finally there’s Graethal, a grizzled old necromancer who summons zombies from the earth, explodes corpses at will, and generally goes around being extremely anti-social.
Using one of these three miscreants you must march on civilisation, slaughtering all that you encounter by using a growing collection of wicked spells that you can upgrade as you go.
First impressions of Break the Empire
I’ve only played the game for a couple of hours, but during that time I warmed to its quirky sense of humour, the distinctive pixel-art style, and the chaotic gameplay. Break the Empire character’s each has a skill tree to explore, with further customisation available from equippable items that you grab along the way.
The abilities of each character are distinct, and so each one feels very different to play. Indeed, two of them can control mobs of NPCs, which sometimes can make playing as them feel more like an RTS than an action-roguelite. Yes, you can directly point your zombies at individual targets, however, oftentimes you’ll be controlling the action indirectly via pre-determined attack patterns.
For the most part you’ll encounter villagers, but there are mini-bosses, archers, mages, and more. As you get closer to the fifth stage, even more powerful denizens of the empire will come for you. That said, I didn’t get anywhere near the end before my little imp was overrun. I didn’t manage it with the other two either, and overall I thought that it was balanced to deliver a challenge.
What’s next for Break the Empire?
The plan is to keep the game in EA for just a few months, so I’m not expecting wholesale changes, and that’s fine by me. What’s there is playable and fun, although I’d like to see a bit more accessibility and a more intuitive user experience (maybe also controller / Steam Deck support).
Considering the modest price point and the variety offered by the three playable characters, I’m happy with what’s already baked in. It’s a solid starting point, however, the promise of more characters and new environments is a good thing, and I’m intrigued to see where this one goes and how the gameplay can be evolved.
Break the Empire has made a positive first impression and I’m going to come back for a proper deep dive when developer Edym Pixels deems it complete. I think there’s a lot of potential here and it’s already quite engaging, but I’m hoping that a bit more time in the oven is going to turn this into something special. It’s not there yet, but I’m optimistic.
Break the Empire is out now on Steam PC (Win) and I played the game via access provided by the developer – thanks for that!
