Empyrean [$5.99], one of the recent releases of prolific gamebook publisher Choice of Games, doesn't start off on a good foot. Major events are happening to your character before you can even get your bearings, and it feels like the story is telling you a lot more than it's asking you. It doesn't help matters that the game's primary setting, the dieselpunk-styled city of Actorius, has a lot of lore to explain. The whole thing comes on a bit too strong initially, and I had to force myself to push through it in the early going. Give it some time to unfurl a little, however, and Empyrean proves to be great fun. It's a pulpy thing, to be sure, but it's high-quality pulp. I ended up enjoying it so much that even though this is one of the longer ChoiceScript games I've played, the time seemed to fly by. You take the role of the somewhat rebellious child of the Dominicar, a high-ranking member of society who is responsible for assembling much of the technology that allows the government of Actorius to hold power and defend the borders. Dominicar didn't just pull this technology out of thin air, however. Underneath Actorius lies the apparent ruins of a past civilization, one that was extremely technologically advanced. This underground area full of machinery and electronic wonders is called the Deep Tech, and it serves as a focal point for much of the game's events. Some want to plunder it. Some want to destroy it. A few even call it home.  But most of the citizens of Actorius go ...