Welcome to our review of Empire of Sin, a game trying to blend RPG, tactical and strategy into one game!
A small warning before we start to review, this is clearly an adult oriented game … Do not buy it for children!
Empire of Sin is a new strategy game brought to you by Romero Games and Paradox Interactive that puts you at the heart of the ruthless criminal underworld of 1920s Prohibition-era Chicago. Slip into the shoes of one of the fourteen real and historically inspired mob bosses such as Al Capone, Stephanie St. Clair, or Goldie Garneau and assemble a rag-tag gang, build and manage your criminal empire, and defend your turf from rival gangs. It’s up to you to hustle, charm, and intimidate your way to the top and do whatever it takes to stay there – break a leg!
Roleplay: Choose one of fourteen unique bosses based on fictional and real-world gangsters, then set out to build and manage your criminal empire in Chicago’s infamous Prohibition era.
Empire Management: Build your Empire of Sin and run Chicago’s underworld economy with business savvy, brutality or city-wide notoriety. Strategically manage your establishments such as speakeasies, supply chains, casinos and more.
Turn-Based Combat: Assemble your gang and slug it out in turn-based combat to defend and expand your territory – or send a message to opposing gangs.
Empire of Sin is an extremely busy game and yes, that can be a good thing. When I first saw the announcement trailer, which really looks interesting, I thought this would be mostly a turn-based combat game of the tactical genre. Maybe adding some RPG elements but it is so much more than that. Empire of Sin is a really heavy blend of all the aforementioned genres.
The basic fighting is based on the tactical genre and is turn-based combat in its purest form. It quite excels at this and after the tutorial, I had little to no questions left on what to do. Basically pick where I want to go, decide who I want to attack or heal when needed. No surprises here as this part is very well implemented.
As it is not a linear game but more of the SIM-based genres, you can choose what to do next, whether this is raiding a brothel or raiding a brewery, Empire of Sin lets you do it all! It does not stop there however, as you are on your way to becoming the ultimate kingpin, you are also tasked with running the show. This is rather overwhelming at first as you are given so many options on management and how it will benefit your cash flow.
Cash flow which is needed to have helpers in combat and eventually even an underboss to run things for you. Every single person in your employment, male or female, costing you money. Obviously, the more skilled thugs will cost more than others, but my experience so far is that you also need the crappy ones to take the fall in battle so you don’t die yourself.
The next part of the game is the map, showing all the neighborhoods and obviously also neighboring kingpins and the areas they represent. Often leading you to have a choice to either talk to them or to just attack them instead. This is where it may get tricky as it is sometimes better to just bribe them at first instead of getting attacked from multiple sides.
As you begin to grow your own neighborhood, not only cash flow is important but also the protection and the appeal of the buildings. I guess nobody likes a dirty brothel? Empire of sin does keep track of all this as well, making it even more impressive and at the same time scary.
As this more or less represents 3 different genres, the game does do a really good job at balancing out what part is most important but I have to say Empire of Sin is both impressive and scary. Some of the screens are so filled with information, that it became overwhelming to do that management side of the game, and just wanting to do some more battling.
While I did have a lot of fun in this game, I would like to stress once more that this game is not to be taken lightly. It is a really heavy chunk of time-consuming software and if you are looking for a lighter quote-unquote “snack”, you should stay clear of this one.
In conclusion, Empire of Sin really tries very hard to set itself apart in the gaming industry and at times it really succeeds at that as well. My only caveat with the game is that it might be too big for its shoes to fill. But in all fairness, I will be the next kingpin of Chicago, how about you?
