Empire of Sin is a turn-based tactical/empire building “gabagool” simulator developed by Romero Games, a studio created by DOOM creator John Romero. Originally coming from the mind of John Romero’s wife Brenda Romero, whose hobbies included creating her own historical board games. This desire to create the game had lasted for around twenty years, and after the studio was formed the two then decided to approach Paradox Interactive, whose history of publishing strategy titles led to a partnership formed for the development of this game. It’s debut started I believe in 2019 E3 during the Nintendo Showcase (according to sources, as though I probably watched this showcase I don’t remember this moment) and was later released December of 2020. My personal history with this game is limited, I honestly don’t remember if I watched the Nintendo Showcase but I do remember hearing “Mafia strategy game” and wishlisting it immediately. I was cautiously excited for the game, hoping that it would be an updated version of Gangsters: Organized Crime. It was not, and debuted with Mixed reviews (almost negative on Steam). However, I picked it up after waiting for it to go on sale I believe at some point and gave it a playthrough (with cheats activated of course, thanks WeMod) to just relax, having replayed it twice or so over the past two years. My opinion on the game is that the mixed reviews are correct, but here’s how I specifically feel.
The plot to Empire of Sin is a very simple one, it depends strictly on the boss you choose and their backstory. For example,. Al Capone’s campaign has a whole bit involving his old buddy Frankie Yale coming from New York and their tumultuous friendship. Angelo Genna has him taking care of his psychotic brother who only causes problems for him. One thing I will note is that the bosses you choose are an amalgamation of gangsters from both other locations in the same-ish era (ex. Dion O’ Bannion from Chicago, Stephanie St. Clair from Harlem, Elvira Duarte aka John Romero's Great Grandma I think?, etc.) to I believe fictional ones (Goldie Garneau). The second half of the game has to do with corrupt Bureau agents and a political war between a socialite with powerful connections and contention with the police chief. It’s not bad but the very basic gist of the game is to just take over the map anyways, which brings me to the ultimate part: the gameplay.
As the most important part of any tactical empire builder game, it’s important to note that the strategy aspect of the game has to be both fun and technically competent. I’ll start with the technically competent one: ehhhh kinda. Sometimes it runs perfectly fine and I can’t complain! Other times, like when I was playing Al Capone’s game, I would be told to, for example, go find Frankie Yale inside of some bar. However, I can’t do that because “the guards” won’t let me do that. I try to talk to the guards, sometimes the guards will attack and sometimes I’ll be able to talk to the guards, who will say “sure come in” and then I still won’t be able to go in. I kill them, still won’t be able to come in. The only way I’ve been able to move past this was if I were to view the inside of the building and then right click to move my guys inside but that’s kind of a hit or miss depending on the objective. Another time I would do a protection treaty with another group, and if another group was bought out but had bad relations and had declared war then the group you’re protecting would ask for your help. Click on the notification and not only does it say that this group is still alive and needs your help, but you won’t be able to close this pop up which requires a full game reset. Stuff like this didn’t occur too much but occurred enough to where after a while of playing it that I need to take a break after a bit.
As for if the gameplay is fun, I’ll go through a general description of what the game is like. First when you start up, you start as your boss and go through the tutorials of hiring specific goons (the limit is 16), from there you go to certain buildings which have random thugs and wipe them out in X-COM styled combat in order to take over the building and turn it into a racket. From there you choose between your four (or five depending on if you have DLC) rackets which vary in price depending on district conditions, and from there you grow your money in order to upgrade your rackets. Once you upgrade your main district hideout enough, you can choose between multiple different buildings for bonuses to those districts (ex. Boxing Gloves for an extra guard in that district only, a Mob Lawyer to lower police presence, etc). You can gain more of these by obtaining certain quest awards or using certain bosses (like Malting will boost your booze but can only be unlocked from a side quest outcome, or Al Capone’s Suit Shop which will boost the chances of police bribes being successful that’s unique to him only). You’ll get quests which offer semi open ended pathways which lead to different rewards sometimes (mostly money) while also dealing with a giant contention of other rival gangsters. Your specific gangsters (as well as your boss) form their own relationships with each other (off-screen) and can get perks and traits. For example, one thing I didn’t notice is that when I went AFK one time, I left all my people inside of a pub, where a whole bunch of them became alcoholics and gained negative traits. You can also gain traits and perks due to combat actions, and using perk points can upgrade their skill tree when you level them up.
In between dealing with rival gangsters, you’ll also have to deal with the game’s most important currency other than money: booze. Being the Prohibition Era and all, it’s important to establish a consistent stream of booze and supply. Different types of booze lead to different payouts and outcomes, but also lead to rival bosses trying to ride your s h i t. What I’ll say about the bosses aspect is that the way the game limits you, while it may be realistic can also be really annoying. At one point I found out the location of a rival boss's hideout, and I wanted to send a bunch of goons to go in and kill them, but I couldn’t because none of my territory surrounds them and “supply lines are cut off”. Like that hasn’t stopped people from sending in hitmen to kill bosses, and truth is I’d rather have the option to fail then get restricted like that because it’s really annoying. The only other things I can think of for the gameplay is that you’ll get certain weapons either as loot or through the black market/police contacts. It’s important to get the best hardware that you can possibly get as not only does it help with combat but also rival named goons could have really heavy firepower and could wipe you out quickly. Being a strategy game, there’s so much stuff involved with this game, between police attention/bureau raids as well as balancing diplomacy, random world events, there’s a lot of stuff in there that I know I’m probably missing.
The gameplay itself for the most part is fine, and I’ve gotten myself lost in the game’s mechanics multiple times. I personally had fun with the game, though I also messed about using WeMod Dev cheats because I wanted to have a game to chill and vibe too. However, even with the cheat codes, I can still sit there and respect certain aspects and vibes even if I’m not experiencing them due to my cheating. This game feels like a strange mix of complex and painfully simple, which depending on the type of player can be really frustrating or okay. Overall, it’s a decent time as well as a time sink, just have patience with how buggy it can be on the gameplay front at times. Also there's a very small Steam Workshop community that I Hope eventually gets expanded one day because that could add for some variation!
The audio to the game for the most part is fine, it’s not a super crazy atmosphere audio wise. The music I’ve noticed (or haven’t noticed) isn’t really there, but when it is it consists of old timey jazz stuff and whatnot. For the most part you’ll be hearing certain sound effects over and over: the chatter of the city, honking horns, etc. If I were to give praise to any of the audio design I’d say that the weapons sound pretty damn good, ESPECIALLY when someone breaks out a sniper rifle or a rifle of some kind, it just has that oomph, the impact if you will. Voice acting is barely there too other than the boss characters and the taxi driver for the most part. The voice acting jobs aren’t bad, they don’t take me out of the moment so I can’t complain but there isn’t really anything that pops up and makes me say “WOW” or anything you know? Overall, the audio stuff is serviceable and that’s ok.
Graphically I’ll say that the game is perfectly fine for the whole current/next gen era; everything for the most part looks smooth with details, or at least with as much detail as you can see from the top down. I think the only real criticism I can give in terms of the graphical fidelity is when you quit from the top down perspective and you start to go to the in-person meetings and the taxi cutscenes in the beginning and the end of the game. There’s something about the character models that just feel uncanny, which I can say varies from the lifeless eyes that the characters can have to the strange lack of facial movement. I’m not saying that this game needs Last of Us styled motion capture but playing as say Al Capone and talking to another boss and he just emotes like a muppet or something and it just feels strange. As for the atmosphere, I’ll give the game credit a lot more with this because it definitely screams the Roaring 20s pretty damn well with period matching clothing, weapons, slang and all that good shit that I can appreciate pretty damn well, and it again really fills that Boardwalk Empire feeling that I’ve been desperately craving. It’s not the most overwhelmingly crazy thing that I could go in depth into but it’s good set dressing.
Empire of Sin as a game however is kind of hard to recommend: it has a lot of the foundation that could make for a really interesting gangster strategy game from the combat potential to the overworld. However the game both feels like it has a lot of unseen potential as well as the fact that it’s honestly kind of a glitchy mess with a lot of the stuff. If I were to wrap up the review with one sentence, it’s that the mixed reviews that the game has really kind of fits. Every time I play this game I get some personal satisfaction out of it, filling my Prohibition era “Boardwalk Empire” fix that I desperately need every now and then; but I also get really frustrated with both the lack of depth and having to reload my save every five seconds because a part of the game decides to break. It’s gone to a point where I’ll still play the game, but I’ll play the game with cheats on only just because I’ll have more of a relaxing and fun experience with it. As for the price, I would only recommend it if you were to get it on sale and have a lot of patience with the technical state of the game. Historically as well, I’ve looked into other reviews of the game where I’ve heard stuff about promised DLC not being released with the expansion pack which I also think is a damn shame and if the game was just thrown under the rug like that, don’t ask people to pay for stuff and then you don’t deliver cause that’s bitch shit.
Other than that, there doesn’t seem to be a future for this game and that’s a shame, mainly because it seems that Romero Games has abandoned the title and moved onto creating both SIGIL 2 (a sequel to the unofficial DOOM episode and released for DOOM 2) as well as starting development on some unknown triple A first person shooter. Regardless, it seems that first person shooters are the main bread and butter and that this game will be left in the dust which is sad but not surprising. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll get the Gangsters remake that we deserve but I guess for now if you’re looking for an actual strategy gangster game you can try for Omerta: City of Gangsters or go for the original Gangsters game on GOG. As for me, I’ll still give this game a spin every now and then with cheats, but just with the caveat that the game is extremely flawed and that I play this to kill time or when my Boardwalk Empire Youtube Clip addiction comes back.
Links:
https://www.destructoid.com/empire-of-sin-is-a-dream-game-for-john-and-brenda-romero/
https://www.engadget.com/2019-06-14-empire-of-sin-e3-demo.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqC0Pp6V6oc&ab_channel=ParadoxInteractive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjxT-iPFCgM&list=PL4hR-M4rl7udGYKCP2q0sgwMg1rxtLzAH&index=15&ab_channel=ParadoxExtra
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/EmpireOfSin
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
The plot to Empire of Sin is a very simple one, it depends strictly on the boss you choose and their backstory. For example,. Al Capone’s campaign has a whole bit involving his old buddy Frankie Yale coming from New York and their tumultuous friendship. Angelo Genna has him taking care of his psychotic brother who only causes problems for him. One thing I will note is that the bosses you choose are an amalgamation of gangsters from both other locations in the same-ish era (ex. Dion O’ Bannion from Chicago, Stephanie St. Clair from Harlem, Elvira Duarte aka John Romero's Great Grandma I think?, etc.) to I believe fictional ones (Goldie Garneau). The second half of the game has to do with corrupt Bureau agents and a political war between a socialite with powerful connections and contention with the police chief. It’s not bad but the very basic gist of the game is to just take over the map anyways, which brings me to the ultimate part: the gameplay.
As the most important part of any tactical empire builder game, it’s important to note that the strategy aspect of the game has to be both fun and technically competent. I’ll start with the technically competent one: ehhhh kinda. Sometimes it runs perfectly fine and I can’t complain! Other times, like when I was playing Al Capone’s game, I would be told to, for example, go find Frankie Yale inside of some bar. However, I can’t do that because “the guards” won’t let me do that. I try to talk to the guards, sometimes the guards will attack and sometimes I’ll be able to talk to the guards, who will say “sure come in” and then I still won’t be able to go in. I kill them, still won’t be able to come in. The only way I’ve been able to move past this was if I were to view the inside of the building and then right click to move my guys inside but that’s kind of a hit or miss depending on the objective. Another time I would do a protection treaty with another group, and if another group was bought out but had bad relations and had declared war then the group you’re protecting would ask for your help. Click on the notification and not only does it say that this group is still alive and needs your help, but you won’t be able to close this pop up which requires a full game reset. Stuff like this didn’t occur too much but occurred enough to where after a while of playing it that I need to take a break after a bit.
As for if the gameplay is fun, I’ll go through a general description of what the game is like. First when you start up, you start as your boss and go through the tutorials of hiring specific goons (the limit is 16), from there you go to certain buildings which have random thugs and wipe them out in X-COM styled combat in order to take over the building and turn it into a racket. From there you choose between your four (or five depending on if you have DLC) rackets which vary in price depending on district conditions, and from there you grow your money in order to upgrade your rackets. Once you upgrade your main district hideout enough, you can choose between multiple different buildings for bonuses to those districts (ex. Boxing Gloves for an extra guard in that district only, a Mob Lawyer to lower police presence, etc). You can gain more of these by obtaining certain quest awards or using certain bosses (like Malting will boost your booze but can only be unlocked from a side quest outcome, or Al Capone’s Suit Shop which will boost the chances of police bribes being successful that’s unique to him only). You’ll get quests which offer semi open ended pathways which lead to different rewards sometimes (mostly money) while also dealing with a giant contention of other rival gangsters. Your specific gangsters (as well as your boss) form their own relationships with each other (off-screen) and can get perks and traits. For example, one thing I didn’t notice is that when I went AFK one time, I left all my people inside of a pub, where a whole bunch of them became alcoholics and gained negative traits. You can also gain traits and perks due to combat actions, and using perk points can upgrade their skill tree when you level them up.
In between dealing with rival gangsters, you’ll also have to deal with the game’s most important currency other than money: booze. Being the Prohibition Era and all, it’s important to establish a consistent stream of booze and supply. Different types of booze lead to different payouts and outcomes, but also lead to rival bosses trying to ride your s h i t. What I’ll say about the bosses aspect is that the way the game limits you, while it may be realistic can also be really annoying. At one point I found out the location of a rival boss's hideout, and I wanted to send a bunch of goons to go in and kill them, but I couldn’t because none of my territory surrounds them and “supply lines are cut off”. Like that hasn’t stopped people from sending in hitmen to kill bosses, and truth is I’d rather have the option to fail then get restricted like that because it’s really annoying. The only other things I can think of for the gameplay is that you’ll get certain weapons either as loot or through the black market/police contacts. It’s important to get the best hardware that you can possibly get as not only does it help with combat but also rival named goons could have really heavy firepower and could wipe you out quickly. Being a strategy game, there’s so much stuff involved with this game, between police attention/bureau raids as well as balancing diplomacy, random world events, there’s a lot of stuff in there that I know I’m probably missing.
The gameplay itself for the most part is fine, and I’ve gotten myself lost in the game’s mechanics multiple times. I personally had fun with the game, though I also messed about using WeMod Dev cheats because I wanted to have a game to chill and vibe too. However, even with the cheat codes, I can still sit there and respect certain aspects and vibes even if I’m not experiencing them due to my cheating. This game feels like a strange mix of complex and painfully simple, which depending on the type of player can be really frustrating or okay. Overall, it’s a decent time as well as a time sink, just have patience with how buggy it can be on the gameplay front at times. Also there's a very small Steam Workshop community that I Hope eventually gets expanded one day because that could add for some variation!
The audio to the game for the most part is fine, it’s not a super crazy atmosphere audio wise. The music I’ve noticed (or haven’t noticed) isn’t really there, but when it is it consists of old timey jazz stuff and whatnot. For the most part you’ll be hearing certain sound effects over and over: the chatter of the city, honking horns, etc. If I were to give praise to any of the audio design I’d say that the weapons sound pretty damn good, ESPECIALLY when someone breaks out a sniper rifle or a rifle of some kind, it just has that oomph, the impact if you will. Voice acting is barely there too other than the boss characters and the taxi driver for the most part. The voice acting jobs aren’t bad, they don’t take me out of the moment so I can’t complain but there isn’t really anything that pops up and makes me say “WOW” or anything you know? Overall, the audio stuff is serviceable and that’s ok.
Graphically I’ll say that the game is perfectly fine for the whole current/next gen era; everything for the most part looks smooth with details, or at least with as much detail as you can see from the top down. I think the only real criticism I can give in terms of the graphical fidelity is when you quit from the top down perspective and you start to go to the in-person meetings and the taxi cutscenes in the beginning and the end of the game. There’s something about the character models that just feel uncanny, which I can say varies from the lifeless eyes that the characters can have to the strange lack of facial movement. I’m not saying that this game needs Last of Us styled motion capture but playing as say Al Capone and talking to another boss and he just emotes like a muppet or something and it just feels strange. As for the atmosphere, I’ll give the game credit a lot more with this because it definitely screams the Roaring 20s pretty damn well with period matching clothing, weapons, slang and all that good shit that I can appreciate pretty damn well, and it again really fills that Boardwalk Empire feeling that I’ve been desperately craving. It’s not the most overwhelmingly crazy thing that I could go in depth into but it’s good set dressing.
Empire of Sin as a game however is kind of hard to recommend: it has a lot of the foundation that could make for a really interesting gangster strategy game from the combat potential to the overworld. However the game both feels like it has a lot of unseen potential as well as the fact that it’s honestly kind of a glitchy mess with a lot of the stuff. If I were to wrap up the review with one sentence, it’s that the mixed reviews that the game has really kind of fits. Every time I play this game I get some personal satisfaction out of it, filling my Prohibition era “Boardwalk Empire” fix that I desperately need every now and then; but I also get really frustrated with both the lack of depth and having to reload my save every five seconds because a part of the game decides to break. It’s gone to a point where I’ll still play the game, but I’ll play the game with cheats on only just because I’ll have more of a relaxing and fun experience with it. As for the price, I would only recommend it if you were to get it on sale and have a lot of patience with the technical state of the game. Historically as well, I’ve looked into other reviews of the game where I’ve heard stuff about promised DLC not being released with the expansion pack which I also think is a damn shame and if the game was just thrown under the rug like that, don’t ask people to pay for stuff and then you don’t deliver cause that’s bitch shit.
Other than that, there doesn’t seem to be a future for this game and that’s a shame, mainly because it seems that Romero Games has abandoned the title and moved onto creating both SIGIL 2 (a sequel to the unofficial DOOM episode and released for DOOM 2) as well as starting development on some unknown triple A first person shooter. Regardless, it seems that first person shooters are the main bread and butter and that this game will be left in the dust which is sad but not surprising. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll get the Gangsters remake that we deserve but I guess for now if you’re looking for an actual strategy gangster game you can try for Omerta: City of Gangsters or go for the original Gangsters game on GOG. As for me, I’ll still give this game a spin every now and then with cheats, but just with the caveat that the game is extremely flawed and that I play this to kill time or when my Boardwalk Empire Youtube Clip addiction comes back.
Links:
https://www.destructoid.com/empire-of-sin-is-a-dream-game-for-john-and-brenda-romero/
https://www.engadget.com/2019-06-14-empire-of-sin-e3-demo.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqC0Pp6V6oc&ab_channel=ParadoxInteractive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjxT-iPFCgM&list=PL4hR-M4rl7udGYKCP2q0sgwMg1rxtLzAH&index=15&ab_channel=ParadoxExtra
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/EmpireOfSin
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/