So, looks like Empire of Sin is dropping soon! (December 1st: Romero Games’ new gangster-based RPG/Strategy game. Paradox publishing…)
CW for Violence in these Vids.
There’s a new video detailing characters and RPG abilities:
Plus some cool gameplay:
The thing that stands out to me is that they seem to be going for diversity and fun instead of ‘historically accurate’ boring period fluff we see assholes get all huffy about. Looks like there’s a lot of choices! Plus this is a dream game for me. I LOVE the idea of an xcom style mafia RPG/Strat game.
I don’t buy many full price games. This is going to be one of them. I don’t think I care if this is a hot mess of too many ideas, this is the kind of game I want people to try to make.
Please be a wild crime game where I can tell ridiculous stories about my gangsters.
Yes! This might be my most anticipated game remaining on the 2020 release calendar. I am hoping so hard that the Switch version can keep up, as I could use a new handheld tactics game.
The lead designer of this game is Brenda Romero, who has been in the games industry since the '80s. This is the game her husband (John - yes, that John Romero) says she’s been dreaming of making her entire life. I don’t even know if this is my genre of choice, but to support her (she’s from a tiny little town about 20 miles from my tiny little hometown so I claim her as my hometown hero) I am absolutely going to check this out.
EDIT: I thought this was a Romero Games developed thing and Paradox was publishing?
I’m really excited to try this thing out! The whole mob theme is very much my jam, and I always enjoy a good crunchy tactics game. For now, I still have a ton of other stuff to play (AC: Valhalla, Destiny 2: Beyond Light, Gears Tactics, Tetris Effect, maybe some Planet Coaster), but I will absolutely come around to this at some point.
My attempts to become the biggest mob boss in all of 1920’s Chicago haven’t been foiled by the cops or my rivals, but by corrupt saves, broken missions and employees that simply vanish. Two campaigns have ended up in the bin because of two entirely separate game-breaking issues. I’ve had smoother experiences with fresh early access games, and frankly I feel like I’ve just been a QA tester for a week. Even with access to the day one patch, I’ve encountered some significant problems, and they go a lot deeper than bugs.
I can’t say I didn’t have a suspicion this would be a mess. Still, I did pre-order it, and I plan to see how much fun I can wring out of it. It hurts a bit more that this is a Fraser Brown review, as I tend to thoroughly agree with his take on strategy things.
Fingers crossed for a holy patch, but, y’know, it’s a little unlikely.
Aw, that’s a shame. Is it somehow possible that the Switch version wound up better? Can that even happen? I’m looking forward to playing this game once they get this thing in the bag.
I had a little bit of a hunch that the moment-to-moment play in this would be rough, but the positives he mentions still sound enticing. The rpg elements and character drama sound interesting at least. Either way, I already pre-ordered it, so I’ll try to post updates here.
Right, okay, so I’ve put a couple hours into this, and I kinda don’t know what to make of it?
After choosing a boss; this time I picked Frankie Donovan, a bloody knuckled Irish Republican on the run, and playing through a very basic tutorial, the game absolutely drowns you in management shit. There’s just lists upon lists and systems and upgrade trees that the game doesn’t even try to hold back, except all I’ve been doing is going from building to building, killing unaffiliated goons and wondering how I’m supposed to offset my debt. The game has told me multiple times that the economic standing of my neighborhood has changed and that I should therefore upgrade the alcohol that I’m serving AND I HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT TO DO ABOUT THAT. I’ve also had a couple run-ins with other bosses that can’t do anything but vaguely threaten me, because I can’t use a taxi and go to their neighborhood for a sitdown? I think? Again, it’s not clear. I’m extremely confused, and the unstable nature of the game isn’t helping; I’ve had three crashes and at one point I actually had to restart the tutorial because the game didn’t autosave and a fight didn’t trigger properly. Fun stuff!
And I wasn’t expecting the switch version to look as low quality as it does. I figured there would be some sacrifices, but not like this:
Yeah this is likely the next game i’m going to buy but I’ll be waiting until its patched up. It seems extremely interesting in a Crusader Kings kinda way
I’m through the tutorial, and starting in on the early game. Enough to have tried a few of the systems to see how the game reacts.
Initial impression the game gives is mixed but hopeful. The opening sit down gives you a pretty well written dialog true to ham your way through, but the voice acting and facial animations let it down.
Once in the game the combat is xcom like, with swing music adding some breezy ambiance. Early foes are complete pushovers, and appreciate that my gangsters curse their luck when a whole clip misses.
The goal seems to be to build an empire through violence and management of rackets to produce income without attracting too much attention from the police. Early money seems to be pretty tight so violence against unaligned thugs feels like the best play for my man Daniel McKee Jackson, the undertaker.
So far I’ve looted and taken over about a half dozen rackets, started the breweries producing top shelf liquor and staffed the speakeasies with some barely competant security and paid some local bands to keep the music playing.
The first hour of actual play feels pretty good, if not particularly challenging. Another gang just tried to shake us down for 5 grand, so I think my first gang war is about to happen. We’ll see how that goes.
