Since Quake, under the direction of John Romero, not a single good project has come out. They were average or tolerable, the scandal around Daikatana went down in the history of the industry. Unfortunately, Empire of Sin has added to this list. It’s painful and boring to play. Sometimes funny.
Empire of Sin was billed as an isometric RPG with tactical combat and economic strategy elements. In fact, almost no part of the game works well, and instead of reflecting the gangster era of the 1920s, we have a tolerant mafia, an unbalanced combat system and a useless economy.
Cliched Chicago
Having chosen one of the mafia bosses, we are forced to listen to an almost five-minute dialogue with a taxi driver to reveal the hero. We are given a rough idea of who we play and what goals we pursue. Spoiler: everyone wants to take over Chicago and create their own mafia empire. Predictable but interesting. The first couple of hours.
As such, there is no storyline in the game. There is a main goal, and many other missions are layered on top of it, which slowly lead to the capture of Chicago. They are well written, but clichéd. A gangster girl from Montreal who, in addition to her dark deeds, is also a pop star, speaks with a French accent and is somewhere in the clouds. Al Capone is a hodgepodge of all media representations of him. Chinese, Italians, African Americans – they all have some kind of zest hidden behind a ton of stamps.
Another thing is that each of them has personal tasks. For Goldie Garno, for example, this is a meeting with a brother who has arrived from Montreal and is looking for protection from his sister, because collectors are chasing him. Job outcomes may vary. For example, the brother runs away, taking some of the savings, and leaves Goldie to deal with the collectors alone. And those moments are very touching. Poison a competitor’s breweries, or turn in a customer and build relationships? Help your companions with their personal affairs or start your own business? All of this has potential if it weren’t spoiled by mediocre gameplay.
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You only dream of balance
Someone at Romero Games decided that it was cool to mix a bunch of mechanics in one game and not implement any of them well. Each of the bosses has a unique combat ability. For Al Capone, it is to pour lead on everyone, both his own and others. Frank Ragen – hit with a baseball bat to the screams of the crowd. But Goldie Garno easily outplays them all with her Killer Queen perk. By entering hostile territory and using this skill, you can easily kill three opponents at once. The first district can be captured with this ability in just a couple of hours.
Equipment is also a problem. There are a lot of them, both weapons and auxiliary items, but by knocking out unique guns from bosses, you can go into buildings alone and capture any business. By equipping Goldie Garno with Al Capone’s “Friendly Handshake” machine gun, which fires bursts of five bullets and has a high chance of a critical attack, you can kill a tough mobster in two turns. Interest in battles disappears immediately. Everything is too easy.
Leveling abilities is useful only for teammates, because with the help of it they will be able to use different types of weapons. Yes, this brings variety, but you don’t want to change your favorite trunks for something unknown, and even more so to manage your party members – all the more, it’s almost useless. The protagonist and his teammates are rolling over the heads of enemies with cannons of “unusual” rarity – why bother?
Isometric Empire of Sin
Some bright head at Romero Games decided that moving around the city should be implemented in isometric, so that you need to indicate with the mouse where your squad will go. Fortunately, there is a more convenient and more informative view “from above”, where all the beauty of the city of Chicago is missing, but other people’s spheres of influence and patrols of enemy families are visible. Why couldn’t this be the default view?
Another problem of Empire of Sin is the economy, or rather, what the developers imagine under this term. Businesses generate income for the player, but also require money for upgrades and weekly expenses. This is annoying only in the first hour of the game, while the mafia boss has one brothel, a casino, a brewery and a hotel under control. You won’t earn much on them, you have to dig into a bunch of useless statistics and take into account the tastes of the local population, spend a lot of money on upgrading these establishments. But when a player captures at least one area, you can forget about the economy altogether. It remains only to go in and change the type of alcohol that the population of the area wants. Money flows like a river, just know, capture more establishments.
The dampness of the game and a huge number of bugs put an unprepared player into a stupor. A character that hangs alone in a pose during a fight and moves like that until the next restart of the game is commonplace. You can kill through walls with a 40-50% hit chance. At the same time, if an enemy is pinned to cover and you are standing behind him with a shotgun, the chance to hit is calculated taking into account the protection of the cover. Enemies and allies, using their abilities, can shoot at anything, but not at the target.
Diagnosis
Empire of Sin could be a good role-playing game if Romero Games curbs its ambitions. They tried to cram everything they could think of into the game: tactical combat, city economy, variable missions, and storytelling. There is no balance in battles, you forget about the economy after capturing the first territory, and only story missions are of interest.
You can try to play Empire of Sin, but you should not expect from the game either immersion in the era, or intelligible tactics or economic strategy. And it is better to wait for updates and bug fixes. Maybe over time, Romero Games will make the project that was originally talked about.
Pros
- Scenario and variability of tasks
- City design and graphics
- Musical accompaniment
Cons
- Broken combat system
- Useless economy
- Lots of unnecessary statistics
Questions about this game:
To recruit characters in Empire of Sin:
- Establish connections with other gangsters and criminals.
- Approach the characters you want to recruit.
- Initiate a conversation and learn about their skills and motivations.
- Persuade and negotiate with them to join your gang.
- Maintain positive relationships and fulfill their requests.
- Expand your network through recruited characters.
Remember to understand each character’s motivations and tailor your approach accordingly.
To take over a precinct in Empire of Sin:
- Build influence in the surrounding territory.
- Weaken the police by engaging in criminal activities.
- Plan the assault and prepare your gang.
- Engage in combat with the police officers at the precinct.
- Secure the precinct by eliminating threats.
- Assign gang members to manage and protect the territory.