Review for Empire of Sin. Game for Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 31/03/2020
We lived for a few days in the shoes of an American underworld of the '20s playing Empire of Sin, the new Romero Games title published by Paradox Interactive for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch. The game tries to match the mechanics of a management software with sections "in the field", experienced in the manner of one turn-based strategy at XCOM. How do these two modes come together in the final product? We tell you about it in our review.
Angelo Genna is the first gangster we have chosen among the 14 characters available early in Empire of Sin, some of which are reinterpretations of historical characters who really existed. Angelo has all the credentials to follow in the footsteps of Michael Corleone of Il Padrino, not so much for the name that betrays his Italian origins, but for his being a cold calculator, a quality necessary to survive in that sea populated by sharks that we we know it as the Chicago of the 20s, a context where illegal business has experienced a major surge due to prohibition.
The solid foundations of the empire of any good gangster are therefore based on the five cornerstones, on which one must aim to try to emerge in the Illinois crime business: breweries, clubs, brothels, casinos and hotels they are the places around which we must build our fortune, together with the various headquarters established in the dangerous districts of the city. Each of the gangsters is also characterized by a background that characterizes their abilities, which in turn guarantee bonuses in business management and unique special moves during combat, when you have to take up firearms and show who is really in charge. Chicago.
You can move around the game map by moving your character through the streets of the city, shown in an isometric view. By enlarging the frame, however, you can also access a more schematic map, which allows you to check the position of all buildings in the area (which you can appropriate to increase your earnings) and monitor the areas where rival gangs operate (belonging to the bosses not selected at the beginning), together with the points of interest in which to go to start the missions, essential for acquiring money and, above all, notoriety. Starting from a random neighborhood, controlled by equally random gangs, you can start building your own empire. All of this winks at replayability, which allows you not only to change your aspiring boss (each has a unique storyline), but to experience new situations, always starting from one constant: the need to enlist valid subordinates.
These members are not randomly generated, but belong to an array made up of 55 characters, all with different stories - with specific missions that allow them to improve their loyalty to us - and belonging to 5 different categories, which influence their skills and role in combat; each of them is also able to develop (or present from the beginning) a with other team members: loves, feuds, friendships between companions can arise, elements that then influence the action phases with bonuses, malus and others little goodies. When choosing your team it is therefore advisable to take into account the character aspect of the gang members, both from the interpersonal point of view and from that of loyalty towards the boss.
Once you have chosen the building to appropriate, you move on to action, and it is on the battlefield - with turn-based combat - that the main gaps in the game: more than once we have encountered problems related to bugs affecting some animations, while at other times we have encountered aincorrect coverage interpretation, a factor that threatened to compromise the topical moments of some battles. To all this must be added challenges that are not always balanced and success rates of the shots that are sometimes inconsistent, with an artificial intelligence that has never shown a particular brilliance.
These sections mainly take place in very similar indoor arenas, whose dimensions do not always guarantee great room for maneuver and which in some circumstances also put the camera in difficulty. Currently the development team is aware of many of these issues, which should be resolved with a patch that will arrive shortly after release and which will refine various aspects of the game.
While the most common fights do not provide interesting ideas, a separate discussion must be made for the boss fight, which kick off when it is decided to attack the home of a gangster who controls part of the city. Not only do we have to deal with more complex arenas, but the clashes here become much more heated and engaging, thanks to the large number of opponents and the skills of the opposing boss, capable of unleashing unique special moves to counterattack effectively.
However, the warlike solution is not always the most advantageous to go through in Empire of Sin: through comparisons in which they arise multiple choice dialogue options we can decide how to relate to our "colleagues", choosing whether to enter into a non-belligerent agreement or start an open war with a group that occupies an area adjacent to ours. It is always possible to take care of your with rival gangs down to the smallest detail, proposing exchanges, alliances and with the possibility of betraying or being betrayed at any time. In addition to the other gangs, it is important to manage your with the Chicago police, always intent on patrolling the streets and various suspicious buildings. Here, too, the possibilities provided are numerous and you can choose whether to act cautiously - closing the most suspicious structures for a short period - or work more actively, leveraging the possibility of bribing public officials in exchange for their "closing a eye".
Running such an empire and recruiting the most deserving members requires a great deal of money in Empire of Sin: this is where you have to venture into management component of its structures, which - although it did not surprise us how the management of s with other gangsters - allows you to invest in detail in order to obtain a greater economic return. You can choose to spend to improve each room under different aspects, evaluating the points where you are most at fault with respect to the fierce competition. Produce higher quality alcohol, place hotels in strategic points, guarantee better customer service or increase the number of guards to be ready in case of an enemy attack: you can operate as you prefer, with special tables that provide all useful data to make decisions.
In a work where the goal is to climb the hierarchies becoming the undisputed king of the city, you can freely choose how to act, focusing on investments that increase quality or simply deciding to get rid of the competition in a brutal way. Sometimes the AI didn't seem particularly bright in its decisions, aiming for sudden gear changes or making very bizarre decisions. All this, however, is understandable if translated into a game set in a context like that of Empire of Sin, where stabbing in the back is a common custom and where the changes of direction related to relations with other reference figures of the underworld are at the agenda.
Technically we are dealing with a work that it does not cry out for a miracle, making the streets of the many neighborhoods very pleasant but failing to provide a satisfying visual experience, especially when focusing on the variety of interiors: Empire of Sin repeatedly puts the player in front of the same structures and models of the enemies. The audio sector offers some interesting ideas on the soundtrack, which makes the atmosphere of the era well. Negative note is the lack of localization in Spanish, which for some may be problematic given the large number of parameters to be taken into account. The title is finally entirely dubbed in English in a discreet way.
Empire of Sin is immediately understood in its basic mechanics, which can then be learned best through numerous in-depth tutorials, which explain how to manage each section of your empire, an element that makes a similar title accessible even to those who are not very familiar with management games, provided they have a basic knowledge of English.
Empire of Sin has entertained us and, in its own way, has been able to combine different types of game in a single experience: the turn-based fighting limps in different respects, while the management part manages to provide a large number of possibilities, especially as far as it's about interacting with other criminal groups. The Chicago of the 20s awaits you: arm yourself with a rifle, wads to stretch under the counter and don't forget to always look over your shoulder.
► Empire of Sin is an RPG-Strategy-Tactical game published by Paradox Interactive for Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 31/03/2020
