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Empire of Sin is a Xcom style strategy game mixed with a semi city builder/management sim. You are placed firmly in the 1920s Prohibition era in the midst of a gang infested Chicago in the fight of who gets to control everything. A fun game that requires thinking at first and then steadily drops off in the later hours, different mechanics to implement and different playstyles to experiment, but they all fall down thanks to its barebones story, one way for victory and forgiving difficulty. Gameplay requires thinking about how to engage each encounter and how to adapt if something changes drastically. After you get the hang of it and have equipped each companion with the best of the best, things get easier fast and are just a cakewalk till the very end. Building different business requires of course money, alcohol, can you defend it quickly and depending on the picked upgrades, how much money and even if the police activity will just scour the area or go arrest everyone in it. The only way you can beat the story is through total Domination, since you have to beat each leader on the map, and for this I would have wished more ways to win, since some leaders were pretty nice to you. Graphics are beautiful if you pump everything to the max, but still even on lower they are pretty respectable, just don’t zoom too far in. If you are a fan of jazz music then Empire of Sin will be a treat as everything has that implemented into it, and the pace will change depending on what you’re doing. In Empire of Sin, you can choose to carry guns, shotguns, snipers, rifles, machine guns and a plethora of melee weapons. Weapons and weapon variety is respectable, different weapons work in different occasions, and with melee as a fallback nothing can offer much in the way of challenge.
Gameplay:
Divided into two games at times with one being your Xcom style strategy with heavy use of attributes of character/weapons and the other being a city builder/management sim. Let’s first cover the main attraction point of most players and that would be the fights. For anyone that has played Xcom they would feel right at home with heavy use of cover, choke points to get in cheap shots through overwatch, bombing clustered enemies to disrupt their position, having medics running along healing other members, enforces weaving from cover to cover to get in position to deal maximum damage, snipers covering from very far without any harm to their range and much more. Due to it being a mix of many elements in the midst of battle, each player can try many different strategies on how they would engage each problem. In terms of gang leaders, they are interesting and normally have a unique weapon and a unique buff to accompany them in battle, while also having a unique business arrangement which helps in the other part of the game being city builder/management sim. It’s a simple matter if I have enough resources to invest in building this one business, so that it helps in the long run to generate more to construct move. Empire of Sin offers the option to build business such as Brewery, Bars, Hotel, Brothel, Casino and Safehouse, these different buildings have unique mechanics, for instance a bar requires more alcohol, but earns the most consistent amount, casinos don’t require as much alcohol, but their revenue stream is very inconsistent. Hotels help the other businesses in a way of bringing as much people as possible, brothels are a safe bet, but don’t earn as much. Mixing and matching building to your specific needs is how you win and if someone decides to raid your business or raze it, will you have enough left to manage and not be in a net negative. Taking over each neighborhood can be fun if you make it fun, you can start up a business arrangement offering different buffs depending on the character, make one of your companions a mole to learn about the inner doings of an enemy gang, offer tributes in ways of alcohol, weapons, money and more. However, they start to feel same-y after about the second gang, they just exist and at one point just decide to conquer another gang, but not in a way so that they can guard it easily, but by just going in a random location. They can ask for sit-downs in different business building to offer you an alternative way of keeping good faith with as much people as possible. Once I was in all-out war with another gang, going in to kill their outer and inner guards, raze the building, and if it is the storage building, even raze the whole neighborhood, which in turn makes them lose control of it, and makes it so that thugs have taken control.
Another gameplay part that I liked was the mechanic of the ‘Black Book’ here you can find the best companions which all have different relationships between each other. One person can be a friend/enemy or lover to another and that can change their relationship to you and even if they decide to stay in the group. At one time one of the group members fell in love with another, but since that person already had his lover recruited previously, he was taken, but that didn’t stop the first one to get heavily jealous and straight up shoot his lover. That became deeper as he became sad and left the group, so after that event I was left with one dead group member, another sad and left, and 1 who I couldn’t trust to just snap and kill again (and of course having a debuff due to losing a member of the group, which she killed, in a way debuffing herself). Overall, an interesting implementation which has the potential to create stories within stories.
Story:
Empire of Sin is set in the 1920s Prohibition-era Chicago in midst of a gang war with different neighborhoods being controlled by unique gangsters with their own backstories. For instance, I chose O’Donovan an Irish fella on the run from his home country and is trying to make a name for himself here by any means necessary. That’s practically all the backstory for this one character and with very slight variations on them all, the overall idea stays the same. You have quests which, of course, offer rewards upon completion, and some even different paths of completion. Most main story ones are ‘take over 1 neighborhood’ and after finishing it ‘take over 2 neighborhoods’, you get the point. However, they didn’t compare to how interesting some side quest can be. From making me enter an enemy territory and poison their alcohol storage, track down one of my working ladies in the strip club, helping a police officer track down a criminal (or help the criminal), and many many more with each offering branching paths to completion. I would have appreciated different ways to achieve victory and not just the domination path, some of other gangs have interesting leaders who offer arrangements, trades, protection constantly (mostly when they see you get stronger than them) and with all that at the end I still have to kill them if I want victory. Make it so that I can merge both and take over control or make them sort of a vassal, have their autonomy, but for bigger picture stuff they come to me.
Graphics:
Moody, atmospheric, run down, cheap and dirty, this is how I would describe 1920s Chicago, at least how it is brought to life in Empire of Sin. The stand out, except the overall era correct fashion sense, is the lighting, as it serves to increase the fidelity of each surface, you can push it to look even better with a plethora of graphical options. Especially, if you pump up reflections to the max each and with Chicago being at all times in a state of wetness, each surface shines from afar.
Music, soundtrack and audio design:
Due to it being set in the 1920s Chicago one would expect it to be overwhelmingly Jazz and he would be correct. Jazz is playing through every moment with it being slower depending if you are just walking and interacting with NPCs and ramps up the moment a fight breaks loose. The streets are filled with people chatting to each other, cars and truck paving their way through back alleys (and honking furiously the moment you step in front of them). Each character (from gang leaders and the black book hired guns) has their unique voice, but to that extent normal guards have about 4-5 different voices and that’s it. Machine guns have that crunch-y sound of bullets just mangling enemies’ innards and sometimes making them get out of cover, and snipers can sound devastating with some shots downright sticking enemies to walls with how much power is being transferred.
Customization:
Bar weapons that can change the look of characters since you can see them fire with what they have equipped, and mostly that’s it. Each character already comes fully customized and even if you equip them different armour types their appearance doesn’t change. Size of buildings can change how different businesses look inside, for instance if I build a tavern in a small or large building their interior is drastically different, more or less rooms, hallways or not, more than 1 bar to order drinks and much more (and that stays true for other businesses as well).
Weapon variety:
A variety of guns, shotguns, snipers, rifles, machine guns and a plethora of melee weapons. As expected, each weapon shines in their own field, with snipers being great for long distance overwatch shots when the enemy is moving, shotguns are great at disrupting enemy position and trying to get them out of cover (if you have a character with great marksmanship, they can use a shotgun at a pretty respectable range). Traditionally in video games where the main way of combat is focused on ranged, melee can be the riskiest way of fighting, but the most rewarding due to its sheer amount of damage or other special abilities that ranged just doesn’t offer. I had a few people in my group that solely focused on getting in your face with a heavy blunt weapon or a fast slashing one. These characters were equipped with the sturdiest armour and due to them being the class ‘Enforcer’ they were granted more HP than usual, and with that combo they could enter, deal damage, and even if they don’t kill that enemy and or get surrounded, they would still survive. In conclusion, there is a respectable number of weapons with different attributes, range and situation specialty, and each is a recreation of real weapons used in the olden times of the 1920s.
Difficulty:
This is the biggest negative, early game is hard but doable, the moment you enter mid-game or the moment you beat your first gang leader, you begin total domination. I was buying time in the early to generate a huge amount of money so that I could buy everything and after all that, then I began to engage in skirmish tactics or all-out war, with dividing my team to attack in more than 1 place at a time. The hired guns that you can acquire from the previously mentioned ‘Black Book’ far outclass standard guards, which in turn makes every encounter pretty easy. Only the last fight with a gang leader can be somewhat different, since every leader has the option to hire from the ‘Black Book’, some can be there in the last fight to add difficulty. At the last few hours, I was just mowing down each neighborhood and their leaders with almost no hassle.
Advancement difficulty:
For all completionist out there, Empire of Sin has a plethora of different achievements, however they lean more on the hassle part, and not the fun and or challenging one. For instance, since we have different characters with which we can start our grand adventure, you have a unique achievement for finishing the game with each one. If there were different ways to play and win one could for instance take up the challenge to do just that, but since there isn’t much difference between each playthrough, you really have to love the game those set of achievements. Another example would be that there a dozen achievements dedicated to taking down each leader, but if that leader is taken down by someone else that whole achievement is gone, now you have to reload a previous save or if you haven't saved, start up a new game.
You can find Empire of Sin on Windows (Steam, Epic Games Store, Humble Bundle, Green Man Gaming, Gamefly (For Xbox/PS4/Switch), Xbox App), macOS, Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch.
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