Set in the city of Chicago during the Prohibition years comes Empire of Sin, an explosive mix that combines management, turn-based strategy and role-playing in an attempt to create a unique video game. Gets it? In the analysis of the new production of Paradox Interactive we review its successes and errors.
Romero Games’ new work may not have been able to satisfy me completely but my words do not discourage you since Empire of Sin is brave and original in many of its proposals. That is the main reason why I would have liked its creators to go a step further in some of these ideas. Despite what has been said, this Paradox Interactive production has a good number of narrative and playable mechanics of the most interesting. The most remarkable of them is, clearly, the enormous number of mafia bosses . Well-known names such as Al Capone, Angelo Genna or Joseph Saltis are found in this list of up to 14 caposfrom which to choose. Each of them has their own special abilities, whether they are benefits in a certain type of business or abilities to execute during combat. However, the most remarkable feature is that each of them has its own story.
Precisely here I would have liked to see more. It is interesting to observe each one of the stories of the protagonists, something that, on the other hand, requires starting 14 different games, which significantly increases the duration of the title as well as its replay value. These stories come to life based on conversations and travels through a world in which the isometric perspective leaves some space for some animations based mainly on close-ups and back-shots of the protagonists. Unfortunately, and despite having a clear and direct writingwhich is appreciated, these stories are mere anecdotes in the whole experience. They lack the strength, and especially the necessary development during the entire game to be completely satisfactory. They base all their strength on letting the player make some decisions by carrying out different investigations in some cases or guiding us by our instincts in others.
I am surprised that it did not go further; I think Romero Games has lacked determination when it comes to creating a single solid script in which to develop a specific story with all the playable elements that they pose during the experience. Your isometric perspectiveIn the purest style of the western role of the nineties, it invites you to immerse yourself in an extensive, deep and full of elements that loyalty to the player with their narrative. However, with regard to these main missions Empire of Sin does not achieve the desired relevance in the global set of the experience, making them remain as mere anecdotes and that, once we grow our empire and begin to dominate neighborhoods, they can become completely forgotten because the game, in a view further away from the camera, is transformed into a kind of Monopoly in which we can only appreciate the buildings we own, the colors and who dominates the territory at that time.
Love, hate and the mob
Romero Games lacked determination when it came to creating a single solid scriptIn Empire of Sin we are not going to create our own criminal empire (although we could try to do so). The game offers the user 55 different gangsters to hire and integrate into our group of up to 10 members. Each of them has their own profile, being able to be a scammer, hit man, doctor or demolition among others. Naturally, each of these profiles has its own tree of enhancements applicable to combat that improve with your seniority. This may sound generic, however, there are some differentiating factors that make this blacklist one of the biggest hits in the game.
First of all, I have to highlight the care that has been given to each of these characters. They are not only photographs in a frame, but they have been endowed with a biography that we can know before joining our ranks and above all, a system of loyalty, love and hate has been implemented between them.. In this way, when hiring any of these gregarious members, the player must take into account how he gets along with other members of the list, in cases where some of them are incompatible within the same group due to the background that they drag. In others, they may have a love relationship, so having both in the group gives rise to interesting situations since they can activate special movements and attacks during combat and they may even have a fight as a couple and this affects their performance in the group.
This list of hitmen is not unique to the player, but each of these characters are included in the game, can be found in our gambling dens or be part of a rival gang. Something that I especially liked is the latter and how it affects combat. Before entering an assault, the game warns us if there is someone who has a relationship with our gangsters and how it would affect if we shoot or kill this person in question, so it becomes an important factor to take into account during confrontations since in high difficulties the solution will not always be as simple as not shooting and leaving him alive until he escapes from combat, which implies a certain component of risk in decision making and even in a good planning of the management of our staff.
The skirmishes are set up in turn-based matches in the purest XCOM styleThe members of this list who die will do so forever and each of the decisions you make, as well as the time they spend in the band or their performance and experience in combat, will endow them with a series of passive traits that end marking the difference between one game and another. The good work that has been done in this section is finished off by the inclusion of character missions , which has ended up involving me with some of them and more if we take into account that as a result of our choices these characters can develop traits such as alcoholism or frustration, and even leaving the band.
Coverages, percentages and skills
Although the story is important, the central axis of its gameplay lies in the fighting . These skirmishes are raised in turn-based confrontations in the purest XCOM style in which the probabilities of hitting our shots, entering coverage and the appropriate distribution of our units on the battlefield must be taken into account. Unfortunately Empire of Sin fails to convince in its proposal because compared to other games of the style, it remains on the surface of what it tries to do.
One of the most notable problems is the distribution of the units at the beginning of these confrontations. A pre-combat turn is missed in which to place the units, which has as a result that the members of our squad find themselves in a row when entering each of the rooms. It contrasts with the disposition of the enemy units that are sometimes very far away from the scene, so entering into conflict requires several unsuccessful turns in which the behavior of the enemy artificial intelligence leaves much to be desired. The truth is that this improves if we choose to play in higher difficulties, so I would advise veterans to jump into the Sottocapo and Boss levels from the beginning ahead of the Lieutenant difficulty, which is where the game starts by default.
Empire of Sin is committed to giving the player very spectacular tools through the different abilities of each of the characters; Of note are the bursts of cover or chains of murders that allow to kill many enemy units in a single turn. Even with that, other problems such as transparent coverage, which make some of our actions somewhat implausible, end up uglying a section in which they have worked quite well to give the player the greatest number of references when selecting the shot. or the most appropriate action.
Events during combat have effects on both our characters and enemies, producing situations in which they flee the confrontation when they are overwhelmed, execute special movements related to the synergies of the squad or fall injured while bleeding on the battlefield. There are also other status effects such as poisoning that can affect us. However, the set feels superficial, far from being able to give the best of itself, making the challenge look very diminished after a few hours, leaving it far from other references within this genre such as Gears Tactics or Desperados III .
At the end of each of these confrontations we will obtain loot in the form of weapons or items that we can equip in each of our thugs, something that gives it a little RPG point that does not feel bad. Not only can some of our allies end up permanently dead, their injuries can be so severe that we may have to do without them for a time until they have fully recovered. Another consequence is that we take control of the buildingin question deciding what we want to do with it. Leave it as it is or turn it into another type of exploitation: a brothel, a distillery, a speakeasy, a casino or a hotel are the most intelligent options. However, we can simply loot it and disable it for a time or demolish it and end a future conflict point in one fell swoop.
Control the locals and you’ll control Chicago
With this premise Empire of Sin begins to show signs of lack of cohesionthat will accompany this analysis from now on in the rest of its sections. The control of the establishments one by one is a possibility, however, everything will be part of the illusion that the player wants to create in his game session, since there is a faster way to get control of a good number of points hot: attack the safe house of the gang in question. The moment we win in this confrontation, all the businesses of that faction start to swell our economy, so attacking the different locations in Chicago makes no sense. I understand that Romero Games has wanted to give the user the possibility to choose how to live the experience, but due to its approach, the game cries out for a weakening system in which we cannot attack these safe houses until we have weakened the faction in question previously.
This system is a tsunami that kills everything else the game wants to raise. The truth is that each of these businesses can be improved, being able to increase their security, their production, their environment as well as their popularity in up to 5 levels per store. But by being able to gain control of other safe houses with a simple declaration of prior war, the entire section of economic management and diplomacy is diluted, until it loses its meaning, giving way to domination through the strictest violence with an economy. based on getting everything without worrying too much about taking care of what we already have.
Diplomacy optionsThey are wide allowing the player to establish alliances with other gangs, declare open wars with more factions involved or alone, request compensation for grievances when our premises are attacked or strengthen trade relations. Obviously this system of diplomacy takes the trouble to create emergent situations by which we can be betrayed and in which future decisions are incompatible with the agreements already established. The hand of Paradox is noticeable in this sense, since there are many tools that are given to the player to know the states of alliances, filias and phobias of each of the factions when making decisions. Unfortunately the lack of limitations and that almost everything is possible at any time,
Empire of Sin concentrates its business unit on alcohol productionWithin these diplomatic relations, those face to face stand out. These meetings between chiefs are opportunities to dialogue with each of the city’s bosses. It is in our hands to request them or assist once we are summoned to one by another faction. However, I have been able to verify that the variations between one and the other are minimal and all of them end up being resolved according to what the player wants to dictate and falling too much in the repetition of conversations. Little is exploited the possibility that we do have in the missions to choose ways of conversation more focused on persuasion, intimidation or the leadership capacity of our boss.
Due to its setting during the dry law years Empire of Sin concentrates its business unit on the production of alcohol . Thus, we can improve the quality of the distillates by adapting to the needs of each of the neighborhoods in which we are present. I would have liked the trade to have been more diversified, since other businesses such as brothels or hotels become too passive assets compared to bars and distilleries, which play a predominant role.
Chicago on the inside, Chicago on the outside
The distributor has confirmed patches that will solve some bugsOn the screen Empire of Sin leaves conflicting feelings, its interface stands out, well organized and very clear, which makes the game very accessible from the beginning as well as having a very good tutorial . This good work is reflected in the streets of the city when we play with the zoom in short or medium distances. The atmosphere of Chicago is very satisfactory in its streets, although not so much in the interiors in which, despite having a good level of detail, which is more appreciated thanks to the improvements we make to the atmosphere of the premises, the game ends for repeating too many scenarios during the fighting opting for clone solutions that take him away from excellence in this section.
Something that could be improved about Empire of Sin is that the moment we start to move through more than one neighborhood, the game requires the use of a more distant camera. This perspective is very well carried out in playable terms as it allows us to quickly move from one point to another and execute all kinds of actions from a comfortable and intuitive menu wheel . However, the decision to pose the mapping as if it were a board game ends up ruining the good immersion work carried out in perspectives closer to the action, taking with it all the soul of the city that It could well be Chicago or Chiclana.
Although the title is played at pleasure with a rate of 60 images per second and graphics at the highest quality with mid-range and low-end PC equipment, the rough finish of the animations during head-to-head matches contrasts with the good work carried out. in the different modeling of the characters. The game comes with voices in English and texts in Spanish that do not get rid of some errors in translation as small as forgivable. The musical pieces of the game are tremendously enjoyable based mainly on Jazz and Ragtime chords , with the latter genre being remixed with electric guitar chords during the fighting. The console versionsThey have alternatives for graphics and resolution or performance, a welcome alternative in this sense since, although the title is not exactly a technical waste, it is more tolerable to play it at 30FPS due to its turn-based nature. Regarding the performance of the controller, there are some issues of the adequacy of the control to it that squeak and that make it particularly advisable to play it with a keyboard and mouse.
The distributor has confirmed the arrival of various patches for its different versions in the first half of December that will solve some small bugs that I have been able to find during this analysis. The most annoying are some voices that enter at the wrong time and, above all, the disappearance of some of the members of our squad when passing through doors, something that has occurred a couple of times during my games and that I have easily solved with loading the last autosave.
It is difficult to talk in absolute terms about the duration of Empire of Sin since the title gives the option at the beginning of each game to choose the number of neighborhoods and factions that we want each of our sessions to have. In any case, completing the longest campaign has taken me about 17 hours until the final victory, although I cannot consider this to be the total duration of the game since, through its huge cast of eligible protagonists, it invites you to give it more than One last.
“Okay”
Empire of sin
Empire of Sin is a practically unique game on the current market. The combination of RPG mechanics with turn-based combat and empire management and diplomacy makes this a very unique game. It has really been a fun experience, it is a pleasure to role-play a mafia boss who is gaining notorious points as his dominance over the city and the other gangs grows. However, it leaves the feeling that many of its mechanics are not exploited in the most appropriate way as it has not been possible to unite the whole of its proposal as it would have been desirable. However, it is a title to take into account of which I would like to see a continuation that knows how to take everything it proposes one step further since, on the table, it has enough ingredients to be more than just a good game.
- A huge cast of real and fictional mobsters to choose from
- The blacklist relationship system leads to interesting situations
- Freedom to select the duration of the campaign, highly replayable
- An interesting mix of genres …
- … Although they cannot be well cohesive.
- The combat system and enemy AI could give more of themselves
- While entertaining, the narrative remains on the surface
