Alcohol production and its illegal trade are at the narrative and strategic gameplay’s core, which helps highlight Prohibition-era criminal struggles. The voice acting of the bosses is good too, though not without some audio quality oddities, and the writing is great in character conversations and dialogue, despite some occasional typos and repetitive options, especially in sitdowns. The graphical and musical direction are particular highlights of Empire of Sins’s presentation.

For example, why doesn’t Daniel McKee Jackson, who specializes in casinos, start with one or some other combination of rackets?

It would have been interesting to see each boss lean into their specialty a bit more from the start to differentiate themselves better and further increase replayability. However, the replayability of the game suffers somewhat as the bosses still function similarly in combat, have similar skill trees, and start the same with two rackets to their name: a brewery and a speakeasy (businesses illegally selling alcohol). The 14 bosses add good replayability as each character has their own special combat abilities, traits and stats, bonuses to rackets, and diplomatic features, as well as affiliations with other bosses in-game. Compared to other turn-based tactical strategy games like XCOM or Phoenix Point, which follow a linear narrative, potentially limiting replayability and roleplaying possibilities, the sandbox nature of Empire of Sin provides more opportunity for roleplaying as it really is up to the player how they want to approach their playthrough. The setting, though less a simulation and more of an impressionist take, is incredibly well-realized and the inclusion of a good range of bosses immediately shows the developers’ dedication and care for the source material. Set during the 1920s Prohibition era crime-ridden Chicago, players choose from one of fourteen real and historically-inspired bosses in their pursuit of total control over Chicago’s criminal underworld. This is exactly the case with Empire of Sin: a stylish and flavorful game with great aesthetic direction, but chose to wear an old worn-out coat for some reason instead.Įmpire of Sin, developed by Romero Games and published by Paradox Interactive, is a pausable sandbox real-time strategy game with turn-based tactical battles. You’d better polish your shoes to a shine before seeing the boss - dirty clothes can give the wrong impression.

Empire of sin talk to crew