ALL IN THE GAME: Crime Strategy

If you're anything like me then you've been waiting for even a halfway-satisfying mafia or criminal management game since like, Gangsters: Organized Crime or Liberal Crime Squad for years on end. Emphasis on the 'years on end' part because every single time one has come out there's been something heinously wrong with it. Omerta: City of Gangsters was two halves of a whole nothing, Cartel Tycoon was too much juggling and not enough fun, City of Gangsters (not to, uh, be confused with Omerta: City of Gangsters) was designed by people deathly afraid of letting a single aspect of the player's criminal empire be automated in any way whatsoever. It was so strange to me that none of them could get it right when it seems like such an obvious genre. Then comes this. I spent a few hours with the demo during Next Fest, stumbling upon it completely at random and was very impressed. A straightforward modern-day turn-based crime game, not a lot of frills but mechanically solid, breezy while still having enough crunch and numbers to it. It plays out like a fairly standard 4X and agent-based as your crew (split between muscly Soldiers, money grubbing Middlemen and specialized Experts) try to take over the map either through held territory or reaching 50k in clean money. Territory is fluid as it's constantly changing hands, and while all buildings in your turf pay protection money, the actual benefits are in real estate. Every building in the game can be purchased and can serve as agents in their own right. Sure, it's nice to set up some slum apartments for passive income in a tenement complex, but what about installing a grow house to provide weed every few turns? Weed that can then be sold passively via the rave halls you set up in an old factory, which can also have incinerator units to dispose of any bodies or chemical waste you've accrued. How about a workshop to tune up and repaint those old cars your Expert boosted, and a bodega to sell the cartons of cigarettes he found? Set up some storage space to hold onto black market goods when there's a lull in the price. Everything feeds into other activities in a way that feels natural in how it expands. And there are ways to specialize so not every match goes the exact same way. Your agents level up and while they only have a couple skill trees each and can only select a max of 4 upgrades, chances are there'll be more added and it's still a good way to feel attached to your guys. Your organization also levels up, upping your building limit and letting you choose between linear, but still exclusive upgrade tracks offering new activities and boosts. For example, unlocking amenities that lower the local property values, thus making it easier to snatch up buildings for yourself. There's only a few things that are kind of a stumbling block, and really I feel kind of low pointing them out because it's still early access and I'm sure will change since the devs have already gotten so much else right. -There's no option to always speed up the walking animation on your guys when your turn ends (though you can click once in the middle of it to fast-forward it, it's kinda lame to have to do it every time). -The AI, while not bad, isn't terribly challenging either and doesn't offer any difficulty settings. -There's 26 maps, though no randomly generated ones or a map editor. Again, feel kinda bad pointing that out since it's early access and may very well be on the roadmap. -UI is functional, if a bit plain. There's some unused screen real estate in the upper-right border that could've been used to quickly tally your drugs or guns or whatever. -No display or resolution options. -No multiplayer game browser, only joining via steam friends or host ID. Even with that I still love this as a fun little indie to breeze through. It's funny to think that like 20 or so years ago this would've just sold for like 40-50 dollars as a PC title anyway, so I'm satisfied as is, and the developer seems to have enough foresight to know what they're aiming for. Keeping a close eye on how this builds in the meantime.

because when you do crime, its ALL IN THE GAME... Ok, first things first: I have been playtesting and suggesting stuff for this game for about 9 months before the launch. When turnbased thursday rolled around, we switched to an open demo, and i spent a lot of time there - steam might claim that i only spent 70 hours in this game, but its more. so much more... As such, i technically already owned a product key. But, i bought the game anyway. Why? TLDR: interesting setting, reward of player flexibility and situational awareness, positive kind of randomness at the start of each game. Also, while there isnt technically a dedicated map-maker, you also dont need one. learning how to make a map for this game literally takes 3 minutes, and implementing or sharing with your friends is just as easy. That alone is quite the advanatge compared to many other games where i tried my hand at mapping. In case you couldnt guess by the tldr, i like the concept of a game set in organised crime. The general ideas behind the game are as vanilla as can be for strategy games: grow Territory, get Resources, Fight with other players and, eventually, win. But here is where the vanilla ends. The maps are semi-random. While the layout of any given map is always the same, certain special buildings and even the options offered by normal houses will vary between games. Then, the game adds STEALTH. My first introduction to the idea of "sneaking around" came when i played Thief: Dark Project, and i loved it. getting that in a Strategy game was very much appreciated. And to top it all of, the game is just atmospheric. Both sound and graphics hit perfectly right. It's good, but dosen't take your focus from the gameplay. Speaking of gameplay: this is a 4X turn-based game. You start with just a small house, a bit of territory and a single thug. That guy can help you to expand your territory, grab some cash by doing stick-ups or potentially "bonk" enemys with a baseball bat. Pretty soon, however, you get access to two other kinds of lieutenants: Middlemen are moneymakers. Stylish suit, a legitimate buisinessmen through and through, this guy fences your (stolen) goods, sells drugs, spies on your enemies, or recruits new people to your organisation. Experts are the quiet type. Stealing cars, burglarising the homes of unfortunate civilians or your opponents, and generally providing your consortium with the re sources it needs to do... legitimate buisiness. He can also commit arson, if your opponents have some really juicy things going on in one of their buildings. Which is another thing this game does great: You can buy a variety of buildings, each offering different options. From normal houses to a high-riser or casino, you can buy all kinds of buildings, each granting you differnt options in terms of what to do with them. Each building has one or more activity slots. Like lieutentants, these things have options, but usually much more long term, with assignements usually taking 5+ turns instead of 2 or 3. Activities can be anything, from safehouses for recruitment and maintaining your territory to a greenhouse and laboratory to grow or refine some stuff for your middlemen to sell. And the other options a building gives are ammenities. These things are purely passive, and buildings will offer 4 or more different slots for you to build stuff in. While the game limits a bit what can be built where (good luck putting an industrial incinerator into the room of a highriser), there is always good options for whatever situation you find yourself in. Speaking of "situation"; the game offers several principles for your organisation to choose from. put your focus on stealth or valor, decide to operate in "cooperation" with the law or go full anarchy, or put your foundation on materialism or the good old "we are all a crime-family here". And then, at last, winning. Even here, the game offers two options: territory or money. You can either win by controlling so much of the map that it is legitimate to say you "own" the city, or you can have done so much... legitimate buisniness, that you have circled back to actually being legitimate, with all your money safe and sound from the IRS, even if they come to snoop around. In short: this game has a good kind of randomness at the start of each game, rewards player flexibility on multiple levels, and offers no shortage in options to mess with your opponents. So, at the end of this review, my personal favourite: Shell companies. I wrote above to do so buisniness, that you can actually become legitimate. And these little babies help you do that. They can turn your dirty drug-money into clean black in your books, or just do creative bookkeeping in oder to boost your actual legitimate buisniness ventures. Which you can use to buy guns and shoot at anybody who tries to take your turf away....

In a world waiting for a return of Gangsters: Organized Crime, disappointed by Empire of Sin and overburdened with micro management by City of Gangsters: All in the Game switches dusty trench coats for stylish hoodies and tommy guns for AKs to deliver a new challenge to Crime Themed 4X gaming. tl:dr: It's good and getting better. Buy it. Your three types of agents have different skillsets to begin with and seperate progression tracks as they gain experience: Soldiers are your bread and butter goons, claiming territory and commiting plain old robberies. Experts know where to find free ressources, accquire get-a-way-vehicles and douse your opposition in gasoline. Middlemen pad your dirty cash reserves with games of [strike]chance[/strike] skill, sell your tax free goods and make your Organisation look good amongst the community. Meanwhile your organisation is a character in itself, acquiring knowledge and skills that allow you to customize your experience. Brazen anarchist opportunists, corrupt business venture, shadowy drug cartel, or a little bit of everything, you'll find something to benefit you. But robberies will not be your economic backbone for long. In your quest for clean cash (to achieve one of the victory conditions, the other being territory) you need to buy and develop real estate, erecting fronts to make legitimate money, launder dirty cash and hide your illicit dealings. While the games AI is still in its infancy and currently the game will shine the most in Multiplayer, it will take you a few hours to explore solid systems in single player mode and get your bearings. Fortunately the game has extensive documentation built in that should be able to answer most of your questions. Having played the demo for the better part of twenty hours, I was confident spending the asking price and am sure you won't regret it. AitG is a good game with lots of potential that's on pace and on track to become great and a worthy successor of its inspiration.

Such a cool game, it's the spiritual successor to the ancient, awesome, but unplayable "Gangsters: Organized Crime", at least pulls all the same strings of my soul for me. I've been coming back to this game for a quite few days now, and it always manages to captivate. And, it seems that the devs continue working on this game and adding content, which is great. It deserves more exposure.

Really fun boardgame like experience. really looking forward to what it turns into! Unfortunately, I can't recommend the game in it's current state. Games larger than 1v1 seem to get corrupted too often. The gameplay is there and its super fun! But only when you can actually play. As of writing I've attempted 6 games with between 2 and 7 players, and I only got to the victory screen in two of them, both being 1v1. Every other game crashed and corrupted the save forcing me to start over. Once the game is stable I will absolutely switch this to a recommended.

This game clearly has a mountain of potential, it's fast paced, combat is fun and engaging, and the mechanics are establish to be something really special. Plus the team is responsive and polite and seem genuinely passionate to see where this goes. very excited for this game!

Disclaimer: I’ve known the main dev for a long time and have been involved in playtesting this since early alpha. So obviously I’m biased but I wouldn’t write a good review if I didn’t feel the game warranted it. But then again, I’m just a dude on the Internet so take it or leave it. TL;DR: Cool strategy game with lots of strategic depth In AITG you manage your own criminal organization and clash against other gangs piloted by players or AI. Your aim is to become the dominant gang in the town in any of the victory conditions including claiming most of the city as your turf, accumulating enough (clean) money, or eliminating other gangs entirely. The game is turn-based and plays pretty much like a Civ game, with the familiar “one more turn” urges. You stage your actions and it takes X turns for the units / buildings to complete them. All players do their actions simultaneously on a timer so turns proceed fast even in larger multiplayer matches. There are three kinds of units you can recruit: Soldiers to do robberies, claim more turf, and keep your adversaries in check, Experts to “accumulate resources” from the neighborhood, and Middlemen as your money-making machines. Each unit will unlock new performance-enhancing perks as the game progresses. The main points of interest in the city map are the different buildings. You send your units to them to perform different missions from claiming turf, to robbery, to selling crack and more. You can also purchase buildings and setup several amenities like drug manufacturing laboratories, rental apartments to produce clean money, or goon squads to monitor the surrounding area for enemies. Most buildings are basic apartments, but there are special ones as well, like casinos, supermarkets, factories etc which offer more lucrative opportunities for you but your opponents as well. The buildings grant you protection money and other benefits if they are on your turf. You spread your gangs influence by claiming turf with your soldiers, but if you don’t remind its residents who rules them, it will slowly degrade or succumb to your opponents. As your organization grows, you unlock new principles that shape its form and nature. Whether you want to be a money-making shadowy network of drug dealers or band of trigger-happy insurgents, there are several options to mix and match. There is a lot depth to the mechanics, and while it’s impossible to address them all in detail here, I want to comment on two specifically: dirty/clean money and stealth. Any income from illegal activities comes as dirty money, and there is a cap how much you can have until you have a high risk of a nasty surprise of IRS audit to screw up your life. This cap can be increased with certain amenities, but in general this money should be constantly managed so that enough is flowing in and out. Clean money, in turn, can be accumulated freely from less illegal activities or by money-laundering facilities but is harder to come by. Stealth is integral to how freely your units can act without interference. By default, all your units are invisible to other players. All actions they perform consume stealth, and when it’s low enough, the unit becomes visible and targetable by enemy thugs. When idle and out of sight, stealth regenerates every turn. Also there are several options to erode enemy stealth faster near your units / buildings. So half of the combat is managing unit stealth: making sure that you can set up your ambushes unnoticed when an enemy is caught pants down, and that your enemies are spotted as soon as they start messing around in your turf.

Fun and interesting crime management game with great potential. Seemingly a lot to learn at first but you will quickly catch onto the mechanics, great PvP experience though single player AI still needs some work. Community is active on discord and everyone is friendly and willing to help teach you more advanced strategies.

A game for those that have spent so many hours searching for a game that scratches the itch Gangsters: Organised Crime left. The game has a bunch of potential and im looking forward to seeing this game continue to be worked on and improved

Pretty good, reminds me of Gangsters: Organized Crime. Would recommend keeping an eye on this one, or buying it if you enjoy these types of games.