Empire of Sin

Otro juego abandonado por el señor y señora Romero's, y van unos cuantos. No me volveréis a engañar.

The game is fun, but it's sooooo buggy. The first time I played just after release, the campaign soft-locked when one of the quest characters got spooked and ran outside the map. It sucked but I figured that's what I get for playing a game on release in this day and age. They'd surely fix all of these pesky bugs in the coming months. I was wrong. It's 2024 and my new campaign is soft locked again! Now a quest building is blocked until I speak to the guards that the very same quest just had me kill!!! According to the forums, this has been a known issue since 2021. The bugs are why I don't recommend the game, but I do enjoy it when it's working.

4/10 Good concept and can be quite fun trying to balance everything in realtime with the quirk of TBS for battles and taking over properties. However, like with almost all games involving Paradox it feels unpolished and half hearted with plenty of bugs thrown in to keep you on your toes... Pros Novel idea and storylines Turn based strategy (TBS) for fights Realtime when not in battles, Quite good graphics for the time Lots of choices for your team (and various attitudes towards each other) Cons Would only buy for 50% or less as that's the overall finshed feel of the game Bugs, some you can avoid or workaround, some are game breaking Be prepared to use old saves, some bugs can mess you up long term un-doing your hard work Overall, good concept half heartedly made. It feels like it was abandoned and now with this last update it literally is. Loads of potential sadly wasted. RIP

It's not terrible, like it works pretty well but overall it just hasn't been executed well. If you can pick this up for 75% off, then go for it, but full price seems too much. But it's not bad, and you will get several hours of fun out of it. Pros: Solid Gangster Theme Decent Visuals Combat is fun and exciting Cons: Lack of Character Customisation Shallow Resource Management Mechanics Repetitive Gameplay Loop Sloppy Diplomacy Mechanics

I just found this bug: Al Capone's special building, the Suit Shop, should give +100% faction rating when bribing the police according to its description. But the actual effect is the exact opposite: With one Suit Shop your faction rating gain isn't doubled, but halved. With two Suit Shops it is cut to a third, and so on. With 35 Suit Shops built, a bribe of 300,000 gave me a faction rating gain of ... 4. That bugs like this still persist after more than three years is atrocious, and a blemish on both Romero Games and Paradox Interactive. For shame.

The game had potential if development continued. But, it didn't continue, the base game is incomplete, and the current price is WAY out of line with the games actual content. If it's on sale for, say, $10...maybe worth...otherwise it's a hard pass imo.

Empire of Sin stands as a testament to what could have been, yet feels somewhat neglected by both its developers and the modding community. It's reminiscent of a game left to languish, yearning for the vibrant support seen in the old Paradox model – where DLCs introduced game-changing features and multiplayer support flourished. Imagine a DLC offering the ability to craft custom characters, coupled with a deeper economic system, all bundled with new characters and win conditions. Perhaps even expanding the game's scope to include different cities like Montreal or New York would have breathed new life into the experience. It's disappointing to note that ambitious mods, such as the proposed integration of the Vampire: The Masquerade IP, now seem abandoned. Despite this, Empire of Sin remains enjoyable, albeit not quite justifying its full price in its current state. However, on sale, it may be worth considering, in hopes that future expansions will capitalse on its promising foundation and enrich the overall experience.