My only real qualm with the tactical combat is the lack of animation speed options. She’s just helping him up, I swear it…Īll in all, the combat in Empire of Sin is bloody fun and since you’ll be spending so much time here, it’s a damn good thing it is. They’re a fun, gory way to put an end to your opponents, while also providing an important resource, Notoriety, and a chance to buff your fellow gang members, while possibly scaring your opponents enough to panic. Occasionally, you don’t actually kill your target, but cause them to become incapacitated, leading to an opportunity to finish them via special execution moves. The added tension that this reality provides makes every move you make even more important, especially after you’ve inevitably invested many hours building your hit squads to meet their full potential. Just be careful with your gangsters, as death in Empire of Sin is permanent. Weapon sounds are spot-on and each of them feel weighty enough to convey the sense that you’re in a violent gang fight.
It feels much fairer than other shooting-based tactical games with that hit-chance system. I almost always hit my mark when percentages were high enough that I should hit my mark. You’ll need those Hired Guns for sheer firepower, but the Doctors are every bit as important with their ability to patch your gangsters up.Įmpires of Sin displays its hit chances by a percentage and unlike XCOM, the percentages seem to matter. Each of them fills a unique role in combat and they’re all distinct enough that their combat roles feel important. Looks like the enemy is up next…Įach of the characters you can recruit in Empire of Sin belongs to one of the five professions: Doctors, Hired Guns, Enforcers, Con Artists, and Demolitionists. While you’ll spend a lot of time organizing and managing your Empire of Sin, keeping tabs on your brothels, beer, and (under) bosses, you’re going to spend just as much, if not more, time in tactical combat.Ĭombat plays out in a turn-based fashion, with an easy-to-understand timeline presented at the top of the screen to show which character goes in what order.
That’s not an easy feat to accomplish, but Romero Games have nailed the presentation here. Not to mention, the voice-over work is superb, even if it’s a bit repetitive in places, and all together, Empire of Sin looks, feels, and sounds exactly as it should. Not because it’s outdated, but because its font and typeface work incredibly well, and the flair around the UI elements fits perfectly. In fact, even the user interface (UI) feels like they made it in the prohibition era. The 1920s city of Chicago looks exactly as I’d expect it to, with antique cars driving around the stone roads, the buildings mostly made of brick, the street signs and store signs all evoking that 1920s aesthetic.
Save the characters’ lip-syncing, which is straight out of the early 2010s, the rest of the presentation here is above par. Everything about Empire of Sin feels like it’s game published by Paradox Interactive in 2020: it’s a great strategy game, its visuals and graphics actually make strategy look good, and good god, there’s a lack of Quality Assurance (yeah, I’ll discuss that even more later).