Empire of Sin Reviews
Empire of Sin has plenty of good ideas from the great 1920s Chicago setting and atmosphere. From a great diplomacy system that can make or break your playthrough at certain times in the game, to turn-based combat which I love in games shows some promise. But the game is mired by lackluster map design, bad AI, unbalanced abilities, and some clunky controls. I did enjoy the roleplaying aspect of being able to lead a criminal empire as a historically inspired gangster. Empire of Sin manages to capture ambition beautifully in its empire management systems, and its allure of everything is strong.
Empire of Sin is definitely an offer you can refuse.
The first hours of the game had a lot to offer, but the gameplay quickly became repetitive, and all the smaller and larger mistakes began to surface, which in the end hurt the Empire of Sin more than it should.
Review in Czech | Read full review
This is a game built around the idea that emergent gameplay is fun, and it is. That's why the technical problems are such a bummer. Empire of Sin is a good game, but the Nintendo Switch is the worst place to play it.
MEDIOCRE - Empire of Sin wants you to be the Mob Boss in all of Chicago. From managing relationships, to hostile takeovers, running an underground economy, and with an X-Com inspired combat system layered on top for action moments, this game has all the right makings for a top-notch prohibition management game. However, the menus are cluttered, heavy, and an unnecessary time sink, and the combat is just too light with clunky opponents, making the whole experience a bit awkward for me to really love.
Empire of Sin does little to brew up any revolutionary changes to the genre, but it makes for a fun time if you enjoy strategy and historical settings.
A strategy game taking place in prohibition-era roaring '20s, which has players role-playing as a bigtime gangster, slowly building their enterprise, and doing anything expected in such a line of work, whether that's selling alcohol, running whorehouses, striking deals with other crooks, "renting" guns for hire, looting or ransacking establishments, bribing the boys in blue, and many, many, many more. Quite an ambitious title, right? Sadly, an assortment of technical issues, an annoyingly busy UI, a total lack of balance, as well as a lack of challenge, has led to something that just isn't fun. Potential, thy name is Empire of Sin… but potential is great only when met.
Despite the game issues, I had a fun time managing my empire, making deals with other bosses, and laughing at the discourse between people. Sure, the combat was weird at times, but it's not really difficult. And even though I played Empire of Sin for a decent amount of time, I can't in good conscience rate it very high. It needs some more time to hammer out the bugs and give players a few more options - or breathing room. Overall, I give this title a 7 out of 10.
Empire of Sin is in a better state now than how it was at launch, with several fixes to its UI and performance, but this is still too much for the Switch to handle. I’m not talking solely about its still-underwhelming performance, but also the fact that it tries to be an excessive amount of games at once, without ever exploring all of its features to a reasonable degree.
At its heart, Empire of Sin does a little of everything and does none of it well.
A few details here and there would have made the Empire of Sin experience much better, but the truth is that I can't say that the title is bad either, rather the opposite, it's just a pity that an idea that sounds great on paper misses a little in mechanics and in neglect of certain trifles. However, I think that this new work by Romero Games can lay the foundations for a future part two with many of the improvable elements that we name already modified and the same essence, because Empire of Sin is really a good game, only that it has potential for be so much more than just good.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Empire of Sin is a good game held back only by a lack of variety in ways to win, leaving most forms of diplomacy and expansion feeling useless long-term.
Empire of Sin was first introduced at E3 2019 as a 1920s Chicago based strategy role playing game. You can choose any of the 14 mob bosses and build your empire. Among the bosses are some real historical villains like Al Capone and a few unique characters created just for this game.
Empire of Sin is a promising strategy game but one that feels woefully incomplete. I can't recommend it, but I can recommend following it's hopeful transition into something genuinely wonderful.
Cruel Gangs of Chicago fighting for dominance of the city. Show them, who is the boss! There are some weak parts in the game, but still amusing gangster experience.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Empire of Sin has potential, and I look forward to revisiting it after six months of patches that will hopefully address some of these issues. As it stands today, the game is buggy, poorly balanced, and blatantly half-finished. The initial strong presentation quickly fades to frustration as playing correctly is a fool's errand and cheating the system is the only way to play. That might be appropriate for a Mafia game, but not for this title.
If you're a fan of gangster genres, strategy, and management, the Empire of Sin will make an undeniable offer to you.
Empire of Sin has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, it's buggy and full of odd design choices, never really reaching the heights it sets for itself.
I can’t for the life of me recommend Empire of Sin without giving it more time to iron out its issues. Gameplay-wise, it is quite enjoyable, but that enjoyable aspect gets drowned out in all the issues it has. Wait for them to fix the game until you decide to get it, and possibly a free story expansion with more icons to play with.