First Reviews: Empire of Sin - No Second Daikatana, but No Hit Either

On the eve of launch, the embargo on reviews of the gangster strategy game Empire of Sin developed by Brenda and John Romero was lifted. The game is above average, but there are a lot of mistakes in it and in some respects it turned out to be lacking.

The first reviews of mafia strategy game from Romero Games have appeared online. Empire of Sin, as the game is titled, has gathered decent review scores from critics - the average ratings on Metacritic (PC version) and OpenCritic is 69% and 73% respectively. The strategy game set in Chicago during the Prohibition period (20s of the 20th century) turned out to be quite a successful combination of XCOM (tactical, turn-based combat), Civilization (large scale conflict) and tycoon games (complicated economy). The team of Brenda and John Romero also succeeded in reproducing the atmosphere of gangster movies, but is this an offer you cannot refuse? Here are some sample reviews scores:

Empire of Sin - exemple review scores:

Windows Central - 9/10
TheGamer - 9/10
Shacknews - 8/10
3DJuegos - 7.5/10
DualShockers - 7/10
PCGamesN - 7/10
Wccftech - 6.5/10
Eurogamer Italy - 6/10
Screen Rant - 6/10
PC Gamer - 49/100

The reviews appreciated, among other things, the system of management and options in the gradual expansion of our empire - playing as one of the fourteen available Mafia bosses is "pure pleasure". At least to a certain extent - the game becomes quite repetitive with time, and during the gameplay we are toubled by a messed up, even amateurish interface, numerous mistakes, or unbalanced shooting with not the best AI. Although the turn-based combat system has a decent foundation.

Generally speaking, Empire of Sin offers a lot: various bosses and different factions with unique missions, during which there is no shortage of plot twists. The great possibilities of leading a gang encourage us to replay the 15-20 hour campaign. After all, the game published by Paradox Interactive lacks a bit of depth and shows a lot of potential that has not been fully exploited. There is also a lack of technical refinement, although the number of bugs does not resemble the infamous Daikatana, which probably still haunts John Romero's dreams.

Empire of Sin will be released on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch tomorrow, December 1. PC users can learn about the game's system requirements here.