Review – Empire of Sin

Courtesy of the folks at Paradox Interactive, today I’m taking a look through the dirty underbelly of Chicago as I bring you our usual review and parent’s guide for the strategic prohibition era strategy Empire of Sin.

The Basics

This is a great little title, with turn based combat reminiscent of Xcom backed by a deep empire building strategy as you work to create and manage your own crime syndicate. There are a great number of mob bosses to select from, and each comes with their own perks and vulnerabilities to create a good balance.

You’ll need to balance production between your various brothels, speakeasies, breweries and more, as well as political affiliations. Doing so will help you increase your profits and rise to the top, but it’s not an easy journey. Negotiations between the various other bosses can go either way, involving closer partnerships, or possibly even all out war ripping through the chicago streets.

Parent’s Eye View

Empire of Sin is rated by PEGI at 16 and above, and by the ESRB at a Mature 17+. If your question centres around “is this title one to play in front of the micro-bandits” then the answer is absolutely *honk*ing not. Empire of sin involves close management of brothels, breweries and casinos in prohibition-era chicago. It’s packed with violence which contains a fair amount of blood, and prolific bad language. From a parent’s point of view, for me, this is one which is not to be played in front of the ones

Accessibility

In terms of accessibility, Empire of Sin is rating here at High-level. It’s a great title, but it’s also one which will take a lot of management. As such, it’s not great for dropping in and out of, and you’ll need to spend a fair amount of time with this one to keep up with the basics, and keep in touch with the strategy around the growth of your empire. If you’re looking for a game to devote your play time to, this is spot on, but not so much for a casual half hour every now and then

The Run Down

Visuals – Good: In honesty, this one almost dropped down to fair for a few reasons. There could be a greater variation of character models for the thugs you face along the way, and camera angles and clipping can sometimes be a little awkward. At one point, my main character froze in his weapon ready position and was gliding around the map, though this wasn’t permanent. All in all it hangs on to Good rather than fair as it looks great most of the time out in world view, which is pretty expansive. Up close, however, it certainly lacks a little polish

Audio – Great: The 20s soundtrack here is absolutely outstanding and fully pulls you into the game and the era. The voice acting I’ve found is great, and if I had to pick a fault at all it would be that the combat victory soundbite can get repetitive. Outside that it’s a joy to listen to

Narrative – Good: There are a number of decent character narratives running through this one, for each of the many protagonists available. It was actually a little more than I was expecting, but could have been pushed just a little further for top marks. Having the ability to influence conversations has been a nice touch.

Replay – Great: Empire of Sin covers a huge amount of ground, and there’s a lot to be getting on with. The map size is substantial and each zone contains a number of different areas to take over and an awful lot of diplomacy to get through to navigate it. You’ll find a huge number of campaign and side quest missions which might even have Skyrim giving it the side eye.

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The Verdict

Overall the Pixel Bandits Offer You Can’t Refuse Level for Empire of Sin is Grab It.

From the changing of economy in the various zones, to the links between names in your little black book, there’s so much thought which has gone into the details of this one. I’m a big fan of strategy, and the blend of prohibition era mob empire building and Xcom like strategic battles has really pulled me in.
It certainly does have its faults, and it’s not a perfectly put together game. I’ve not come across anything game breaking but visual glitches can certainly impact immersion. Even with that in mind though, I do think that strategy fans will get a lot of good times out of this one. Paradox have a heavy strategy pedigree, and this is another diamond which while a little rough in areas, still does shine.