Empire of Sin

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Critics Recommend

Average Score

Total Reviews: 54

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Empire of Sin is a promising strategy and management game, but it fails to live up to its aspirations due to a ton of bugs and balancing issues.

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Critics Recommend

Critic Reviews: 54

Critics Consensus

# Reviews: 54

Empire of Sin is a promising strategy and management game, but it fails to live up to its aspirations due to a ton of bugs and balancing issues.

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Critic Reviews for Empire of Sin

Critic Reviews

Score Distribution

54

Reviews

Average Score

100

Ranges

49/100

Fraser Brown (PC Gamer)

Empire of Sin’s many bugs, balance issues and competing systems undermine what could have been a novel mob management game.

November 30, 2020 |

Full Review

Empire of Sin’s criminal management sim and turn-based tactical combat combo sounds brilliant on paper, but it completely fails to live up to its aspirations due to major imbalances and bugs.

December 1, 2020 |

Full Review

4/10

Jonathan Bolding (IGN)

4/5 stars

Dean Takahashi (GamesBeat)

Empire of Sin has its bugs and some rough cinematic moments. But Romero Games pulled this project off with a team of just 30 people. For a game of its ambition, that seems like a small team. It’s pretty much an indie project, or perhaps “double-A,” compared to other games that are more polished but have hundreds of developers — or even more — working on them.

November 11, 2020 |

Full Review

Fraser Brown (PC Gamer)

49/100 - (Read Review)

Empire of Sin’s many bugs, balance issues and competing systems undermine what could have been a novel mob management game.

Jonathan Bolding (IGN)

4/10 - (Read Review)

Empire of Sin’s criminal management sim and turn-based tactical combat combo sounds brilliant on paper, but it completely fails to live up to its aspirations due to major imbalances and bugs.

Dean Takahashi (GamesBeat)

4/5 stars - (Read Review)

**Read all 54 critic reviews on the desktop version of VSG.

Read the Reviews (54 total)

Outlet	Author	Score	Date	Quote	Read
33bits	Rubén Rionegro	80 / 100	11-30-2020	Empire of Sin offers a long and varied game that mixes management, strategy and tactical role with great success. With the 1920s and prohibition as a scenario, Romero games allows us to create our criminal empire in a fairly simple and addictive game, but at the same time deep in its gameplay and mechanics.	Read review
3DNews	Михаил Пономарев	7 / 10	12-06-2020	Not quite the single malt, but not the cheap swill either.	Read review
Bazimag	Vahid Zohrabi Nejad	5 / 10	12-09-2020	The music is lovely and it controls quite nicely on consoles but that’s all the good things about Empire of Sin because the core gameplay feels very simple and willy-nilly designed and the amount of bugs and glitches are unbelievable.	Read review
Chalgyr’s Game Room	Susan N.	7 / 10	12-24-2020	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	Read review
Checkpoint Gaming	Lise Leitner	7 / 10	12-02-2020	The way Empire of Sin combines diplomacy, turn-based combat, and narrative gameplay mechanics is incredibly ambitious. While there’s plenty to keep you engaged, the format doesn’t always work, and sometimes it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stats and missions. Even though the game has its shortcomings, its atmosphere, characters, and environment are fantastic. And if you decide to persevere, there’s plenty to love in Empire of Sin.	Read review
Chicas Gamers	Curro Medina	Recommended	11-30-2020	Empire of Sin is a great conjunction of different genres perfectly balanced each in its own right. It is a deep, dynamic game that can satisfy strategy lovers, fans of turn-based fighting games and fans of resource management alike as it has rarely been seen. The truth is that I find it difficult to find a similar game to compare his great mix of mechanics.	Read review
COGconnected	Jake Hill	79 / 100	12-05-2020	The complexity of the interlocking systems in Empire of Sin feel like more than the game can handle. For every time a story emerges about love and loss as I described above, there are times when your speakeasy suddenly starts losing money and the game doesn’t communicate why. I’m sure through hours of play a pattern will emerge, but for now too much is too opaque and difficult.	Read review
Cubed3	Athanasios	3 / 10	12-28-2020	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.	Read review
cublikefoot	Chase Ferrin	Not Recommended	12-24-2020	Empire of Sin has a great concept behind it, but some very flawed execution. Repetitive combat, lackluster management elements, it’s far too shallow a game to be worth the time.	Read review
Cultured Vultures	Maxim Klose-Ivanov	6 / 10	11-30-2020	Though the foundation is laid for a great game with excellent presentation, style, and robust gameplay systems, the horrid user interface and vast number of bugs and glitches keep Empire of Sin from being a great game.	Read review
Digital Trends	Giovanni Colantonio	Recommended	11-30-2020	Empire of Sin delivers a clever, genre-melding experience that perfectly marries the world of 1920s organized crime with strategy gameplay. Bugs and a lack of combat speed or automation options can grind its pace to a halt, but it does a stellar job of putting the player in the mindset of a mob mastermind (or a gun-toting buffoon) with streamlined speakeasy management.	Read review
DualShockers	Ricky Frech	7 / 10	11-30-2020	Empire of Sin brings X-COM-style combat and in-depth strategy to 1920s Chicago in a package with tons of great ideas, but a lack of real focus.	Read review
Eurogamer	Robert Purchese	Recommended	11-30-2020	A charismatic and enjoyable gangster sim that gets a bit bogged down in admin.	Read review
Gameblog	Camille Allard	5 / 10	12-03-2020	Despite of it’s very successful atmosphere and its interesting management mechanics, the game suffers from many bugs. Moreover, the fight is not dynamic enough and not interesting enough to captivate the player over time.	Read review
GamesBeat	Dean Takahashi	80 / 100	11-30-2020	Empire of Sin has its bugs and some rough cinematic moments. But Romero Games pulled this project off with a team of just 30 people. For a game of its ambition, that seems like a small team. It’s pretty much an indie project, or perhaps “double-A,” compared to other games that are more polished but have hundreds of developers — or even more — working on them.	Read review
GameSkinny	Jordan Baranowski	6 / 10	12-11-2020	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.	Read review
GameWatcher	Leon Georgiou	7 / 10	12-01-2020	The game has solid tactical combat and RPG elements but is let down by a weak strategic layer.	Read review
Generación Xbox	Gabriel Fuentes	7.3 / 10	12-16-2020	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.	Read review
Guardian	Rick Lane	3 / 5 stars	12-02-2020	As a prohibition-era mob boss, you’re at war with rival gangs as well as the police in this ambitious, if uneven, gangster sim	Read review
Hobby Consolas	Álvaro Alonso	75 / 100	12-04-2020	Despite a couple of negative aspects, if you are fans of the mafia genre, strategy and management, Empire of Sin will make you an offer that you will not be able to reject.	Read review
IGN	Jonathan Bolding	4 / 10	12-01-2020	Empire of Sin’s criminal management sim and turn-based tactical combat combo sounds brilliant on paper, but it completely fails to live up to its aspirations due to major imbalances and bugs.	Read review
IGN Italy	Claudio Chianese	7 / 10	11-30-2020	Empire of Sin isn’t a bad game, just a simple game, not deep enough to catch the attention of the genre’s veterans. The organized crime theme is, as always, interesting, but it could have been developed better: as it is, Empire of Sin looks more like XCOM-lite with gangsters than a true mafia simulator.	Read review
IGN Spain	Álex Pareja	8 / 10	11-30-2020	Fantastic mafia management game with a good combat system. Employee relationships make up for bad artificial intelligence and some illogical situations.	Read review
INDIANTVCZ	Jakub Kadlus	5 / 10	02-10-2021	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.	Read review
Jump Dash Roll	Derek Johnson	3 / 10	12-10-2020	Empire of Sin has too many bugs and too many balancing issues to make it worth putting up with its insanely uninspired combat and lacklustre story.	Read review
Metro GameCentral	Unknown	3 / 10	12-04-2020	The potential for an exciting period strategy game is clear but that only makes the buggy mess of unbalanced combat and simplistic tactical decisions all the more frustrating.	Read review
MonsterVine	Shannon P. Drake	3 / 5 stars	12-18-2020	At its heart, Empire of Sin does a little of everything and does none of it well.	Read review
New Game Network	Josh Hinke	60 / 100	11-30-2020	Empire of Sin gets lost in a maze of design decisions that lead to an unfocused and sprawling game. The management and RPG mechanics cannibalize each other, meaning that neither works on its own and they definitely don’t work well together.	Read review
Nintendo Life	PJ O’Reilly	4 / 10	12-03-2020	Empire of Sin is undoubtedly an excellent idea, a clever meshing together of management sim and turn-based tactical action that’s set in a hugely compelling era of Chicago’s criminal history. There are some cool mechanics here, too; the well-executed overworld map of the town, the gangster black book with its complex relationships and those tense sit-downs with rival ganglords. However, all of this promise is held back by copious technical problems, game-breaking bugs and management and combat systems that feel half-baked and scrappy. There are more patches and updates planned and we desperately would like to see this one sort itself out but, as things stand, it’s virtually impossible to recommend – and it remains to be seen if future updates can bash it into shape.	Read review
Nintendo Times	Alex Knight	5.5 / 10	01-13-2021	MEDIOCRE	Read review
NintendoWorldReport	Joshua Robin	6.5 / 10	01-22-2021	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.	Read review
NoobFeed	Sarwar Ron	70 / 100	12-14-2020	If you’re a fan of gangster genres, strategy, and management, the Empire of Sin will make an undeniable offer to you.	Read review
PC Gamer	Fraser Brown	49 / 100	11-30-2020	Empire of Sin’s many bugs, balance issues and competing systems undermine what could have been a novel mob management game.	Read review
PC Invasion	Jason Rodriguez	6 / 10	11-30-2020	Despite an overwhelming number of strategic options and features, many of Empire of Sin’s mechanics just don’t mesh well or they can be completely ignored. Playthroughs will feel roughly similar to what you’ve done previously, and it becomes a repetitive affair and a chore to see what else you could do.	Read review
PCGamesN	Joe Robinson	7 / 10	11-30-2020	It’s hard to ignore the need for a little extra TLC to smooth out the edges, but the fundamentals of an arresting tactics-and-strategy game about building a criminal empire are in place.	Read review
PlayStation Universe	Joe Apsey	4 / 10	12-08-2020	Empire of Sin is a poor and skeleton-thin management game at its core with complicated systems, menus, and tutorials that do a poor job at getting you acclimated to the experience. Add on top of that a library worth of bugs that force you to restart, ruin pivotal moments of the game, and just make the experience more frustrating and you have a game that is not worth even worth a slight bit of consideration. Empire of Sin is a massive disappointment.	Read review
Push Square	John Cal McCormick	3 / 10	12-07-2020	Oh dear. Empire of Sin has a fantastic idea at its core, and the jolly soundtrack perfectly complements the over the top character designs. But the game is a technical mess, littered with a spectacular array of bugs, and crippled by poor design choices that derail whatever little momentum the game may otherwise have had. Empire of Sin? They should have called it Buggy Malone.	Read review
Rapid Reviews UK	Bryan Massey	3 / 5 stars	12-15-2020	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.	Read review
Rock, Paper, Shotgun	Tom Senior	Recommended	11-30-2020	The sight of a gang leader brutally shotgunning several enemy goons is only improved by some sick swing high-hat hits on an old fashion kit while horns parp happily. In these moments Empire Of Sin is a world I want to live in, but ultimately not a world I really want to manage.	Read review
RPGamer	Ryan Costa	3 / 5 stars	12-16-2020	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.	Read review
Saving Content	Scott Ellison II	4 / 5 stars	11-30-2020	While Empire of Sin is not the first to tackle the era or the setting, but it is the best realized version out of any of them. There’s a few bugs to be rid out by Romero Games, but what exists is not detrimental to its enjoyment. Becoming something from nothing is no easy task on the streets of Chicago, and there’s plenty of views and systems to understand where money and resources are going, and how to improve your rackets if they’re not performing well. There’s exciting possibilities for DLC and expansions, but the existing roster will keep you busy well into next year. Empire of Sin blends several genres together for a mafia game that’s infinitely replayable.	Read review
Screen Rant	Peter Morics	3 / 5 stars	11-30-2020	All the chaos of a gang war, for better and worse.	Read review
SECTOR.sk	Branislav Kohút	7 / 10	12-15-2020	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.	Read review
Shacknews	TJ Denzer	8 / 10	11-30-2020	There’s a lot going on in Empire of Sin. Romero Games and Paradox Interactive build quite a hybrid of business management, character growth, and turn-based combat, and the 1920s Prohibition-era backdrop makes for an interesting story. The gang leaders are varied in so many ways between their business, combat specialties, and personal stories. Meanwhile, the overall flow of business expansion, hostile takeovers, and diplomacy or confrontation with other gangs also makes for a mostly engaging gameplay loop.	Read review
Sirus Gaming	Erickson Melchor	5 / 10	12-10-2020	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.	Read review
Softpedia	Cosmin Vasile	8 / 10	12-08-2020	But the current implementation, especially that of the battles, is frustrating. Romero Games needs to make management more important and to bring the characters to the front more. Patches also should include auto-resolve and a big balance update. Empire of Sin needs all of this to begin to realize its clear potential.	Read review
SpazioGames	Daniele Spelta	7.7 / 10	11-30-2020	An RPG, a grand strategy, a tycoon game and with a final touch of turn-based tactics, this is Empire of Sin, a game that skilfully manages to keep its various souls together.	Read review
TechRaptor	Alex Verdini	8.5 / 10	11-30-2020	A refreshingly deep and customizable turn-based tactics game lets you reign supreme in a 1920s criminal empire.	Read review
The Games Machine	Daniele Dolce	7.5 / 10	11-30-2020	Empire of Sin is a competent hybrid that borrows mechanics from tycoon games, turn-based tactics and RPGs. Unfortunately, the game is plagued by numerous bugs and glitches that risk compromising the experience.	Read review
TheSixthAxis	Nic Reuben	5 / 10	12-15-2020	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.	Read review
WayTooManyGames	Leonardo Faria	5 / 10	12-20-2020	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.	Read review
Wccftech	Nathan Birch	6.5 / 10	11-30-2020	Empire of Sin is a sincere love letter to a fascinating moment in American history and delivers all the style, swagger, and Tommy-Gun-inflicted violence you’d expect. Unfortunately, somewhat shallow sim elements, pushover AI, and a serious lack of polish means this probably won’t be your next great strategy obsession. That said, if you love gangster stuff, Empire of Sin might still be an offer you can’t refuse.	Read review
Windows Central	Samantha Nelson	4.5 / 5 stars	11-30-2020	A seamless blend of genres and high replayability make Empire of Sin and excellent choice for strategy gaming fans.	Read review
Worth Playing	Chris “Atom” DeAngelus	5.5 / 10	12-15-2020	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.	Read review

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About Empire of Sin

Game Description / Storyline:

Empire of Sin, the strategy game from Romero Games and Paradox Interactive, puts you at the heart of the ruthless criminal underworld of 1920s Prohibition-era Chicago. It’s up to you to hustle, charm and intimidate your way to the top of the pile and do whatever it takes to stay there. This character-driven, noir-inspired game puts players smack dab in the glitz and glamor of the roaring 20s, all while working behind the scenes in the gritty underbelly of organized crime.

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