Empire of Sin

Empire of Sin turns the business of running a Chicago mob into a slow, bruising management game, with crews, turf, cash flow and awkward alliances all pulling on the same thread. By our assessment, its strength is the mix of strategy, role-playing and underworld pressure: every move has a cost, and the map matters as much as the people on it. The downside is that this kind of city-management game can feel fussy, and the combat and pacing do not always match the promise of the premise. In practice it asks for planning more than reflexes, and for patience with menus, diplomacy and consequences that arrive later. It sits closer to a rough, character-driven strategy game than to a pure gangster story, and it is most appealing if the idea of building a criminal empire sounds better than simply shooting through one.