Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Almost, but not quite"

This game I looked forward to eagerly, waiting for something that replaced the long lost games like Gangsters. The trailers and images looked promising but gameplay gave a different message. I will admit to playing the main story driven game for some time but the sandbox was very disappointing.

The graphics are reasonable but I would like better camera control and zoom. The user interface is too large and lacks detail. Gameplay seems very rinse and repeat, the battles are like those found in X-Com UE but the options, flow and beauty of X-Com is not found here.

With the story driven game you jump from city to city fulfilling the needs of one character or another. It keeps you playing due to the interaction of these missions but still is very rinse and repeat. Cities are often small and do not allow full development of your empire even in sandbox mode where there is a severe lack of interaction from the AI. There are quite a good number of missions so you can easily get drawn in following this part of the game. I felt no attachment to my gangsters or the world it was in.

Another few months in development. The addition of smoothing out the interface and a more interactive ai would make a big enough difference.

I would purchase this game if it retailed around £10-15. The £30 price tag is far too steep for a game with so little content/detail.