City of Gangsters

If you’ve always been curious about the crime life, City of Gangsters will put you right in the center of things with this 1920’s era game. In City of Gangsters, you control a boss who is in the bootlegging business, hoping to expand across the city as more businesses work as your fronts. You’ll need to defend against rival gangs, find out how to get weapons and learn who to speak with, and earn money all at the same time.

A tycoon game with a tight leash

The illegal booze business is difficult, and if you don’t manage your business correctly you’ll end up suffering. The ingredients for your liquor have to all be in the same warehouse as you are brewing in—it’s not good enough to simply have it in your inventory.

You’ll also need to make sure your fronts are getting enough cash and are tended to regularly, because if they don’t have enough cash to keep going they’ll shut down. You have about 3 months to fix the situation before they disappear, but you’ll want to prioritize it, as getting fronts in the game isn’t always easy.

Favors are everything

The game runs through favors, and you’ll need them for just about everything. If you want a new storefront, you’re going to need a favor for that. Almost everything important operates via favors, and it isn’t always obvious how to get them. One way to kick start a favor is by using the automatic delivery system and have it deliver a certain type of booze. This may trigger a mission you can do in order to get a favor. Other triggers may include things like keeping a stash of cash on hand, but it’s not obvious. You’ll need to experiment to figure out how to garner more favors, especially from people outside your territory.

Very little action

Despite this being a gangster game, there’s very little action in it. Your goons are more useful as delivery boys for alcohol over fighting other gangs. The few times you do need to teach a rival gang a lesson, you’ll get hit in your wallet for doing so.

The game is mostly a bootlegging game, and as such the police hardly ever come down on you at all. It’s very similar to a game by almost the same name, Omerta: City of Gangsters, but with better graphics and a more developed tycoon theme. If you were looking for an action-based adventure, this probably isn’t the right choice for you.

City of Gangsters is an average bootlegging game. While the game itself is entertaining, it really could have benefited from a prelease phase where some of the problems of the game could be caught. There’s no high stakes, nothing exciting, and the whole game simply comes off as a time kill.

Pros:

• Decent graphics
• Unique gameplay options

Cons:

• AI systems don’t mesh well