Empire of Sin
Empire of Sin
Game
Game2021
City of Gangsters
Developer SomaSim
In this management tycoon game, you’ll start a criminal operation from nothing and grow it into a well-oiled money machine! Build speakeasies and illegal distilleries. Manage production chains and resource distribution. Leverage favors, chase down debtors, and bribe the police to look the other way. From the Steam store page
197 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Nov 2, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
65
Fresh
121 positive · 64 negative
95% range 58–72%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 121 | 64 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
708 of 964 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
65% recommend · 119 yes, 64 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 183 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Positive (1,143 of 1,565 positive).
Players praise the game's depth and resource management, but note it lacks gangster action. [1][2][3] Many compare it favorably to Gangsters: Organized Crime, though some find it underwhelming. [4][5][6] Some reviewers criticize the RNG and slow expansion, while others enjoy the early game loop. [4][7][8]
Liked
Representative posts
- [3]
I really wanted to love this game but in the end I had to admit that it's really just a supply chain manager. Fighting other crews is way too easy, grabbing new territory is way too slow and as long as the right people get their kickbacks there really isn't any challenge to being a virtual mob boss. Ultimately the game boils down to watching one's delivery drivers making their routes and bringing back envelopes full …
- [8]
I really love the concept of this game. But I can't recommend it because the RNG aspect is too hardcore. Each time you play, aspects of the city are procedurally generated and it gets frustrating because you end up with bridges to nowhere, dead ends and huge deadzones that are generally just ugly. Additionally, even though there might be someone in the city selling your resource, good luck finding it. If you don't …
- [4]
If, like me, you have a deep aching nostalgia for 1998's Gangsters: Organized Crime but can't get it to work on a modern computer, then absolutely pick this up on sale. I've played a lot of gangsters games and this comes the closest to scratching that itch. But on its own merits it is underwhelming. RNG is so bad I, and the forums, recommend restarting the game again and again until you get a start that is actually …
- [1]
honestly, I bought this game awhile ago and it sat in the library for a while. That 92 hours are all mostly from the last 2-3 months. It a game I always come back to, and would say full price is fair, and a discount is perfect to get in. Other comments have mentioned, and yes there is fairly little gangstering, it is an in-depth resource management and logistics game with a gangster theme. The feeling of it is …
- [2]
Tremendous game, the definition of easy to learn, hard to master. It's painful reading a lot of the other reviews of this gem. People just bounced off it because they wanted some sort of action FPS title. There is far too much depth here for the average nimrod. If you like a nuanced strategy/tycoon title where you have to manage a ridiculously broad web of relationships and businesses, this will be right up your …
Summarised from 34 of the 195 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 12, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Players who liked City of Gangsters talk about deep resource management and logistics gameplay; those who didn't talk about rNG can make starts unworkable. Which matters more to you?
Reactions
60 of 197 · most liked firstI really wanted to love this game but in the end I had to admit that it's really just a supply chain manager. Fighting other crews is way too easy, grabbing new territory is way too slow and as long as the right people get their kickbacks there really isn't any challenge to being a virtual mob boss. Ultimately the game boils down to watching one's delivery drivers making their routes and bringing back envelopes full of cash while very slowly expending one's territory to watch even more delivery…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →1,400 Hours Later… Still Running My Empire I have just over 1,400 hours in City of Gangsters, so I feel qualified to write this. And respectfully think the most of any review (can we be friends if I'm wrong?) This game is fantastic. Yes, it’s buggy. And honestly? That’s part of the charm for me. I grew up loving bug testing and system breaking, and this game absolutely scratches that itch. Figuring out how to optimize production chains, reduce turn cycles, and squeeze maximum profit out of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pros: * Interesting gameplay loop. * Favor system creates some interesting puzzle elements to figure out how to get in with people you need. * Feels good to conquer teritory. * Interesting generated missions with interesting rewards. Cons: * Poor tutorial. * No campaign to easily learn the game. * Lacking tooltips with a lot of hidden information. Can't even find a wiki with full information. * Often feels like there's nothing to do with some of your characters. * Lack of progress…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am disappointed in this game. The graphics aren't an issue for me, I know that some hate the old blocky style graphics. to me that is not an issue. The issue is the lack of really anything in the game, i just dont feel engaged. The game play is very monotonous. I like games like anno and other resource/goods management style games and thought this would itch the scratch. I was wrong, it wasn't it. im glad i bought this on sale for $12. I have been looking for a solid strategy gangster/mob…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's not the most entertaining game. Kinda had lazy written all over it. The map and icons are over whelming to look at and discern, you lose track of key buildings you need to access because it just gets lost amongst the hundreds of others. I got this game hoping it would expand upon Omerta: City of Gangsters, and it did; the problem is is that is not a fun game like Omerta was - there is a severe lack of atmosphere. No voice acting, Dreadfully un-amusing map, graphic features, and art…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not a good game. To repressive with a universe versus you setup. Rivals only attack you. Police only arrest you. I have lost more games because I can't find a buyer of my resources than anything else. I have been stalled out because I spend more time defending my borders against a NPC that obviously does not require any resources. At the time of writing this, I'm at 125 hours. I have yet to beat a game or get a 3 star legacy. Possible the game is beyond me.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →City of Gangsters Review: Great Concept, Fatal Flaw City of Gangsters offers a compelling premise with straightforward gameplay. I really enjoyed the ability to hire crew members and automate pickups and deliveries — it adds a satisfying layer of strategy and logistics to the experience. However, there’s a critical design flaw that severely impacts the game: the reliance on discovering legal resources. Because resources are randomly assigned across the map, you can end up in a situation where…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game had potential but has huge drawbacks crippling its replayability. Consider purchasing only during a steep steam sale. I won't dive too deep but I'll list a few things that have made me bored of playing the game, and having just purchased numerous DLC's for this I am leaving my spiteful review as it sort of falls in line with what others have complained about over the past few years. 1.) Crew sizes are limited, you'll be capped on the amount of employees and foot soldiers you can…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Rise of Industry 2, an in-depth industry and logistics management game, released on Steam. Developed by SomaSim, the creators of Project Highrise and City of Gangsters..
neutral · AI labelView post →If you expect a game in the spirit of "Gangsters", do not get this. It feels much more like a board game and sadly not really fun but kind of awkward. You don't run an outfit of gangsters, you move some board pieces over the map. The favor system is really strange and just sends me from A to B to C for no real reason.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Anno 2070, Omerta City of Gangsters, Secret World Legends, and a game that doesn't exist on steam any more so i don't know what it is
neutral · AI labelView post →I really love the concept of this game. But I can't recommend it because the RNG aspect is too hardcore. Each time you play, aspects of the city are procedurally generated and it gets frustrating because you end up with bridges to nowhere, dead ends and huge deadzones that are generally just ugly. Additionally, even though there might be someone in the city selling your resource, good luck finding it. If you don't *start* with an infinite free supply of a tier 1 ingredient, you might as well…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a fun, little idea. But it's a buggy, unfinished mess. I enjoy it every now and then, but can't recommend it in good conscience unless it's on a deep sale.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If, like me, you have a deep aching nostalgia for 1998's Gangsters: Organized Crime but can't get it to work on a modern computer, then absolutely pick this up on sale. I've played a lot of gangsters games and this comes the closest to scratching that itch. But on its own merits it is underwhelming. RNG is so bad I, and the forums, recommend restarting the game again and again until you get a start that is actually workable. Missions are clumsy and as far as I can tell can't be cancelled, but…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →youre not a mob boss in this game your the nerd guy who would typically get paid by the boss to manage operations my job feels like less work than trying to do anything in this game after having over 5 blocks.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Expected a game about gangsters fighting for territories in a city. Turned out to be a game about a city that happens to have some gang territories in it. For an organized crime game, I reckon it's more about organize and less about crime. At $30 I say not worth it. If you can get it for $20 or less then it's worth a look. Didn't see any bugs so there's that. 5/10.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It gets kinda boring fast and the actual mob mechanics for a mob game are locked behind the paid DLC so no from me
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's not that it's a bad game, but I was expecting it to be more of a tycoon/management game, but it controls like a turn-based tabletop where you have to manually control your characters... which would still be fine, it there wasn't so much ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ busywork to do. When people complain about "too much clicking" I now understand what they mean. Because ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, there is so much clicking required to get anything done.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →mid is the best word for it, it just has no life in it. It could be about anything other than the prohibition era and it would feel the same. It's like they didnt bother at all to make a true prohibition game, just this bland tycoon game with a thin skin of the 1920's over it. Not even the mods I tried could fix it, it's just so boring. I don't recommend this even on sale
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good Game especially in early game. If you get good at it, you can really get the cash flow up which means you invest more, which means each turn becomes so complex to manage. As a result, I was never able to finish to prohibition before my empire became so big each turn would take 20 minutes of planning. I don't think you need all the expansions. Base game should be enough.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I played this game for over 8 hours after purchase and am not sure at want point it is actually supposed to become fun. The random spawning of your initial operation, supplies available near your starting area, and purchasers of products you can produce seems to set you up for failure more often than not with what you can realistically access in the early game. It took me more than a dozen spawns to finally get one that was even remotely viable and since the game keeps one continuous…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Someday they will make a Gangsters themed game that is really enjoyable to play. City of Gangsters is pretty to look at and has some great ideas, but just is not fun. Its a lot of micro management and fiddly controls. All the info you need to get something done is there but requires you to constantly switch map overlays to find what you are looking for. When you finally get more people to help you, you have go give them orders like they are a two year old, go here pick up that and bring…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →honestly, I bought this game awhile ago and it sat in the library for a while. That 92 hours are all mostly from the last 2-3 months. It a game I always come back to, and would say full price is fair, and a discount is perfect to get in. Other comments have mentioned, and yes there is fairly little gangstering, it is an in-depth resource management and logistics game with a gangster theme. The feeling of it is always great. It has tons of features which all interact with each other making it…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought this game as it seemed interesting, and it is, just not in the right ways. The game's extremely chance-based and you might end up starting over a few times just because you're put in a position that's impossible to even start off from. I've got 6 hours into the game and had a territory taken away without any sort of fight taking place, so I reloaded the game to a point before that happened, but the territory is still gone. Now I no longer have the will to continue playing at all. Only…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It goes into micromanagement pretty fast
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Stoneware Crocks... It seems you spend the majority of your time trying to these crocks. Also, for a game about the Prohibition period. One of those most difficult things to do is establish a liquor business. Getting the ingredients is difficult. Games are supposed to be fun. This one is drudgery
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It isn't Gangsters, Organized Crime... But it IS a very well acceptable grandchild of the game. If yous Gangster Prohibition era gamer fans don't even pick this game up on sale, yous a fugazi maron, fuggedaboutit.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." - Homer Simpson
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fairly boring. The game is very slow, most turns are just waiting for your buildings to produce. The "heat" mechanic is a joke. It has no bearing on where the police will actually go. The game will say that police are going this a certain corner. I make sure my people are not there. Then it says my people got arrested somewhere else entirely and the police just decided to be where my people were. No reason, no heat, and you've lost everything. I restart the game as you lose so much that its…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is the only thing that comes close to the city management type gameplay of Gangsters:Organized Crime and that game IS the best Gangster sim ever made, hands down, no contest. It has never been matched until this game and for that, this game is highly recommended. Very replayable with enough depth for you to really feel like you are taking over a city with your gang. No buggy RTS crap here, just pure turn based management. This game fills a much needed space in the mafia genre.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I cannot with all sincerety recommend this game, even though I personally liked it somewhat. The reason for this bad review is singular and is very simple: logistics. Logistics is the main gameplay loop, and it is done poorly. Essentially, you have to drive around and buy resources for your illicit alcohol production and a number of other reasons (racket, bribery, turf wars, selling the aforemention produce etc.), and you have to drive A WHOLE LOT at that, and this driving is SLOW. There…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly, I have been eager for a good single-player 'underworld politics' strategy game for a long time and we keep getting something a bit less than we'd hope(Empire of Sin, City of Gangsters, etc.) so I'm up for an attempt to do it with swords.
negative · AI labelView post →The early gameplay loop is really satisfying - building up your operation from scratch and selling that first batch of prohibited liquor really scratches that empire building itch in all the right places, as does getting new buildings and methods of earning money. I also really like the idea of building up a network of favours and relationships, although i felt that it could have been better - right now you simply interact with a certain individual a handful of times to extract all of the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →its a good game. interesting idea, but lack of challenges or gameplay variety.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A well made crime management sandbox game. Visually & audibly pleasing while maintaining a stable, bug free experience for a large real time map. UI & tutorial make the game easy to understand. Game play wise, you can run protection rackets, turf wars, sell booze, speakeasies, gambling dens etc.. I found the beginning & mid game to be very fun. But it got a little too complicated when trying to produce the more complex booze type multi ingredient lists. And Gambling dens did need a little too…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tremendous game, the definition of easy to learn, hard to master. It's painful reading a lot of the other reviews of this gem. People just bounced off it because they wanted some sort of action FPS title. There is far too much depth here for the average nimrod. If you like a nuanced strategy/tycoon title where you have to manage a ridiculously broad web of relationships and businesses, this will be right up your alley. The DLCs, while not necessary, add politics, cross-border clandestine…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game autosaves AFTER bad things happen. Definitely could use some improvements, especially with how the auto-travel and map discovery works. Would not recommend in its current state.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So So (This is a neutral recommendation.) City of Gangsters has a good premise, and it's initially challenging and fun to slowly expand your operation. But once you're solidly established, you're left with nothing but annoying, repetitive chores to do. The game's first problem is that the tutorial is a bit too long. If you don't like the way things are heading, it might be better to not even finish it, otherwise you may lose your refund window. But if you like what you're seeing, it's OK.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Rise of Industry 2, an in-depth industry and logistics management game, released on Steam. Developed by SomaSim, the creators of Project Highrise and City of Gangsters..
neutral · AI labelView post →I just don't think it's very good. It is a really good idea and the systems are pretty cool but I think it was executed very poorly and it's not fun to play.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Masters of Orion 2 XCOM series and similar turn based tactical games like Xenonauts 2 and Phoenix Point (most recently Star Wars Zero Company) Age of Wonders 3 City of Gangsters Fights in Tight Spaces Phantom Brigade Jagged Alliance 1 through 3 (but not Back in Action) Shadowrun Returns and Dragonfall
neutral · AI labelView post →Too much micro-management and the mechanics don't line up. Expanding territory is harder than it needs to be and if you start the wrong operation, it can set you back a lot. Sticking to a simple wine workflow, it became hard to move the goods. I have a sizeable operation but only control a few blocks. How many gangsters am I supposed to micromanage to control a city? 10? 50? The art style also leaves something to be desired, it is much closer to tabletop board games with markers on the board.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Busywork the game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is a number cruncher the can last hours. Great if you wish to fine tune every single direction with your drivers, but its not my thing. Instead of building large scale automation, I find myself just get as many cars and trucks that I can with the guns donated by the cops and declare total war on every other gang and troublemaker around me. I take everything that isn't nailed down and sell it. Also the placement of gang territory makes me break out in hives, you can never get the grid…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just don't purchase. Game feels like board game instead of gangsters game. Incomplete. Concept might be good, but execution is poor. It also gets glitchy and slows down pretty fast. Sadly had to refund.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good idea but incomplete.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I first bought just the base game on sale then purchased the rest of the bundle a day or two later. I'm big on games that reward micromanagement and this is one of them. In my opinion, you can definitely play the game and automate everything but progress would definitely be slower. You can choose to do automate most of it as you wish if you don't want to use all your time tweaking the actions of your crew and are looking for a quick game. The Atlantic City, Criminal Record, and Shadow…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is really boring. Most of the game is repeating the same 4 or 5 actions every turn. That isn't my biggest problem. I can't save the game at all. No auto or manual save. This makes the game completely unplayable and a complete waste of money! Do not buy!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game play is very clunky. UI looks terrible. Not that much fun
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has a lot of very interesting ideas that simply do not feed into each other. There are too many things you absolutely need to do in order to get to the point where you have something you might consider a foundation, but all of these systems seem to be purposefully obtuse or stacked to punish the player at every turn. There are a few different types of alcohol production you can get, but the ease of your start depends largely on how easily you can produce the alcohol your starting…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cool concept but I didn't like quite a few aspects. The first one, and it's quite obviously a deal breaker, is that I was unable to save my game....TWICE. I played through the long tutorial and proceeded with the game. I saved twice since that point and the third time the save button was greyed out. I was hesitant, but exited to the main menu thinking MAYBE it was an auto save but it wasn't. Luckily enough I hadn't progressed too far after the last save to really turn me off of the whole thing…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I would recommend this game for any fans of the Eidos game, Gangsters 2: The Mobster Sim.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The issue with this game is the inability to obtain necessary resources at the start. Players must roam the town searching for essential resources, which can quickly become tedious , most of the time you can't find them !!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →City of tedious labors
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →B grade. I really latch onto resource management games, so I quickly sank a workweek of hours into this and it scratched the itch. But, there's not much payoff towards the end. My outfit scraped by until it had enough money, and then, once it had money, didn't have enough stuff to spend it on. The combat was disappointing and mostly irrelevant in my playthrough. The biggest disappointment was there wasn't an international connection, smuggling from Canada, corruption of the railroad.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is pretty deep. A lot of ground covered in this game versus other Mafia, Prohibition type games. While there is the concept of, "Killing" as with multiple type of Mafia games, this one, actually gives an, "ACTION" rather than a cut-scene, or any type of actual visual violence. However, this game is very in-depth for Alcohol, from possibly making the Grape Concentrate from actual grapes, to making of wine, or bringing it a few steps further. Very good in that regard. Next the economy,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I couldn't even get through the tutorial before getting bored. It could be a hidden gem underneath all the mechanics of this game, but I'm good. It would have been nice if the tutorial had a voice overlay, but after reading the 30th prompt of information with the repeating background music, I just gave up.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really loved the game until I got to the point of casinos. Casinos are wildfire, or I am unable to understand them. I lost sooo much money in them, that my crew went from swimming in money to broke, making game almost stop. Even when I dont have enough money in them to operate, somehow they manage to loose 1K per turn. I mean, I get hard games and mechanincs, but how in hell do I manage to loose money on facility that game tells me I do not meet requirements to run? By this logic I am not…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So here's the thing: this game is fun for the first bit of a play-through but you eventually run into a ridiculous amount of tediousness that can only be dealt with via a cumbersome "delivery"-type system. Couple this with the rarity of being able to buy buildings close enough together, but especially with auto-produced resources, that you're not running all over the place just to get the supplies needed to make even the simplest types of booze and you've got the most micro-management game on…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have played 170 hours of this game in under 3 months with a full time job and if you need more then idk what to say... But seriously this game this game has swallowed my entire life, if you have been looking for a game to scratch that 1940s mob itch with infinite freedom and are willing to learn its mechanics I will give you the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ money to buy it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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