Valheim
Valheim
Game
Game2025
The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire
Developer BEF GAMES
Build a criminal empire from the streets up. Commit crimes in third-person, run and automate illegal businesses, recruit your own crime family, fight rival organizations, and take control of a seamless open-world city. From the Steam store page
298 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
76
LovedLoved
223 positive · 69 negative
95% range 71–81%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 223 | 69 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 6 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
246 of 318 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
82% recommend · 170 yes, 38 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 208 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (390 of 467 positive).
Some reviewers criticize bugs, janky mechanics, and repetitive tasks. [1][2][3]
Liked
Representative posts
- [1]
I really tried to like this but I just couldn't get into it. Movement is janky, guns hit about as hard as a nerfgun, your character is too squishy and cars break with ease. Story wise, it has potential but just doesn't deliver with the lame mechanics. I kinda wish I hadn't stuck this out tbh. Should have just refunded. Edit: So lemme address the Dev's notes. My point was that guns do very little damage. It takes …
- [4]
I was skeptical because I’ve been scammed by indi developers using these character models. Bought the game and they abandoned it immediately. Bought this at 9pm to test it out, didn’t get off till 530am. Just pray this guys doesn’t abandon us. Such a great game so far.
- [5]
Installed game. "I'll try it for 20 minutes." 2 hours later: 📈 Empire growing 📈 Profits growing 📈 Paranoia growing 📉 Sleep schedule I have no idea what happened. One minute I was learning the controls, the next I was acting like a discount crime boss with a business degree from YouTube. The game is already packed with content, the management systems are addictive, and every time you achieve something your brain …
- [6]
Bought the game yesterday and gave it a shot. Nightclub system is great, allowing you to sit in the club and micromanage for better efficiency. Crime system and the open world city has a good foundation allowing you to hire and upgrade mobsters separate to your employees at the club and go and take over businesses to get tribute. Although it is early days, from what I can see the developers are very active with the …
- [7]
It has serious potential even though it is an early release. There is tons to do if the team delivers what's promised. Looking forward for future updates.
Summarised from 30 of the 212 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 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
82% of the 208 Steam reviewers we collected recommend The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire. The complaint that keeps coming up: bugs and missing quality-of-life features like key remapping. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Reactions
60 of 298 · most liked firstI really tried to like this but I just couldn't get into it. Movement is janky, guns hit about as hard as a nerfgun, your character is too squishy and cars break with ease. Story wise, it has potential but just doesn't deliver with the lame mechanics. I kinda wish I hadn't stuck this out tbh. Should have just refunded. Edit: So lemme address the Dev's notes. My point was that guns do very little damage. It takes like 14 headshots from a pistol to take down one guy. It drags out a fight, and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While the game has potential. It has enough bugs and issues that I have had to relaunch multiple times to correct them. Like the waiters being unresponsive and not moving. The car stealing mini game is not fun. The traffic is annoying and the streets will be full of cars lined up waiting. I parked my car outside the weapon store. And I was getting multiple police notifications. Turns out an NPC drove into my vehicle and the pedestrians were walking into it. Killing them instantly and reporting…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not worth the price yet, it's like GTA 1 with some EXTREMELY light management aspects. The customization is also surprisingly very limited for what seems to be a main selling point for the game. You're basically picking through various presets for a couple of assets and while you do get free range over where you place tables, the hitboxes for them are so big the club is clearly designed to only have a fixed amount in certain spots. As for other placeables, things like decor and booths can only…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fan of games like this, but this one is just not it. I don't understand why so many reviews here are riding the devs. Where do I even begin? 1. Walking simulator. I honestly have no idea how they'll even solve this becaue the system in place right now is absolutely atrocious. Most of your game time will be spent walking around the open world. Oh and no, you can't just open the map select the location and have the dude walk there, no, you have to do it manually. Not to mention that a lockpick…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted this to work. I loved the old crime strategy games. I start up the sandbox campaign, start from scratch, and I grind via pickpocketing etc to buy a lockpick for 10k. Great start. I go to steal a car. Oh, there's a lifespan to the lockpick. Oh, there's a cop coming. I can't seemingly just escape out of the lockpick. Oh dang they started shooting. Oh, my 10k is gone as the lockpick has disappeared. What on god's green earth are we doing here? How has this game been going on from…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was skeptical because I’ve been scammed by indi developers using these character models. Bought the game and they abandoned it immediately. Bought this at 9pm to test it out, didn’t get off till 530am. Just pray this guys doesn’t abandon us. Such a great game so far.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the QoL is non-existent here, + no excuse for such janky controls and driving mechanics in 2026. and it's not "funny" jank, it's annoying af with weird input lags type of jank.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Edit: Apparently, the developer doesn't read or his reading comprehension is terrible. He thinks I accused him of using ChatGPT to create part of his game, which I clearly didn't do. THIS IS A RESPONSE THE DEVELOPER GAVE TO A FAIR AND WELL WRITEN REVIEW. DO YOU WANT TO GIVE MONEY TO A DEVELOPER LIKE THIS ONE? The review was written by a guy named "Caz" and is available still. Apparently, the developer is bewildered by people who turn off comments to their reviews. No idea, why.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the game itself is funish, feels like a GTA 2.5 with extra depth. The problem is the game is going the same thing every developer does and pushes a full release way before its done for some stupid reason. 1.0 used to mean something. I expect this from large companies run by stockholders, but Indy devs are doing it now and it drives me nuts. I understand needing bug fixes and stuff post launch, but theres content thats not even in the game yet, one of the jobs says "coming soon" then why the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's like GTA Chinatown wars but you can run/manage your own gang. Controller support works great but needs a little more refinement (on version 1.0.2) like tutorials still giving keyboard keys, but I think devs are working on this. Runs pretty good on steam deck but on medium graphics. Not sure if this is a linux bug but ambient audio is wonky. Speech is fine, car horn is fine, but the rest is muted or very low. I can barely hear the car engine and there is zero ambient city-scape…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is fun. Management, Production, Tycoon elements, RPG progression, open sandbox. I am a fan of schedule one, and this is kind of the game I wish it was. it feels like you have agency over yourself in semi real world. FYI: I edited money in a couple play throughs to test systems and gear. The game can be played in a number of very different ways. My first play I did the club owner, and just managing the club is a game in itself, I spent the most time here. Progression feels slow and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game reminds me of Gangsters: Organized Crime, a game released in 1998! The only difference is, there was a storyline about revenge. You also had different maps for each level, with every level you would get closer to the end goal of getting your revenge. It made sense. In this game however none of it makes sense. There is barely a storyline....and it's a bit like okay you arrive, you immediately have drinks with the big boss and the next minute you own your own club and you get a 100K to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A thumbs up for now but it's on the verge, where you need a meh button. My gut is saying the game will be abandoned and I hope it won't because the concept is good. Yes it's very EA, in the short time I have played it I had a bug where some customers never ordered anything and just stayed in booths so I ended up having to kick them out. Sometimes staff forget their jobs. But so far nothing game breaking. There's a bunch of basic QOL aspects missing like key mapping, controls/key remapping, a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As a fellow dev... Keep working on and advertising it only takes on influencer. You have something special here.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is very similar to DNFC (Definitely Not Fried Chicken). You are a criminal who is trying to start an Empire. You use drugs, Guns, and other things to take over. You build and Manage yours clubs. This game is very very EA, even the Devs state this. Its has potential. I just hope this game doesn't end up dead. I'm personally liking my time with this game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Needs much more time in the oven. Saved up bunch of cash in the game, bought the best gun- and some glitch made it disappear lol Not really playable yet
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →EDIT: After being spammed with six comments by the developer of this game for a negative review I have, I have turned off comments to this review. Its sad as it is that an indie developer chooses to throw professionalism out the window due to a bad review and fling insults at people for stating their opinion.. oh well. Below is my review. Enjoy! I found out about this game shortly before launch. It looked... Interesting. I finally got around to giving it a try and went in with low…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I cant recommend this game YET! POST PATCH Lots of balancing issues need to be done, training costs for Bouncers and Gangsters are way to high to see them die repeatedly. Make no mistake your club will be assaulted by thugs, your bouncers AN gangsters will die.. WILL die and they cost 10-20k EACH. Don't think that buying fancy tier 3 weapons will save you bar because they wont. Save your money to just replace furniture and products. After having 5 gangsters with high end weapons and both…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A lot of people posting a review after playing for 30 minutes and deciding they figured the whole thing out. This game is a good GTA alternative, but it's not GTA. It's got drug production and distribution, real-time gang warfare, a police notoriety system, protection rackets, nightclub management, and aspects of TPS, RTS, strategy, simulation, and sandbox mechanics. The game tries to do a lot of things, but it can't be categorized under a single genre. You're not going to get CK levels of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Reading a review is not enough? Want to see some footage? Check the link and watch some gameplay for yourself and decide if this game is worth your time: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3694858621 Opening / Information And here I am again. Someone asks: “Wanna be a gangster?” Well yes, Mr. Not-So-Shady Ad Guy. Wanna build an empire, make your own money, and escape this hell we call capitalism by exploiting it even more than the billionaires? Sign me up. Yeah… you’re…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I did not expect this game to be this good and so in depth, i bought this when i was bored after work cause i has nothing to do and didn't think the next day i'd be waiting to go home just to play this, the gameplay it self could be better sure, the combat is fine but deffo could be better but in general this game is a craaazy hidden gem and i want the team to make as much content for it as possible i mean the possibilities are endless, this is technically a night club mafia boss sim but it can…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought the game yesterday and gave it a shot. Nightclub system is great, allowing you to sit in the club and micromanage for better efficiency. Crime system and the open world city has a good foundation allowing you to hire and upgrade mobsters separate to your employees at the club and go and take over businesses to get tribute. Although it is early days, from what I can see the developers are very active with the community both on discord/steam and I hope they continue like this throughout…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As far as I can see, undisclosed AI use, messed up audio, the game will go from controlling your character with WASD to mouse, for no apparent reason. The game has interesting ideas, but it's not for me.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →at some point i get to play the game......right? not sure why we have a forced tutorial in a game this basic but 30min in here we are..... learning how to click the guy with the right click.......
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game gets to a point and just does not let you save anymore. so all your progress gets lost
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Installed game. "I'll try it for 20 minutes." 2 hours later: 📈 Empire growing 📈 Profits growing 📈 Paranoia growing 📉 Sleep schedule I have no idea what happened. One minute I was learning the controls, the next I was acting like a discount crime boss with a business degree from YouTube. The game is already packed with content, the management systems are addictive, and every time you achieve something your brain immediately goes: "Cool. Now make it bigger." Then bigger. Then bigger.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Alright, i waited a bit for the game to be fully out to get a review and still now, i do not understand how this game is in the positive reviews. The game firstly feel rough and so bland for many things, the game feels slow and the small jobs are cool but that's it, it's not that rewarding. And the main jobs, well they are even worst, some times targets are three times as tough as they should be for "Civilian Targets" and the cops are way too op. On top of that, vehicles, even though they…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Needs some major tweaks. 1) controlling the characters is a HUGE pain. 2) Why can I run over civilians but not enemy gangsters? The car drives right through them. DUMB. 3) When I have two or more of my own guys shooting enemy gangsters, and especially when I got the drop on them, how is it that THEY can still prevail!?? What is the point in arming my guys with guns then. 4) Why no blood when I do kill enemies?? 5) The lockpick and warehouse system is broken. Hey go steel this car as…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As always, TL;DR at the bottom. Game is in EA so expect quirks. I've seen this game pop up a few times and eventually decided to give it a try. For the "old uns" among you, it's reminiscent of Gangsters: Organized Crime, and Gangsters 2, with a splash of GTA (the original). All of which I thoroughly enjoyed playing, so this felt quite natural. I picked it up just before the recent update (the 12th I think the update was) and it's quite enjoyable. It is quite centered around owning your own…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Needs a bit more time in the oven. There seems like a lot to do but it's actually a bit boring. Driving is tedious and everything is miles apart. Running your club is basically menus, then you sit and watch characters do very little for ages. Combat is basic. The bugs are also bad. I quit the game and it crashed my PC to a full restart. I've paid less for EA games with more content in a more stable state.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is fun so far but some really irritating mechanics make it too frustrating to persevere with. The lock picking is the worst of them. Just why is it so bad? The game progression depends on something that doesn't seem to work. The game has a tonne of potential and I will pick this game back up again once it has had some much needed fixes.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Boss Gangsters : Nightlife is a fun short and unfinished game. I see it more as an investment into a project where we the customer expect developer to finish it. Now the big problem is. At the moment nearly nobody plays it. Will it lead for a developer to abandon this project and fail this kick-starter to us all, just time will show.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →⏱ Playtime: 48 hours 👍 What I liked: • The progression system. You start with only $20 and gradually build both your character and your criminal empire. There are also several starting options that make for a smoother early game. • IRONMODE! You only have one life, and if you die, you lose everything. This makes every decision feel much more meaningful. • A small development team has created a surprisingly deep gangster simulator with lots of possibilities and plenty of variety. • I like that…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So the game is honestly the best of it's kind i've played, it's very ambitious in it's scale and actively being worked on, the issues/bugs listened to and fixed in a reasonable time, for instance when I bought the game before the 1.0 release I ran into a bug, I mentioned it, very soon after the lead dev had checked my save out and released a hotfix for the issue, the only other game i've played that has been as responsive and quick to fix problems is CyberKnights Flashpoint. Now for the game…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wasn't expecting much. I bought this game on a whim just days before the 1.0 release and, wow, this game is just so addicting. The whole loop of making money, investing, building and warfare is so satisfying to go through. If you're a big fan of GTA Onlines gameplay loop, but hate the aggressive monetization and trolls, this game is absolutely for you. Totally worth the 20 bucks. That being said...it's a brand new game...small dev team...there is a bit of jank and the occasional annoying…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I dont recommend as currently. Depending on speed of updates/patches absolutely. This is fun, pure and simple. looking forward to where this goes as unfortunately its not quite there, tip of the tongue so to speak.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There are too many bugs to currently recommend this game. When they fix the windowed mode resolution and the current mini-games so they actually work then I will re-assess. This is very much more like an alpha than early access. Edit: The dev has released v1.0 so I had to update. The dev has lost his mind, call the mental asylum. We have a new patient. This is not v1....
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TL;DR 9/10: Amazing. Not perfect, but even without the fine-tuning, The Boss Gangsters : Nightlife is a great experience where the player manages a nightclub and engages in criminal activity. Overview After picking out an avatar and name for the MC, the player in The Boss Gangsters : Nightlife quickly establishes themselves to a key player in the likeness of Las Vegas in which they receive their own night club and a lot of cash after their first job. While there's likeable management sim…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Old-school GTA vibes with a surprising amount of depth, freedom, and personality. One of the biggest strengths is the freedom to approach the game in different ways. Whether you're focused on expanding businesses, making money by stealing and selling cars, growing your own green, making your own powder. unlocking new opportunities, there's a decent amount of variety to keep things interesting. The ability to switch between top-down and first-person perspectives is another fantastic addition…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Economy = Trash Buy a $5k lock pick so you can get paid $3k for stealing a car. Want your crew member to do the stealing for you? Another $5k (and they break pretty easily). Every crew member needs to be armed so at a bare minimum $5k for a glock (which breaks). Spend an hour making drugs to sell all the money goes to replacing broken guns, getting people healed up etc. I felt like all I was doing was replacing stuff that had already been purchased. Mission payments, cost of stuff, cost of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →not worth the money very jankie and just not fun for 20 bucks there are better games
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →just over 2 hrs unfortunatly, i would have refunded. game doesnt explain much. spend more time figuring out how to do basic things than playing the game
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So even with my PC and its overkill specs, driving around in the tutorial constantly stutters which just shouldnt happen, and cause of this i end up crashing into things cause it likes to stutter as im taking a corner so i just end up going into a lampost or something, ruining the cars health and for some reason the car takes so much damage, 3-4 hits and its close to blowing up, but even if it didnt stutter the driving is awful, feels floaty and the gunplay is just as bad, to my knowledge…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game, old school GTA vibes..Would be even better if it had multiplayer!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yea I'd recommend it to others, this game feels like Kenshi, GTA, Saints Row 2, and Schedule I got together and did the nasty. Sol's review at face value almost stopped me from buying, I buy it and as I compare it to his review, it's just immensely false. For instance, there isn't a "sandbox campaign" there is sandbox AND campaign, there isn't even the option to "start from nothing" in campaign as it's not released yet, if you attempt to start the game in sandbox and choose the "start from…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is clearly missing a lot of potential features, but it has the backbones to be a great game, one that is sorely lacking in the Mafia management genre. I bought it just to test it, and then I had played over 6h straight. If they improve some automatization for gangsters' movements (like sending a squad to defend a front thats under attack) with a simple click instead of having to manually move them, it will be chef's kiss, since that's one of the most annoying things I have to do…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Lots of potential. Some good decisions on the graphics. They will polish the story, all good there. But an untested unplayable mess under the surface. Some really sloppy and bad choices were made in the minigames. Overflowing lists, unresponsive UIs. Assuming the mini game is 'obvious' where it is not. Waiting for the next major update.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yes its a very polished looking game, playes smooth works on SteamDeck as well. I do feel like its more of a strip club simulator then a gangster? What bothers me the most is that you cant have your goods do stuff unless the boss character is doing it. Well you can pay for things like drive by and beat someone up and so on, but you cant just grab the goons you recruited and go take care of business with out the boss. I mean what boss goes out to buy the liquor or sell drugs? Thats what…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Currently there is about 8-10 hours of gameplay in this early access. The game has bones of a really good game. There are some bugs that can erase progress or items but the devs are pretty quick to fix those if you report it. Some things I would like to see would be: - More club layouts - More sandbox activities - Allow other family members to drive cars so they dont have to run across the city when multiple business get attacked.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It has serious potential even though it is an early release. There is tons to do if the team delivers what's promised. Looking forward for future updates.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is great scratching an itch old school gta works great on steam deck. Fun game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I just couldn't, the voices are horrible, the controls are even worse and the world building just looked so lazy
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →good old fashioned game loop, love the direction, love the dev involvement, love the evolution, Lads, dont burn yourselves out, but i know this ones a love project, Smoke one for ol' cheffy. This is good spice,
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to love this game. I like certain aspects of the game. The first person to god mode is cool. I've always wished for a game like this since doorkickers. The part that makes me only like the game is the same with all games now days. I get a half A game that's buggy etc. Its like I'm paying to test your product. From the way the games are i often wonder if you even play your own game.... I know its just me ranting but that's the way all these games make me feel. What happened to a FINISHED…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At this time I cant really recommend this game, don't get me wrong the premise is good and maybe in a year or a few years the game will be great but at this moment it feels more like a foundation or a proof of concept of a game. The progression loop at the moment personally just isnt entertaining and a majority of the systems feel so drastically seperate from eachother rather than all systems being tied in with eachother. The best way i can describe it is it feels like playing a garrysmod…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Thanks to @ign.com for a look at the latest free update for open world action-sim / management game The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire from #indiedev BEF Games & publisher Tripwire Interactive, available now on #PC in #Steam Early Access! ⬇️ www.ign.com/videos/the-b... #BestOPS
neutral · AI labelView post →I’ve had a lot of fun with this game in the state its in, however there are a few game mechanics that could be reconsidered, revised or changed. Summing up a couple of thoughts: - The need to raid a rival club several times (8-10 times) is not a fun mechanic, it feels very repetitive. - Some of the quests were a bit confusing to follow and could be improved by further clarity. - I’m hoping for a heal option for the guards you fully upgrade in front of shops that are taken over, right now they…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Literal trash, Early access or not the price tag isn't worth the mobile type game of what it is. I won't embellish since it'll be a waste of my time and I'll just move on. Maybe don't get it how it is now, a crime sim that when you run people over they T pose. Nice. "Also, we don’t believe there’s any mobile game that combines an open world with detailed tycoon systems, action mechanics, driving, and dozens of interconnected features like ours does." You heard what I said. Maybe that's your…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First of all you cannot change key bindings secondly it is full of glitches. I got stuck in the building mode because the menu would not show up. Game refunded.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've really enjoyed the game so far, an option to add your own music to the club would be interesting, and the game should also consider mod and workshop support.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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