I’ve never been overly fussed about the gangster scene in the past but lately have grown a little soft spot thanks to a few movies of that ilk. This is where “Omerta – City of Gangster”s comes in, which was released by Kalypso Media on 1st February for Xbox 360, I became immediately intrigued at how they’d adapt this style in a simulation and turn based strategy game hybrid. Despite seeing screenshots I just couldn’t imagine it, so what did it turn out like?
Well first I’ll delve into the heart of the game, a career/mission mode where you are an immigrant after fleeing your hometown of Sicily, arriving in Atlantic City you must work your way up a mafia style ladder from immigrant to head honcho (if you’re up to the task of course). The whole thing is based in the 1920s around the time when organized crime went underground following alcohol ban. You must make choices when creating this character, including a picture/mugshot (all look villainous but I chose the one most resembling Nathan Fillion) and the background story decides the starting attributes like toughness, smarts, guts, and cunning. Thus JJ Lethal is born, ready to take on the world.
I can see similarities with their other games Tropico 3/4 already but that’s not a bad thing necessarily. Now you have practically no money and it’s time to make some doing small jobs given by an established gangster, need to start somewhere. You’ll be given overall task to complete in each are of Atlantic City, how you get there though is up to you. I noticed it’s mainly simulation here as there’s an overhead look of the area with properties and joints available to rent plus other established locations. The navigation, buying, selling and upgrading what you have is all very simple which makes it accessible to more people. Strategically it’s more about setting up the right business to make money and either forcing neighbouring rivals out or buying them out.
You’ll need plenty of resources to survive and make an impact, these are money (Dirty or Clean, depending how you acquire it), beer (setting up a Brewery can help), liquor (Distillery is useful), firearms (from smuggling) and storage (Warehouses). If you don’t think it warrants owning the business to create your own resources or don’t need many, you can find people who are willing to sell quantities of them directly for a price of course. I’ll be honest it was very simple, thought there wasn’t enough options of things to build and once you’ve got enough money you can improve liked/feared ratings (which helps with the efficiency of your businesses) and decrease your wanted rating from the police (money talks).
To do jobs such as renting, collect, selling etc. a gang is needed and only you plus one more is available from the start with more slots and goons for hire unlocking as you progress. Depending on their attribute they may do jobs quicker or if it’s a raid/burglary might return with extra loot. Even more importantly they will be your main help when it comes down to fighting gangs or groups that need to be gotten rid of (the Klu Klux Klan was just one of many I destroyed).
How does the fighting work you may ask, well it’ll load up a battling area (could be something like a warehouse) and you’ll have to eliminate all of the opponents in sight. Taking it in turns you take control of each character and can move or attack using points allocated to both. For example if you have 10 movement points you can only take 10 steps in total, likewise attack point it’ll take certain amounts for different moves using your weapon of choice. The idea is to lower the opponents health points to zero, then you win. You can hide behind objects to help obscure the view when they attack you, so in all I’d say this redeems a bit of fun for Omerta. Unfortunately fights are few and far between, making it a little bit of a chore whilst you anticipate the next one.
Along with the mission mode, there’s Sandbox where it’s an area and you go as far as you can with no specific missions or objectives. This wasn’t for me, hence the only other option was to venture online and here I struggled to find a game. Luckily I found the odd one here and there, which four different game types there isn’t much but it’s all based around the combat style in the game. There are two competitive modes (Gang War and Get The Money) and two cooperative (Bank Heist & Jailbreak). The competitive ones basically are team deathmatch and capture the flag modes, but with gangs and in the latter it’s a bag of cash. Teamwork is key in the other modes, working to either rob a bank or bust out some mates from jail. It was enjoyable when I found a game but it seems online is a little dead in times I’d expect them to be booming.
The voice acting and characters sound and look authentic as gangsters or other professions from that era. Shame is that I could never really make a connection to them nor did I care who they are, I just picked them and despite the many hours I’ve played I could only name one of my gang. This is what happens when the slowest part of the game (simulation part) end up being the majority of it as I was urging the time to pass whilst literally doing nothing but allowing my money to accumulate. The game needs a few more dimensions for this part then the combat won’t be alone in being the fun part.
Omerta – City of Gangsters gives me enough to pass the time and occasionally it sucks me in (combat) but for the most part it’s a rather average game. If the turn-based combat wasn’t as good then I don’t know how I’d have coped. Give it a rent but nothing more.
