Worth it now?

[Kilo_60]

Post latest patch...

[Mac Tonight]

It's definitely been improved, but it still needs a lot of work. It's on sale at the moment, and I'd say it's worth it at the current price. However, here's where they need to improve if they want to drag this game out of mediocrity and justify a 60 - 80 dollar price tag.

1. Add additional layers of complexity to combat, including but not limited to: new gangster types for the player and the AI, new types of movement/attacking abilities, and additional lethality (less bullet-spongy enemies/allies - bosses can be slightly tougher than normal to reflect their status).

2. Like point #1, there needs to be more to empire management. Combat is still, by far, the most effective and powerful option available to the player at all times, even on Boss difficulty (I play this exclusively). The developers need to incentivize the use of all diplomatic options available to the player, which as of right now, are all but useless save for "business arrangements." The only reason business arrangements are even sought out is because they come easily, and are usually a flat percentage reduction to your costs starting out. Nothing else is even worth considering (unless you want to cheese the system by spamming allied bosses with "kill someone" requests and avoid playing the game altogether).

3. While more content in general is a huge plus (weapons, armor, trinkets, bosses, etc.), what EoS desperately needs is depth, period, and not just in its existing mechanics. Vehicles (and drive-bys) are needed, hits on other characters/bosses need to be structured differently, and the supply line mechanic needs fleshing out. There should be active trucks scheduled to take your product to each location which can be ambushed by enemy gangs (or rival gangs in disguise if you're not at war). You can upgrade your convoys to carry more men, assign hireable gangsters to them, and even get better vehicles to accompany them/drive the hooch to a location. Losing these should be devastating, and eat into your income significantly (and that of the AI as well).

4. There needs to be a reason for you to not spend the entire game running around with your very powerful boss character. (I'd say once you control your first district, the game should flip more toward managing your goons). Ultimately, when you bring your boss out to fight, it should be for a limited time and available on a cooldown (this doesn't have to be long, but enough so that you're forced to use your hired gangsters as your enforcers while your boss can manage your home district in relative peace). Also, I would like to see enemy bosses/hireable characters participate in street fights and racket disputes. Now, in the case of enemy bosses, and for the sake of game length, it should be incredibly difficult to kill them outside of their safehouse, but possible (low % chance - like 0.5%). Killing an enemy boss (or having your boss killed outside of the safehouse) could put them into the wounded state for X amount of time, which weakens them if their safehouse is attacked quickly after the fact).

5. Police. Dear god, they need a complete overhaul. I swear you can just farm them for goodies still, much like you could before. This should be the most powerful and threatening faction in the game, PERIOD. No gang (not even the player) should be capable of standing up to them for long, especially in prolonged conflict. There should be a reason to care about police presence, and an income debuff just ain't it. More needs to be added to the notoriety system, and cops should have much more influence in each district. Right now, they're just crappier gang members in smaller numbers that can be farmed on sight. A complete rework of how they function is desperately needed.

6. Last but not least, complete the modding package. I know this is coming in bits and pieces, but I cannot stress how necessary mods are to breath life and replayability into this game post second expansion. As much as it sucks to admit, I don't see EoS getting additional support past the next expansion, so the sooner modders can get to work the better.

I could go on, but that's the gist of it from me. I enjoy the game for what it is, but it's definitely just "ok" at best, even with the improvements. Depth is needed. Desperately.

[druzilsupreme]

I agree with almost everything Green Bastard has said here (there's some great suggestions) but for me the game has gone from frustratingly simple and easy to moderately fun and good, though the early game is much more challenging than the mid- to late.

[Gerd]

Many missions are bugged right now

[Kilo_60]

Originally posted by The Green Bastard:

It's definitely been improved, but it still needs a lot of work. It's on sale at the moment, and I'd say it's worth it at the current price. However, here's where they need to improve if they want to drag this game out of mediocrity and justify a 60 - 80 dollar price tag.

1. Add additional layers of complexity to combat, including but not limited to: new gangster types for the player and the AI, new types of movement/attacking abilities, and additional lethality (less bullet-spongy enemies/allies - bosses can be slightly tougher than normal to reflect their status).

2. Like point #1, there needs to be more to empire management. Combat is still, by far, the most effective and powerful option available to the player at all times, even on Boss difficulty (I play this exclusively). The developers need to incentivize the use of all diplomatic options available to the player, which as of right now, are all but useless save for "business arrangements." The only reason business arrangements are even sought out is because they come easily, and are usually a flat percentage reduction to your costs starting out. Nothing else is even worth considering (unless you want to cheese the system by spamming allied bosses with "kill someone" requests and avoid playing the game altogether).

3. While more content in general is a huge plus (weapons, armor, trinkets, bosses, etc.), what EoS desperately needs is depth, period, and not just in its existing mechanics. Vehicles (and drive-bys) are needed, hits on other characters/bosses need to be structured differently, and the supply line mechanic needs fleshing out. There should be active trucks scheduled to take your product to each location which can be ambushed by enemy gangs (or rival gangs in disguise if you're not at war). You can upgrade your convoys to carry more men, assign hireable gangsters to them, and even get better vehicles to accompany them/drive the hooch to a location. Losing these should be devastating, and eat into your income significantly (and that of the AI as well).

4. There needs to be a reason for you to not spend the entire game running around with your very powerful boss character. (I'd say once you control your first district, the game should flip more toward managing your goons). Ultimately, when you bring your boss out to fight, it should be for a limited time and available on a cooldown (this doesn't have to be long, but enough so that you're forced to use your hired gangsters as your enforcers while your boss can manage your home district in relative peace). Also, I would like to see enemy bosses/hireable characters participate in street fights and racket disputes. Now, in the case of enemy bosses, and for the sake of game length, it should be incredibly difficult to kill them outside of their safehouse, but possible (low % chance - like 0.5%). Killing an enemy boss (or having your boss killed outside of the safehouse) could put them into the wounded state for X amount of time, which weakens them if their safehouse is attacked quickly after the fact).

5. Police. Dear god, they need a complete overhaul. I swear you can just farm them for goodies still, much like you could before. This should be the most powerful and threatening faction in the game, PERIOD. No gang (not even the player) should be capable of standing up to them for long, especially in prolonged conflict. There should be a reason to care about police presence, and an income debuff just ain't it. More needs to be added to the notoriety system, and cops should have much more influence in each district. Right now, they're just crappier gang members in smaller numbers that can be farmed on sight. A complete rework of how they function is desperately needed.

6. Last but not least, complete the modding package. I know this is coming in bits and pieces, but I cannot stress how necessary mods are to breath life and replayability into this game post second expansion. As much as it sucks to admit, I don't see EoS getting additional support past the next expansion, so the sooner modders can get to work the better.

I could go on, but that's the gist of it from me. I enjoy the game for what it is, but it's definitely just "ok" at best, even with the improvements. Depth is needed. Desperately.

Wow great write up...

Thanks!

[Marquess Mack]

Yes, it is a lot better, but it still has limitations and bugs.
I do truly enjoy it now, but to be safe, I'd wait to buy it till the next DLC comes out, it will probably be released together with another major patch.

[Alexander]

yes its great, i realy like it a lot, if they keep on adding new stuff (more gangsters/rackets/diplomacy etc) then this will be the best gangster game ever made

[tora75]

I think if they infused life into the citizens and unused buildings, it would solve that "empty world" feeling and give you other things to do than just engage in combat and the top level economy approach. Adding different storefronts,schools, churches, orphanages, etc.- manned by citizens with their own personalities and relationships (family, neighborhood, business, city, etc) would add a huge layer that seems to be missing. This pool of bots would have a different system of traits and lead to places to extort, loyalty to gain, and new missions. They could also be used as a lower level recruiting pool to add a layer of depth to business activities. Imagine your rival mob lawyer lives in a neighboring district. The lawyer has relationships with police in certain districts, other lawyers, judges, politicians, the press, etc. They have a home address, with family members who go to school or work around the city. They all attend church on Sunday at a church on the other side of town in one of your districts. You instantly have a plethora of options to extort, bribe, assassinate, etc. If the scenario were flipped and lets say a hit was ordered against your mob lawyer. It fails, but a family member was killed. You can now decide to try and find witnesses to track down who was responsible. Maybe you now have to assign some of your nameless low-level hoods to protect the lawyer's house while you investigate (moving them away from one of your businesses). BUT, I agree. The police, federal agents, lack of judges, press and no accompanying personalities, addresses, actions, relationships, make it impossible to allow for a proper sandbox. In my opinion, that seems to be what is missing the most. The set pieces and combat were the primary focus out of the gates. They chose that path to focus. Now that they are in the mode to patch new content and create, I'm hoping they add depth to the world around you- all of this will lead to more things to do than just focus on combat.

[davidovich23]

Very good write up of Green Bastard. It's better than it was, but not much better. As I wrote in another thread: I really don't understand why I can't take over rackets/precincts I'm not connected to. This way you can't fight "behind enemy lines" or disrupt a supply chain of somebody who isn't your neighbor. Taking reality into account, it makes no sense at all. I'm fine with the fact precincts are not connected to my supply line make no money (even not when that precinct has a brewery of it's own?!), but only being able to to fight in neighboring precincts takes all the dynamics out of the game.

[Omega13]

I'd rate it as good, but not great. There's a lot of stuff in the game that feels tacked on and pointless. Still, the characters are pretty cool and the game oozes charm. Just manage your expectations and wait for a sale, probably.

[Dennis]

Originally posted by Gerd:

Many missions are bugged right now

Game is a buggy mess for me. Last 4 attempts to play end with game crashing bugs.

The Poker Game crashes the playthrough - Every Single Time.

This time I planned to avoid it just to see how far I could get - Didn't even get a chance. Just got a pop up granting me 60 Whiskey along with an empty event box and only option is, yet once again, Alt F4.