This game comes loaded with promise. You play Chief of Police Jack Boyd, a hard-boiled old-school cop trying to get enough money to retire and survive a city full of gangs, political corruption, and apathetic citizens. It's very atmospheric, and I was drawn in almost immediately. The voice acting for Jack really helps set the scene, and there are lots of little touches that make the game's world feel real.

At first. *MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW*



You see, this game gives you 180 days to get Jack to his goal of $500,000. I had met this goal by day 80, and even with some story-related time skips, the game drags and the story gets sparser and sparser until I felt like the developers hadn't had any idea how to wrap things up. Main plot threads are tied up in increasingly contrived manners and the game railroads the player in its final act into a forced binary choice about which corrupt, sleazy individual to support for head of the city. Sure, it lends to the game's dark atmosphere, but by this point the player feels no sense of agency. I was playing like a hustler and a supercop- City Hall loved me, my staff adored me, I made tons of money off the mob only to betray them and break up their operation to the tune of almost half my monetary goal- and then the game says "No, you suck again. Which one of these two characters who cannot succeed without you would you like to have win rather than you?" I badly, desperately wanted an option to tell them both that I didn't care and wouldn't help either, which would have perfectly fit Jack's character. Heck, even an option to run for mayor myself would have varied things up, maybe given me a chance to call in all the friends and connections I had built in gameplay... but nope, pick your flat Pepsi or sour Coke and watch a final disappointing cutscene.

I'm fine with stories where the protagonist doesn't win, but this is diabolus ex machina of the worst kind. Everything in gameplay was going my way, but the story went its own way and decided that heads I won, tails I lost. If this struggle had been reflected in gameplay and tied in with the overall narrative better, fine. As-is, I got a little bit of foreshadowing and then had the game metaphorically beat me up and take my lunch money.

The ending of a game is important. And this one has a complete lack of respect for the player, its world, and the game as a whole. While I had fun in the first half of the game, the latter half of the campaign is a slog and the story unravels and careens in wild directions. Not worth your money.

This game comes loaded with promise. You play Chief of Police Jack Boyd, a hard-boiled old-school cop trying to get enough money to retire and survive a city full of gangs, political corruption, and apathetic citizens. It's very atmospheric, and I was drawn in almost immediately. The voice acting for Jack really helps set the scene, and there are lots of little touches that make the game's world feel real. At first. *MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW* You see, this game gives you 180 days to get Jack to his goal of $500,000. I had met this goal by day 80, and even with some story-related time skips, the game drags and the story gets sparser and sparser until I felt like the developers hadn't had any idea how to wrap things up. Main plot threads are tied up in increasingly contrived manners and the game railroads the player in its final act into a forced binary choice about which corrupt, sleazy individual to support for head of the city. Sure, it lends to the game's dark atmosphere, but by this point the player feels no sense of agency. I was playing like a hustler and a supercop- City Hall loved me, my staff adored me, I made tons of money off the mob only to betray them and break up their operation to the tune of almost half my monetary goal- and then the game says "No, you suck again. Which one of these two characters who cannot succeed without you would you like to have win rather than you?" I badly, desperately wanted an option to tell them both that I didn't care and wouldn't help either, which would have perfectly fit Jack's character. Heck, even an option to run for mayor myself would have varied things up, maybe given me a chance to call in all the friends and connections I had built in gameplay... but nope, pick your flat Pepsi or sour Coke and watch a final disappointing cutscene. I'm fine with stories where the protagonist doesn't win, but this is diabolus ex machina of the worst kind. Everything in gameplay was going my way, but the story went its own way and decided that heads I won, tails I lost. If this struggle had been reflected in gameplay and tied in with the overall narrative better, fine. As-is, I got a little bit of foreshadowing and then had the game metaphorically beat me up and take my lunch money. The ending of a game is important. And this one has a complete lack of respect for the player, its world, and the game as a whole. While I had fun in the first half of the game, the latter half of the campaign is a slog and the story unravels and careens in wild directions. Not worth your money.