Omerta: City of Gangsters
5.5
10
2
2
Great Idea Held Down By Flaws
The idea of the game is great: You're a gangster fresh off the boat during the 1920's when the prohibition is in effect. You hire up to 6 gangsters (including yourself) and go around the town, buying businesses that either produce alcohol, firearms, or dirty/clean money. You then can deal with your competition in either friendly (buy them out) ways, or less friendly (drive-byes and firebombs) methods. The turn-based battle system attempts to imitate that of the recent X-Com: Enemy Unknown, but falls short in almost every aspect. The graphics are mediocre, but definitely remind you of Tropico. The "special effects" are pretty horrible, and everything from grenade explosions, gunfire, and smoke grenades seem like they belong back on the original Xbox. The sounds glitch a lot, and when people are talking to you they tend to cut out - then repeat the same thing they had already started saying to you. The battle system falls short of X-Com in almost every aspect: because you can rotates 360 degrees, sometimes telling your guy to take cover at the wrong angle will leave him standing behind the cover in plain view, where he will be shot down most-likely. A lot of the battle maps are very dark, and if it wasn't for an on-screen indicator pointing you in the direction of your objective, you would probably have no clue where to go. BOTTOM LINE: If you already own X-Com and are bored with it, this is worth a buy, but I'd wait until it drops in price like most Kalypso games do in a short matter of time. If you've never played X-Com, it is by far the superior game of these two, and it is worth a full-price buy, unlike Omerta.
2/18/13
Good intentions bad deliverance
I purchased this game because it is by the developers of my favorite game Tropico and seemed a lot like it. It is not. You don't build anything you just click preset locations and turn them into a very narrow set of businesses. Your gangsters "missions" involve you just clicking and waiting while you stare at the small city. Combat is turned based and greatly flawed. Cover makes no since and the whole thing is dulled to the lowest possibility and time consuming. Get this game only if it's on clearance. I would buy a sequel though if they promised all the many glitches were fixed.
2/15/13