Empire of Sin, the strategy game from Romero Games and Paradox Interactive, puts you at the heart of the ruthless criminal underworld of 1920s Prohibition-era Chicago. It’s up to you to hustle, charm and intimidate your way to the top of the pile and do whatever it takes to stay there. This character-driven, noir-inspired game puts players smack-dab in the glitz and glamor of the roaring 20s, letting them thrive in the gritty underbelly of organized crime.

With randomly generated starting conditions, players will have to adapt to survive and do whatever it takes to outsmart, out-gun and outlast their opponents.

Paradox Interactive and Romero Games have announced major changes to Empire of Sin, detailing a host of game fixes and community-requested features in the upcoming patch 1.03. 

Some of the key improvements coming to the game shortly:

• Safehouse changes - bosses around the city have gotten wiser, and they have taken extra precautions to hide safehouses from other mobs. Players will need to draw them out, plant a mole, or attack their rackets to find clues on where they’re hiding.
• Combat changes - looks like mobs around the city have finally heard the advice to ‘pick your battles,’ as gangs around the city can now only be drawn into combat by stealing their loot crates. Security has been beefed up and geared up, with tiered strength and access to rare weapons they’re itching to break out. 
• Auto-resolve in combat - players will be happy to hear the first phase of auto-resolve combat has been implemented, allowing skirmishes not containing a boss or gangster will trigger a pop-up, giving the options to fight or surrender. This feature will be fleshed out in further updates.

Safehouse Changes

Information is harder to come by these days. Something spooked the bosses around the city, and they’re not taking any more chances. They’ve hidden their Safehouses, and are making extra efforts to keep the location well guarded. On game start, a Safehouse is just another white building somewhere in the neighborhood that can only be revealed by the most shrewd gangsters. They’re not even letting their guards stand out front. 

Sitdowns with other bosses can still go ahead, but you’re only invited to talk in the backroom of one of their rackets as opposed to the fancy office in their Safehouse. If the sitdown doesn’t end well, the enemy boss is still well protected, and there’s a lot of brawling to get through before they reveal their Safehouse location.

To find out how close you are to finding where another boss is hiding, check your diplomacy screen. As you can see in the pictures below, your Discovery Chance is a Safehouse icon and progress wheel shown on the enemy boss’s profile. Once you meet a new faction, your chance of finding them increases by 1% each in-game week.

So how do you find out where a boss is hiding? We’re so glad you asked! 

There’s always the old fashioned way of attacking their rackets. This is prohibition Chicago we’re talking about, where anything goes, and enemy bosses are easily pissed off. The chance of them revealing their location increases with each one of their rackets you attack (though that’s a lot easier said than done, more on that later!) There is potential to find clues in their rackets that can lead you to their location, so keep your eyes peeled. Planting a mole amongst their ranks is another way to gain information on their whereabouts. They feed you information as and when they find it. 

Your discovery chance is checked every month, and if you pass the threshold, the enemy’s Safehouse is revealed. Once they’ve been rumbled, an event pop-up will tell you where the Safehouse is. As the below image shows, you can decide to view it straight away or wait until you’re good and ready.

What you do with this information is entirely up to you, but as you know, Chicago’s not built for sharing. The boss knows this too, and once they’re discovered, you’ll notice their guards patrolling out front in preparation for your next move. 

Combat changes

Let’s start with exterior combat. Thugs have wised up and are deciding to pick their battles. They don’t just start fighting with anyone in the street anymore, least of all a gang boss. The only way they can be tempted into a brawl is if you try to steal their loot crates.  

As for security upgrades with major factions, there must be something in the hooch they’re drinking because security guards have gotten stronger. Tiers have increased so that with each security upgrade, they get much tougher. They have a higher HP and better armor and their attributes have also been seen to – so you can count on them having a better aim for one thing. Their inventories have remained the same, but the gear available to them has gotten better too. Security guards now have access to a stash of uncommon and rare weapons that they’re only itching to use against any opportunistic gang bosses. At security levels 4 and 5, there’s a whole new tier of racket guards on shift, and they are bigger and better than what has come before. In the picture below, you’ll see Goldie giving up the ghost. Take that as a fair warning not to arrive to combat unprepared. 

If that wasn’t enough to contend with, weapons have lost some of their bite. Critical Damage has been brought down across the board, along with some other attributes. Rifles, for instance, have had their armor damage removed, and the range for sub-machine guns has also been trimmed. As of 1.03, the functionality for armor has been revamped. As utility items, they haven’t changed, but you no longer lose your armor when it’s been riddled with lead. Now, armor gets repaired after combat and over time it gets better and rejuvenates to full protection. 

Combat AI has gotten smarter too. Guards are far more likely to calculate their moves as carefully as you do during a fight. Some of the more cowardly guards, known for running around a lot, have had a stern talking-to from the Capos. They’ve grown nerves of steel and now prefer to stand their ground and empty their weapons on you. 

Mini-Auto-Resolve

Something we’ve been seeing a lot from player’s feedback is the desire for an auto-resolve in combat. The city is a volatile place, and sometimes it’s better to let skirmishes settle themselves without getting involved. Auto-resolve is a feature that’s coming up soon on our roadmap, though the road to full functionality will happen incrementally. Changes will appear in stages and combat designer Ian O’ Neill has shared what to expect from each one. The first stage, included in 1.03, is a mini-resolve feature. Any external combat that doesn’t include a boss or a gangster will have a pop-up where you can choose to fight, or surrender. 

Following that, the next stage of implementation will have a very simple version of auto-resolve with an option to fight, abandon, or auto-resolve. The final steps will come to fruition over three stages with full UI, full features, and full auto-resolve for combat. But it’s coming!

General Changes

In addition to everything above, there are a number of other tweaks here and there that you’re going to notice around Chicago. There’s been a host of improvements to make your playing experience better. We’ve added some building variation, UI and locale polish, as well as an auto-focusing feature that makes any new mission from boss missions or quest givers the top priority. 

Also, remember fast travel? It’s now a thing of the past! Sal’s cabs have undergone a mass exodus of staff – probably from the fear of taxiing around bloodthirsty gangsters all the time – and most of the city’s taxi routes are cut. Bosses and gangsters alike can only travel by taxi to their Safehouse or from one taxi-point to another. Anything beyond that and you’re walking, pal.

Thugs have started expressing the individuality! Giving up on copying each other’s appearance, they now have thirteen variations in appearance, all of which are randomly selected. Get a load of their new look in the picture below.

 

Key Features:

• Build A Crime Empire: Raise your criminal empire from the ground up in several seedy enterprises (be it speakeasies, union skimming, or casinos) and building a team of loyal mobsters to make your mark on the streets. Once you make a name for yourself, expand your influence by taking over rival territory and adding more ventures to your repertoire.
• Defend and Expand Territory: If it comes to blows (hypothetically, of course) and your posse needs to send a message, face off in brutal turn-based combat. Recruit your goons strategically to build a strong chemistry within your crew to maximize combat damage and help secure your hold on the city.
• Explore a Living, Breathing City: Explore the streets of vibrant 1920s Chicago and interact with a full cast of living, breathing characters, each with lives of their own that inform how they react to what you do (or don’t do). Schmooze, coerce, seduce, threaten, or kill them to get your way.
• Wield Your Influence:Make and break alliances, bribe cops, and trade on the black market to gain an edge and expand the influence of your crime family. Always keep your enemies close and ensure you have a mole on the inside and eyes everywhere.
• Pursue Multiple Victory Strategies: Whether you make it to the top with violence, business smarts, or city-wide notoriety, there are a number of ways to become King or Queen of Chicago. With various starting conditions and constantly changing crew dynamics, no two playthroughs will ever be the same.

Empire Of Sin is available for PC, Mac, Switch, Xbox One and PS4.