84 TECH ADVISOR • APRIL 2020ROUND-UP
- Empire of Sin
Release date: To be confirmed
Brenda Romero’s reportedly waited decades to make
Empire of Sin, a hybrid real-time strategy/turn-based
tactics game set in the Prohibition Era. I’m glad it’s
finally getting made, because it has some really neat
ideas. Foremost among them is what Empire of Sin
calls RPCs or ‘recruitable player characters’. These
are your gang members, and they have personalities,
relationships with other characters, dreams and desires.
You might recruit a character only to find out her lover’s
in a rival gang, and then be able to exploit that – or
have it come back to haunt you when she refuses to
fire at her lover at a crucial moment. It’s an interesting
wrinkle to consider, though I’m curious how often these
situations will present themselves outside a demo.