Info about City of Gangsters:

Official game description:
UPCOMING GAME BY THE DEVELOPER
==============================
ALSO BY THE DEVELOPER
=====================
About the Game
==============
In this new management tycoon game you'll start a criminal operation from nothing, and grow it into a well-oiled money machine! Build speakeasies and illegal distilleries. Manage production chains and resource distribution. Set up illicit gambling dens and squeeze your debtors dry. Smuggle goods from out of town and bribe the police to look the other way. Grow a powerful crew and keep your rivals under your thumb. Eliminate competition and rule the city. But most importantly, keep the money flowing.  
The year is 1920, the start of Prohibition in the USA. With congressional action, a huge segment of the national economy becomes illegal overnight: bars and saloons are ordered to close, distilleries and breweries go quiet, distributors shut down. But a new era is dawning: a gilded age for smugglers, black markets, illegal manufacture, and organized crime.  
This is where you come in. You’re a new arrival in the city at the dawn of Prohibition, with ambitions of striking it big. Behind many of the city’s facades, people are building makeshift distilleries, secret loading docks, nighttime speakeasies. Work your way into this network, and the world will be yours.  
But think beyond making a quick buck or two. You gotta be thinking ahead. You gotta be thinking bigger. Much bigger.  
Get started in the booze biz by hocking some homemade hooch. Start your own stills, and find raw materials to supply them. Learn new techniques to make expensive drinks, or smuggle imported booze to fuel your growing operation. Soon you’ll be supplying entire neighborhoods, and opening your own swinging speakeasies.  
On the black market, social currency matters as much as the greenback. With cops and feds sniffing around, trust is everything and personal introductions are worth their weight in gold. So work your connections to find profitable new friends, and get people who owe you favors to put in a good word.  
You will need plenty of hands to open new fronts, do delivery runs, and protect your product from envious rivals. Your outfit’s ambitions are only limited by the number of people working for you. Keep them paid, armed, and organized, and who knows how far and how fast you’ll rise.  
But proceed carefully, because everyone is always observing what you’re doing, and family members stick up for each other. Whether you send your people to harass someone, or to help them, you can be sure they’ll remember it down the line.  
As your outfit grows, convince locals that your goods and theirs will be looked after. Territory under your control will provide a safety net, an income base, and a wealth of opportunities for further growth and expansion.  
You’ve grabbed the opportunity by the horns, and the city is yours for the taking. But you only have a few years to make your mark on history, to build the largest, most profitable crime syndicate, take over your competition, and rule the entire city. Because after 1933, it will be all over, alcohol will be legal again. And doing business fair and square, well, everybody knows that’s not where the real money is.

Release date: Aug 9, 2021

Categories: Management Simulation, Economic Simulation, Territory Management, Turn-based Strategy, Base Building, Crew Management, Faction Management, Procedural Generation

Feature scans:
- MTX: score 90; verdict: Predatory / Casino; summary: The game exhibits predatory monetization through aggressive DLC practices, including locking core gameplay mechanics (e.g., casinos, election systems) behind paywalls and releasing numerous small expansions that feel like cut content. The base game is criticized as shallow and incomplete without DLC, with some users noting the combined cost of the base game and expansions is prohibitively high. While a minority defend the DLC pricing, the overwhelming sentiment is that the monetization strategy prioritizes profit over player value.
- Wiki: score 50; verdict: Instructional and Navigational Deficiencies; summary: The primary user complaints revolve around the lack of comprehensive instructional data (Tier 3 - The Student) and poor spatial/navigational tools (Tier 4 - The Tourist). Players express frustration over ambiguous in-game documentation, missing external wikis, and the absence of clear guidance on game mechanics and strategies. Additionally, the game's navigation and task management systems are criticized for being unintuitive, leading to player fatigue and disorientation. No explicit mentions of resource grinding (Tier 1) or inventory/crafting management (Tier 2) were found in the dataset.

- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Engaging empire-building mechanics (weight 0.81): Players consistently praise the satisfying progression of building a criminal empire, including territory control, resource management, and strategic expansion. The turn-based planning and automation of tasks enhance long-term engagement.
- Accessible yet deep gameplay (weight 0.71): The game is easy to learn but offers significant depth, making it appealing to both casual and hardcore strategy fans. The tutorial and UI are praised for their clarity and effectiveness.
- Fair pricing and value (weight 0.47): The game is considered reasonably priced for its depth and content. Players feel it offers good value, especially with the frequent updates and expansions.
- High replayability and content variety (weight 0.47): Randomly generated maps, diverse gameplay options, and procedural systems ensure high replayability. Players also enjoy the variety of illegal businesses, crew management, and expansion paths.
- Responsive and committed developers (weight 0.45): Frequent updates, bug fixes, and developer responsiveness to feedback are highlighted as key strengths. Players appreciate the ongoing improvements and content additions.
- Strong narrative and roleplaying elements (weight 0.12): Players enjoy the emergent storytelling, character interactions, and narrative progression. The favor system and relationship mechanics enhance the roleplaying experience.

Common complaints:
- Monotonous and repetitive gameplay (weight 0.99): Players frequently report that the game becomes tedious and repetitive, with shallow tasks, lack of variety, and no meaningful progression. Core mechanics like resource management and combat fail to evolve, leading to boredom.
- Lack of late-game content (weight 0.9): The game offers no meaningful progression or challenges beyond mid-game, with repetitive tasks, no climax, and an abrupt ending in 1933. Players feel their long-term efforts are pointless.
- Misaligned gangster fantasy (weight 0.86): The game fails to deliver on the promise of a gangster experience, feeling more like a city management or supply chain simulator. Players expect crime-focused activities (e.g., robberies, brothels) but find repetitive logistics instead.
- Poor automation and micromanagement (weight 0.84): Automation systems are ineffective, requiring excessive manual input for tasks like resource acquisition and logistics. Late-game micromanagement becomes overwhelming, with no quality-of-life improvements for repetitive actions.
- Clunky UI and poor UX (weight 0.77): The user interface is cluttered, unintuitive, and poorly designed, making it difficult to manage businesses, territories, or resources. Information presentation is not user-friendly.
- Unpolished and buggy experience (weight 0.77): The game feels unfinished, with bugs, performance issues, and lack of updates. Save file problems, balance issues, and unrefined mechanics detract from the experience.
- Inflated pricing and progression (weight 0.77): Property prices become absurdly high over time, and the game punishes success with increasing costs. Progression relies on exploiting systems rather than smart decisions.
- Limited criminal activities (weight 0.76): The game focuses almost exclusively on alcohol production and sales, neglecting other organized crime activities like gambling, drugs, or robberies. This narrow scope disappoints players seeking variety.
- DLC and monetization issues (weight 0.75): Players criticize the game for locking essential content behind DLC paywalls, including features that should have been in the base game. Updates prioritize DLC over core improvements.
- Poor tutorial and onboarding (weight 0.75): The tutorial is overly long, confusing, and lacks strategic guidance. New players are overwhelmed by complexity, while key mechanics (e.g., gang wars, police) are poorly explained.
- Weak AI and enemy design (weight 0.72): AI opponents are passive, overpowered, or lack strategic behavior. Enemies respawn endlessly, and the game fails to provide a meaningful challenge or dynamic interactions.
- Tedious territory expansion (weight 0.13): Expanding territory is slow, convoluted, and requires excessive favors or micromanagement. Artificial limits and poor balance make progression feel punishing rather than rewarding.

Gameplay feedback:
- Resource and Logistics Management (weight 0.82): Players manage complex supply chains for illegal operations, including alcohol production, delivery routes, and crew roles. Automation systems and procedural generation add depth to logistics, requiring strategic planning for resource acquisition and distribution.
- Turn-Based 4X Empire Building (weight 0.79): The game blends turn-based strategy with 4X mechanics (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate), allowing players to start small and grow their gang through territory acquisition, business management, and rival gang interactions. Grid-based movement and turn-based combat are core features.
- Prohibition-Era Gangster Strategy (weight 0.71): The game centers on building a criminal empire during the 1920s Prohibition era, featuring gangster immersion, territory control, and strategic decision-making. Players expand influence through alliances, turf wars, and illegal activities like bootlegging and protection rackets.
- Combat and Rival Gang Interactions (weight 0.56): Territory control involves combat with rival gangs, featuring turn-based or real-time mechanics. Players can engage in gunfights, negotiate truces, or form alliances, with outcomes influenced by crew traits and dice rolls.
- Economic and Business Simulation (weight 0.45): The game features a cash-based economy with business upgrades, loan-sharking, and real estate acquisition. Players balance expenditures, revenue streams, and investments to expand their criminal empire.
- Favor and Relationship Systems (weight 0.41): A social mechanics layer allows players to build relationships through favors, bribes, and introductions. This system unlocks business opportunities, political influence, and alliances, with NPCs reacting dynamically to player actions.
- Procedural Map Generation (weight 0.38): Randomly generated maps with varying resource distributions and territory layouts ensure unique playthroughs. Seed-based generation and dynamic economies affect pricing, opportunities, and strategic planning.
- DLC and Expansions (weight 0.36): Additional content includes casino management, mayoral election mechanics, and custom maps. DLCs like 'Shadow of Governments' introduce new layers of political influence and gameplay variety.
- Crew Management and Traits (weight 0.23): Players recruit and manage crew members with unique traits, assigning roles like managers, deliverers, or muscle. Skills and promotions affect efficiency in tasks like logistics, combat, and diplomacy.
- Police Corruption and Law Enforcement (weight 0.11): Players interact with police through bribery, evasion, and surveillance mechanics. Bribing cops is a primary method to avoid legal consequences, while growing influence may attract FBI attention.

Performance notes:
- Performance issues and lag (weight 0.03): Players report frequent slowdowns and glitches during gameplay, impacting the overall experience. These performance issues disrupt fluidity and immersion.
- Long save times and freezing (weight 0.03): The game experiences extended save times that cause freezing, frustrating players. This issue interrupts gameplay flow and reduces enjoyment.

Recommendations:
- Target niche strategy audiences (weight 0.26): The game is highly recommended for fans of logistics, tycoon, mafia management, and deep strategy games. Its minimalist but deep gameplay appeals to players who enjoy slow, strategic experiences.
- Optimize logistics and economy (weight 0.17): Players recommend increasing vehicle loading capacity, optimizing alcohol material purchasing, and adjusting shop/territory pricing. These changes would streamline gameplay and improve economic balance.
- Expand long-term gameplay depth (weight 0.16): Players suggest adding more content like luxury items, property upgrades, and layered task progression to extend the game's appeal beyond 20-30 hours. This would cater to fans of deep management and strategy games.
- Improve DLC and customization (weight 0.16): Feedback highlights the need for DLC to be applicable to all cities, not just New York, and requests expanded character customization and map uniqueness. This would enhance replayability and player engagement.
- Adjust pricing and value perception (weight 0.06): Players suggest the game is only worth purchasing at a steep discount (e.g., $20 or less) or during a Steam sale. The current price is perceived as too high for the content provided.
- Add automation and combat improvements (weight 0.05): A proper automation system and improved combat mechanics are frequently requested. Dynamic task generation based on territory control is also suggested to enhance strategic depth.
- Address save and technical issues (weight 0.04): Negative feedback cites save issues and game-breaking flaws as reasons to avoid the game in its current state. These issues significantly impact player satisfaction and recommendation rates.
- Improve task and resource systems (weight 0.04): Players request the ability to cancel tasks, refine government mod completion conditions, and produce goods from nearby resources. These changes would reduce frustration and improve gameplay flow.
- Enhance feedback and accessibility (weight 0.03): Feedback from combat and territory control needs improvement, and smaller maps are suggested for better accessibility. These changes would make the game more intuitive and enjoyable for new players.
- Clarify gameplay mechanics (weight 0.01): Players recommend consulting literature and guides to better understand the game's systems. This suggests the in-game tutorials or explanations may be insufficient.
- Consider alternative control schemes (weight 0.01): Some players prefer an action points system over direct character movement, which could make the game more accessible to fans of turn-based strategy.
- Base game sufficiency (weight 0.01): Feedback indicates that the base game is sufficient without expansions, suggesting that DLC may not be essential for a complete experience.

Other player notes:
No miscpoints

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.33): Players experience frustration due to underdeveloped mechanics, bugs, and an unfinished game state, including save file issues and unplayable maps. Repetitive late-game tasks, excessive micromanagement, and poor automation systems exacerbate the issue, while a steep learning curve and cluttered UI further hinder progression.
- Disappointment (weight 0.22): Disappointment stems from the game failing to meet expectations for a deep gangster or strategy experience, with shallow combat, repetitive gameplay, and missing key features. Poor execution, lack of cohesion in mechanics, and abrupt endings contribute to the sentiment, alongside technical issues and perceived developer greed.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.12): Players feel satisfied with the game's depth, replayability, and engaging empire-building mechanics, particularly in the early and mid-game stages. The unique setting, responsive developers, and addictive logistics systems are frequently praised, along with the variety of activities and strategic planning.
- Excitement (weight 0.07): Excitement is driven by the game's addictive and immersive gameplay, unique yakuza-themed progression, and deep strategic potential. Players appreciate the variety of activities, hierarchical structure, and the promise of future updates, which enhance the empire-building experience.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.04): Enjoyment arises from the game's fun and engaging mechanics, such as business and territory management, as well as the strategic depth of logistics optimization. Players appreciate the balance of gameplay and the nuanced learning curve for mastering production lines.
- Boredom (weight 0.04): Boredom results from repetitive and shallow gameplay, particularly in the mid-to-late game stages, where tasks become tedious and lack meaningful progression. Slow expansion, micromanagement, and a lack of variety contribute to the monotonous experience.
- Engagement (weight 0.03): Engagement is fostered by the game's tactical depth, decision-making challenges, and immersive role-playing elements. Players enjoy self-imposed challenges, procedural management systems, and the strategic variety offered by social interactions and empire-building.
- Appreciation (weight 0.03): Players appreciate the game's depth, atmosphere, and strategic complexity, particularly its blend of genres and economic simulation. The setting and replay value are frequently highlighted as standout features that contribute to the game's appeal.
- Hope (weight 0.02): Hope is tied to the potential for future updates, quality-of-life improvements, and the game's ability to evolve into a cult classic. Players suggest enhancements like better automation and UI improvements to address current shortcomings.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0.02): Enthusiasm stems from the game's depth, replayability, and strategic possibilities, particularly in supply line management and empire-building. The unique theme and mechanics further fuel player excitement.
- Annoyance (weight 0.01): Annoyance is caused by a cluttered UI, frequent police confiscations, and excessive micromanagement. Repetitive gameplay and difficulty interacting with game elements also contribute to this sentiment.
- Interest (weight 0.01): Interest is piqued by the game's unique focus on the economic side of gang management and its process-building mechanics. Players find these aspects compelling and distinct from other games in the genre.
- Overwhelm (weight 0.01): Players feel overwhelmed by the game's excessive micromanagement and complexity, particularly as the empire scales. The sheer number of tasks and logistics can make the game feel daunting.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.01): Nostalgia is evoked by the game's resemblance to *Gangsters: Organized Crime* (1998), with players appreciating the throwback to classic gangster management sims.
- Approval (weight 0.01): Approval is given for the developers' responsiveness and the game's reasonable price point, as well as its unique approach to the gangster genre, which stands out from other titles.
- Amusement (weight 0.01): Amusement arises from humorous moments, such as the game's unexpected focus on logistics (e.g., forklift truck simulators) or lighthearted mistakes that lead to losing the game.
- Hopelessness (weight 0): Hopelessness is felt when players are consistently outgunned by AI enemies, making progression feel impossible and creating a sense of futility.
- Disgust (weight 0): Disgust is directed at the game's terrible building system and slow, cumbersome gameplay, which frustrate players and detract from the overall experience.}