14.5 hours played
Written 3 days ago
So the tl:dr is: Are people right about bugs existing? I found out the hard way the answer is undoubtedly yes. Are reviews correct that there are still game breaking bugs? So far in almost 6 hours ive found a single game breaking bug. The other bugs were just annoying such as visual bugs and a few bugs with the UI. But aside from the clear bug issues its honestly a fun game. And apparently it has a new dev, which honestly doesnt make me all that hopeful for the game in the long run, but at least im hopeful now that at least some of the bugs that exist now might be worked on at some point.
The long story if you care: So ive had this game on my radar since it came out. never pulled the trigger on it though because normally it is quite pricey and the fact the original dev abandoned the game with numerous bugs was just a big turn off for me for a game i would otherwise have enjoyed and probably would have still got on sale if only the dev worked on the glaring existing bugs people were reporting before dumping the game.
Apparently as of recently there is a new dev. From what i gather appointed to the game by paradox to pump out a promised dlc for legal reasons. which honestly doesnt bother me personally. Ive read from some people the dlc is actually pretty good. Others seem to be review bombing it. Didnt buy it yet though myself because i wanted to see if the base game was still full of bugs first which i found out it indeed still is. Supposedly there have been "some bug fixes" according to the community since the new dev came in but since theres no news on the steam page for the game i'm not sure thats 100% true.
In 6 hours of gameplay ive actually ran into a rather disappointing amount of bugs but in all honesty the vast majority of them are simply annoying rather than game breaking. Which does still kill the experience i could have with the game but wouldnt keep me from playing.
Some of the bugs ive encountered are as follows:
-Visual bugs where when a friendly gangster goes down in combat sometimes they will reappear invisible all except for their weapon if they are healed from a bleeding out state
-UI bug when starting a new game that sometimes happens where characters dont show their abilities or stats as well as any option to actually start the game in which you have to go back to the main menu and start a new game again.
-Visual bug where random abilities in combat will look as if they are selected when they actually arent. for example al capones rain of bullets ability for me was often visually showing the abilities radius when in fact i had no abilities selected yet.
-Some new games will fail to show you the screen of selectable hires when using the blackbook to try and hire crew mates.
The only game breaking bug i found was a few occasions where i would try to initiate combat through various dialogue options on various missions and while the game would pull me into the combat it wouldnt actually start the combat and therefore effectively soft locking my game where id have to then load a previous save. For example on one of the first missions where i have to talk to the guards at a brothel to try and get in, eventually one of the options you get is to initiate combat with the guards and thats when this happened to me twice in a row.
That being said i have at least some hopes that with the new dev we will get at least some bug fixes. Hard to say at this point though. Id be more encouraged to purchase dlc for the game at a later date if there was a show of good faith from the new dev to patch out some of the bugs that exist personally.
As someone who didnt buy into the game early for the expansion pass i have no comment regarding that issue. And honestly i think if the games bugs were actively worked on people who would have liked to play this game in the past might be encouraged to come back to it. Because aside from the issue of the game being a buggy mess, fundamentally theres nothing wrong with the game its self. other than a few qol improvements that would be nice to see, the game its self is a lot of fun and what ive always wanted in a open world 1920 era mafia style of game. So its kind of too bad theres still a lot of bugs as of now and the fact the game is still getting negative reviews, because theres a great shell of a game here with lots of potential.
Not many games like this out there so i have my fingers crossed that both paradox and the new dev might do some things to try and put some life back into this game, and some good will amongst its player base. Id honestly love to see this game make a come back and do well but knowing paradox's reputation for upkeeping games that comercially failed, my hopes for any future for this game feels mixed. I dont see why they wouldnt try and revive this game as its loaded with potential to be something great.
Anyway, if you like mafia style games this ones honestly not a bad pick up on a steep sale as of the time of this review. And literally the only reason i say that is because of bugs that still exist and the fact we have no way of telling if the bugs will be fixed in the future or not. But if youre able to look past most of the bugs that do exist and see the game for what its meant to be its honestly not a bad game.
Though if you want to play something similar to this but thats less graphically fitted you can always go get city of gangsters. The combat isnt really there in that game like it is in this one but its bugs were mostly stomped and all things considered is a finished and complete game that still does a great job at scratching the open world mob game itch.
I give all my best wishes to the new dev and really hope to see the bugs in this game get worked on in the future. Would be nice to have this game function at least mostly with out bugs at some point and im in their corner rooting for them if they do so.
So the take away here is, if you like mafia kind of games, this ones not as terrible as people in the reviews tend to make it seem. There are a good number of bugs, probably more than ive come across, but outside of that its a good resource management/strategy game. I would just recommend waiting until its on massive sales to pick it up at least until we have any proof the game is being worked on again outside of only releasing a dlc 4 years later to get around legal issues.
My fingers are still crossed for this game.
