Company of Crime Reviews

I played 20+ hours, just to give it a fair chance of review: If you are 50/50 on whether to purchase this, you might want to read this. What hooked me to buy this game was - Nice Art Style / Concept / Music - I love XCOM-like turn based game - Catharsis of being able beat up random people (GTA-like feeling) However the reality was - No game-play balance. Level progression and difficulty is non-existent. (basically nothing in the game ties in together) - Extremely repetitive. I really gave myself a chance to like this game, but it's really not very fun :( . How do you call this fun??? Not worth my money at all. I wish I can refund this.

This game should appeal to fans of the history of London-based criminal gangs in the Sixties, and act as a voyage of violent discovery for those who aren't. Regardless, it's the creation of a Finnish design studio and published by a Russian company and as such proves to be immense fun and both a parody and a mirror of those times. If you are uncertain as to the veracity of this game, I suggest you watch the film "Legend" with Tom Hardy playing BOTH Kray twins. If that doesn't put you in the mood to buy and play, then it's probably not for you. Here's a quote to get you going; "A paranoid schizophrenic walks into a bar...".

Overall good game mechanics and i love the idea...but it already became boring after the 5th more or less identical battle. After 2 hours gameplay i had the impression that i just did the same battle over and over again with little variations and for some reason, i dont expect much more variations.

Criminals playthrough... and all I can say is... this game is annoying. [strike] A major bug is currently in the game as of release where arrested crew members disappear after they are released from jail. They are not added back to your crew. [/strike] EDIT: ^ This has been pointed out as intended. See @platypus developer response. Also, they way the police are implemented as the criminals is frustrating. There is no end to police once they start rushing your encounter and more spawn practically every other turn. In theory that means you have to finish your task and escape while the cops are chasing you.... in practice it means if you don't complete the mission in 4 turns you're screwed. Not fun. I also don't like how opportunity attacks are 'per adjacent square' instead of once per player. This means if you have a character walk through the 'Fog of War' and there was an enemy an another side of a door... it has 3 chances to hit you with opportunity attacks. It's also not self-evident which actions are free actions and which actions cost 2 action points. Until you learn which is which, you may find yourself wasting opportunities or wondering why your turn is over. My short summary thoughts: The concept is good but it feels very rough around the edges.

Played it on release. It was terrible, not fun and poorly optimized. I've waited several months to see if anything was fixed and it doesnt look like there have been any significant updates.

There are currently around a million hex-based tactics games created by independent studios. Fortunately, [b][i]Company of Crime[/i][/b] is the rare tactical game of distinction, proving that there are still new ideas in this crowded genre. In [b][i]Company of Crime[/i][/b] you play as a couple of British lowlives in the mid 60s. The music is groovy. The atmosphere is filthy. You send your gangsters out on missions across a map of London and watch the timer tick, while managing resources like money and respect. But then a mission begins and you zoom in on the tactical map. What your characters can actually do in a tactical combat game is pretty tricky. Even though XCOM is the game that defines this genre today, you actually have a pretty wide range of things you can do in combat. Depending on the character, you might be able to wrestle, throw, subdue, or emotionally manipulate your targets. Not only can you change the positioning of the enemy, but yours is also very important. Because depending on where you are, you may also have access to improvised weapons like chairs, bottles or even walls. Unfortunately, the strategic layer leaves quite a bit to be desired. It's functional, but less inspired than combat. You assign your guys to different places on the London map, then you… wait. It would be nice if there were some exciting strategic decisions. We should also be talking about the other feature in the game, which is that you play not only as thieves, but also as police. It didn't drastically change the gameplay, but functionally looks like a second campaign. Overall, this is an original twist on the XCOM-style of strategy that lets you experience both sides of the 60’s London crime scene. [b]THE GOOD[/b] - Groovy 60s style - Great tactical fights - Melee-focused combat is fun - Different classes [b]THE BAD[/b] - Tedious strategic gameplay - Graphics are a bit blurry - Combat is too repetitive [h1]7/10[/h1] DISASTER | BAD | MEDIOCRE | OKAY | [b][u]GOOD[/u][/b] | GREAT | AMAZING | MASTERPIECE [quote] If you like this review, then please consider giving it a thumbs up. I've also reviewed other games that you might find interesting. If so please follow [u][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/27418263/] Top of the Chart.[/url][/u] Reviewed on: Win10 Home 64-bit, Intel i5-11600K, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB TUF, 32GB DDR4-3600 RAM, 2 x Kingston NV1 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD, Internet Broadband 300/50 Mbit[/quote]

Sometimes at the end of the day, when you need to talk about a game you'd recommend to someone, there are situations where you won't say it's a "good" game, or that it's a particular pleasure to play, but you recommend the game because, for all its flaws and shortcomings, it has a spark. It has something that among the rest, makes it unique and enjoyable. Such is the case for Company of Crime. A game set in London of the 60s, with a focus of gang wars and a strong influence from modern X-COMs, and to some extend Phantom Doctrine, has something to seduce. And indeed, the ambiance is there. The music, the clothes, the environnement. It's all there. Yet, the game is, well, it's janky. There is no hiding it, there are a bunch of bugs, some of with I had the dubious honor of helping to fix, but when you consider only 2 persons did all the QA, and the game was made by a very small team, you need to understand where you're going. It is very much a game to get in the 15 euros or less, as that's overall the value of such a game. It's not big budget game, and what it delivers, I'm afraid to say, can't possibly compete with a juggernaut like Firaxis backed by the greedy bastards at 2K("2K, you love it, we ruin it!"). The core loop is repetitive fast, the enemies not varied, and while the heavy melee focused combat feels fresh and in some aspect reminds a bit of Into the Breach by some aspect(positioning and use of your skills to control the battlefield are key, and can lead to nice combos), at the end of the day, it won't be something able to keep you hooked for too long, which is a bit of a shame. Yet there is fun to be found, the simple pleasure of throwing opponents over tables, hitting them with bottles and ashtrays, holding them while an other of your character goes to town on their head with a hammer while a Shaft-like music is playing... In that I feel like the experience is pretty unique for a turn by turn game. I want to give a special mention to the developers behind the game too. Since release, they were very present. Asking all people leaving negative reviews to tell them where they failed, and how to make the game better. Answering to question and bug reports, fixing said bugs. A year after release, they are still there, and they are pretty approachable. I appreciate that a lot, the courage to face people being very harsh with their game, and the will to constantly improve, and the effort to give themselves time to really stay in contact with the players via the Steam forums, while others companies will either ignore you, or try the predatory system to force you to come to their forum/discord server/website, in the hope to control their "communities" for future profits, and to also control their voices and opinions I'm recommending this game the same way I recommended The Bureau, despite the fact they have shortcomings, they are games with soul, which contain the embers of greatness and what could have been.

The latest patches have improved so many aspects of the game that many of the reviews here touch upon. The setting and atmosphere in this game is spot on. I am almost done with the criminal campaign and I have definitely enjoyed the game. The focus on melee combat can seem a bit dull at first, but the idea kind of grows on you after a while and it gets more diverse when leveling up the different characters and facing new enemies. There will be different locations, surprise events and story missions that keep the game interesting. Dealing with civilians does get easy and safe/boring, but it's a nice change between the more dangerous assignments. Managing the heat is the real enemy at the start of the game. I once lost to a heat emergency situation, but loading up the game I was able to just save myself in the given timeframe. I personally like to take my time in these kinds of games and not worry about a forced time constraints or catastrophic events etc. (XCOM, Mechanicus for example). Once I've got the hang of the heat system I was able to take my time with taking control of one district at a time, and especially later in the game even take risks and be a bit more reckless if I wanted to. After reading most reviews after launch I was not sure what to expect, but the game really grasped me. It's not perfect, but the developers have clearly improved some key areas based on player feedback. If you are interested in at least the setting, turn-based combat or both I would definitely recommend giving it a try.

Company of Crime has a couple of really fun elements that you've not seen in any other games. These things give it something fresh and novel that sets it apart from games such as Omerta or Gangsters: Organised Crime that follow a similar theme. The focus on melee combat is quite fun, especially when your crew levels up and gets their diverse skills. The first time you see a character bash someone's head onto a surface, or kick someone in the nuts, you go "Oooohhh. ouch! *shudder*". These moves give it a lot of flavour, as does the overal presentation. What the game lacks in visual fidelity, it makes up in spades by sheer character. The campaign and its map feel decidedly boardgame and help drive you forward as you go from mission to mission. You generally return to locations a few times but where I feared that might make the maps go stale, I actually found it helped me strategize. Never once did I feel I visited a place too often. As you gain various levels of control, bonuses and new mission types unlock, adding to your arsenal of things that help you take over London's crime scene. There are a few small bugs but none that break the game or the immersion. There were a few moments where I wasn't sure what the game was requiring me to do. Fortunately the devs have been present in the forums today answering questions. Overall, a fresh take on a fun genre in a setting that has been under-served recently.

TLDR; an okey xcom-like game where you lead a small gang in 1960's UK, that falls short in gameplay Pros: + Pretty original, not much games like these out (combining crime mechanics + empire building + combat) + The combat is OK + Managing your own small-crime imperium seems like a really cool idea! + The style game is going for is fun, not too serious and not too jokey. Think about a dark comedy, with brawling but not too much violence Cons: - The gameplay loop seems to get a bit tedious and boring after a while (not enought things to do and cannot really do any micro managing for the crime empire) - The UI has some problems. Not the most intuitive, took a while to figure out where everything is. - The combat is just "ok" - Too much repetation in the missions. Different kinds of missions don't really feel any different. - No real story (There is a small story that plays behind the scenes - doesn't really catch attention) My overall feeling while playing this is that I'm almost having good fun, but not quite. Just falls short for me.