Omerta: City of Gangsters

A promising concept of managerial and turn-based strategy from the Prohibition in the United States era. However, its realisation is unfortunate. From the managerial point of view the game is too long, reminding Waiting for Godot. Entertaining fights are subsequently killed by repeating locations and unpolished cover system.

A flop in every aspect – should do time. [CD-Action 04/2013, p.74]

Omerta's 1920s mobster charm quickly wears away to show its shallowness, and any hope of mob-boss stardom dies with it. [Apr 2013, p.94]

Bland, boring, and turgid to the last - look to Tropico 4 for a fine example of micromanagement, or instead XCOM Enemy Unknown for turn-based kicks: Omerta: City of Gangsters deserves to be thrown in a trunk and taken "someplace up state."

A very good idea wasted on a poor layered structure is in a few words the essence of Omerta. An offer you can definitely turn down.

Aside from the campaign mode, there is a lackluster sandbox involving the building of a criminal empire without objectives or opposition. Go online and you can take the terrible combat system and enjoy it with friends, or against them, if you wish. But you won’t feel like a gangster, but rather an accountant with a penchant for real estate.

Omerta feels like nothing but work, and dull, repetitive work at that. It's certainly not a success, but a soulless, bland, incoherent experience that frequently frustrates with its inability to capitalise on a handful of good ideas.

Outside of its fights, Omerta is some sort of mind-numbing occupational therapy for the slowest of days, inside of them, it's often an incompetent carbon copy of much older and much better titles. It's not even that it's so bad that it's good. It's just boring and its plain existence is free of any relevance whatsoever.

The blend of management and tactical combat in a prohibition historical context was a nice promise. The atmosphere, the jazzy musics, the deep gameplay elements, everything is theoretically there, except for one major thing: challenge. There is no tough choice, no difficulty in getting wealth and shaking the authorities, no trouble in the combat. Whatsoever.

Omerta will certainly keep you occupied for long periods of time, but only if you’re punishing your attention span. The world itself is quick to drop you into the 1920’s experience, but never amounts to anything more than a lifeless shell. Factor in some embarrassing voice acting, painful writing and a reluctance for Omerta to ever truly let itself go wild with its concepts, and all you’ll left with is a hollow time consuming experience.