Upon first glance, The Commission: Organized Crime Grand Strategy seems like the perfect accompaniment to those naïve, pre-adolescent years of mine spent fascinated by tales of the American mafia.
After a closer look I’m inclined to conclude otherwise; where my previous self was more so interested in the rags-to-riches fables Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola and Brian de Palma glamorized, The Commission: OC clarifies that it in no way intends to sensationalize the prohibition era.
Plus it’s turn-based strategy, not something my mental faculties were equipped for at the time.
In The Commission: OC, there’s no immigrant getting off a boat to throw New York’s boroughs into disarray; rather, this very sober proposition begins by having you choose which of five New Shore’s crime families you’d prefer playing Don to.
Each family comes pre-established with its assortment of underworld networks, backgrounds, fortes and weaknesses, to the point that your purpose is that of experiencing a simulation of what it takes to manage a criminal empire.
https://www.facebook.com/TheCommissionOC/videos/1618000731580981/
From carefully picking your family’s various units to prudently investing in local rackets, The Commission: OC’s strategy of expansion encourages focus on a deep loyalty system and in-game politics. The former is often a measure of how likely a member of your family is likely to rat on you – in the event they’re captured by the enemy and put to trial under a sleazy judicial system.
A caporegime’s/soldier’s loyalty to the Don varies periodically with issues such as their monthly cuts, recent family arrests, deaths and/or recruits, to name a few. Much of which can be mitigated by smartly bribing the relevant public officials on the other hand.
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Not too complicated a game of numbers then, which far from having you run amok across the streets of New Shore as one hyper-stylized Mafiosi, would rather have you behind a neat crime-management interface, relevant Glossaries, flashy buttons and jazz.
If that sounds like your kind of fascination, The Commission: Organized Crime Grand Strategy is due August 23rd on Steam. It will presumably be Orlando, Florida based 302 Interactive’s first, who also happens to be inviting playtesters/content creators to an official Discord.
https://www.facebook.com/TheCommissionOC/videos/1610244412356613/
