The Commission: Organized Crime Grand Strategy

Need to rework the heat system and have some kind of diplomacy with other families and maybe redo the family tree this game could be great just needs to have meaning but the cops and rivals do kill it. Why can't i get a semi open world goodfellas type mob game with a good story smh.

This game falls flat on it's promise. It has a lot of elements that appealed to me, but almost all of them are flawed.

+ Rule through your lieutenants, assign them, feel like a boss
- They are all very generic and has next to none personality

+ Build underground empire
- There's no meaning for doing it, it's just "build to build more"

+ Many rackets
- But they have a horrible interface

+ You can fight enemies and expand
- Your wins allow you to assassinate enemies, but this is basically pointless, they just get replaced with new people

So... it was interesting for a day or two. Then it got boring.

TLDR: it's a mafia game, but shown from the mafia accountant perspective, who doesn't know anything and doesn't understand how mafia works

pros:
- it works smoothly
- it takes a lot of cojones to call this "grand strategy"

cons:
- horrible UI design
- shallow gameplay
- questionable logics behind some mechanics (f.e. you can't move associates to area where there are enemies - isn't that the best moment to move more people into area?)
- gameplay is unbelievably boring
- it looks more like first alpha version than commercial product (f.e. I realized some of my people were arrested when suddenly my profits dropped... I mean someone could have mentioned something like that in passing, but nope, there was no indication something has happened)

Unfortunately not an enjoyable experience. The UI design is frustrating, the game play is vexing. On a positive note, the theme itself is quite good - if you have a deep love for 1930's crime then you may just enjoy it, but again, be ready to click back and forward on what could have been streamlined much more nicely!

This is a really shallow management sim. The entire game is a menu driven flash game, you'll be reading spread sheets and stats without really feeling like you are doing much. That game play style might be OK if there was depth, but the decisions are so simple that there's no real satisfaction. There's a few stats that pretend to matter, but it's mostly just volume, hire enough people and the stats are meaningless. Hire random-name, assign to job, wait for money. Twiddle thumbs and wonder why you are playing.

Looking at the history of other reviews apparently the game used to be $20, it's now price reduced to $5 and I still don't think it's worth that. What you see in the screenshots on the store page is the game, you'll just be flopping between those menus making choices that don't feel like they matter much and waiting for the game to end.
---

While you are here, would you consider following my curator page?

Want to read all of my reviews and not just the curated ones?

This is a tough call for me. Let me say this...I have thoroughly enjoyed the game to this point. The enjoyment has come to a crashing (no pun intended) halt now however. I got to the point in the game where my don reached lvl 3 power. I was really happy with my progress...until...I tried to promote 1 of my soldatos to capo and assigned him to a new borough. That seemingly simple little action cost me FOUR rackets he was working in another neighborhood. They all were closed due to "lack of muscle" in that particular place. I thought to myself "how can this be"? So I decided to check discussions to see if others had this same problem. Not only did I find several with the same problem, this same bug goes back a few years to the game release itself. It was supposedly going to be corrected in an update, along with a few other small bugs. This bug has made the game un-playable for me. I am not holding out much hope for a correction since the devs are working on a sequel(?) It's a shame, but I did get my 24 hours of fun. As for anyone else buying and playing, use you own judgement.

I was eager to like this, and most of the elements of a decent game are here in a rudimentary form. However, as I played, I gradually realized that my ever-lengthening list of criticisms and suggestions were not applicable. I was trying to construct a critique of a grand strategy game for PC, but what this is... is a mobile game. The depersonalized art, the extremely basic functionality, the extremely slow grind, the impossibility of dynamic or decisive action against opposing families, no endgame or even significant event markers along the way... all these things are hallmarks of the mobile design paradigm, and you can even see the spots where monetization features might have been scratched out for a PC port. There are the bones of a solid mob grand strategy game here, but that's all. Just bones.

I *really* wanted to like this game, especially since we really haven't had a good Mobster sim since, well, ever. (All of them--from Gangsters to Mob Rule to Gangsters 2 to Omerta had their issues in my mind). Sadly, it looks like this game is the latest fail in the trend. While the idea of having you advance by choosing what rackets you want to invest in is valuable, it really feels like there's no rhyme or reason to when a rival family attacks you or the cops raid---and that can bring your entire empire crashing down without warning. Avoid.

Let me start by saying it is a dumb down version of some older gangster style games. I would say it was worth about 10 dollars total considering I managed to beat it in 4 hours, or at least get into the never ending repeat of killing all the bosses over and over. If you want to get your gangster game fix buy it otherwise steer clear.

This is basically a flash game. the funny fact is, that there are flash games with more depth than this one. This is a twenty dollar game. A twenty dollar game. For what you get, and for what you paid, this is a severe loss. This game should be for free on Kongregate. That is how stupid the price is, and how minimal the game is.

The gist version: If your a mafia fanatic this is a must own! Despite a few things here and there, it's a pretty good mafia strategy based game with mafia themed aspects.
If an FPS type roleplay is your thing, you may wanna skip this one.

Long version: The Commission is a pretty well-done mafia organized crime strategy game with deep mafia enriched background and lore. The style feels and screams mobsters. PROS: The decision making and movement placement are very smooth and very strategic like. If ya wanna make it in this game, you must plan out your movements and act quickly, otherwise, someone will get the one up on you. Make every turn count! You're never gonna know who's gonna make the next move against you. The theme feels very mafia-like with a pretty well done 'commission.' system that's faithful to how mafia families met up and made decisions. Racket and investment system is pretty interesting with many routes on how to make money with each varying their own pros and cons to running them. Each neighborhood will also have it's own preference to each racket speciality. CONS: In terms of visual apsects the game kinda makes you rely on your own imagination. Theirs a brief description on rackets but besides that, their isn't any visuals or any of the sort on what a racket looks or feels like. Just a very vauge description. Despite some commission choices, mafia families may just ignore what the commission has placed in rules and continue to do what they want. I found this a bit disconcerning and irritating and made me feel as if whatever the commission chose and ordered what other families no to do pointless. And that I should continue to watch my own back as nobody will watch it for me. Police and politics could've been more flecthed out, they just feel very basic and very vanillia type. You know: They'll help in a fight if you grease their palms, keep the heat off, basic stuff. Battles and fighting against other families is decent but could be better, maybe a nice little visual of some sort. Finally the price, 20 bucks is a bit steep for a game like this, something like $15 sounds more reasonable.

Overall I found the game very enjoyable. If your a bored mafia fanatic like me and your looking for something to occupy your mind as you wait for something better, this could be your answer.

Don't waste any money on this game. It's boring, repetitive, without any depth or support from the developers. It's already long dead and forgotten. Wasted $20 on this :(

I enjoy this game, however, I can't play it. The UI and sound is broken. I started the game one day to play it and it was like this. I've attempted to reinstall it, I've verified the files when its installed, I've deleted all its files and reinstalled it; nothing has worked.

Like what the other reviewers said, this brings back memory of Gangster 1 and 2.

Its a pretty niche game, however as this is pretty much a watered down version of gangster 1 and 2, the learning curve is nottttt that hard. Just keep trying a few games and you will get use to the mechanics.

Anyhoo rate this 7/10. Just need more game mechanics to make it more of a challenging grand strategy, because once you own an entire borough you literally can just steam roll all the other boroughs into submission lol and also assasinating all the other 4 dons just for shits and giggles is fun lol.

Too simple and easy to master. Great starting point (what mob boss game isn't a great idea though) but this just doesn't have anywhere near the depth to play through more than a couple of times, after a couple of hours you just repeatedly hit other members on your turf, ad-infinitum.

Maybe wait for a few more updates.

The game is simply too difficult to follow, lacking any kind of sense in the design department!
I was really hoping for this one, but since you cannot see the world map in a single window...
A waste of money and a lesson on HOW NOT design the interface for a game.

For now the game is not worth the money in my opinion.
The mid to late game is very shallow, and it pretty much become a click game (to maximize the profits with espansions) and steamroll the other families when you got new caporegime/soldiers.

Having said that, I see that the devs are still working on it (in my opinion is more an early access game than a finish product). I could change my review if some (many) improvement are done in the RPG aspect of the game (politics, diplomacy with the other families, diplomacy and betrayal inside own family) and late game objective (it's very easy, maybe way to easy, to build a Casino and late game facilities).

hate to give this a negative review but there is simply too much going on here thats problematic.
First things first no, this isnt gangsters 1 or 2 and to be honest thats not what I epxected it to be althought i did expect a different game which to be fair is probably my own fault.
The game loop is as follows, pick a family which than gives you randomly assigned capos and their underlings with random bonuses - yes the families do have set bonuses as such but from what ive seen and read most ppl seem to agree that the big affects are had by the guys that get rolled at random.
Than randomly put these guys into various neighborhoods to try and figure out what rackets will work there.
Now that in itself isnt necessarily bad but it starts a trend - everything is random. Untill you have setup in a burrow and in fact a specific neighborhood there is no way to scope out what will work in that specific place ie what people you should have wokring what type of rackets there. (if there is I havent been able to find out about it/ read/ utube etc.)
Now to clarify reading the are info will help you narrow it down some e.g. a rich neighborhood is only interessted in the high end rackets casinos rather than gambling dens etc. BUT it wont tell you if this NH e.g. dislikes gambling untill after you tried to gamble there. So you could have potentially tanked 120k on a casiono jsut to find out people there hate gaminbling.
And than u rinse and repeat in different neighbourhoods untill you start to make enough money to get engaged with deeper mechanics like the politics of the entire city/ the commission itself.
Add to that random events that take place that seem to tip the board over time and time again and it feels like your actions are more or less unnecessary, it being a game as static as literaly looking at a map and nothing else I can understand why the devs would add that into the game to mix it up but it results in feeling as if your actions in itself have little to no influence on the actual game.....which at least in my opinion defeats the purpose of playing.

As I mentioned previously I had read of people claming this to be in the vein of the old Gangster games and I instantly felt that wasnt the case on booting it up (to be fair devs never said it was!). So to make sure I didnt mis remember the game I bought Gangster 1 on gog and had a few rounds and while there are some elements beyond just the era that are similar between the two games gangster 1 is a completely differnt monster. While fiddly and needing disturbing amount of micromangment and in terms of combat player controll G1 actually makes you think you made a difference. Sure gearing you guys to the max will give them an edge but telling them to focus on a sepcific guy will win the fight with less loses on your side etc etc.

All this rambling aside I still think there is somethign here with The Commission I am jsut right now trying to figure out if its worth hanging onto or refunding it.
Can I accept the fact that the game will essentially be a random number generator and I have some minute ways to improve my position between these rolls, but never substantial enough to really impact the random events as they happen to me?

And sure no tutorial is harsh and I can see how people would jsut instantly refund since they can tell that it will be hours to actually figure out what this game is about - ie. there is a real chance you wont be allowed to refund the game by the time you actually understand it - even a little bit. Ive kept my timer down by reading alot about the compounding mechanics watcing clips and playing on my brothers account....
Food for thought

I have really enjoyed this game thus far, while initially seeming a little sparse, I very quickly realised that there is actually alot of nuance and interesting interactions between mechanics. The traits for your soldatos, capos and your don, for example, at first seemed a little generic and boring, until I realised they stack on top of each other in the geographic divisions of the game, allowing interesting stacking and builiding of modifiors and alot of interesting possibilities there alone! This game is teeming with things like that, the mechanics all feel well thought out and nuanced.

The game is also very thematically sound with money being the sole driving purpose and primary resource of everything you do, your actions are abstracted in a brilliant way, almost simulating the dissonance between the leader of a criminal syndicate and the carnage they create. You will end up killing dozens of people, in the cold pursuit of money, and you will not see any of it, it is purely impersonal and just numbers.

It very much feels like a good boardgame and one can see that the devs were going for that in a way with the design of the map, the one menu you have in the game, looks like a boardgame, and it works. It is a compact, well thought out and surprisingly nuanced game.

I do have a few light criticisms of the game, that are a little annoying, but that I am sure will be addressed in future patches:
- the lack of tutorial makes starting the game a little jarring, although there is a glossary button at the top of the screen that explains all of the game mechanics well, it is never pointed out to you.
- the ui feels a little oversized, perhaps it is just due to having a lower resolution, but it takes up about 2/5ths of the screen at all times at least, it makes it feel slightly clutered. I think it could do well with slightly scaling down the ui elements slightly.
- the music is nice, however there are a small number of tracks and they very quickly start to repeat, a small gripe, but worth mentioning


I will definately be playing more of this in the coming days, and I'm excited to see what will be done with this game and this studio in the future, and I wish them luck.

This game isn't worth the price tag by far.

No tutorial at all, good luck with that.
No research, no henchmens recruiting or equipping, nothing to build, the lack of a tutorial makes everything really nebulous.
Even on easy the AI is able to make a lot of money and get 2 or 3 territories in less than 24 turns while you struggle to understand what you're supposed to do or how to create a racket.

Dunno what I'm supposed to do and what the game really has to offer, but we're really far from any kind of mafia game.

Think of Gangsters or gangsters 2 ! If you are a fan of Mafia games, then this one is for you ! It is a strategy game. You play a Boss of 5 families. You choose which family you want ! it's a fun little game , to me it is a gem ! I am playing it right now ! I want to thank the developers for making it. There is a lack of Mafia games since Gangsters 2 and Mob Rule. There is Omerta which I also adore too. If you like this genre you wont be disappointed. To me the 20 bucks is worth it . To other players it may be disappointing. It is a game like from 1997. I adore the game its a small gem. Its realistic. You can promote associates into soldiers. You can promote soldiers into capos. Its fun ! Its a little gem and I would recommend it to gangsters and Gangsters 2 fans. Yes those games probably had more capital to make it a more bigger game but think of the potential. Thanks for making the game , hope you make a part 2 with many more options . Think of it. Thanks! It's time for me to take over the city Al Capone style.